There is no rule that says you must make ten resolutions for the new year. So, let’s keep it simple. If you want to enjoy Mexico even more this coming year, you need only make three.
1. Read a local Spanish-language newspaper on a regular basis. Now there you go. I can hear it already. You tell me that you have tried to read Spanish, but you just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Then you go off into some conversation about Spanish in Spain and Spanish in Mexico. Unacceptable! I’ve heard just about as much of that as I want to hear. A few recommendations: Start with the pictures if you can’t manage the words. Then read what is under the picture. Read the weather report. The comic page. Your horoscope. The sex advice column. Sports. Murders and accidents. Anything that interests you in the English (or French, or…) press at home, you will also find interesting here in Mexico. Find a subject which interests you, then read.
Read a little bit each day. In a short time, you will look forward to doing the Sudoku puzzle each day, but you can say the numbers in Spanish! Have an English-Spanish dictionary handy for those words you find of interest. A notebook to write words, definitions or phrases. To much work, you say! Have you ever made a grocery shopping list? A To-Do or Things List? There is not much difference.
If you read a local Spanish-language newspaper every day for more than a week, I’ll bet you get hooked. After a week of reading the paper and you again say that you have tried to read Spanish but you just can’t get the hang of it. Give up, if you want to. You can also stop reading this article because you’re really not going to like the next resolution.
2. Speak as much Spanish as possible. If “Gracias” and “Por Favor” is as far as you ever get, use these words at every opportunity. In restaurants, stores, with your maid. Every chance you get, speak Spanish. You will notice that you get better service on many occasions. People will smile more. You may even smile more! Now you’re getting the hang of it! Make it fun, you will have a greater possibility of continuing.
What would a North American say of a Mexican who had visited the U.S. for several years but spoke no English. Would not even try. Not even “Please” or “Thank You”? At the least, they would be classified as not taking any interest in their new surroundings. At the worst, they may be called aliens responsible, to a large degree, for the economic problems of the country. What do you think the Mexicans think of us if we speak little or no Spanish after several years of visiting Mexico? It’s the rule of putting the shoe on the other foot: If you would not like it in your home, why would you do the same when you are in someone else’s home?
3.- Take an interest in the Mexico and the Mexican people. This principle is also valid in all countries, all the time. Continuing with the feet and shoes, a popular saying is that to understand someone, you must walk a mile in their shoes (“ponerse en los zapatos de otro.”) Mexico will be celebrating its bicentennial of Independence and centennial of Revolution in 2010. There will be many articles, in both Spanish and English, on the fascinating history of the country. Read as many as you can. Make comments with your friends, foreign and Mexican. Foreigners will be fascinated. Mexicans should be proud. Everyone will learn. You cannot fully appreciate the people and culture of a country if you do not know some of it’s history.
Contact with the Mexican people is a constant surprise and revelation. Even after many years of visiting or living here, Mexico does not diminish the surprises. The surprises can be both pleasant and painful. We, as foreigners, all recognize that an individual Mexican character exists but its nature and reason for being often confound. Octavio Paz discussing the Mexican people in his book The Labyrinth of Solitude said, “…the character of the Mexican is a product of the social circumstances that prevail in our country, and the history of Mexico, which is the history of these circumstances, contains the answer to every question.”
Those are my three new year’s resolutions. Would you like to join me? This coming year will be a particularly prosperous year for learning more about Mexico and its people. “Gracias a Ud., unico lector, quien llego al final de mi breve relato! Y, también, Un Feliz y Prospero 2010! ”
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