Language...

Most people in PR are bilingual, they speak Spanish and Jibaro (hillbilly Spanish).

About 1/3 of the population will understand English. Of that 3rd 1/2 will be able to comunícate back. Some parts of PR is different because of tourism, military and federal government but once you leave the area you are back to my numbers above. Rincon, Condado, San Juan, Isla Verde are not representative of the rest of the island.

It is not a preference, Spanish is the language of the island.

Signs are in Spanish. Menus may be in both if in a tourist area. Goverment laws are in spanish, contracts are in spanish.

400 years under Spain, 118 years under US. We still using Spanish and will continue for many years to come. This is 1 reason why I don't think that statehood will ever fly. We speak Spanish. Another is the culture, while we can live in the mainland and pick up some of the US ways, the PR culture is in our blood and we will not give it up for at least another 50 years or more.

Learn Spanish if you are going to make your life in the island, otherwise your experience will be limited and you will not fully fit in.

Spanish and French are not that different if you look at them in writings, the words just sound very different. With my Spanish I can read French and Portuguese, and a litle Latin. I am often reading something on the web and having some difficulty reading at my normal pace then realize that it is not Spanish but French or Portuguese or Italian.

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Fluenz Spanish (Latin America) 1+2+3+4+5 with supplemental Audio CDs and Podcasts
Best course ever.

Don't worry. You will be able to communicate fine.  Many people speak at least basic English and will practice their English while you are practicing your Spanish.  All grocery store products are from the US and are in English.  You will learn Spanish on an 'as needed' basis.  You can download a translation app for your phone.  Before I went to the Emergency Room I looked up the phrase "I cut off the tip of my finger with a knife."  That was one of those 'as needed' cases.
Also, there are some phrases that are unique to Puerto Rico, such as an orange is called china, not naranja or car tires are called gomas. 
Come, relax, enjoy.

Well Ray, you said it right. Although many people want to believe that a lot of English is been spoken and understood on the island, that is so NOT true, not in stores, supermarkets or restaurants, and even many of those who speak and understand some English are somewhat afraid or embarrassed to do so.  So if you want to really enjoy much more on the island hit the books, websites, tapes or whatever to learn some Spanish, try and they are happy to assist you with a smile

Well said Curarico,
Just trying to speak spanish will take you longer down the road that not even trying. People will hear you and those that speak English will likely come forward to help you out.

The language of the Island is Spanish with a secondary of English. Most people that have not lived in the mainland have a rustic level of English and they are afraid to speak it, they may understand some or most but they freeze when it comes to speak it.

If all you want to do is hang around Mainlander English facilities and friends, then you may get by not learning Spanish, but if you really want to enjoy the island and make many friends and be in good order with your neighbors, you need Spanish, same thing for work, not all tourist speak English, some are Puerto Rican and have zero reason to speak English in their own country.

Remember that people in PR do not have to speak to you in English unless it is their job, they speak to you in English as a courtecy because we like to help or they want to practice, don't be stuck up, their patience only goes so far and they will treat you the way you treat them.

Thank you both for your responses.
As with French, I do try and most folks love it as I do. And yes, they are more open to speaking English to me when we get caught not understanding each other.
Becomes a game of charades then, which usually begins smile and laughter from everyone.

We are doing an online course by Doulingo and laughing at each other as we attempt.

Sounds like living in Southern California... when I took a trip to PR to find a place to live I definitely didn't feel any different than when I lived in East LA except for the humidity. Everyone speaks Spanish and will speak it even if they know English.

The official language (as per the PR constitution), are English and Spanish. I have never had a problem in stores or restaurants, getting what I wanted/needed. As for conversational Spanish, that is another story.

We have been partly living here for 5 years plus, my lady does not speak Spanish (I do) and going to a concert, play or a local party is not very enjoyable for her and neither for me, I spend most of the time translating for her and that's a  #$%^ ,but it's getting better because I'm pressing her to learn and use what little Spanish she knows and people here like that and really try to help, remember we chose to come and live here, so heey try to adapt just a little and that goes a loooong way

We're tryin' here and I get it. Some is much better than none and trying gets you a lot further than not.
We're enjoying learning the basic's. It's a nightly thing now.
When a new word comes up, we just stare at each other.... LOL!

I'm still waiting till we get to right or left.. Around the corner.. Next to..
You know, those directions things!

Always fun learning something new. Really thought our French would help... nope!

Olddawgsrule, the conversation has expanded to include all those planing on coming to the island. If we look like we continue to make points, it is not for you but to the other new members also that need to understand how isolated and difficult it is going to be not speaking the language and not being to relate or understand the culture and the reasons why things work the way they work.


