spanish treatice on grammar

spanish things:

--cancelado here means PAID. cancelar in Mexican Spanish means what you{d think it would. This leads to hilarious confusion for newbies figuring it out--"What do you mean it{s canceled? I just tried to pay! Is something wrong with my money? Why do you keep saying it{s canceled!?"

--a lot of people have picked up spanish just from vacation in Mexico. I was in awe, they know all this slang and just picked it up without any books. Then I realized, grammar helps a LOT. I highly recommend it, to avoid misunderstanding and to more consciously create levels of politeness.

Ie I heard someone say "llegó para recoger la ropa" when he meant to say "llego para recoger la ropa". The other dude was confused and I said, look, one means someone else came to get the clothes, you want to say you are coming to get the clothes. And guy who said it couldn{t hear the difference. That{s hard! Then also when you don{t know grammar, you just spit out words with the basic meaning, which can sound rude. Luckily at my work I picked up lots of phrases. like to ask for the phone they{d say: "desculpe, señorita, no hay teléfono aquí?" or "no sabe donde hay un teléfono que podría usar por un momentito?" Much nicer than [quiero telefono{ (I want phone). So grammar is really great, even if it{s not natural to study.

Sorry this keyboard is bizarre :)

I also had a weird stomach thing. The pharmacists are awesome here, you tell them what you have, and they give it to you. And you don{t have to buy a whole box, you buy by the pill. Cheap and quick.