The Wandering Gringo

I had a wonderful opportunity to schedule an interview with an entrepreneur originally from El Salvador. She runs a food truck along with her mother serving pupusas, a national dish of El Salvador, similar to the more commonly known arepas.

As I’m typing this, I have a trip to El Salvador coming up and part of my motivation for seeking out this hidden gym was to get a taste of what’s to come. I walked away more than impressed with my order and thus, more excited about my upcoming trip. They make various flavors and I opted for queso and jalepeño. The bread was hot and fluffy and the queso filling left a delicious trail when I pulled a piece off. The corn-made dough and the filling were beautifully cohesive. Needless to say, it’s a very underrated comfort food.

I didn’t record our entire conversation, but I wanted to provide a glimpse of her life involving her business & what it means to her and her family.

If you happen to find yourself in Memphis, TN, I strongly recommend you give this place a try. Below is their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AwJwfWvTa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

At this point in my language learning journey, I am fairly conversational with native Spanish speakers, particularly from Latin American. According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), there are 6 levels of language comprehension: A1-A2 (beginner), B1-B2 (intermediate), & C1-C2 (advance). I’d say I fall somewhere around level C1: advanced, but not fluent. I still have plenty to learn but I’m more than happy with the progress I’ve made.

So how did I get here?

Like most Americans, I already had some exposure to common words & phrases. I took a few years of Spanish in Middle School & High School, out of necessity. I never expected to pursue fluency for personal interest. I even cheated on a Spanish take-home essay in High School by typing an essay out in English and translating it on the internet. And I passed!

This post is my advice for anyone in the A1-A2 level wanting to pursue a language with fluency. I hope to save you all the trouble of wasting time with ineffective methods & maybe save you some money as well.

Your first idea is likely a language learning app. Probably Duolingo. Slow down and let me make a suggestion. There’s a free app called Language Transfer that I highly recommend for beginners. It’s not an interactive app. It’s the project of Mihalis Eleftheriou and his unique method of learning languages that he calls the “Thinking Method”. It doesn’t give you a list of vocabulary. It teaches you the logical “structure” of the language and gives you shortcuts for understanding grammar and vocabulary. The app currently supports a limited number of languages, but if your target language is available, this should be your first download. It’s free, but I encourage you to donate if you find it helpful.

There was an app called Anki, but it seems to have been rebranded as Noji. It’s a flashcard app. You need vocabulary to build the pieces to a conversation. This app is inexpensive & worth it if you use it consistently. You can download premade decks, such as “top 1000 most common words in Spanish”. But I also recommend making a personal deck for phrases or “chunks” of sentences that you commonly use. Instead of individual words, you may have a card that has the translation for the phrase, “I wonder if…” This will accelerate your fluency significantly.

And from day one, you need to be listening to your target language spoken by native speakers, in the dialect you prefer. Luckily you can access endless, free audio material on resources like YouTube or from places that require a paid subscription that you’re probably already paying for (I use Spotify). It’s essential that you pick the correct material for your level of comprehension. Aim for 90% comprehension of whatever you’re consuming. If you understand close to 100%, it’s time for more challenging content. Understand too little & you need easier content.

When you feel you’ve reached level B1, you will still use some of the same methods from your beginner stage. I recommend continuing building a personal deck of Spanish phrases & listening to audio material with a 90% comprehension rate. But now I would add something that will truly accelerate your fluency- reading. Read anything in your target language and, similar to listening, aim for that sweet 90% comprehension rate.

With Spanish, I found it beneficial to read the BBC Mundo, which is a media company written in Spanish. When I encountered a repeated word or phrase I couldn’t understand, I copied it over to Google translate. I would do this frequently when I started, but over time, I used Google translate less and less. I would eventually add fictional novels by Latin American authors. It is also recommended that read out loud, as this will improve your ability to speak and pronounce the language.