So to all new members:
It took me many years to learn English in a country where I had no friends or family or any type of support, and nobody to give me a hand and did not understand the culture and all the old wife sayings. New expats will go thru a pain level similar to mine, They need to integrate and not live isolated.

Now after decades here in the states I no longer translate but instead think in whichever language I need to speak at the moment. You may never become as proficient, but you do not need to, you need just enough to deal with day to day life, get directions, ask questions and study the culture. Spanish is complicated with all the verbs, regular and irregular and all the local lingo.

Cararico brought up a very good point, my wife like his, does not speak Spanish either, she is learning and is positive about learning the language. But she will likely never understand the words of a song and come to love it because the words are fast, hard and you need to understand the culture to get the message in the song. It is not just the language, but one needs to understand and accept the culture.

As a minority in the deep south, I had to overcome the accents and the racism, neither was easy, but guess what. I overcame both and end up making friends with a lot of rednecks and people of different belief. Once I understood the culture and why they though the way they did, it was a heck of a lot easier to communicate and gain their respect. Some nice, fun bar fights helped too.

My English today is better than a lot of native speakers and I am not too bad at spelling.

Hi all! This might be a little off topic but I recently had some one tell me they were going to explain something to me "the Mexican way." I had no idea what that meant. Any insight? I didn't want to start a new thread... thought it might fit in to the topic of language... I am of Mexican heritage, but I was born and raised in So Cal and don't follow many customs, but I speak Spanish!

I just know there is a difference in words... I'm Chicano and my Spanish is so different from my husband who is Argentinian. My girlfriend from New York is boricua and she moved to SD and said she don't understand anything the customers say at work... I'm just thinking the different slang words used.

Sounds like english -- a commonwealth divided by a language

I mean I understand the language and the slang, I just have to really focus on them speaking to hear what they're saying. I took advanced placement Spanish in high school and it in no way helps me here. I was talking to my mom over the phone explaining my " tablilla" (liscence plate-placa) getting taken away for not having the "marbete" (tag-etiqueta) and how the "grama" (grass-pasto/zacate) grows so fast here. I had to translate the Spanish to my mom. Lol I just still don't get the whole Mexican thing. Spanish is Spanish. Different words for the same thing is in all languages.

Justpeachyy wrote:

Hi all! This might be a little off topic but I recently had some one tell me they were going to explain something to me "the Mexican way." I had no idea what that meant. Any insight? I didn't want to start a new thread... thought it might fit in to the topic of language... I am of Mexican heritage, but I was born and raised in So Cal and don't follow many customs, but I speak Spanish!

That does not sound too good, sounds a little racist to me. Uneducated people in the US tend to think that all latin food and Spanish speakers are Mexicans. Sounds like a racist joke of some kind to me.

bribri1913 wrote:

I just know there is a difference in words... I'm Chicano and my Spanish is so different from my husband who is Argentinian. My girlfriend from New York is boricua and she moved to SD and said she don't understand anything the customers say at work... I'm just thinking the different slang words used.

Culture!!!!

While people in PR speak Spanish and People in Mexico speak Spanish, their street version are different. Mexico has a very different mix of races than PR, the customs and words coming from their roots are different. Outside of Mexico there are not many words that start with X for example. A lot of the diet in Mexico revolves around corn which is not the case in PR. Mexico has a very strong India influence while PR and Argentina for example do not. Most of the indians in PR died early and they did not leave a written language. We in PR adopted some of the words and try to adopt more as we go back and study what little there is to learn.

Word choices: Spanish dictionary has both words Torta and Bizcocho. To Spain and PR the word Torta is very general, speaks about some type of flat pastry. In Mexico it is the common name for a cake. In PR we use Bizcocho instead which is more specific. Habichuelas and Frijoles is another example, in PR we talk about Habichuelas in Mexico they talk about Frijoles. As long as we go by the correct language spanish we have no issue understanding each other, just our choice of words is different. If we go with the street Slang, that is a completely different world.

Part of my service in the military was 2 years in the deep south part of Texas (Brownsville) where I was the local Army Recruiter. To communicate I had to learn their version of Spanish and learn to enunciate and open my mouth wider so they would understand me. It was another great experience and while frustrating at times, I learned more about their culture and way of life. Going across the border to get some food, get a haircut, go dancing, was very common for me as it was much cheaper and I understood them now.

We both speak the same language if we are both educated, if we fall into local slangs, it is hard to understand each other.

