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Lee Jamison has worked in a voluntary educational work among the Hispanic community for over thirty years. He has lived and traveled in Central America and Mexico and written guides to Spanish for Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.
In this episode we learn more about how Lee fell in love with Spanish, what makes his approach to learning different, and how he found a niche as an author.
During our travels, we’ve found it so fun and valuable to learn local slang and customs, and so we were excited to talk with Lee about the importance of focusing on how people use a language instead of getting stuck thinking only about grammar.
Discussed in this episode:
- How Lee first started learning Spanish
- Why Lee ended up moving to Central America and spending 17 years living in Nicaragua
- Developing a sense of home in a new country
- How Lee got the idea of writing a brief guide to Nicaraguan Spanish
- How Lee expanded his knowledge of Spanish and wrote guides for Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala
- Why Spanish can be tricky to learn because of how many countries speak it
- Some of the differences between Spanish in the different Central American countries
- How to adopt a local language
- The importance of humility when learning
- Learn more about Lee and the Gringo Guides: http://www.gringoguide200.com/
If you would to get access to the past and future episodes of our nomad series as a World Wanderers Insider, head on over to Patreon.com/theworldwanderers. Thank you so much for your continued support!
This episode is brought to you in part by Casco Antiguo Language School. Casco Antiguo Language School offers Spanish language immersion programs in Latin America’s coolest neighborhood, Panama City, Panama’s Old Quarter, Casco Antiguo. Their 1 on 1 or Small Group classes allow you to get out of the classroom and learn Spanish in real-life settings. They also offer free social activities every such as sunset bike tour, salsa dancing, happy hour, and beach volleyball. The school is located in the heart of this incredible colonial neighborhood that’s also an UNESCO world heritage site. The school has a great social atmosphere and the teachers are incredible.
We have been studying Spanish at Casco Antiguo Spanish School since November and we have had the chance to work with 2 awesome language teachers and to meet other travelers learning Spanish from around the world. We have seen such an improvement in our Spanish since we started studying there, and the beauty is they also offer classes online via Skype / Zoom so we are actually back in Canada now but can continue classes online with the same teacher. During this crazy time, it has given our lives some sort of routine, which we are loving. If you are interested in learning Spanish, you can head on over to www.cascospanish.com to start your language learning journey.
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