Is it necessary to learn Spanish in order to live in the DR?

[Lambada]

One time I told someone I was embarasada (the problem is I am a man...)

We've all done it, like asking for a donkey with breakfast because we thought the Spanish for butter had to be something close to the French beurre.

Anyone else have examples under what could be termed the general heading of sign in Japanese hotel 'You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid'?

 

[AlterEgo]

During that time I had the opportunity to tell people many interesting things. One time I told someone I was embarasada (the problem is I am a man...). Another time, I bought something that was clearly labeled "Danado" because it was heavily discounted, thinking it was just discounted because it was open. I then wanted to go back and complain because it fell apart when I took it out of the package.

My most recent experience was telling my brother in law that I loved the smell of my closet because it made my clothes "Huele de cerdo" rather than "cedro". This was just after we had an incredible cedar closet installed in our house. .

Reminds me of the time I brought a girlfriend down to SD. About halfway through the first week we were all out to dinner with my husband's family and she confided "Tengo mucho hombre" [I have a lot of men] instead of "Tengo mucho hambre". [I'm hungry] She was a good sport when the table erupted into laughter!

AE

 

[pedrochemical]

The misses used to get Huevos and Guebos (sp?) mixed up a the colmado.


Quite funny the first time....


Edit:_
Not literally

 

[bienamor]

Frankly, I am amazed by the question.

I didn't think it would be possible to be living in any country without speaking its language. I don't even see it as a matter of respect, but common sense.

I guess I was wrong.

I will guarantee you that you can live in Miami and never use english.

 

[SantiagoDR]

The misses used to get Huevos and Guebos (sp?) mixed up a the colmado. .....

Like me when I talk about eggs or Thursday in Spanish!!!!!!

Let me address the following three quotes.

I get along fairly well one-on-one in the D.R. with Spanish, but only in person.
Trying to communicate by telephone is impossible for me.

I can read better then I can speak or listen to Spanish.

I have tried to learn but for some reason conversational Spanish just is impossible. I watch TV with Spanish sub-tittles (Amazonas Satellite) and see what the conversion is from the English I hear to the words in Spanish and the results just doesn't make sense to me (Even when I know all the words of the conversion to Spanish).

A major reason for my inability to learn Spanish could be my upbringing and career path.

In early school years I had a language disability and had to attend special speech classes.

I spendt over 30 years programming commercial business computers and was top notch in that profession. Even co-workers with better education (I have no college) would come to me to help them with programming.

The language I used was COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language (Basically, English)). Programming is a very strict, exact science so to speak, no room for variation. A misspelling or a missed punctuation and it all goes to hell. Spanish, being a reverse language (Casa Blanca instead of White House) and my training just does not work for me. If I had learned Spanish at an early stage, it probably would not be a problem for me now. I'm sure there are other COBOL programmers that have no problem learning Spanish, but as others have pointed out, some people have no problems learning other languages, I am not one of them.

It's not that I have not tried and I still keep trying, but it goes in one ear and out the other. I can talk to two people and one looks at me and does not understand, and the other one will repeat what I said to that person because they understood me.

When it comes to Spanish I am just a lost cause, but I still try.

I travel completely on my own everyday without any problem.

Even when I first started coming here I traveled all over the country on my own.

How many of you Spanish speaking ex-pats have walked the streets of Sosua(Both Sides), La Vega, Santiago, Santo Domingo, San Francisco, Mao, etc?

And I don't mean getting out of the car or off the bus to take a leak.

Before my first visit here I started buying Cosmopolitan in Spanish, and I got two pen pals from the D.R., one in POP and the other in Santo Domingo. I visited both of them, the one in Santo Domingo lived in one of the poorest barrio of the city, yet, not knowing Spanish I went there on my own. And that was in my early years of coming here.