As I stated in other posts, there are a lot of contraction practices used in PR like dropping the D in Puedo and instead use Pueo. If you remove the Taino words and the Aztec words from the equation what is left is Pure Spanish which may be mixed with slangs and lazy speaker choices. Listen to speeches from the high level politicians, they speak a more pure Spanish, but once in a while, in the right crowd even the Governor in PR will fall back to some of the street talk.

You will get used to it, ask them to explain a word you do not understand, in a bit they will be speaking correct Spanish and your ear will tune to their chant.

It takes time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diccionar … añolahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castilian_Spanish

Justpeachyy,
   While not witness to exact dialogue that occurred between you and not able to hear the tone in which he said that, my gut feeling tells me he/she is a jerk.. It has a racial or negative tone. But hard to tell with just what I read not heard, but if you're gut tells you it didn't sound good then that's all that matters.
    It's like when someone criticizes my driving and tells me to slow down, "this isn't New York".  Going 35 on a 40 mph road. Stereotyping cause I'm from NY.  Meanwhile I drive defensively & offensively in PR avoiding accidents from "behind". No distance between cars here, but different topic.  Ignore such people...for now lol. Try to stay positive and enjoy "my world"😁

And as far as for " spanish" variations, although Spain is the mother country &proper language to be spoken every spanish country has some it's own dialect, accent and meaning of certain words.. ReyP  explained it perfectly and can't explain it any better..

Let me give you another example. The Word tortilla is a diminutive of the word torta. You are familiar with tacos and other foods that use tortillas. In PR we recognize that when the context is Mexican foods, but our common meaning for tortilla is an omelette like dish also known as a frittata.

Yeah it was our plumber, the house were renting has an issue with the plumbing, then to explain it to me he said he was going to do it the Mexican way. I knew coming here Puerto Rican and Mexican culture is different but when it comes to language here, it's one thing that is similar. I'm not offended, i would just like to understand. I told my husband and we just laughed because it took me like 5 hours to realize he said that. (Pregnancy brain)

We in PR are not as closed to Mexicans as we are with Cubans and Dominicans because we share a lot of culture in the Caribbean.
Some dislike Mexicans, but is not that common,  sounds like a put down to me by somebody that is a jerk with very little patience.

ReyP wrote:

We in PR are not as closed to Mexicans as we are with Cubans and Dominicans because we share a lot of culture in the Caribbean.
Some dislike Mexicans, but is not that common,  sounds like a put down to me by somebody that is a jerk with very little patience.

I definitely have seen this first hand in the military.

ReyP wrote:

bribri1913 wrote:

I just know there is a difference in words... I'm Chicano and my Spanish is so different from my husband who is Argentinian. My girlfriend from New York is boricua and she moved to SD and said she don't understand anything the customers say at work... I'm just thinking the different slang words used.

Culture!!!!

While people in PR speak Spanish and People in Mexico speak Spanish, their street version are different. Mexico has a very different mix of races than PR, the customs and words coming from their roots are different. Outside of Mexico there are not many words that start with X for example. A lot of the diet in Mexico revolves around corn which is not the case in PR. Mexico has a very strong India influence while PR and Argentina for example do not. Most of the indians in PR died early and they did not leave a written language. We in PR adopted some of the words and try to adopt more as we go back and study what little there is to learn.

Word choices: Spanish dictionary has both words Torta and Bizcocho. To Spain and PR the word Torta is very general, speaks about some type of flat pastry. In Mexico it is the common name for a cake. In PR we use Bizcocho instead which is more specific. Habichuelas and Frijoles is another example, in PR we talk about Habichuelas in Mexico they talk about Frijoles. As long as we go by the correct language spanish we have no issue understanding each other, just our choice of words is different. If we go with the street Slang, that is a completely different world.

Part of my service in the military was 2 years in the deep south part of Texas (Brownsville) where I was the local Army Recruiter. To communicate I had to learn their version of Spanish and learn to enunciate and open my mouth wider so they would understand me. It was another great experience and while frustrating at times, I learned more about their culture and way of life. Going across the border to get some food, get a haircut, go dancing, was very common for me as it was much cheaper and I understood them now.

We both speak the same language if we are both educated, if we fall into local slangs, it is hard to understand each other.

In all humor I need to learn Puerto Rican hahaha I'm going to remember those little tips on the beans and etc. But yes, that's exactly my thoughts... culture is completely different... is guacamole not popular in PR?! When I was there I couldn't find any Omgawd I'm gonna die with out my precious avocados.

Avocados as a side dish in slides or in a salad. People do like guacamole and make it from time to time but it is traditional to cut some slides of avocado with a little salt and lemon juice. A lot of times with the rice and beans. Learn to make Sofrito, link above a few posts before in the food subject, it is used in a lot of typical dishes.

