No Spanish? No Problem!

I had lived in Nicaragua for a while before I came to Colombia. Everyone who spoke English wanted to practice with me, so I never learned much Spanish. So I purposely avoided English-speakers in Colombia at first so that I would be able to learn some Spanish. But that means when I arrived I had very little Spanish at my command.

There are two ways to work around this.

The first is to have a guide available to help you navigate, at least for the first few days. The second is a translation app on your phone. So don't consider this to be much of a problem

Learn some Spanish if you can.

In some of the tourist areas you will find some people who speak English. However, Colombia hasn't been historically busy with tourists. Although Pablo Escobar died in 1993, most North Americans still have an image of Colombia as a dangerous place full of drugs and shady characters. Nothing could be further from the truth. Still, tourism was just starting to be a real industry when suddenly the economy was shut down, as in so many other countries. So tourists are just not as normal in Colombia as in most other countries. You should assume nobody speaks English. Whatever Spanish you can learn will be of help to you. There is an app for your phone called DuoLingo. It appears to still be free, although it says there are ads and in-app purchases. Give it a free try at least.

If you already speak Spanish...

Colombians have some pronunciations very different from Mexico or Spain. I can share the most glaring ones very quickly.

In Spain, the double L in the middle of a word is pronounced similar to an English Y. Not in Colombia. The double L in Medellin is pronounced like the second G in "garage". Sort of like "Medezheen"?

Have you set up a call yet?

Use the Contact page to send me a message and suggest the best time for me to call you.

I will call you from Colombia so that I can learn a little bit about you and find out your objectives. At that time I will also help you set up a WhatsApp account and teach you a little about how to use it most effectively. Then you will also be able to call me in Colombia over WiFi absolutely free.