I didn't and I still don't let my lack of Spanish stop me from exploring and enjoying life.
I have friends here that are amazed that I know the in's and out's of Santiago and some other cities like the back of my hand, cutting through barrios to get from point A to point B. AZB warns people about going to Cienfuego, I go there often, with no reservations or fears. I have been to more cities in the D.R then probably most Dominicans. I used to travel alone on my motorbike. Even drove a small Honda from Sosua to Sabana Iglesia to deliver it to my first Dominican wife there, on my own. All this without even a map in my possession.

Hell, I even did my own residency on my own in Santo Domingo. True it was not easy, I had to make multiple trips because of my lack of Spanish, BUT I DID IT!

If "some" posters on here want to take advantage of my lack of Spanish and insult me knowing I don't know Spanish, I will fight back (In English!).

Thanks for listening to my side of this "Learn Spanish Thread"......

In answer to the thread title: Is it necessary to learn Spanish in order to live in the DR?

How adventurous are you?

Yes, it helps tremendously to know at least some Spanish.
I would love to be able to speak Spanish better.

PS:
My programming history is also why I play so much with my post on the DR1 forum.
I love programming, complaining about my creativity won't get you anywhere.........

For those that complain to me about it should now know by my adventurous history here in the DR that I will continue do what I love to do.

SantiagoDR

If you have visited Miami or Washington Heights you will find many people that don't speak English but they live in the US. And there are certainly posters such as SantiagoDR who don't know Spanish on DR1, but Don has an excuse that his advanced years have decreased his ability to learn a new language and that can certainly be true..........

If you live in DR, learn Spanish.......
It's just easier
SHALENA

I dont know the guy to know if he can learn it or not. But I feel he may not be able to learn speech patterns or the mechanics of the spoken language. The written part isnt that hard but understanding these people can be a burden sometimes. I preferentially LOVE Colombian spanish and then Mexican spanish. The Caribbean spanish can be problematic sometimes for me.

 

[J D Sauser]

Yes, languages can be tricky and some fun stuff can occur.

Back in Spain, I had a Brazilian girl friend. We spoke Spanish with each other, even though she would mostly answer in a mixture of Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
One day, we were going somewhere with her son and my kids. I "only" had a coupe four seat car and she asked me in Spanish how we were going to move everybody in that one vehicle. I had planned to take my cousins mini van and was scrambling for a fitting word to describe the vehicle... so, I told her: "nos vamos en una buseta!". To which, to my total surprise she replied something to the take of: "Cachorro safado, fliho da puta vay tomar po cu!" :surprised
I only later learned that in Brazilian street slang, buseta (busetinha) meant something totally different to a vehicle (nope, I won't post it... you google it).

The English "eventually", is also a tricky word as it appears in French (eventuellement) and Spanish as well (eventualmente) but with a somewhat different meaning. In Latin based languages, it's meaning is more like "maybe"... whereas in English it is used as somewhat of an alternative to "finally". Most Francophone are prone to use eventually in a way which can evidently raise some unsuspecting English speaker's eyebrows.


I have never been able to learn a language the "school way". I took up "English" when I discovered US Country music as a teen. I used to listen a lot to Johnny Cash and the sorts of lyric based singers. At school we had an old British LADY as English teacher. She spoke like royalty. I could not stand it and she above all, could not approve of my endeavor to imitate Southern "tawking". Anyways, while I probably was the only to graduate from our class half way able to get by making "conversation", I was punished for tawking funny with the lowest grades. I dind't mind. She once even had to pay for my eye glasses, after sending them flying onto the wall trying to slap me for yet another "ain't". Needless to say, the Queen was not amused.
I had it the same way with music. I believe theory is fine in theory but music is music.

HERE IS A FREE LANGUAGE LEARNING TOOL.
​

DVD movies! DVD's have the advantage to come in various languages on one disk. This makes them a great and entertaining tool to learn, practice an hone your language skills in "the other" language, while you entertain yourself watching movies, something you may do anyways.
Luckily, here, most DVD's you rent, come in English and Spanish.

