Learning Spanish in Buenos Aires: Like speed dating, but harder

There were two dilemmas that arose from renting an apartment in Buenos Aires: How would we meet people and how would we improve our Spanish (with the growing number of English-speaking expats with meet each day).

Since Peru, my Spanish has gone from rapidly improving to virtually nonexistent. I credit that decline mostly to the different variation of Spanish here, known as Castellano. (As I mentioned, portenos use different vocabulary, speak with an Italian-ish accent and talk much faster than Peruvians.) Perhaps it was because my Spanish was already shaky, but when faced with the new linguistics challenge, I basically threw my hands up in defeat.

As terrible as it sounds, I began to question how much I cared to really learn Spanish. As much as I love traveling, I’m not one of those people that picks up languages easily, so speaking a foreign tongue is always an uphill battle. But to put it more simply, I got lazy. One day in a boutique, a shopgirl asked me a question, which was probably, “Can I help you with anything?” and not knowing how to respond and too nervous to even say, “gracias,” I pretended I didn’t hear her and walked away. Not my finest moment.

I knew this was a slippery slope, and thanks to Eaman’s desire to actually improve his Spanish, which he constantly practices with any local he meets, we found a solution to both the friends problem and the language barrier.

It’s called Spanglish, a language exchange and happy hour combo event started by an American expat living in BA. (The organization has gotten so big it runs six nights a week in BA and has expanded to Spain and the U.S.) Non-native Spanish speakers get paired up with locals for five rounds of 10 minutes each; they speak five minutes in Spanish and the other five in English. It’s speed dating for travelers.

The added bonus of Spanglish is the social exchange. The people who come to Spanglish aren’t just looking for language help; they’re also the kind of welcoming folk who like to meet people. (Portenos are lovely, but some of the 20-somethins are a bit clique-ish.)

We started Spanglish last Tuesday, when the organization had its weekly beerlingual-bilingual trivia night. A sucker for random facts, I didn’t actually care that I had forgotten almost everything Rosetta Stone taught me. But I figured I should be able to say something before the event, so Eaman and I sat in the park and rehearsed lines:

I am a writer. Soy un escritor. I am from New York. Soy de Nueva York. I like movies and the park. Me gustan las películas y el parque. Hey, I didn’t say I’d be reciting Shakespeare!

But as it turned out, the trivia night was more of an exercise in Scott Baio knowledge–with a couple questions about Spanish leaders thrown in–than Spanish linguistics. (Not complaining!) So we hit up Spanglish’s Thursday night event last week for full-on language exchange.

When I sat down with my first partner, he started in English and asked me questions like, “Where are you from?” and “What do you like to do for fun?” ack! After exhausting all my practiced lines just in the English portion, what would I say in Spanish?

But that’s what I needed: pressure. Suddenly, I dusted off words and phrases I used before, and put together sentences that actually somewhat made sense. It helped the Spanish speakers were really patient, just as they want you to be with their English. I don’t want to give you the impression that I was reciting epic poems and talking slang with the best of them, but I was getting by, albeit only with present tense, and that was a lot better than ignoring a shopgirl.

I don’t expect to become proficient in Spanish, even by the end of our time in South America, and a part of me would much rather focus on Farsi–Eaman’s mother tongue that I can speak decently so far–because that’s a language that’ll have longevity in my life, but I do understand how important language is to feeling immersed in a culture.

That being said, we’re headed to Spanglish tonight. It’s trivia night, baby!

Update: I realized last night that Spanglish isn’t just like speed dating; it IS speed dating. The ratio of local men to local women clocked in at 8 to 0 yesterday. So, with each new male Argentine speaking partner, the first sentence out of my mouth always involved Eaman to set my status straight from the beginning. And there I thought these guys wanted to improve their ingles…