Hi i am new here. I am planing a trip to Ecuador Peru and possibly Colombia. I want to buy or rent a bike there. I would prefer to buy because from what i read you can't cross borders with a rental. My question is how much Spanish should I know before i go? Duolingo tells me i am almost 50% fluent but I really don't think i could carry on much of a conversation or even ask directions at this point. I would be traveling solo. I am also looking in to doing some language classes once i am there. Any advice?

The more you know the better but don't let this dissuade you from travelling. Bring a smartphone with Google Translate and download the Spanish language package before you leave. You'll be able to use it offline. I had great success with Google Translate with various languages.

Taking a course once you're there is a good idea to improve your skills. Duolingo and others are useful tools but it's a world of difference when you're "on the ground" with real live Spanish speakers, especially since different countries and even areas within countries will have different accents pronunciations and expressions at times. At least learn some very basic phrases such as "lo siento, no hablo espanol", "habla ingles?", etc. "Kung Fu" language (hand gestures) also comes in handy. Pointing at your fuel tank or making common gestures tend to be very widely understood.

I speak basic Spanish and it helped a lot while travelling in Mexico, Dominican Republic and all of Central America. There are places where no one speaks English outside of the larger cities and more touristed places.

Above all, just go and have fun.

...Michelle

Great advice Michelle,
The regional accents and wide variance in nouns, plus slang, make going country to country bit of a challenge.

Language wise I liked Colombia. Generally more well educated folk can be a bit easier to understand vs. native Aymara speakers in Peruvian Altiplano. For them ... Spanish may be their 2nd language!

Experts claim Colombian Spanish is the very best outside of Spain. I agree.

Getting beyond simple Gringo level Spanish can take work. For some it comes easy, others struggle. I do good at speaking ... but understanding for me is sometimes hard ... especially if it's a weird accent like Cuban or Chilean and they hear me speak (I have a perfect accent) and think I'm fluent (far from it!), the they take off speaking a thousand miles an hour ...
and I'm sunk.

I understand Argentine Spanish well because I spent years there off and on. Parts of Mexico, I hardly get a word with some of the "country" dialects you find.

Take a course if you can, should be plenty of them in Colombia, Ecuador and parts of Peru' too. Really helpful, but self study everyday is best ... then get out and USE your Spanish everyday, engage folk in conversation. That is the way forward.

If you can learn about 8 survival Verbs, especially SER and ESTAR, the two verbs TO BE, in all there forms ... you'll do just fine. A few key pro nouns and common usages and responses, you'll do OK.

I think you may find more and more young people in S. America speak some English. Resist switching back to English for them, stay in Spanish and practice on them, don't let them practice on you! (English gets you no where language wise)

English is taught in most all schools starting at grade school level ... now add
English language TV shows/movies ... you get the idea.

I helped teach English in El Salvador years ago. Just for one semester, once a week. Poor teacher struggled with pronunciation, so I was glad to help correct the students ... some movie watchers knew more than the Maestra. Great result for the kids! I'm sure they're all living in California now. (they all wanted to move there!)

Thanks for all the advice

When I started my trip around South America I did not speak any spanish. One year later I was half fluent

How to Prepare For A Motorcycle Trip Around The World - Buying a bike in Chile

Funny, in Peru', when they heard me speak, they thought I was Argentine ... and charged me double price! they are not fond of their neighbors.

Basques have their own language, no? Does it have some connection to Castillian roots? I'm not sure what language or language base they speak in the mountains around Andorra, but I couldn't understand it ... was it Basque or Catalan?
Or a derivative?

Far as I understand it ... most others you list are basically Spanish, simply regional accents or dialects, not complete separate languages, no?

BTW, the only place in ALL of Latin America where I heard Spanish referred to as "Castillano" was in Argentina. There, they don't say, "Spanish" when referring to their language, they always say "Castillano".

funny though, in North/Central Argentina, you hear Italian spoken in the streets! LOTS of Italian immigrants there.

I loved the sound of the language in Spain. Wonderful. Soft and sexy.

Next, we could talk about how many Mayan languages and dialects there are just with a 25 mile radius of Lago Atitlan.

My Peace Corp friends did a full study of it while I lived there. Fascinating.
Memory dim, but IIRC, 5 different language groups with 26 dialects. Indians with 5 miles of one another had to use "Spanish" to communicate. True story.

Castillano is universally understood in the 'Spanish' speaking counties in South America.

You should learn as much as you can.

