Hello! This is my story with the Spanish language and my new life in the Riviera Maya. Language difficulties in my new home was one of my biggest concerns when deciding to live in the Riviera Maya. Well, it is not easy to move to a new country with a language other than mine.
There was one point he had in his favor; the fact that unlike Canada, Mexico only has one official language: Spanish. What filled me with confidence and trying to learn everything necessary to ask about streets, directions, prices, telephones, etc.
Fifteen years ago I visited Mexico for the first time. I came to Playa del Carmen and Cozumel and discovered that in most of the establishments they speak English in a very accurate way. From the most luxurious hotel and restaurant to the street vendor with his particular charisma and accent.
Beyond tourism
However, I knew that it is one thing to spend a short time as a tourist in all these areas and quite another to live permanently in them and beyond them. He had to think about banks, supermarkets, entertainment centers, and so on.
On my first visit, I learned to say how much does it cost? Where is it, food … But shortly before I came to live here, I started using an application to handle more complete sentences that could help me in my daily life.
Alejandro, my real estate agent, also helped me a lot to understand new expressions and recommended some schools and private teachers to acquire Spanish.
Dispelling fears
It was in my daily life when I really cleared my doubts about linguistic borders. And the thing is that here, most of the people know how to speak a little of different languages; from English to Italian and French. Little by little the fears dissipated and confidence took hold of me.
While it seems that it is not a requirement that the staff in cinemas (which are only two complexes), supermarkets, banks and other complexes speak 100% English, they are all very friendly and attentive.
I always try to communicate with my tasteless Spanish. When I have some difficulty, most of them do their best to find the word I am looking for or they begin to speak in my language. They even call someone who speaks better English, if they don’t understand.
Teachers everywhere
And what about the neighbors. However, most of them are foreigners, some are from Latin America and a few others come from other states of Mexico. Coexistence is exceptional and enriching, with all these clashes of cultures, I learn too many variants of expressions.
I could say, without fear of being wrong, that anyone who speaks English can live in Playa del Carmen and throughout the Riviera Maya without much difficulty. Despite this, I have fallen in love with this country, its landscapes, its people, its kindness, its culture, and little by little its language.
This is why in the ninth month of my new life here (and heeding the advice of Alejandro and Evoke Real Estate) I decided to take private Spanish classes, more out of pleasure than necessity.