Learning Spanish was one of the most rewarding parts of my South America trip. South America is a unique continent in that practically every country there speaks the same language and being able to speak that language can really open up an entire world. You get to learn and understand so much more about the people, culture and the countries and you’ll have experiences that you could never have if you didn’t speak the language.

All of my life I’ve been interested in languages and have wanted to learn. I remember from an early age, I’d ask my mom to buy me language cassettes and books so that I could study them, but I didn’t begin any formal training until the 6th grade. Back then we only had the option to learn French or Spanish and luckily I chose Spanish.

I always liked studying Spanish in school, but never took it too seriously. I loved the language and picked it up pretty decently, but I was just a kid and never put as much effort in it as I could’ve. I did stick with it though and studied up until I graduated high school, so seven years in total. I never really tried to have a real conversation with anyone in Spanish, but I remember watching Telemundo during college orientation week (for some reason) and understood close to everything. After that, I traded Spanish for Japanese, which I studied for a year and a half, putting my Spanish studies on an indefinite hold.

Once I decided that I was going to go travel to South America about eight years later, I made learning Spanish a priority once again. I worked pretty hard at it. I studied most days and attended conversational classes practically every week. Before I set off, I got to an intermediate level and felt like that was the best I could do without being immersed in a Spanish speaking country. I figured it’d be easy to pick up the rest when I got down to South America, since I’d be going to a continent that pretty much entirely spoke Spanish. Unfortunately that didn’t prove to be the case.

Backpacking in South America will not magically make you fluent in Spanish. The general language of backpacking in South America (and I assume other regions) is English. By a long shot. If you take the standard backpacking route, you’re never really given the opportunity to develop your Spanish beyond the basics because you don’t really need to. Typically everyone you meet and spend time with speaks English and you usually don’t even have time to meet and have meaningful interactions with locals because you travel from place-to-place every 3-4 days. If you want to actually learn a language while backpacking, you’ve got to make it a consistent priority and step further out of your comfort zone than you already have. There are a lot of ways that you can do this.

I found that traveling around by myself forced me to speak Spanish and really immersed me. A group naturally inflates a sense of comfort that insulates you from your surroundings. I never truly felt like I was immersed in South America if I was with a group of other Gringos. Yeah, we might’ve been in Ecuador or somewhere, but we were all speaking in English with familiar types of people and talking about familiar types of topics. The locals and Spanish were just the backdrop that we didn’t pay much attention to and had limited interaction with. Also, in a group there’ll typically be a person who is the best Spanish speaker of the group and he/she will usually be the one to speak for the group in Spanish. If that’s not you, you’re not going to be using much of your own Spanish.

I found another helpful way to improve my Spanish was if given the opportunity to speak in English or Spanish, always choose Spanish. Having a conversation in a different language is less comfortable and it’s hard going into a conversation knowing that you’re going to mess up, but you just have to get through the mistakes to improve. Also, if a native Spanish speaker is really good at English, you have to establish yourself early as a capable Spanish speaker early or else they’re just going to speak English to you. I think they like you better if you speak (or attempt to speak) Spanish too. However, if you’re Spanish is terrible and the other person’s English isn’t and they’re not willing to indulge you, just speak English. Locals aren’t there to teach you and if you’re speaking shitty, unintelligible Spanish, you’ll just frustrate them.

One of my favorite ways to practice Spanish was while out partying. Typically every time I went out, I’d eventually branch off from my Gringo group and go find locals to chat with. It was really easy. I would just go up to a group and start speaking with them. They were usually happy to meet a Gringo and pretty welcoming. I honestly think that really pushed my language skills pretty far. I remember one night I was out in Santa Marta, Colombia about a month into my trip and I was hanging out with this group of Colombians from Bogota and I had a moment of clarity that I hadn’t spoken any English that entire night. I wasn’t even thinking in English. It was the first time in my life I ever experienced that and it was amazing. At that point, I could “speak Spanish”.

