Gringolandians, those living in Gringo enclaves, live such isolated and bizarrely separate lives from the Mexicans in the same town that they have on more than one occasion called me an absolute liar for the things I've reported happening in the Mexican city where I live.
One thing with which they take particular exception is what [...]
Finally, some of our American expat friends are beginning to wake up to the ranting and raving I've been doing about living in Guanajuato. Now, if you've been reading my columns on a regular basis you know from time to time I lose my mind, rather totally, and go all Pancho Villa about life in [...]
There is a great restaurant in town where I love to eat steak. It is cheap, though they don't offer the best cuts of meat. However, the steak is tender, comes with a load of sides, and is cooked perfectly for my tastes. It is a popular place and listed in all the guidebooks. I've [...]
You and your business partner have been working your tails off trying to get a bunch of modern, Mexican-style duplexes off the ground. You've poured too much money to think about into hiring Mexican workers to build this duplex complex. You all have not only hired locals to do all the work, tolerating the cultural [...]
To be honest with you, I don't see why more Gringos in Guanajuato aren't getting ripped off when trying to rent, or God forbid, buy a house on their own. It never occurred to us to move here without as much Spanish under our belts as possible. We had a high degree of fluency BEFORE [...]
I wish someone had written a more reality-based expatriation guide we could have read during our research phase before moving to Mexico. The fine books that do exist, that everyone seems to have read, give you a rosy picture of what life is like in Mexico for the American. For those who are thinking about [...]
Though a conservative, I read liberal points of view. I do so for two reasons.
One, their views help me refine my own.
The second reason is that I owe it to "the other side" to be able to fairly and accurately characterize their position on an issue with which I take exception. Not to do so [...]
In second language acquisition research conducted in 1974-75, 1980 and 1987, it was postulated that the acquisition of grammatical forms followed a natural and predictable order. How this happens is contingent upon multiple factors. The learner's age and the learner's circumstances seemed not to be a significant influence on this natural order. Dr. Krashen makes [...]
The chief problem for most Americans who want to learn Spanish but who don't succeed is the Affective Factor. Plainly put, this means the emotional issues; that is, adults become freaked out at the thought. The fear of getting put on the spot and embarrassed is just too much to bear.
I've talked to plenty monolingual [...]
What got me started on an Intercambio jag was learning how Mexicans in the tourist industry on Mexico's Gold Coast learn English and achieve an amazing level of proficiency. They do it by engaging in Intercambios! This is where you exchange an hour of helping a Mexican struggling to learn English with an hour of [...]