Love, Long and Last: A Puerto Rico Trip Changed How We Learned Spanish

A rule meets reality

As her family of four began descending toward Puerto Rico, the mother announced that they would speak no English for the rest of the trip. The plan quickly proved difficult once they landed and headed to their hotel.

The driver, front-desk workers, restaurant waiters and other staff spoke English as well as Spanish. Her husband did not speak Spanish, and Duolingo was his only teacher, so the family often switched to English to keep him involved. Before long, they were mixing languages in their own version of Spanglish.

Listening to local Spanish

The mother found that Puerto Rican Spanish differed from the Spanish she knew through her Mexican mother. Some familiar words sounded unfamiliar, and she asked local people to describe words so she could connect them with terms she knew from Mexico.

The pace and rhythm of conversations were different, too. Instead of guiding her family through the language, she found herself asking questions and learning alongside them.

Learning beyond vocabulary

The mother had hoped her children would practice Spanish, build confidence and experience another Latin culture. The trip became more meaningful as she recognized familiar words, explored unfamiliar ones and discussed how people could express the same idea in different ways.

Her children have Spanish teachers from Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, each with distinct dialects, vocabulary and intonation. Rather than correcting or quizzing them, the family worked out how to communicate when the Spanish they knew was not always the Spanish they heard.

Fluency through curiosity

The experience led the mother to see that fluency does not require knowing every word. Learning can continue outside school and formal lessons. Sometimes, she concluded, it means listening, asking questions and discovering more about the world along the way.