To prepare for our move to Uruguay, Brian and I did research to figure out the best way for us to learn Spanish. We decided upon the Michel Thomas CD courses:
For less than $150, you get a complete course designed by a world-renowned language instructor. Unfortunately Michel Thomas died back in 2005, but his CD course is great. Here is a short 5-minute video where one of his teachers speaks about the courses.
On the flip side, this program (and pretty much every program out there), teaches Spain (Castilian) and/or Mexican Spanish. The dialect in Uruguay is very different, so, we literally had to check our Mexican Spanish at the door when we arrived in Uruguay. Most of the time we’ll be understood if we use Mexican Spanish, but we want to go beyond that and truly speak like the Uruguay locals.
Luckily we’ve befriended several Uruguay locals that speak English who’ve been helping us navigate the language differences. We’re constantly asking them to explain how to properly say this or that. Interacting with them on a regular basis has been a tremendous help in developing our language skills in Uruguay. Everyday we get a big “ah-ha” of some sort that helps everything make just a little bit more sense.
We only learned the “usted” (formal) and “tu” (familiar) forms of verbs before moving to Uruguay. When we got here, we learned that no one in Montevideo uses the “usted” form (if you do, the person will often smile at you and ask where you’re from or correct you with the “tu” form). But out of respect, we still use the “usted” form. We certainly don’t want to unintentionally offend anyone, especially since we're still new to the culture in Uruguay. The “tu” form is used with people you don’t know well, but with close friends/ family there is an additional form, “vos.” We’re still working on learning that one.
Here are some of the other differences we’ve noticed between Mexican Spanish and the Spanish in Uruguay:
- “Double L’s” are not pronounced with a “Y” sound; they’re pronounced with a “Sh” sound. So “Me llamo” (my name) is pronounced “May shamo” rather than “May yamo.”
- Same goes for “Y” sounds, such as with “playa” (beach). Instead of pronouncing it how it looks, “ply-uh,” it’s pronounced “pla-sha” in Uruguay.
- In Mexican Spanish, “V” is pronounced with a subtle “B” sound. In Uruguayan Spanish, “V” is pronounced with “V” sound the same way it would be in English. So, “vamos” (we’re going) is pronounced “va-mos,” not “ba-mos.”
- No one in Uruguay says “adios.” “Chau” is the proper way to say goodbye.
- The “H” at the start of many words is pronounced. In Mexican Spanish, if you were to say “mi hija” (my daughter), you simply say, “me-haw” (it’s usually contracted to mi’ja). In Uruguay, you pronounce every syllable and say “me hee-haw.”
- The singular version of greetings is used (and often the words are run together and not very enunciated). For instance, everyone in Uruguay says “Buen dia” instead of “Buenos dias.”
- To ask, what’s going on in Uruguay, you say “Que tal?” instead of “Que pasa?”
- If you are having a conversation with someone in English, it’s common to say “yes” or “yeah” through the conversation to acknowledge you’re listening. Rather than saying “si,” you can say “ta” in Uruguay.
There are many options to take Spanish classes in Uruguay, but we’re enjoying the opportunity, and challenges, of learning through immersion. So, I’m sure that there will be many more new discoveries to come as we continue to learn Spanish in Uruguay.
