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El Bloqueo

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Sometimes you don’t travel just to travel, you travel to truly be one with the locals. Since I already look the part, I decided to partner with Apple Languages to practice my Spanish with a local Cuban teacher with some private lessons. I had the privilege to have learned Spanish from an incredibly smart, and charismatic teacher turned into Cuban abuelito named Pedro, While I had studied Spanish before, I never received this sort of individualized and thorough teaching; every question I had would result in a 10 minute explanation with historical and factual reasons in the response. I asked so many questions that my teacher teased me saying I never left the "3s" stage of my life where kids constantly ask "WHY?" The greatest part was that he too constantly questioned things making him the …show more content…

My favorite was one he used to help me remember the past participle of "decir" and "hacer," it goes like this: "Del dicho al hecho hay un gran trecho." It translates to "from what's said, to what's done, is a long way." El Bloqueo (N) "Cuban word for "The Embargo"" Not to be confused with "sin embargo" or the Spanish way of saying "nevertheless," Cubans call the Embargo a Blockade. Understanding the different ways the USA and Cuba refer to the cut off from all relations is interesting on a linguistic perspective. While "Embargo" sounds more politically correct and authoritative, "Bloqueo" straight up sounds emotionally painful, and morally wrong. It goes to show you the kind of language that both governments use when addressing their people, and it makes you think about the essence of why each country uses certain language. To have your own experience studying languages abroad visit Apple Languages at http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/spanish/cuba/havana2.php and follow them on social media

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