A few hopefully helpful comments from a single white male 38 year old American that's been living in Mexico for the last 8 months. These aren't meant to be all encompassing and are from the perspective of a guy in a supermarket holding up the line while 8 or 10 people behind him want to get on with their day.
Spanish learning material is heavily biased towards the language as spoken in Spain. Don't worry about it. Use what you can and the delighted local will help you with the rest.
Sometimes it's awkward. Smile, laugh, and accept the blessing of the experience and carry on. Don't try to change or fix it. Mexico is this place where your mood is reflected right back at you. This matters when you don't want to deal w/ the language barrier in the moment.
If you're working a day job in English you've got to spend the rest of the day immersed in Spanish.
That means don't date expats. Stick to Spanish music and culture as much as you can. Subtitles and what not. Books with English and Spanish are really helpful. Schedule your day based on your priorities.
Get a qualified teacher, a high school English teacher is a good bet or ask around. I was doing 3 days/week with an instructor + plus daily homework, and that was a lot, but now 2 days/week feels slow.
Learning Spanish can be done while learning Salsa, making Spanish friends that scuba dive or sail, hiking groups, or golfing. Facebook groups is a good place.
Digital nomads have their own agendas. Often they're not really there to have their belief system tested or to learn Spanish, and view world as if they're at a cultural theme park or at a petting zoo. This is not always true of course but I standby it.
People that actively go out and see the world for themselves are a very high grade of human and worth getting to know.
Like Hemingway said about Italy: don't look at the women; share your cigarettes.
Like walking into the wind, you must lean into and accept the resistance of learning in order to move forward. Reframe the process as a blessing and an opportunity.
You'll be shocked how foreign your homeland will become to you.
Spanish learning material is heavily biased towards the language as spoken in Spain. Don't worry about it. Use what you can and the delighted local will help you with the rest.
Sometimes it's awkward. Smile, laugh, and accept the blessing of the experience and carry on. Don't try to change or fix it. Mexico is this place where your mood is reflected right back at you. This matters when you don't want to deal w/ the language barrier in the moment.
If you're working a day job in English you've got to spend the rest of the day immersed in Spanish. That means don't date expats. Stick to Spanish music and culture as much as you can. Subtitles and what not. Books with English and Spanish are really helpful. Schedule your day based on your priorities.
Get a qualified teacher, a high school English teacher is a good bet or ask around. I was doing 3 days/week with an instructor + plus daily homework, and that was a lot, but now 2 days/week feels slow.
Learning Spanish can be done while learning Salsa, making Spanish friends that scuba dive or sail, hiking groups, or golfing. Facebook groups is a good place.
Digital nomads have their own agendas. Often they're not really there to have their belief system tested or to learn Spanish, and view world as if they're at a cultural theme park or at a petting zoo. This is not always true of course but I standby it.
People that actively go out and see the world for themselves are a very high grade of human and worth getting to know.
Like Hemingway said about Italy: don't look at the women; share your cigarettes.
Like walking into the wind, you must lean into and accept the resistance of learning in order to move forward. Reframe the process as a blessing and an opportunity.
You'll be shocked how foreign your homeland will become to you.
It's the greatest thing I've ever done.