Speak Spanish like a native

Well, on my oral Spanish exam, I came out “Intermediate Advanced”. (The test results were a source of substantial laughs among my peers … so ridiculously unpredictable were they.)

And my wife and other spanish speakers tell me that I speak like a native and don’t have that Gringo accent that they like to make fun of.

I still have some accent, obviously, and an occassional bad language day. But for the most part, I’ve done this.

In the context of living here in a small pueblo in the north of Perú, speaking spanish like a native sometimes means dumbing down my spanish a bit, unfortunately.

Because of the state of public education here and in much of latin America, proper Castillian Spanish often is not spoken.

The main fault is a frequent lack of subjunctive. People here often don’t use subjunctive or imperative when they should. They often use the indicative mood as a crutch.

Here’s an example:

“When you come downstairs, knock on my door.”

“Cuando bajas, tocas mi puerta.” (local native Spanish)
“Cuando bajes, toca mi puerta.” (proper Spanish)

The use of “cuando” (when) demands the subjunctive “bajes”. The second clause, being a command, should be “toca”, but they often simply say, “you are knocking on my door” (indicative) instead of “knock on my door” (imperative)

This second error is most commonly seen when people say, “Let me know …”

Instead of the proper, “Avísame…” they say, “Me avisas…” (You’re letting me know…)

It gets a little frustrating when they correct my Spanish when I know that what I said was more correct.

Unfortunately, speaking Spanish like a native often means speaking crappy Spanish. Argh…