C
Chip00
Guest
For all of you gringo(a)s speaking Spanish as a second language have you ever had a "Bad" Spanish Day? It's those days when the mouth and the mind just aren't "into" speaking a foreign language?
I have been "speaking" (and a lot of times murdering) Spanish for 7 years now and also have been in the DR for a year. The "bad" days don't have anything to do with my understanding ability but only affect my ability to speak correctly.
I usually notice that this happens when I:
1. am tired.
2. have been speaking a lot of English.
3. get nervous.
Fortunately it doesn't happen a lot maybe once a week and then all of a sudden and it goes away and my Spanish usually has a "resurgence" in quality so much so that strangers have even asked me if I'm Dominican. However, when it is bad I get a lot of the Dominican "eye squints".
The worse part is if it "hits" me when I'm around the people that knew me when I used to live here and couldn't speak for squat and they start yelling at me in the vain attempt to make me understand clearer. Funny, I rarely get nervous speaking Spanish except for people that have known me since the beginning and I really don't understand why. Maybe because they've witnessed so much of my "failures" or maybe because I can see their lack of confidence in me to speak well. Oh well - my current cure is to remind myself not to worry and that the point isn't necessarily to speak pretty but correctly and as long as the people can understand me that's ok because when you get down to it I'm a gringo after all. The couple of remedies I currently have discovered are a cold Presidente or two and speaking with absolute strangers - then it comes back and I'm "Dominican" again! haha
I have been "speaking" (and a lot of times murdering) Spanish for 7 years now and also have been in the DR for a year. The "bad" days don't have anything to do with my understanding ability but only affect my ability to speak correctly.
I usually notice that this happens when I:
1. am tired.
2. have been speaking a lot of English.
3. get nervous.
Fortunately it doesn't happen a lot maybe once a week and then all of a sudden and it goes away and my Spanish usually has a "resurgence" in quality so much so that strangers have even asked me if I'm Dominican. However, when it is bad I get a lot of the Dominican "eye squints".
The worse part is if it "hits" me when I'm around the people that knew me when I used to live here and couldn't speak for squat and they start yelling at me in the vain attempt to make me understand clearer. Funny, I rarely get nervous speaking Spanish except for people that have known me since the beginning and I really don't understand why. Maybe because they've witnessed so much of my "failures" or maybe because I can see their lack of confidence in me to speak well. Oh well - my current cure is to remind myself not to worry and that the point isn't necessarily to speak pretty but correctly and as long as the people can understand me that's ok because when you get down to it I'm a gringo after all. The couple of remedies I currently have discovered are a cold Presidente or two and speaking with absolute strangers - then it comes back and I'm "Dominican" again! haha
