I will never get over the look of surprise and/or shock I get from both Hispanics and Americans when they hear me speak Spanish for the 1st time. I was telling someone the other day, it does not matter how hard or simple the phrase is, it's always the same look... the mouth drop in ahhh... the stare... and it's almost like time freezes for them as their brain catches up to what I'm actually saying. My favorite example of this is one time, I was walking past a Hispanic person in a touristy area in Colombia and I said, "Oye como estas." The other person just stared at me in shock, like they were trying to figure the English phrase I had just said.... so I wanted to mess around with the situation a little more... so I stopped, and turned directly to them and said, "Saludo... como va." At that point, everything started to register that we were speaking the same language. In my earlier Spanish speaking days, I thought I was mispronouncing certain words until it started happening even with simple phrases like, "hola." Anybody else ever experience anything like that?

So I was having a discussion with someone about someone else who says that they are fluent in Spanish. He was in disagreement that the person was fluent in Spanish. He couldn't explain why, so I looked it up. It's so weird I had to share it. So everyone here knows that there are tests that you can take, like the DELE and other state tests, that gauge and certify your level of Spanish. That's fine, except most Native Spanish speakers would not pass those tests without studying and practicing for them, which to me is not a true gauge of if you are fluent in a language or not. If you can communicate without a translator with native speakers, in my opinion you are fluent. Just like if you forget a word or what something is called, you look it up online or describe it, the same thing goes in the other language. What do you all think?

I found this kinda odd... so I was talking to someone from Colombia... Cali Colombia to be exact... and they said when you say goodbye, "Cuídate" and "Te cuidas" don't mean the same even though you will hear both.... so I looked it up online... it's kinda interesting so I thought I would share. Cuídate - Because this uses the grammatical imperative (a command), it CAN feel a bit more formal or like a standard, habitual sign-off. In Colombia, if a close friend or family member says just "cuídate," it can sometimes feel a bit dry, abrupt, or standard—like saying "Take care" at the end of a professional email. Te cuidas - By dropping the command form and using the regular present tense ("You take care of yourself"), the speaker is phrasing it as an affectionate wish or a gentle piece of advice rather than an order. It implies: "I genuinely care about what happens to you, so make sure you look after yourself." It is incredibly common among friends, romantic partners, and family members in Colombia. Let me know if you have experienced something similar.

Hola Yaprendices! Our Yaprendí member of the week is....🥁 🥁 🥁 @Dana Aubakirova ¡Felicidades Dana!! To be clear- our top 3 winners on the leaderboard are as follows: 🥇 @Mateo Pres 🥈 @Gary Cooper 🥉 @Dana Aubakirova Dana's first time on the leaderboard was this week so let's show her some love and congratulate her for the engagement! Keep it up!! Next week we will reset and members who have already won last month will be eligible to win again! ¡Sigan participando y hablando en español! 🎉 🥳 🎊 Felicidades @Dana Aubakirova !! Gracias por compartir y contribuir tanto a las discusiones la esta pasada. No pares! Sigue, sigue!!!

Hola Yaprendices! Feliz lunes!! Listen, last week was a tough one for me- I had a lot going on getting oriented at my new place of work. Thank you for bearing with me and continuing to engage! I will make some time to get into some of the conversations that were happening last week. I am so proud of you all for keeping the conversations going regardless! This is how we connect, build community and continue to learn and grow! I am aware that I did not post a member of the week last week. I will make a separate post to shout out the winner after I post this!! Let's share one goal we have for the week in our Spanish learning practice to get us started. My personal goal is to post more useful grammar tips for the community and get back to creating some content for my podcast. Btw, I recently just got back into learning French as well! let me know if you're curious about that journey!