As in English colloquial Spanish is pretty regional. Something that is said in Spain might not necessarily exist in Argentina, and something from Argentina probably won’t exist in Mexico.  So, take these following expressions with a grain of salt and contribute your own!

Dilo sin pelo en la lengua. – Tell it like it is. Thanks to Sarah for explaining this to me on her blog Posa Tigres.

Tener una cagaita en penalti – To be on the verge of pooping your pants.  This is a bit crude, but pretty funny. I wish I could elaborate a bit more on the origins of the phrase, I can’t. Note: A more colloquial English translation is “To have a turtle head poking out.”

Echarme flores. – To pat yourself on the back/To toot your own horn. Echarse can mean to “throw one’s self.”  I like this phrase because every time I read it or say it out loud I imagine someone throwing handfuls of flowers into the air in celebration of something they did.

Tener la mirada vaginal. – To be far sighted. I had this phrase explained to me a couple of months ago by a Colombian friend.  It makes sense if you think about where is relation to their body a person who is far sighted would hold a book or newspaper when reading.

Hacer locha. – To chill out. This might be just Colombia, I’m not really sure.  I just like the sound of the phrase. ¿Qué hiciste ayer? – Nada, pase todo el día haciendo locha parcero.

So that’s all I have for now.  Anyone want to add any really good ones to the list?

I’ve gone through this process three times now in the last year.  By the third time I felt like I had it down pat.  These are the steps I take in my first week of living in new city outside of my home country (United States).

1. Find a nice guest house or hotel to stay in for the first week. Since you are looking for long term accommodation you want to be able to be picky.  If you are staying in a dumpy hostel odds are you are going to jump at the first apartment you see.  I did once and it was a total mistake.

2. Start looking for an apartment right away. I’ve found that nearly every city I have been in has had at least a few websites catering to ‘long-term’ tourists.  These sites are usually filled with fully furnished luxury apartments, though the price is usually pretty equivalent to what you would pay in the U.S.

If you are looking for real long-term accommodation (like a year or more) consider renting an unfurnished apt. and buying the furniture you will need.  This often cuts the price in half.  If you are like me and are only going to be somewhere for three or four months go old school with your apartment hunting, and bust out the local phonebook and newspaper classifieds.  There are usually a handful of furnished apartments for rent in either.

Also, don’t forget to barter a bit.  It isn’t really a part of our culture, but it is a normal part of many others.  If the price really is set you will figure that out pretty quick.  Otherwise expect the price to come down between 20-25%.

3. Spend time figuring out the community. Get to know the layout of your neighborhood, find a favorite restaurant and/or bar, and above all GET A CELL PHONE!  Depending on where you are this can cost next to nothing (in Colombia it cost about $4 dollars for the chip, and another $4 dollars per month in minutes) or it can be expensive (Mexico, errrr…).  Nonetheless you should still get a cellphone.  SMS has made it easy to get in touch with people from all over, and it is the best way to contact friends that you will make during your stay.

4. Start meeting people. I’m always looking for a small group of close friends to hang out with.  Since I am changing cities every few months this means that I inevitably end up hanging out with tons of people so that I can find just such a group.  Couchsurfing.com is by far the best place to get in touch with people in basically any city, anywhere in the world.

I also recommend checking out local English schools to see if anyone is interested in having conversation exchanges (Assuming you are learning the language, which you should be.)  Right now we are living in Oaxaca, Mexico which is a pretty touristy town. Nonetheless, there is a real shortage of people who want to have conversation exchanges with local students.  We currently do this at two schools, three or four days a week. We haven’t made any real friends this way, but it is good Spanish practice and makes us feel more integrated in the community.

5. Do your normal activities. I like going to the gym and running, so I joined a gym in Medellin, and found a nice running route through the hills around Oaxaca.  Natalie likes yoga and found a class that she can go to three or four days a week.  Having these routines really adds to the sense that you have a home and aren’t just traveling around.

6. Figure out what will make you super homesick if you don’t have it. For us it’s a kitchen with our own coffee machine. And internet.  Although we happily barely survived without internet for 2 months on a Caribbean island.

Thinking of building a web startup? Doing it on the road is not just feasible; it might be less stressful and more fun, too.

Nine months ago my partner Natalie and I quit our jobs and left Seattle to follow our dream of learning Spanish and living for a year in Latin America. We never imagined that our trip would lead us to start our own company.

First, a quick and shameless plug so that you’ll know what we’re about.

Lenguajero is a homegrown startup that connects Spanish and English speakers for online language and culture exchange. In addition, we provide useful resources to learners of those two languages so that they can improve their ability to speak their new language.

Now, onto the fun stuff.

The following are the five steps we took to build a startup while traveling around Latin America.

1. Do what you love

That sounds pretty cliche, but we quit our jobs last year because we realized that we had come to one of those now or never moments. We had talked for years about living in Latin America and learning Spanish. We also talked about grad school, careers, and a family: all things that would make it infinitely more difficult to travel. Now was our chance and we were going to take it.

From our previous solo experiences we knew that following the backpackers circuit through Central and South America was not a good way to learn Spanish. (Last time I had tried that I’d ended up in a Nicaraguan jail facing a drug charge, and didn’t even know enough Spanish to bribe my way out of it.)

Instead, we decided that we would pick three or four Spanish speaking countries to live in, and would spend the year living out of apartments as opposed to hostels. This would allow us to make real friends and form real bonds within the communities we were visiting.

2. Spend a couple of months without internet

I’m starting to sound like a heretic I know, but seriously it’s possible. The trick to doing this is going somewhere where they don’t have internet.

Doesn’t exist, you say? Actually, there is a Spanish speaking country here in the western hemisphere – whose name I, as an American, am not going to mention here – that comes pretty close to being devoid of internet. – Read Full Article

The idea was to cram everything we owned into a storage unit and head out on the road, writes August Flanagan–co-founder of Spanish learning website Lenguajero.  The goal, learn Spanish.  The destination, Latin America.

View of Medellin from our apartment/office

From the beaches of Mexico to the mountains of Patagonia and everywhere in between, we were going to study Spanish, immerse ourselves in the rich and varying cultures of Latin America, and have an adventure.

It was this desire to master Spanish (and to have an adventure) that led us to Colombia and eventually to the city of Medellin. In addition to the country’s reputation for violence and cocaine, it has a reputation as being a country where the spoken Spanish is clear and easy to understand, the perfect place to learn the language.

With the drug war behind it, Medellin has transformed itself into a calm, modern city with a lot to offer, including better broadband than what we had back home in Seattle. We settled into the paisa culture, and with each passing day as we spoke Spanish with friends, acquaintances, and strangers on the street, we saw a transformation take place – we were beginning to really speak the language. It was in this context that our idea for a business took hold. Read Full Article