1. Watch the movie in your language first, maybe several times or pick up a movie you are familiar with and won't mind seeing again.
2. Once you can pretty much predict the scenes and lines, switch to Spanish or the language you are trying to learn.
3. Do only chapters at first until you pretty much understand and identify a good portion of the words and lines.
4. Then, play it again Sam, but this time -and THIS is the main trick- speak, NOT just silently lip sync, SPEAK OUT LOUD along. Repeat each scene until you are fluent and basically mix into the track.

Obviously, you may have to favor drama movies with good lines over mostly noisy action movies or "that other stuff" for it to be an effective tool to teach you good ways to speak full sentences. Al Pachino's "Scent Of A Woman" would seem an entertaining choice whereas Brad Pitt's "Snatch" would probably get you into a heep'a trouble .

Sub titles are a crutch and will only distract. Turn them OFF.

I still use this technique to hone my skills and also run some "maintenance" on languages I currently may not use as much as others.

I hope this proves helpful to some.

... J-D.

 

[SKing]

My post was not to you personally. No offense was intended
SHALENA

 

[Chip]

People might think this odd coming from me but I'm personally a little surprised by some well respected posters advice on this thread that basically goes like "just learn Spanish already".

I believe our efforts and intentions should be judged rather that our results (old archaic sayings be damned to a paved road to hell ).

After all some people just aren't born with the ability. Case in point my own daughter was born with a speech impediment and we had to focus on one language only, Spanish, until she became confident and good enough to communicate effectively.

It's another thing altogether that someone complains they can't learn Spanish but never crack a book or try to watch tv or listen to the radio in Spanish.

 

[SantiagoDR]

My first Dominican wife spoke five languages fluently.
She was only in her early 20's and no college education.
So good was her English that I did not know she could not read or write English.
I just assumed she could.

She went to language school in Sosua and she told me they did not use books or other written material, it was all verbal, thus was why she could not read or write the language.

She had a Brazilian girlfriend in Fort Lauderdale and the two would talk a mile-a-minute.
Then all of a sudden the conversation would STOP!
They had hit a Spanish/Portuguese word that did not translate to each other.
They would hash it out and then the conversation would again more at a rapid speed.

Don

 

[Vacara]

The misses used to get Huevos and Guebos (sp?) mixed up a the colmado.


Quite funny the first time....


Edit:_
Not literally

Misunderstanding are also caused by slangs. My advice to any expat living in DR, if you go to Venezuela be careful in a restaurant not to ask the waitress for a "cuchara" (spoon), you have to say "cubierto" or you might be slapped in the face.

For the same reason in some Centroamerican countries you have to say "Pastel" (cake) instead of "bizcocho."

 

[donP]

Basic Vocabulary

2,000 to 2,500 words are sufficient.
I guess the average active vocabulary of more than 80% of the Dominican population has even fewer words.
(Quite normal by the way, this goes for many nationalities.)

If you do not know a certain word just substitute it with 'vaina' or use the phrase that Dominicans utter at least 100 times a day "como se llama ese vaina...?"

donP

 

[SantiagoDR]

2,000 to 2,500 words are sufficient.
donP

The hard part is learning the correct 2,000 to 2,500 words and then being able to put them together correctly in a Dominican Spanish sentence!

I learned "ahorita" in adult after school Spanish class, but I still confuse it here because my teacher was Mexican and in Mexican Spanish it means "RIGHT NOW", but here it means later.......

Even Google Translate defines it as: Right Now

Another thing that makes it hard to learn Spanish here is that people will respond "yes" to you even when they do not know what you are saying.


Don

 

[Luperon]

We all know anything worth hearing is said in the Queens English! True?


Let the games begin.

I was just kidding with this thread. I wanted to win the prize for the 80,000 thread. Robert already sent my gift card so you can close it now.

Who would have thought it would have went six pages.

 

[ExtremeR]

The hard part is learning the correct 2,000 to 2,500 words and then being able to put them together correctly in a Dominican Spanish sentence!