Going on dates with locals is also a really great way to pick up the language that has added benefits. Whether you meet them through Tinder or at a bar or something, it’s one of the easiest ways to get to know locals and practice your Spanish. When I was in Bucaramanga, Colombia, I met a local girl in a bar and we hung out most of that weekend. She didn’t speak any English, so we were speaking only Spanish. It was great practice and a lot of fun. One night she took me out to a really local club with her friends, none of which spoke any English either. I had to be the only foreigner in there, let alone the only English speaker. It was one of the best nights of my entire trip. And educational.

Going to places that weren’t on the typical Gringo path was a great way to not only practice your Spanish, but a great way to meet locals and native Spanish speakers as well. I found Chile, Argentina & Uruguay were the best countries for that. While there are parts in each of these countries that are popular with Gringos, local tourism was dominant. I loved traveling in those areas because I had to use my Spanish and I could meet and make friends with locals really easily. I was usually one of the few English speakers, if not the only one when I was traveling around in these places. That’s kinda how I imagined backpacking in South America would be.

I think the best way to learn Spanish while backpacking is to take time to actually live and develop a bit of a life in a place versus bouncing around all of the time. Volunteering is the easiest way to do this. The first time I volunteered was in Puerto Lopez where I taught English. Puerto Lopez is a small, locally driven town that’s relatively off the beaten track, so there wasn’t much English there. Also ironically, teaching English is a really good way to improve your Spanish. I had to teach and explain things in Spanish to my students, which really forced me to up my game. On top of all of that, I took Spanish lessons 4 days a week while I was there. Something you can only do if you stay in a place for a while.

Learning another language gave me some interesting insight into what it’s like to learn and speak another language. One of the most noticeable differences was how much extra effort another language took. Speaking another language required a lot more mental energy and focus. Beyond just figuring out what to say, you have to make sure you’re saying and pronouncing everything correctly, while using less familiar words and grammatical structures. Everything is less ingrained in your brain. You’re also working with limitations. You’re not always going to be able to say specifically what you want, so you need to figure out how to work with what you’ve got at the moment. At the same time, you’re trying to listen to and understand someone in real time so you can get what they’re saying and can respond accordingly. That requires a lot of focus. If the conversation didn’t have my full attention, I ran the risk of getting lost. Speaking Spanish for a long time always felt like a bit of a mental workout by the time I was done. I found that I had a time limit of about 2 hours of continuous Spanish before I started to drop off.

Listening and understanding in another language requires dealing with a bit of uncertainty. The thing about speaking another language is that until you get fluent, you usually don’t understand everything that’s being said. You understand certain words and phrases and then kinda back-solve the rest through context. Say you’re not a native English speaker, but you want to ask where the bathroom is for example. Someone would respond:

“Go upstairs and walk [towards] the back [corner]” and then they would point in that general direction.

You’d understand most of what they said, but wouldn’t pick up the “towards” or the “corner” for example, but you got the general idea and you might pick up what the other words meant afterwards. It’s tough in a conversation because you might not be able to figure out what they’re saying in time and then you get lost. Sometimes it takes parts of several sentences to piece together everything before it clicks.

Speaking in groups of natives is a-whole-nother level beyond speaking one-on-one. When you’re speaking to just one person, it’s so much easier. You can control the pace and the content of the conversation and the other person is usually accommodating to your level. That completely goes out the window when you’re in a group, especially if you’re all drinking. Maybe the people will try to accommodate you at the beginning, but eventually they just revert back to normal – speaking quickly, using slang, jumping back and forth between each other, telling jokes and making references you don’t understand. It’s hard to follow and even harder to jump in. Sometimes you want to say something, but you’re not sure if they’re still talking about haircuts or something completely different and you don’t want to look weird by making an out of context comment.

It’s hard to express and communicate your personality in another language. It’s never quite the same, even if you’re fluent. First, you’re focused on speaking and understanding correctly. That extra effort and discomfort makes it harder to relax and be you. You also don’t have the vocabulary of your native language, so it’s hard to precisely say what you want to say or to express any wit. When you want to describe or say things, it’s so much more limited, for example.

