Me Encanta Mexico

       Language is perhaps the most beautiful tool which humans possess. It binds us together in a coagulated mass, allowing us to share our thoughts, feelings and insight in the hopes of achieving progress as one blob of humanity. It allows us to advance and thrive through complex concepts like compassion, humility and compromise, which are only executable through language. Two dogs fighting over a carcass can’t stop and say, “ you know max, since you were here first, and since I already ate, why don’t you have the rest”. As humans we are blessed with a profound ability to use our brains, in unison with language, to rationalize and align our thoughts to achieve what we, as the human race, ultimately want.
       I’m sure this sounds highly utopian to anyone with even the most modest skeptical propensity, and you’re right it is. If only the world functioned in a manner to which people could read the above paragraph and agree without a qualm. This is, unfortunately not the case.
My point is that language is pretty darn cool. I only took a few years of Spanish in middle and high school and to be honest, I didn’t really pay all that much attention. Working in restaurants through college kept me on my toes, but in reality I still wasn’t anywhere near fluent, I just knew when the cooks were talking smack about me or somebody else.

       Now that I’m on my own down here in Mexico I find that the only time I’m doing things in English is when I’m escribiendo…. I mean writing. Point being you start to catch on at a breakneck pace, that’s otherwise unobtainable in the classroom. It’s true; immersion is the best technique for learning a language.
       I went back to Gustavo and Servio’s taco stand last night to chow down on their delicious Southern Mexican style tacos topped with mole, a blend of chocolate and hot-ass peppers that make white boys sweat like pigs. I think they were pleased with my attempts to speak Spanish with them. I know I conjugate verbs in the past tense incorrectly all the time, but the bottom line is they get what I’m saying. This won’t be acceptable if I ever want to claim that I speak fluent Spanish, but for the time being I’m happy with my progress.
       Because the restaurant was so slow they took the opportunity to ask me about phrases they could use with their English speaking clientele. We sat down and drank some beers while conversing back and forth about some useful phrases that ultimately benefitted us both. I wrote down things like “come on in” and “we have the best tacos in town” (which is the truth). They were so pleased with the lesson that they wouldn’t let me pay for my meal. Considering I felt the Spanish for English lesson was mutually beneficial I left them a tip equal to the bill anyway. The bottom line is, if you’re not afraid to be wrong, an not afraid to be corrected, and better yet, welcome corrections as lessons, you will learn a language so much faster.
       I believe that Mexicans welcome foreigners attempts to learn their language; it demonstrates that you actually care and that you don’t think your tourist status exempts you from adhering and integrating into their established language and culture. Plus, language makes you smarter, it’s ultimately what separates us from all the other living animals. Sure, dogs can bark, but can they really settle that dispute over the carcass in a rational manner?
       My interaction last night inspired me to take every opportunity to be that goofy tourist who asks a bunch of silly questions that often times don’t make perfect sense. If they laugh at me then good, I’ll know what I need to work on. And if I don’t know if I’m saying it correctly then I’ll ask. My conviction is you can’t really learn a language unless your willing to speak it with people in an uninhibited fashion where you are ok with being wrong and being corrected. I hope I’m right about this; otherwise I’ll just go one forever sounding like a blabbering gringo idiot.