Speaking of which, you have to start having conversations in your target language. You have a few choices. There exist several apps, Italki & Preply being the most popular, where you schedule face time meetings with language tutors on your device. The tutors name their price, and you pick a time slot that works for you both. By far this will be your most expensive tool for language learning, but you won’t achieve fluency without using what you’ve learned in real-world conversations.

Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have people in your life that are already fluent in your target language and that you can converse with. Or alternatively, you can chat with AI in your target language. Apps like ChatGPT can provide a free partner in practice completely at your disposal. While I don’t think it completely replicates the benefit of speaking to a real native speaker, it’s an especially convenient tool to help get you out of intermediate purgatory.

With patience and consistency, you will eventually achieve an advanced understanding of your language. Currently, I alternate between three habits. I still read the BBC Mundo and sometimes a Spanish-level novel. I still watch content on YouTube by Spanish-speaking creators. And at least once a week I book a lesson on Italki with one of my tutors. Once I achieve complete fluency, I will likely continue these habits to maintain it. It’s a lot of work, but if you genuinely want to unlock an incredible skill that will open doors to connections and perspectives you didn’t think possible, I encourage you not to give up.

Good luck.

I decided to learn Spanish after a brief trip to Prague in 2022. I was impressed by the wide range of languages people in the city spoke. There were Slavic, Germanic, and even some Romance languages all around me. Yes, many of these people were other tourists, but it inspired me to pursue a second language. I wanted to reach fluency, and I would do it in Spanish- arguably the easiest second language for an American to learn.

Since then, I’ve sampled various methods including the language apps and I may delve deeper into my process on another post. But what I’ve come to realize is that you cannot separate the language from the cultures that embody that language. With Spanish, there are an abundance of cultures and Hispanic countries- from Spain to Latin America to Equatorial Guinea in Africa and even some traces in the Philippines. It’s everywhere. As a United States citizen, I was more drawn to the Latin American Spanish. I found it more pleasing to hear & speak as opposed to the original Spanish dialect of Spain.

Of course, Latin America itself encompasses many peoples, customs, and ways of life. Between Central and South America and the Caribbean, every region and every country has its own flavor of Spanish, using distinct and often peculiar combinations of words to express the same ideas. I find the diversity in slang quite humorous, with Mexico earning the top spot for its creativity. I get a chuckle when I say something like “mande” or “que padre” to my Colombian tutor and he has a funny reaction to it. “That’s such a Mexican thing to say.”

In an effort to fully immerse yourself into a language- and its cultures- you start consuming more content in that language. I started adding Latin music playlists to my Spotify. I read a few books in Spanish. I watched movies from Hispanic countries. And I started looking for Spanish creators on YouTube that were making content I normally consumed in English.

The music really grew on me, especially as I started understanding the lyrics. I’m a rock/metal fan, but I found myself enjoying these songs about the joys of living your life authentically and with the ones you love. I generally avoid this type of music in the U.S. as I find much of it shallow & materialistic. Somehow, they made it fun to listen to.

I was influenced to start taking classes in Latin dance where I lived. This was shortly before a trip to Mexico City. I may talk more about that trip in another post but to summarize one night, I went to a rooftop bar with a girl I met. I attempted to salsa dance with her. I was terrible. We had a blast! I am currently taking classes in Bachata, which I have a slightly better handle on.

I enjoyed books by Gabriel García Márquez, such as Memorias de Mis Putas Tristes and Doce Cuentos Peregrinos. My aim is to work my way towards his most celebrated novel, Cien Años de Soledad.

Reading articles on BBC Mundo was great practice and also gave me plenty of insights on current events in Latin America and how they affect the people who live there. Some offered a deep dive into lesser-known cities, towns and locals outside the tourist destinations.

And truthfully, I haven’t scratched the surface. There’s so much to learn and so much to gain from exposing yourself to people from different walks of life. I don’t intend for this blog to only venture into Latin America, but as a Spanish learner, it will be a heavy focus. And I look forward to sharing further insights I receive from my travels.

If anyone reading this has had a similar experience when learning a new language, I’d love to hear it in the comments.