As told to Shelley Dale by Juan Quezada Illustrated by Shelley Dale Norman Books (Santa Monica, CA 90403) Here in Ajijic on a cold night a week or two ago, my nine-year old Mexican daughter Gabriela and I curled up in a couple of wool blankets and read to each other. Gaby held in her […]
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Cogan’s Reviews This is the first coffee-table book I ever reviewed and I have to say right off the bat that it’s a winner. It is made up of some 200 photographs from all parts of Mexico – all of them taken from a high elevation, either an aircraft or mountaintop or, occasionally, a tall […]
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Cogan’s Reviews Here’s a rather unusual approach to learning Spanish. It’s not intended for beginners but rather for people who have already spent some time studying the language and want to go further, especially in the direction of becoming more adept at conversation. It is specifically aimed at we people who have some ability to […]
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While I have always found Mexicans as a people to be polite, friendly and helpful to foreigners in their country, I have also witnessed on many occasions, a subtle but noticeable difference in their reaction to tourists who make no attempt at Spanish, and those who do make an effort, however successful. As languages go, […]
Continue ReadingMarketing Yourself So once you are in your new home town how do you impress the directors of the local language schools? First of all, it is important to remember that while this is a big adventure for you, it’s real life for the people with whom you will be working. You must be as […]
Continue ReadingWould you ever walk up to someone, shake their hand and start to describe what you’re wearing? “Hi. I’m wearing a beige T-shirt, blue jeans, a black belt and black shoes.” No, of course you wouldn’t because the person would look you in the eye and say, “I can see what you’re wearing, you idiot.” […]
Continue ReadingIf you want to give private English as a second language (ESL) lessons in Mexico and be successful at it, first you need to know how much to charge and second you need to know how to avoid the pitfalls that commonly drive private ESL teachers out of business quickly. Private ESL classes with a […]
Continue ReadingAnglo and Mexican sayings are often subtly different. For starters, consider your pet cat. In Canada or the U.S., cats are considered to have nine lives; in Mexico, however, cats only have seven (siete) lives. Perhaps they used up two lives as kittens just getting to be old enough to be a cat? Or perhaps the difference […]
Continue ReadingI think that it is time to cover some of the Spanish terms used in construction. There isn’t room in the space I have for this column to cover all the terms but perhaps a brief primer is in order. First, the proper term to use to address any worker is not “usted” but “tu”. If you use usted you send […]
Continue ReadingHURDLE THE LANGUAGE BARRIER – by learning Latin American hand and voice signals. These vary from one culture to another. The following are distinctly LATINO: THE WAGGING FINGER – is the way to say no, definitely and finally. No one questions this dignified and simple way of saying “NO”. Just move the index finger of either […]
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