rosacrux

I have done this in the past, and I felt I was being disrespectful. When I lived in the UK, sometimes I spoke in Spanish with my Latin America friends. My British peers thought that I was trying to conceal something, so I stopped doing that.

The next language I want to learn is French. Several years ago I tried it, but did not have too much time to attend classes. I love how French sounds and I would like to read French literature in its original language.

I am a Spanish native speaker and when I speak in my own language I have a neutral accent. I am from Mexico City, and people there do not have an accent. I have been told this by other Spanish speakers and foreigners.

When I speak in English it is quite obvious I have an accent. Despite I have practiced for years, I cannot sound like a native speaker.

I have attended many conferences where there are English speakers and Spanish translators. Sometimes I like to hear the translation and have found many mistakes. When translators do not know the technical jargon they may try to make it up or even avoiding to translate what was said.

"¿Que onda?" and "¿Como va todo?" are my favorite greetings. I also use "¿Que cuentas?" and "Buenas". I rather like informal greetings.

For me, the most beautiful English words are epiphany and serendipity, nice words to hear.

I come from a Spanish speaking country and after I spent a year in the UK I forgot some Spanish words. I had been speaking English most of the time so when I came back to my country, for the first couple of weeks I had some issues trying to communicate with my compatriots.

I was trying to learn words for the GRE test so I buy some guides. I found many funny words that I did not know, but funniest for me were discombobulate and rambunctious.

There is a blog called El Comidista which is hosted at El Pais website. It is mostly about food, but the author has a great sense of humor.

Roberto Bolaño is one of my favorite writers. 2666 and Los Detectives Salvajes are a must for those who like reading in Spanish. Another contemporary writer I like is Enrique Vila Matas; Joyce has some influence on him, as you can see in his book Dublinesca.

Although I am not an English native speaker, I grew up reading lots of books written in English. As a Mexican it is easy to notice how much cultural influence the United States has over my country. Because of the large number of expats living in Mexico, there some libraries that sell English books. My favorite books in English are: The Road, The Ocean at the End of the Line Ulysses and the Dark Tower series.

Not too many people like it, but I love (standard) British accent. I lived in Oxford for a few moths and I got used to that accent, and even liked it. I also like when French people speaks in English; even in another language French accent is great.

I think Google Translate is a great tool if want to translate a text from a language you do not have any idea about. I use it to translate documents in German or Japanese. I would use it for serious purposes.

Living in Mexico it as quite obvious that English had to be the second language I had to learn. English classes started from 3rd or 4th grade and never stopped. Even in college I was still taking English classes, in order to improve my speaking skills.

Cormac McCathy is my favorite American writer. This quote is from The Road: "Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you." Words from a father to his child. This means a lot to me; a ray of hope in a desolate world.

I have met many people who went to Latin America to learn or improve their Spanish. Some of them knew very few Spanish words while others had studied the language for years. In the end all of them can communicate quite easily with Spanish speakers. Maybe it is more difficult to write, as grammatical mistakes are not ignored when you write.

When I was learning English, I read a lot of newspapers and it was really helpful. I think that method would also be useful if you are learning Spanish. Just try to get major newspapers, as local newspapers may have lots of grammatical mistakes (at least that is the case in Mexico).

Hola.

Solo unas correcciones:

"Una de mis actividades favoritas es la escribir en español, pero no soy muy bueno (también puedes dejar "en eso"). Te pido que me perdones y corrijas si es necesario. Leo mejor de lo que escribo. Quiero practicar mi español preguntando cosas todos los días y leyendo las respuestas. Ayúdame por favor."

Español de México, sobretodo del centro de México. Es el español más neutro y fácil de entender.

Mexican here:

Quiero tacos - I want tacos.

Tomé mucha cerveza - I drank too much beer.

Yo no lo hice - I did not do it.

More seriously. How much time will you stay in Mexico? Where are you going? If you will stay for a few days, you only need to learn pretty basic Spanish; it will be easier for you to find Mexicans who speak English in major cities. And be careful with the accent. Each region has different accent; in the center of Mexico you will find the most neutral accent.

I am a new member, native Spanish speaker and trying to learn French. This forum seems a nice place to learn new things.