Spanish School and Your Spanish Lessons

Last week, we took the immersion course at the Wayra (y-rah) language school in Tamarindo. We were in two separate classes, and spent time on conversation, verb conjugations and vocabulary. We’re both a little better off for the training, but disappointed that the classes didn’t propel us forward more. We’re practicing often and getting better. See the Spanish lesson at the end of this session!

Here are our instructors at Wayra: Edwin and Geovanny.

What We’ve Learned
After nearly 8 weeks of travel in Spanish speaking lands, we’ve made some interesting additions to our vocabulary. 😉 Some of our real-life lessons appear below …now here is your Spanish lesson for today

Sentences

Quiero una ventana trasera para un 89 Landcruiser FJ62. (I need a rear window for a 1989 Landcruiser FJ62. Uh, it was a dark and stormy night and the tree just jumped out at us and smashed the tailgate window. Not so easy to get things fixed here.)

Por donde se va a San Ramon? (How do we get to to San Ramon?)

Por donde se va a {insert many names here}? (How do we get to to …? Repeat as needed.)

Vocabulario

multa (Fine – as in traffic fine or border crossing “formality”. Count on forking over some cash.)

placas (plates, as in license plates. We removed our California plates, on the advice that they are often snatched as souvenirs. It turns out that as a means of enforcing traffic fines, the CR police confiscate plates, so we are often stopped on the mistaken idea that we owe traffic fines. The officers are invariably courteous and friendly and wave us on once we show our auto import paperwork.)

quince dias (fifteen days, as in “it will be ready in 15 days.” In practicality, translates to “never”)

exento (exempt… as in your dog is exempt from the $20 import fee. Had we known this word at the time we crossed the border into Nicaragua, we would have saved $20 in “fees” paid to our border crossing “assistant”!)

tivon – (t-bone steak – and a good one, too!)

Doctor de chiropractica (Chiropractor. The roads here are horrible and Carolyn’s neck has been compacted and twisted like an old tree. (no jokes, OK?))

repuestas – parts, most often auto parts. Part of our quest for a new rear window.