You’ve done the hard work. You’ve studied your conjugations. You’ve built vocabulary. You’ve practiced until you were positively blue in the face. You’ve achieved a measure of conversational fluency in Spanish. You can even talk on the phone in Spanish.
Congratulations!
I know how tough this is because I’ve been there. I’ve struggled to think of how to say what I want to say, and I’ve been out with Spanish speakers and hopelessly been unable communicate seemingly simple ideas like, “We should have parked the car somewhere else.” (When once upon a time we couldn’t find said car…LOL.)
But I’m past all that (after a LOT of hard work), and now can converse in Spanish pretty well. Some even would claim that I’m fluent.
That is until…the Spanish speaker decides to drop some English word (or entire sentence) into his speech. At this point, I”m always left with the classic “Cara de ¿qué?” As in, “What in the heck did you just say?”
Because the hardest thing in the world to understand in Spanish is English.
Let me explain. Mexicans are exposed to tons of English. All of them have had to study it to some degree or other in school, though you might never know it. They also see tons of Hollywood movies with subtitles, not to mention hearing lots of American and British popular music. And lots of them, particularly those who fancy themselves more international,* will casually drop English words into their Spanish with no warning. The problem is when Mexicans do this, the word in question does not sound English in the least. In fact, these words sound just like Spanish, sort of, but no Spanish word you’ve ever learned. They just come out with the Mexican speaker’s natural accent, which sounds NOTHING like English.
F was very fond of dropping these English phrases or sentences into conversations when I least expected them. And I invariably didn’t understand. Like, as in “never.” Not once. I was always left with this confused expression of, “what the heck did you just say?” And he was always frustrated that I never “got” it. Though he was always polite, I could always imagine him thinking, “Jeeze…this is your native language and you don’t understand it?!?” And he wasn’t terribly sympathetic when I tried to teach him the correct pronunciation of the words in question once he had explained what he was saying. I simply should have “just gotten it.”
So my advice to you is this. If you don’t understand something that someone has said in Spanish, make sure it wasn’t English.
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* Be careful using the term “internacional” to describe a Mexican. Why? It’s a term used in the gay community to describe someone sexually flexible, i.e., who can be a top or bottom. Consider yourself warned.
El Gringo Suelto 
You are so right! The last thing you expect to come out of a Mexican’s mouth, specially in small rural pueblos, is English. You prepare for Spanish and then are handed a language that you do not immediately understand – English! My confusion is often followed by a look of disappointment in the other person’s face as they realize their English is so bad that they cannot be understood although in actuality, their English is usually as good as mine and certainly better than my Spanish!
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It took me longer to figure this out than I care to admit. But even now, that I’m on the lookout for it, it still fools me. Saludos.
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I too got, nay continue, to get a great deal out of “Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish.” It’s a very good resource. There are some regional differences here in the Yucatan that don’t translate quite the same to Central Mexico.
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I can imagine. The other thing that’s tricky is understanding regional accents. I can understand people from DF pretty well, but our recent trip to Zacatecas introduced a whole new accent. There, the Spanish is kind of sing-songy.
Thanks for commenting!
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I still say mango with it’s proper Spanish accent. What’s a mengo anyway? LOL
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Indeed. It’s hard for me these days to discuss places in Mexico without pronouncing the names in Spanish.
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My dentist and I were discussing this topic yesterday. Her English is quite good, but she said she has had several northern patients who have her repeat everything and still do not understand her. The reason, of course, is that she pronounces her vowels as if the words were Spanish. And I know I do the reverse when I mumble through my language adventures.
By the way, thank you for your recommendation of Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish four years ago. I pull it out now and then. What I need to do is to break into beginner’s Spanish.
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It sounds like you’ve more than broken into beginner’s Spanish. And you’ve hit the nail on the head about the vowels, though Spanish speakers also have a lot of trouble with English multiple-consonant sounds. For example, “Starbucks” often comes out sounding like “Estorbos,” which also can lead to some puns as the verb “estorbar” means to get in the way or to block. I once tried to teach a Mexican friend how to pronounce “squirrel,” but after a few attempts he declared it unpronounceable.
I’m mentally outlining some posts about how to learn Spanish, and I will repeat my recommendation of “Breaking Out of Beginner’s Spanish.” I think it’s a great book, and often a hilarious read even if you have no intention of learning Spanish.
Thanks for commenting.
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Hello Kim. I am just five minutes into skimming your writing. Well done! I finally discovered the trick of understanding my housekeeper. It’s her attempt to throw in English words in the midst of rapid-fire Spanish. You are very right. That’s a puzzler.
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LOL and thanks for visiting! I’m looking forward to the adventure of blogging.
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