I learned "ahorita" in adult after school Spanish class, but I still confuse it here because my teacher was Mexican and in Mexican Spanish it means "RIGHT NOW", but here it means later.......

Even Google Translate defines it as: Right Now

Another thing that makes it hard to learn Spanish here is that people will respond "yes" to you even when they do not know what you are saying.


Don

If your Mexican teacher didn't explain to you the main difference of the use of the word "ahorita" between Mexico and Caribbean countries then he is not a good Spanish teacher, he is teaching you to speak Mexican instead of neutral Spanish. If I were a teacher I've would explained the difference right away.

 

[ExtremeR]

Misunderstanding are also caused by slangs. My advice to any expat living in DR, if you go to Venezuela be careful in a restaurant not to ask the waitress for a "cuchara" (spoon), you have to say "cubierto" or you might be slapped in the face.

For the same reason in some Centroamerican countries you have to say "Pastel" (cake) instead of "bizcocho."

Be careful not to offer a Cuban "bollo" de yuca (actually males will be really happy from that offer)

 

[Adam Spenser]

Is it necessary to learn Spanish....

Before coming to the DR a number of years ago I went to Berlitz for an intensive course to learn Spanish. It was a shock when I arrived in the DR and for many years thereafter that the average person working in stores or domestics, etc. do not speak Spanish as I was taught. It is a dialect like someone from the DR in the US speaking Spanglish. Words are not completed, articles and prepositions are left out, words are made up. After a while I gave up trying to uderstand what was being said to me and if the people I was talking to understood what I was saying. I did not have this problem with educated people here or on trips to Spain on business. Obviously it was my problem that I did not want to learn a different version of Spanish, which was Dominicanese.

Adam

 

[Vacara]

A bit of history;

Arthur Schoenfel was USA ambassador in DR during the first years of Trujillo. He was fluent in French, German and Spanish. His wife Aida was very good at Spanish and in every official reception she would call Ramfis (Trujillo's son) "El Jefecito", right in Trujillo's face!!, and he never seemed to mind.

 

[J D Sauser]

Imagine someone studiyng English at Oxford and being sent to Alabama or Jamaika, or..

Before coming to the DR a number of years ago I went to Berlitz for an intensive course to learn Spanish. It was a shock when I arrived in the DR and for many years thereafter that the average person working in stores or domestics, etc. do not speak Spanish as I was taught. It is a dialect like someone from the DR in the US speaking Spanglish. Words are not completed, articles and prepositions are left out, words are made up. After a while I gave up trying to uderstand what was being said to me and if the people I was talking to understood what I was saying. I did not have this problem with educated people here or on trips to Spain on business. Obviously it was my problem that I did not want to learn a different version of Spanish, which was Dominicanese.

Adam

First, lets not forget that in Spain, besides a variety of languages and idioms and dialects alive and spoken, even officially: Including the non-Latin based Euskera, Catalan, Valenciano and Galician, CASTILLIAN (commonly now called "Spanish") has only been officialized as the country's (Spain) language by 1714. And while there IS a "proper" Castillian (regulated by the "Real Academia Espanola"), it too is being spoken in a variety of dialects and accents with regional fluctuation in pronunciation and even... vocabulary, in Spain.

Long before that questionable "standardization" the "new" world had be "discovered" and colonized in a progress that lasted several hundred years. Time in which the Spanish languages in Spain must have evolved too.
Hence, EVERY Latin American country has it's own version(s) of the Spanish language. You have to understand that most languages are "alive", and that Spanish has been introduced to the various regions of the Americas at different times over a very long period.
Interestingly, which ever country, state or region you will go to, you will be told that "they" are speaking, not only correct Spanish, but the ONLY correct one.

Likewise, Southerners tawk rite too, now ain't that rite?


I for one, found that in most of Spain, the "Spanish" spoken on the street today would seem inferior to what can be heard in most part of Latin America (excluding Tigueres, Tigueras and Regaettoneros/as) as far articulation, form and richness of vocabulary.
I share Racer's preference for Colombia's "Spanish".


