The threads on this subject in this forum are very old and because of the importance of understanding Spanish to fully appreciate life to its fullest in a country where relatively few Dominicans speak English, I though a new thread should be started.
I learnt the basics completing a full version of Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish many years back and living with Dominicans helped with practice.
But years later I still struggle with some of the locals understanding at first pass what they are saying. Spoken Dominican Spanish has significant differences to pure Spanish and it will take patience if you plan to learn through conversation and then maybe pure Spanish speakers will struggle to understand you.
A suggestion to all expats is to find time daily and use digital newspapers to enhance your vocabulary by reading and translating. Doing this will be doubly beneficial because you will also learn more about the Dominican Republic. Added to which you will soon realize that journalists write their articles using Spanish in different ways and google translate will come up with some odd phrases in English and make you research the translation more.
I would suggest the following online newspapers:
Diario Libre https://www.diariolibre.com
Listin Diario https://listindiario.com/
El Dia https://eldia.com.do/
El Caribe https://www.elcaribe.com.do/
Noticias Sin https://noticiassin.com/
Al Momento https://almomento.net/
Puerto Plata Digital https://www.puertoplatadigital.com/
Bavaro Digital https://bavarodigital.net/
Another suggestion to better your Spanish is to watch films and series in Spanish with English subtitles.
Good luck......
