Dominican language, i need help please?
Im dominican. I speak spanish and english, i was born in New Jersey. I talk spanish at home but i always talk english, somehow i know more english than spanish. I know how to talk spanish perfectly fine, but some words i cannot translate from english to spanish. I want to know how to improve my spanish on the level of vocabulary i am supposed to know at my age, and i want to keep up with the Dominican slang that is constantly being used around me. How can i help myself?
1 Answer
I would suggest taking a Spanish class in High-School/College, even if it seems too easy. There, you will learn the stuff that you will not learn at home (I assume your parents do not make you write essays in Spanish). You will also learn how to pronounce words that you thought you were correctly saying but they may be hard for other speakers to understand. I believe that this will help you a lot because you will have another means of communication, which will in turn help your speaking abilities.
This will also help you in the job market, as employers look for bilingual/trilingual people who can not only communicate by mouth, but also in written and reading forms. Just as you would not show up for an interview in English speaking only slang, you would not want to showcase your Spanish skills as only slang.
By taking a Spanish class (probably a 201, since you already know basic functions), you will not be "losing" your Dominican roots or slang. As long as you continue to converse at home, you should be good to go. It's like when native English speakers take English in grade school, just because they take the class does not mean that they lose or ignore slang around them. No matter what, the more you practice the better you'll become.
