¿Hablas Español?

For 1305 consecutive days I have religiously completed at least one Spanish lesson on the Duolingo app. So, naturally, I was quite anxious to test out my finely honed language skills in a Spanish speaking country.

We landed in Mazatlan at just after 5:00PM local time and, dropped off our luggage at our Airbnb at about 6:00. We couldn’t locate the wifi code in our apartment, which made getting a local SIM card for our phones our first order of business. We had researched the best plans for expats before we left Canada, so we knew exactly what we wanted and even where to get it. Or so we thought.

We walked into the closest Oxxo convenience store (a Mexican 7/11) and I confidently asked for two Telcel SIM cards and the 200 peso telecom package. The clerk replied with what sounded to me like, “nonovendemostarjetasSIMaquí, tienesquecomprarloenotrolugaryluegoregresasaquíyte venderemoselpaquetequedeseas.”

Have you ever noticed how the contestants on TV game shows seem to get stupider and tend to choke as the pressure mounts? That was exactly how I felt. In response to the clerk, I blinked a couple of times, picked my jaw off the floor and could only manage to blurt out,”Errr.......ok, gracias.”

In the end, after visiting several stores, we were finally able to acquire what we needed and get our phones connected to the network we wanted.

In the process I learned that 1305 consecutive days studying Spanish on Duolingo did not really prepare me for real world interaction in my third language. But I am a very stubborn old goat and I am intent on being comfortable conversing in Spanish by the time we leave Mexico in March.

Hasta la vista, baby!Read more