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by ivm
3590 days ago
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Thank you a lot, I'm going to check it out! I'm already reading many of my Spanish-speaking friends on FB, subreddits in Spanish, and https://twitter.com/pictoline on Twitter. My macOS is also in Spanish. I'm doing as much as possible to get out from the English "vendor lock-in" but it's quite hard even in Spanish-speaking country since I work from home and my friends know English. |
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I'm going to give it to you straight. You're going to need to actively leave your comfort zone of your friends and your working from home. You're going to have to mess up again and again and eventually you will become correct and smoother. You don't need to speak grammatically correct Spanish right away. You can get to that along the way. For now, just 'abra su boca'. They will make fun of you and eventually you will be good enough that they won't make fun of you.
Even if you have friends who speak English (and prefer to), you can go out with them and speak Spanish to the people around you. You won't feel alone and they (your English-speaking preference friends) will eventually feel 'left out' and speak to you more in Spanish.
Even if you work from home, you can go out and have lunch or coffee in a public area. Just like you would in English, try to strike up a conversation by making an observation (try to avoid questions - in all languages, no one wants to be interrogated).
You: 'Me gusta este cafe porque hay demasiado tomas de corriente disponsibles. Them: 'Si. Ayer fui un cafe y no tenía las mesas disponsibles.' You: 'Algun veces, me levantaba y trabajaba con mi ordenador encima de la cabeza de alguien.' Them: '¿En serio?' You: <una pausa> No (laugh) Hopefully they laugh
Make jokes, be self-deprecating. Never make fun of someone else. Especially with the translation difficulties.