Spanish Office Small Talk That Builds Rapport with Colleagues
When I first started working in the Dominican Republic, I underestimated how important small talk was. Coming from a fast-paced U.S. workplace, I initially found the relaxed rhythm of Caribbean office life surprising. Meetings started with a chat about family, weekend plans, or local events before diving into business. Quickly, I learned that mastering office […]
Spanish Lesson: Buying a Car in the Dominican Republic
Buying a car in the Dominican Republic can be an adventure, especially if Spanish is not your first language. In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into the experience of purchasing both used and new cars in the DR, from the perspective of someone who did it first as a non-resident foreigner and later as […]
Colombian Slang vs. Standard Spanish—What Every Expat Should Know
Why Colombian Spanish Deserves Its Own Phrasebook Textbooks teach “¿Cómo estás?” but on Carrera Séptima you’ll hear “¿Quiubo, parce?” The structure stays Spanish, yet vowels stretch, endings morph, and entirely new words bloom like coffee flowers. Understanding colloquial Colombia isn’t a party trick—it’s how you haggle rent in Medellín, flirt at a Cali salsa bar, […]
Local Dominican Slang vs. Standard Spanish—What Every Expat Should Know
Why Dominican Spanish Feels Like a Different Language Spend one afternoon in a Santiago colmado and you’ll hear Spanish words clipped, stretched, or swapped like domino tiles on Calle del Sol. The grammar skeleton stays recognizable, but muscles flex Caribbean rhythm. Standard textbooks won’t warn you that “vamos” shrinks to “vamo’”, or that “amigo” morphs […]
Spanish Healthcare Basics: Scheduling a Doctor’s Visit in Spanish—Stomach Pain, Insurance, and All the Right Words
The Pain That Launched a Thousand Phrases It started after a late‑night chimi burger near Puerto Plata’s Malecón. By sunrise my stomach twisted like a concho tire blown on the Duarte. No home remedy worked, so I reached for my phone and wrestled with Spanish phrases to book a doctor’s visit. That call, the clinic […]
Filing Taxes as an Expat: Spanish Words on Your Declaración
Café, Receipts, and the Annual Panic Every March my favorite colmado in Santiago rolls out a cardboard sign: “Traiga sus facturas para la declaración”—Bring your receipts for the tax return. Locals stash crinkled tickets in bulging envelopes; I used to arrive with a shoe box labeled in English. The clerk’s raised eyebrow said everything: vocabulary […]
Cracking the Spanish Subjunctive—From Wishful Thinking to Real‑World Speaking
The Subjunctive: Why This Mood Deserves Its Own Spotlight If the indicative is a camera recording what’s in front of the lens, the subjunctive is the storyboard—the realm of possibilities, doubts, wishes, and fears. It colors speech with attitude, painting sentences that say, “This isn’t certain, but I want it, fear it, or imagine it.” […]
Indicative, Subjunctive, and Imperative—Three Spanish Mood Rings Explained
Why Talk About Moods at All? If verbs are the engines of language, moods are the gears. In English we barely notice them, but in Spanish they drive meaning as clearly as a left‑turn signal on the Malecón. Choose the wrong gear and you stall the conversation—or worse, shout an unintended command at your boss. […]
School Enrollment for Kids—Talking to Administrators in Spanish
First Day, First Impression The jasmine outside Colegio Santa Clara smelled sweeter than courage. I clutched a folder of birth certificates, vaccine cards, and two passport‑sized photos notorious for scaring toddlers. The receptionist greeted me with the classic Dominican “¡Buen día! ¿En qué le puedo servir?”—Good morning! How can I help you?—and the enrollment adventure […]
Spanish Phone‑Call Scripts for Non‑Native Speakers Dominican Style
I learned the hard way that “¿Diga?” can sound like “Digga” to untrained ears, and that a single dropped “s” over the phone in Santiago might have a motoconcho headed to the wrong barrio. After ten years living between Santiago’s bustling calles and Puerto Plata’s breezy malecón, I’ve logged enough phone blunders to fill a […]