I Used to Speak Spanish Like a "Gringo" I myself started learning English and Spanish pretty much at the same time. It all started back in 2016. I went to a cosmopolitan university in Brazil and did p

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Marcelo F.

I Used to Speak Spanish Like a "Gringo" I myself started learning English and Spanish pretty much at the same time. It all started back in 2016. I went to a cosmopolitan university in Brazil and did part of my PhD in the UK. Most of my friends in Brazil were Spanish speakers from Peru, Colombia , Argentina. Believe it or not they could outnumber us Brazilians in some classes. I recal that some of them didn't feel like it was necessary to learn Portuguese because Portuguese and Spanish are very similar languages, (NOT THE SAME!!!) so they could understand Portuguese very well. They couldn't speak it fluently though. For this reason they ended up creating a Spanish bubble and speaking only Spanish at the university. As I wanted to learn Spanish I decided to pop this so called Spanish bubble and learn Spanish myself. I got a kick out of learning with them. I got to know more about their countries, their culture and ended up visiting Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay in the years follow. At the beginning my friends made fun of me by saying that I spoke like a "gringo" and it used to make me laugh my head off. I guess I picked up some "gringo" accent due to the fact that I learned both Spanish and English at the same time. Now two years have passed by and I no longer have a gringo accent. I miss it very much indeed. Thank you all for reading this text!!! My name is Marcelo. I speak Portuguese, Spanish and English fluently and a little of French and any Russian (working on it) . If you want to become my language partner just leave me a message. Cheers!

Corrections · 6

I Used to Speak Spanish Like a "Gringo"

I myself started learning English and Spanish pretty much at the same time. It all started back in 2016. I went to a cosmopolitan university in Brazil and did part of my PhD in the UK. Most of my friends in Brazil were Spanish speakers from Peru, Colombia , and Argentina. Believe it or not, they could outnumber us Brazilians in some classes. I recall that some of them didn't feel like it was necessary to learn Portuguese, because Portuguese and Spanish are very similar languages, (NOT THE SAME!!!) so they could understand Portuguese very well. They couldn't speak it fluently, though. For this reason, they ended up creating a Spanish bubble and speaking only Spanish at the university. As I wanted to learn Spanish, I decided to pop this so called Spanish bubble and learn Spanish myself. I got a kick out of learning with them. I got to know more about their countries, and their culture and ended up visiting Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay in the following years follow. At the beginning first, my friends made fun of me by saying that I spoke like a "gringo," and it used to make me laugh my head off. I guess I picked up some "gringo" accent due to the fact that I learned both Spanish and English at the same time. Now two years have passed, by and I no longer have a gringo accent. I miss it very much indeed.

Thank you all for reading this text!!!

My name is Marcelo. I speak Portuguese, Spanish and English fluently and a little of French and any Russian (working on it) . If you want to become my language partner just leave me a message. Cheers!

Thanks Ana! You know, I'd say that now I think in Spanish. However when I'm required to speak about something in great detail I catch myself translating from Portuguese into Spanish. I hope we both can overcome this problem sonner rather than later. Thanks for your corrections.

You're welcome! I hope you keep up working on your English. Thanks for the feedback!

Que história interessante Marcelo. Your English is excellent. The only thing I would write differently is "Now two years have passed I no longer have a gringo accent." It's not really wrong how you wrote it, just this way sounds more natural to me from New Zealand. When I speak Spanish I am translating from Portuguese and constantly asking myself if I am remembering certain Spanish words, or just making them up based on Portuguese. Still, I get compliments, so I'm not too bad.

That's cool. For sure it's a encouragement to me. Thanks for share. I'm brazilian and I still trying to increase my english skills. See you!

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