It will massively increase your enjoyment and immersion of culture during your trip, save you money in hotels, restaurants and maybe essential in an emergency.

I highly recommend the Michele Thomas Audio learning guides. He has a fantastic method of teaching you the essentials.

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

How much spanish should you know? It depends of you!

What kind of experience are you looking for? Ride your bike and take pictures only? Or do you also want to meet the locals, have more fun when they invite you over for a meal and a bed, exchange with them, get to know their stories, how they see the world, have some fun with the officials, ...

A two weeks class will get you to be able to ask for what you are looking for but it is not enough to develop your listening skills. So you will not understanding what the locals are telling you.

You can expect at least two months of listening to spanish before your brain starts to be able to recognize words easily when people talk.

I would start listening to spanish at home everyday. You will have a much richer experience once on the road.

Patrick

My very basic Mexican spanish has served me well throughout the Caribbean as well as Central and South America. Of course there were people who didn't speak spanish, and of course there were people whose concept of spanish differed from what I'd learned--notably Argentina's vocabulary and pronunciation, and Cuba's velocity). Nonetheless, I think these finer points are not what a novice should be worrying about.

My "spanish" served me well throughout Spain, too. I'm aware there are different dialects and separate languages, and I'm aware that this has implications which can be taken very seriously indeed. Again, I don't think this is an issue for the average traveler.

OP, I'm not sure how "50% fluent" correlates to "can't carry on a conversation or ask for directions," but as with any language the key is to use whatever you've got as frequently as possible, no matter how clumsily. And I've met travelers with absolutely zero spanish skills, or even interest in learning basic hello, thanks, or excuse me, and as far as I know they all survived. You'll do fine.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

I'm trying to learn some Spanish before I (hopefully!) head to South America later this year.

I've found this course at Language Transfer to be good for me - relates Spanish back to my native English (Australian) and makes sense to me.

I understand there will be loads of local variations, but at least I expect they'll be variations on Spanish rather than English.

Mal.

Download "Coffee Break Spanish" from iTunes. Its a series of free spanish lessons and it's fun.

You will need to know a few basic terms.

repestos (the name you will see on stores selling motorcycle parts)
comida = food
agua = water
habitación = room (as in "do you have a room to rent")
derecho = right
izquierda = left (but I carry a GPS, so I don't need to ask for directions)
cerveza =
baño = toliet

...maybe that's all you need to know.

__________________
Peter B
2008/09 - NJ to Costa Rica and back to NJ
2012/13 - NJ to Northern Argentina, Jamaica, Cuba and back to NJ
2023 - Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia...back to Peru.

Blogs: Peter's Ride

The more you know the better. Takesame lessons. There they only speaks spanish, but I did it without any words spanish at the start.

Before leaving, read in Spanish as much as you can. You want to buy a motorcycle, red all about it in Spanish. Once in Latin America, the more you travel solo the better it is. But there is more than language, don't worry you will communicate one way or another. Language is like a motorcycle, it's not how well you speak, but have the right attitude,and for the motorcycle it's not having the top motorcycle that is the more important, but make the right usage of it.

As suggested, you can do on line classes or teaching programs. Not good for me.
I prefer the human interaction. A good Spanish teacher can not only teach you Spanish but, if good, may also educate you about Latin or Spanish culture.

You could look around for High School or Jr. College classes, night classes often available. Not too expensive and invaluable ... if you work at it.

Many night classes are just 3 hours, one night a week. (YMMV) A couple months of classes could change your world. we always had a BLAST in Spanish class.
Good memories for me.

I'm sure there are classes and schools in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru', but can't recommend specific ones. Ask around.

Since your handle is Albertasteve, I assume you are heading south from Canada.

I lived in Mexico for three years teaching English. Despite being a language teacher, I'm a poor language student. I hired a tutor and had a strong interest in learning the language, but for the first year I learned at a very slow pace and found it quite frustrating. After about 18 months I seemed to pass a tipping point and started to gain Spanish ability at a reasonable rate.

I found that I could survive okay that first 18 months or so by carrying a pad of paper and a pen with me everywhere. It's amazing what you can communicate with a few doodles and stickmen!

One suggestion I might make is to book some time at a language school in a nice colonial city in Mexico. Make a beeline to the school, and park your bike for a few weeks while you take lessons and play tourist.

I would also recommend a book i found very helpful: Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. https://www.amazon.com/Madrigals-Mag.../dp/0385410956

I looked at several Spanish learning texts, and this book was the only one I found useful.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250