Meet The Author



So this is me, the man behind the blog.

I'm a 100% gringo and started my amazing journey with the Spanish language in my early 30's, sometime back in 2005.  I went on a trip to Mexico and had a great time.  I barely spoke any Spanish (despite having lived in Puerto Rico for 3 years as a teenager)  but I swore I was going to learn Spanish.

Well, 8 years later I'm officially a Spanish speaker, albeit my Spanish is nowhere near perfect.  I still have a long way to go to achieve my goal of sounding like a native speaker.

So why did I start this blog you ask?  OK, maybe you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway.  :)

There are two reasons I started blogging.  One of them being that I had a ridiculous amount of notes about Spanish here, there and everywhere.  They may as well have not existed because I couldn't find anything when I needed it.  Not to mention the clutter that was quickly building up around the house.  That's when I started thinking about keeping my notes online.  A perfect way to remove the clutter from my house and be able to find my notes when I needed them.

The second reason was I felt like if I committed to writing a blog it would force me to learn more Spanish.  I would have to constantly be on the look out for new things to write about.

It turns out I was right on both accounts.  This blog turned out to be a perfect place to store my notes.  Well, some of them anyway, I still have notebooks and loose papers all over the place - the old ones and new ones.  That part didn't work out the way I envisioned it.   But I am learning something new everyday and I have plenty of material to write about, although life sometimes does it's best to interfere with my blogging.  That and the fact I can be a huevón at times.

So, that's the short version of how this blog came to be.  If you want to know more about how I learned Spanish, I reveal all of my secrets in this post:

I want to learn Spanish, now what?

Aside from being the author of this blog, here are some of my other undertakings.

My Other Blogs

Yes, that's right.  One blog wasn't enough.  I'm a glutton for punishment.

No Seas Pelangoche - Exploring all the malas palabras (bad words) Spanish has to offer, with a special emphasis on Mexican Spanish.

Helping You Learn Spanish - Simplifying the textbook side of learning Spanish and offering practical advice to help you transition from a Spanish student to a Spanish speaker.

FACEBOOK

You just don't exist these days if you're not on Facebook.

Helping You Learn Spanish - Aka HYLS.  The corresponding Facebook page for the blog.

Estudiantes de Español - A  Facebook community dedicated to sharing learning resources, jokes, stories, news, socializing and anything that has to do with the Spanish language.

My Spanish Phrasebook - Learn and share some great conversational Spanish sentences and expressions that you can use in your everyday conversation!

ANDROID APPS

Yes, I'm also a software developer.  In terms of Spanish, I've only written one piece of software. 


My Spanish Phrasebook - Spanish for your (Android) cell phone, no internet connection required.  A huge collection of everyday conversational Spanish phrases for your cell phone to help you remember those phrases and words that always seem to escape your memory when you need them the most.  I'm constantly adding new phrases so check it out.

Read this page to see how it works.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for your efforts..very informative and interesting….I'm a fellow Spanish language self-learner and know exactly what you mean about swimming in notes with no way to find what I'm looking for…….hopefully, it's more and more often in my head.

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  2. what part of mexico did you visit ?

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    1. Wow, I missed this. Sorry James, ¿pero más tarde que nunca, verdad?

      Currently I've only visited Northen Baja (Tijuana, Playas de Tijuana, Rosarito, Puerto Nuevo and Poptla), Cancun and Puerto Vallarta.

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  3. Hi, there, would you mind adding any of them below to the lists ..?
    HiNative: http://hinative.com/landing (run by the same guys in Lang-8)
    Always Spanish: http://www.alwaysspanish.com/
    just for your information.

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  4. Hi Rodney! I found your post about México on http://cultureandcuisine.com/our-world-interviews-spanish-and-english/ - wonderful references to wey and chelas! I live in Colombia and recently read your post on Medellin. I am in Cartagena de Indias. How can we connect? My website is www.katedana.com

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  5. Don't call me ShirleyMarch 5, 2017 at 2:42 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. I enjoy reading your blog so much it's so informative and humorous! Thanks for the time and effort!

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  7. https://thecostaricanews.com/origin-some-tico-terms/
    Thought you might be interested in this

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  8. Hi, I've really enjoyed reading about your travels in Latin America; like you, I've been learning with LSLC and have found it incredibly useful. I've been trying to access the vocab list on this page (http://pvjax.forumchitchat.com/post?id=3211986&pid=31001914#post31001914) but all the links are dead...do you have a live link/file anywhere?

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  9. Hey, I enjoy your blog, I'm disappointed you don't post much anymore, but I know people get busy. Quick question for a subject if you get some time... I was watching an
    old mexican movie (si yo fuera diputado) and they used the term 'trinquete' several times, which is translated to ratchet, but that doesn't make sense. The context seems to imply (if I understand correctly) that it refers to something like a trumped up charge (something to push them out of someone's hair/plans). Thanks.

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    1. Que onda Daniel! Thanks for reading my blog, and I'm glad you find it helpful.

      I've never heard the word "trinquete" before, but I was able to find something that looks like it fits the context you describe.

      I found it here:
      https://es.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070131084052AAz4E2E

      "Un tranza, un abuso, un engaño y el trinquetero es el que realiza la acción "

      "un tranza" would be a con artist, swindler or something to that effect and "trinquetero" would be the person doing the swindling.

      Hopefully that answers your question.

      As for this blog, it's not entirely dead, more like on hold as I work on other endeavors.

      I've been busy podcasting and maintaining another site, related to Spanish of course. If you're interested take a look:

      Main page: http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/
      Podcasts: http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/podcasts/

      I will eventually be focused back on this site (sooner rather than later I hope), so perhaps in the meantime my alternate site and podcasts will be useful.

      Thanks for commenting and let me know if I can help you with anything else.

      Saludos!

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  10. Rodney,

    I can't express how happy I am to have attended your Conversational Spanish Class Meetup in Atlanta and how impressed I am with all you do for the Spanish Language Learning community. Thank you!

    Sincerely,
    Tom V t.c.c. Tomás

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  11. Thanks! Was struggling to “hear” the audio on a Duolingo lesson and in searching for possible answers found your blog. (The word was hacer). Nice find

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  12. This is some of the funniest content I have come across in a while. Why did you stop blogging? Laughing my head off while sharing with my husband. I wish I had learned more of this when I was in Mexico. Would have knocked the socks off my host family whenever they asked me to recite all the bad stuff I had learned. Please resume blogging.

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    1. Hola!

      I'm so glad you are enjoying the blog. I've actually been teaching Spanish and creating my own learning Spanish products, which has kept me away from blogging for far too long.

      Thank you for taking the time to comment, you reminded of just how much I miss blogging, and you can expect to see me blogging again soon!

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  13. For those of you interested in my other endeavors, you can take a look at my companion site:

    Main page: http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/
    Podcasts: http://helpingyoulearnspanish.com/podcasts/

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