Language barriers in Dominican Republic

This has been covered in various threads.

Dominican Republic is a spanish speaking country but the have their own "form" of Spanish. There is a lot of slang and spanglish.

In tourist and Expat areas there are many locals who speak other languages. Get outside these areas and you need spanish!!!

As a guest in this country expats are responsible for learning the language not the other way around.

Common phrases: I will post a list later, many many local phrases

Dominicans swallow  letters and parts of words. They  smush em together and talk way way too fast!   It takes time for even spanish speakers to understand what is being said. 

You will need patience and a sense of adventure. Do not be afraid to ask people to help you.  Dominicans will respect you trying to speak their language. They may have a good laugh at your attempts but go with the flow,  they really do want to help you.

To add a question, por favore...

Is it worth taking Spanish classes prior to arriving in the DR?

I've seen some posts where people write that taking Spanish classes outside the DR was of minimal value. 

So?  Better to take something (essentially Mexican-STYLE) prior to arriving, mainly to build familiarity and vocabulary...

OR, better to land and arrange for local classes?

Thanks,

Jim

I would say yes but with the proviso that you understand that Dominican Republic spanish  differs from Mexican for example. A recent post on here sent me to check out a free on line course called Duolingo - it is pretty darn good and I am now practising every day and it seems to be working. I still have a long way to go but but as they say, the more practice the better. I recently have found someone willing to teach me Spanish here in Moca but will wait until I get back from my trip home to Alberta and then AZ before seeing how much more training I need.

planner wrote:

Dominicans swallow  letters and parts of words. They  smush em together and talk way way too fast!

What an excellent explanation of Dominican Spanish.

After years of living in the campo in various areas of DR, I still struggle with some conversations.

But I continue to engage with the Spanish that I have learnt from various sources and continue to do so reading the news and always having subtitles on show when watching films and the like, and often get the compliment that I speak well and write well. I is just the hearing side that is the challenge.

To live in DR or indeed any other foreign country and not speak or even try to speak the local language, surely defeats the purpose of being there in the first place. Expats normally relocate to enjoy another of life's experiences and hopefully for the better, and to miss being taking part in Dominican life by not being able to communicate fully, integrate and explore will be, in my opinion, a huge missed opportunity.

So do take Spanish lessons and you can find software with Latin American Spanish to aid ones learning.

Thanks for the tip on DuoLingo.  Just tried it, looks useful.

In my opinion you can start to learn the verbs and the sentence structures. Learn the grammar and basics. Then the vocabulary you learn as you need it!   

I skipped the structure and still have issues with it!

An excellent site is.... marcus@synergyspanish.com     Many free lessons.

I can get by texting over WhatsApp to various vendors/business owners as it pertains to a job or an issue. And they seem to understand my Spanish better that way. Although I notice there are a ton of spelling differences and I'm not sure they are correct dialect/Dominican Spanish or just slang/misspelled.  But, I usually get the gist. 

My favorite conversation partners are kids who are just learning English (The daughters of my host brothers from Germany were always laughing at me...I asked if I sounded strange to them and they answered honestly "Yes."  The oldest one said that she understood everything I was saying but I would use weird choices of words...)  

The son of one of our favorite waitress in Cabrera is learning English, German, French...so we had a conversation in all four languages and taught one another some new words! No pressure...just for fun.  But, of course, I can't go around engaging everyone's elementary aged children...that would look pervy! Hahahaha...