Native English speaker:

“I love this beautiful turquoise lake with the granite, snow-covered mountains in the background. I haven’t seen quite a combination before. What a beautiful place.”

non-Native English speaker

“This mountain place is nice, yes.”

It’s also frustrating when you’re having any type of debate. It’s hard to convey a certain opinion correctly. You understand what other people are saying and you know exactly what you want to say, but you just can’t sometimes. Different languages also have different personalities attached to them. Each language has certain ways and styles of speaking that don’t carry through to other languages.

When you don’t really know a language, it’s hard to really hear the differences between different native speakers. For example, I have been asked a few times if I were British or American by people who weren’t good at English. To anyone who knows English, this is a ridiculous question, but you need to develop the ears to hear the differences. I found this to be one of the most fascinating parts of learning Spanish while traveling through South America.

Practically the entire continent speaks the same language, but each country has its own unique dialects and even dialects within their countries. I’m sure I didn’t pick up on most of them, but these are just some of my observations.

For me, the Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Bolivian accents were the most neutral and easy to understand. They speak slowly and clearly without much slang.

I found Colombian Spanish easy to understand, in general. A key characteristic of Colombian Spanish is pronouncing the “ll” and “y” kind of like an English “J” instead of a “Y”. Medellin is MedeJin”. Me llamo is more like “Me Jamo”. Colombians were also so affectionate with their Spanish. When I’d go to a shop for example, they’d say to me something like, “mi amor”, “mi corazon”, or “mi vida” (my love, my heart, my life, respectively). When you bought something or ordered something, they’d say “con gusto!” (with pleasure) or “A la orden” (at your service). I would leave that same shop feeling flattered. I didn’t really find that anywhere else in South America.

Chilean Spanish is the most difficult and hardest to understand in South America and probably the most distinct. They’re known for speaking very quickly and not finishing their words. For example, they’d say “mas o menos” like “ma o meno” (more or less). They also used their own words a lot. Instead of saying “bueno/a” (good), they’d say “wena”. They also call a person they are friendly with “weon/a”. It essentially means “idiot”. I think you can use it as an insult to strangers as well. They also would say “como estás” (how are you) like, “como estaiy”. They have a very common, interesting phase “Sí po” they use all of the time. I still don’t quite understand what “po” means, but I think it’s like an extra confirmation or punctuation mark.

Argentinean (and Uruguayan) Spanish is pretty distinct as well. They pronounce the “ll” or “y” as a sh sound.

“Hola yo de Buenos Aires, Me llamo..” = “Hola sho soy de Buenos Aires, Me shamo..” (Hi, I am from Buenos Aires. I call myself..)

Another key distinction is their use of “vos” instead of “tu” (you – informal). “Vos” is cool because it makes the irregular verb conjugation, regular. For example, “tu tienes” is “vos tenes” (you have). On top of that, Argentineans speak pretty fast and kinda speak Spanish like they’re speaking Italian due to their Italian heritage (they gesticulate excitedly). They also call each other “bolludo/a”. They use it like “weon”, but I think it means “balls”.

I’ve never been to Spain, but I came across enough Spaniards to be able to distinguish their Spanish. The most distinct part of their Spanish is that they talk like they have a bit of a lisp. Whenever there’s a “c” or “s” towards the end of a word they pronounce it like a “th”. For example, “Barcelona” is like “Barthelona” or “Haces” is “Hathes”. Spaniards also speak pretty quickly. I’ve heard from some native Spanish speakers that Spanish from Spain could be considered elegant. Perhaps the most.

Learning Spanish was one of my favorite and most rewarding parts of traveling through South America. It really opened up the entire continent and allowed me to have experiences I would’ve missed out on if I just stuck to English. I didn’t quite get fluent, but got pretty close and I learned a lot. It’s a difficult process that requires consistency and dedication. There’s a lot of initial discomfort and frustration, but if you persist, it all eventually starts to click and all of a sudden you find yourself able to speak another language and it’s realize that it was all worth it.

-Gib