It takes time to learn Spanish and in this case the specific dialect of Puerto Rico. I went thru the same thing when learning English and all the different accents in each state. It took at least a decade for me to be able to think in English and I am still learning. However I could get by in a year while translating in my head.
The more involved you are the faster you learn and the more practice you get. If you apply your self, you can be fairly familiar in a year. Buy a book you like in Spanish, use a dictionary when you find words you don't understand. I used to read the English dictionary cover to cover several times a year to increase my vocabulary. Lucky that I tend to memorize most things I read.

A fun part of living here in PR is getting bags filled with the whatever is in season.  Everyone has some type of fruit tree growing. I have been given home grown mangoes, limes, bananas, avocados, etc.  It is comparable to zucchini or tomato season in the Northeast.

Yes when you arrive at a house make a nice comment about their beautiful trees and likely you will come home loaded with what ever is grown there and for free.

Had to share this with you. My cousin's daughter was born in PR but spent most of her adult life in the States. She now teaches Spanish in Rhode Island.  When she came to visit me, she was very proud of her language skills.  We were going to Seven Seas in Fajardo and she decided to ask a policeman for directions.  After the conversation, I blurted out "You speak Spanish with a Rhode Island Accent!"

frogrock wrote:

Had to share this with you. My cousin's daughter was born in PR but spent most of her adult life in the States. She now teaches Spanish in Rhode Island.  When she came to visit me, she was very proud of her language skills.  We were going to Seven Seas in Fajardo and she decided to ask a policeman for directions.  After the conversation, I blurted out "You speak Spanish with a Rhode Island Accent!"

ROFLMAO

Here is another common contraction of words:
Going over there = Voy para aya, is contracted often to "Voy pa aya". People tend to do this but they know the corrrect words.

In Puerto Rico we have Spaniards, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans, Venezuelans, Costaricans, and many others, we understand each other just fine. Spanish is Spanish, accents are different and some choices of words come into play but a quick question like "What do you mean by ......" and all is solved.

So just learn Spanish from any country and you will do fine!
I am here to guide you and help you, not to steer you wrong.

I am doing duolingo spanish too. It helps a little but leaves me with questions.
We speak German at home because I don't want my daughter to loose the language she was raised with but that doesn't help me with improving my spanish.
People here don't like to speak english in general but if they see and hear you are not puertorican they will answer you in english even if you speak spanish with them! 😉

I had the same issue when I was in Germany Marion, the germans wanted to practice their English and not give me much of a chance of insulting their language by trying to speak it (mangle it).

I find people are friendlier and more helpful if you try, maybe work with them, you speak Spanish and they respond in English, that way you both get practice.

When my wife and I went to Ralph Supermarket in Fajardo we were speaking in English in the line. When it was our turn, the cashier switched to English which delighted my wife and delighted me for the effort and courtesy.

I also had a few looks from a guy that looked like an expat, I could see he was very interested in our conversation but was holding back from interacting with me and the wife (she only speaks English).

In PR you can not go by looks, many a person that looks like a gringo, is a native Puerto Rican. I myself have made that mistake and had to switch to Spanish after a weird look.

And I meet a lot of people who can speak at least a couple of words in German.
Just yesterday in Petsmart in Mayagüez there was a lady, she asked me about the cat food and I answered her in Spanish but somehow we  asked me if I speak english too and I said yes and that I also speak German. That made her happy and she told me that she took German classes in the University many years ago but all she can still say is "Guten Tag, wie geht es Ihnen"? I found that really cute and we had some fun together.
I tell you, I have never spoken to so many foreigners before I moved here. In Germany it doesn't  happen too often that people talk to you just for the joy of it if you din't know them. I really like that about PR!

PR now days has people from all over the world, Germans, french, china, russia, Cuba, Dominican republic, congo, Netherland, you name it. Populations are small but they are there.

People are proud of their island and love to talk.

Predominant religion is christian (Protestant and catholic) but we have just about any religion including islam faiths.

A couple of our member came from Spain and the people love to hear their accent. Spain still hold a special something in PR.

BTW, when I was in Germany from 1979-1981, I found most of the people friendly and ready to talk, I had many a coffee with them and several would walk with me to a store I was trying to locate. I almost stayed in Germany.

Going out to the military and or war and bringing a foreigner wife has been common in PR, so there are quite a few mixed marriages. When I was 10-20 years old I had a german / Puerto Rican couple with a daughter living a few houses away, my little group of friends would hang with their daughter. She is still there in that house.