I grew up in a Latino/Hispanic-dominated community in Los Angeles, so Spanish is not a very foreign subject or language to me. Instead of Aunts or Uncles, I had Tios and Tias, and instead of rice pudding, I ate arroz con leche. When talking to my grandparents, I said carro instead of car. I called cake "un pastel" when I was speaking to my grandfather who only speaks Spanish. While my mother never actively taught me Spanish, I was still immersed enough in Mexican/greater Latino culture, that I picked up a few terms and VERY basic grammar. Today, I am going to talk about how Spanish is not exactly how you learn it in the classroom, as there are many types of Spanish. Before I do that, let me share why I started learning Spanish in the first place.
While I could understand basic phrases and words, for the most part, I was clueless and depended on my parents, family and Spanish-speaking friends to translate for me when more conversational Spanish was spoken to me. It was very frustrating and humiliating for me.
