mastering spanish is going to take longer than i thought. I don´t think a month here will do it. Definitely two months but a month... I dunno. If the people in my family spoke more spanish around me, that would help out but alas they are damn chombos who have to speak english all the time. It´s funny too. When i ask them about certain words, phrases, kwk., they draw blank faces and say their spanish is bad and don´t know.

However I can understand why now. The majority of my family (on my mother´s side anyway) grew up in the Canal Zone which was officially considered American territory. People born in the Canal Zone, were granted American citizenship along with Panamanian citizenship. The schools in that area only instructed in English. Alot of older chombos I´ve met learned spanish in their teens or even older because they never needed to use it.

Now things are different. There is no more Canal Zone thus the use of English is slowly fading away. It already started fading away years ago but now it is fadng more rapidly. I have plenty of relatives who speak no English. Especially those relatives who are mixed with the cholos. The Latins here very seldomly speak english.

Anyways, I´m beginning to actually "hear" the words now when someone speaks. ALthough, I may not know what they mean or do know what they mean but need time to mentally translate the words to english. At this point sentence structure is killing me when speaking. I just watched a movie in portuguese and had to read spanish subtitles and did so with ease. I can read pretty well but the difference in sentence structure between english and spanish is still hard for me to decipher orally. But everyday things get a little better.

The other thing is the lazy ass Panamanian tongue. bastards speak so fast because they drop off syllables and shit. I know the secret now. For the longest i was trying to figure out why people would say "Also" when they were in agreement with something. The word for "also" is "tambien." What they are saying is "´ta bien" short for "està bien" or " it´s good/okay." The "es" sound is frequently dropped off of words as carrying that "s" takes up time.
EG.
"ma tarde" for "mas tardes"- later
"dos dolas" for " dos dolares"- two dollars

But that is a rule in general to leave off syllables and words altogether. Noone here says "Buenos dias" or "Buenos tardes" or "Buenas noches." Usually you´ll just get a "Bueno" or "Buena." Sometimes if you are lucky, you might get a whole "Buenos" with the "s" at the end.

Another issue is the slang. People be sayin shit that ain´t in my dictionary all the time which , of course, is to be expected. The funniest term i heard was "So Pà" = What´s up. Basically its " pasó" as in "Que Pasò." I thought it was pretty creative. Then there is "caerse"= to fall down which in slang terms can me "to like someone." For instance " Me cayo su amigo." Literally doesn´t make sense as it means " I fall down your friend," but in slang terms means " I like your friend." I´ve been learnign the profanity down here too like "Chucha"=fuck or "puta"=whore/prostitute.

Let´s not even get into gross chombo Spanglish. Jeez. I´m trying to learn spanish, give me a break.

Why can´t everyone speak like those guys on those spanish tapes we had to listen too in school.

Like this:

Me llamo Juan.

**pauses for 2 seconds**

Me llamo Juan.
**************

If only... Damn real-life people.