Anyways, I still think that nobody would waste time, by studying at least some "Spanish", where ever they can before they plan to nest here. Yes, some works will raise eyebrows, and others may become cause to some jokes or misunderstandings, so who cares, knowledge is power.

... J-D.

 

[donP]

In Plain Language

It the same everywhere.
The more people are (formally) educated, the better their use of the language (level of vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar and syntax).
Now you all know to what level of education most Dominicans excel at.... :tired:

donP

 

[Marianopolita]

Keep exploring Spanish...

Well, I see it like this, in 1998 I met an old lady(I think she said she was 89-93 years old, something like that) in the little triangular park off of 7th Avenue, across from where the 1 train has that stop at Christopher St. She told me she knew 4 languages. And that she had taught herself. She told me that you should never worry or be consumed with grammatical rules because no one follows them to a T and even still the rules are flexible from one country to another that uses that language. I mean seriously, who uses Vos here? th,(x,z,s)?

Racerx,

How much exposure have you had to Spanish before moving to the DR?

Do you really mean the pronoun 'vos' (from el voseo) which is equivalent to t? or vosotros which is the equivalent of ustedes in Latin America? I think you mean 'vosotros' because 'vos' is still used by over thirty percent of Latin American speakers but just not in the Caribbean- Cuba, DR and PR and there is reason for that. Do a search. I have discussed this many times in the Spanish forum.

Example-

1/ ?C?mo est?is (vosotros)? – How are you? ('vosotros' would be replaced by 'ustedes' in Latin America).

2/ ?Vos ten?s mi n?mero, verdad?- - You have my number, right? People ask me this question all the time. I don’t use voseso ( I don’t know the forms and don’t need to) but I still understand. No problem.

For non voseo speakers it would ?Tienes mi n?mero, verdad?


Spanish in South America in general is a whole different grade compared to Spanish spoken in the Caribbean. The reason has to do with the history and how Spanish evolved in South America vs. the Caribbean combined with other crucial factors. Caribbean Spanish was really impacted by its history (aka the African slave trade) and no matter how some may want to downplay its presence it surely comes out in the language. Those sentence patterns are just downright brutal sometimes but they are part of the speech patterns of that region. Keep in mind in another areas of the Caribbean basin you will hear similar patterns but DR, PR and Cuba are definitely regions where they are prevalent.

Colombian Spanish is super- grammar wise and sentence structure etc. The accent well 'to each his own'. I deal with it daily so it’s all about preferences. Excluding Argentina, Uruguay and Chile (not because the Spanish is bad), I think Spanish in South America in general is good quality and one has a few choices if they want to hear examples of good Spanish.

And that she had taught herself. She told me that you should never worry or be consumed with grammatical rules because no one follows them to a T and even still the rules are flexible from one country to another that uses that language.

Nonsense! (Referring to the old lady's theory that you mentioned). That’s her way of excusing her own grammar errors. People follow rules. Certainly when you write in English you are following rules over 90% of the time. It’s innate, you don’t notice it because that’s the language you speak. How come when Dominicans speak English you notice right away that their English is not correct, that’s the same way you sound in Spanish. If you follow that advice you will never improve in Spanish, your choice of course.

But it would be nice if you made a slight effort to speak the language if you could. I notice also that although people who work in the tourist areas may claim to speak english it is not in a coherent fashion that you could understand without some hesistation. I think this is from a lack of immersion in the language when the people leave their jobs.

Regarding English in the tourists areas of the DR, my point is it’s not good quality or even comprehensible at times. I think it’s because many learned inferior English in the DR in school or attempted to learn some English on their own to get the job. In a country where not a very high percentage of the population is bilingual- English/Spanish, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. However, the effort to speak is appreciated like you said but when you have a job that requires bilingualism then that person’s English should be coherent and fluent which means it's (still) hard to find in the DR.



-MP.