Language

Looking back on it, I probably should have at least tried to learn a little bit of Spanish beyond the basics like “hola” and “gracias” and “lo siento.” But I didn’t, hoping that I could rely on other people on my dialogue to help me figure out what is going on. For the most part, I have been fine, but there have been instances where my lack of Spanish knowledge has been an issue.
One place where I have had issues, though, is when taking Ubers. There have been a couple experiences where my lack of Spanish skills have made getting to the destination difficult. Recently, my friends and I wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens. The Uber driver’s GPS broke (which is seemingly a common occurrence here for whatever reason) so he couldn’t use Uber’s directions to get to our destination. We spent at least 20 minutes driving around in circles until I realized the driver did not actually understand what our destination was. Once we were finally able to communicate where we wanted to go, he was able to find the entrance to the Botanical Gardens. It was quite the ordeal.
One of the most popular songs worldwide right now is Despacito, which is in Spanish. Given that we are in a Spanish-speaking country, I have heard that song several times a day every single day since arriving. Thankfully, I have now learned what despacito means- it means ‘slowly’- so now I know what the song is about!