Effective Language Learning Habits and Venezuelan Spanish (Interview with

Mari Polyglot) Episode 59

Summary: In this episode, I interview polyglot Mari Salvestrini. Mari is originally from Venezuela and speaks Spanish, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, and German. In our conversation, Mari shares her advice for creating effective habits for language learning and enjoys the learning process. She also shares some Spanish words and expressions you'll only hear in Venezuela.

Time Speaker Transcript 00:34 – 01:08 Tamara Hola y bienvenidos al episodio 59. Welcome to episode 59 of the Learn Spanish con Salsa Podcast. In this episode of the podcast, I’m interviewing Mari Salvestrini, and she is a polyglot who speaks several different languages. She is originally from Venezuela, and she currently lives in the Netherlands, she’s a language coach and shares content in her YouTube Channel every week about how to learn a language effectively, how to create the right habits and also how to enjoy the process while you learn.

01:09 –01:50 Tamara We cover so many different things in this conversation but because Mari is from Venezuela, I asked her to share with us not only some tips about language learning, but also some characteristics of Venezuelan’s Spanish, as you know, I’m really interested in different cultures and dialects and I like to expose you all on this podcast, conversations that would give you more inside in the Latino culture and not just the language itself. We will be talking about Venezuela and some uniquely Venezuelan words that you only hear in the country. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Mari, let’s get started.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 01:54 – 01:57 Tamara Thank you, Mari, for taking the time to join me in the Learn Spanish con Salsa Podcast.

01:59 – 02:00 Mari Thank you for having me.

02:01 –02:33 Tamara Yeah, I know we’ve been trying to get this together and coordinate for a little bit, sorry, I really appreciate your time and I always like to have different people to just kind of share their language experience because some of my listeners who are thinking about becoming fluent in Spanish, they’re trying and they’re not really there yet, it can be inspiring to hear from someone like you who’s already learned different languages, we’ll talk about that in a second, so I really appreciate you taking the time to come on so, if you could just kind of tell us a little bit about you and how you got started with language learning.

02:34 –03:02 Mari Yeah, for sure. So, my name is Mari, and I’m original from Venezuela but at the moment I’m living in the Netherlands, I started language learning languages, actually it wasn’t my choice, my mom send me to a bilingual school and that’s how I started, I also have Italian family so, I was interested in many different cultures because I was exposed to it and then as an adult I decided to keep learning languages and that’s how I learned Dutch, Portuguese, and further, Italian.

03:03 – 03:06 Tamara Okay, so you have a family that’s from Italy as well?

03:07 – 03:13 Mari Yes, my grandfather was from Italy, so we have some of the traditions on my father’s side.

03:14 – 03:44 Tamara I heard you say that it wasn’t your choice to go to bilingual school, so it’s something that your parents’ sort of forced? I know, some of friends I have that are in the US and maybe they’re trying to raise their children to be bilingual, sometimes children can be resistant to the idea, they want to speak the community language, they don’t want to be seen as odd or different, so, did you struggle with that growing up? Or were

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast you open to the idea at the beginning? Or learning languages, something that you sort of slowly had to grow to love over time?

03:45 – 04:26 Mari So, when I started with English, I was only 2 years-old, so I wasn’t very conscious, but my mom always tells me that I didn’t like it because I couldn’t understand, but I was learning. So, then when I was 5 years-old my mom took me to DisneyLand, to Walt Disney World in Florida, and I heard English been talked and, you know, in order to talk to all the characters, like the little mermaid, and everything, I had to speak English so, that’s when I started to realizing what a language was, and when I started been interested in languages, because it was useful. So, I always tell parents like, if you show your kid why they’re learning the other language and you give them a valid reason they will be motivated.

04:27 – 04:39 Tamara Yeah, that was kind of the genius of your mom’s part, all the Disney characters, right? So, you’ll be naturally motivated, it wasn’t like she was trying to force you to learn grammar, she’s like “do you want to talk to the little mermaid?

04:40 – 04:40 Mari Yes, yes!

04:41 – 04:41 Tamara She speaks English!

04:43 – 05:00 Mari She also bought me a Backstreet Boys’ album and started throwing the lyrics, so… It was just hilarious, the whole experience, but it really helped me to understand why it was important to learn more languages.

05:01 – 05:13 Tamara And as you mentioned the Backstreet Boys, did music play a role in your language learning at all? Or was it just that one song that you were trying to learn, or did you continue to use music as you learned other languages as well?

05:14 – 05:30 Mari Oh, I’ve always been super interested in music, I’ve always been a musical person, so it always plays a role, I cannot learn a

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast language without music, that’s the first thing I do when I start to learn a language, I search for the music. If I don’t like music, it is way harder for me to learn. I’m super motivated by music.

05:32 – 05:59 Tamara And it’s funny too because part of my experience is really how I got to learning Spanish was through salsa music, and just kind of wanting to know what were people saying and being involved in the dance community as well, is something that really just pushes me naturally to learn, because I wanted to know so, when I started to learn Portuguese, I did something similar because I love Samba and I was really trying to learn the dance, which is hopeless for me, I can’t dance Samba at all.

06:00 – 06:01 Mari Is really difficult.

06:02 – 06:41 Tamara It is, my hips do not do what they’re supposed to do in Samba, but I still love the music, there’s a song Malagueña so, when I went to Brazil, that was another thing that really kind of drove me as well, really getting into some music from Portuguese as well so, very cool, yeah, I always like to ask that because I had several people in the Podcast and they all mention music in some way, and I feel like it’s almost like the best kept secret of language learners because is not something people talk about a lot, they take it for granted, like “Oh, yeah, I listen to music” because it’s like breathing, but it really can help you when you’re trying to learn the language, especially with some of the sound, some of the subject matter that may be particular to that culture.

06:42 – 07:02 Mari Yes, and it has many aspects like the culture, but also the grammar because music are like poems, so, they have like grammatical tenses, that you not normally hear when you’re speaking and that you have to learn as well, so, I think is very interesting, music overall to learn languages, and it’s fun, that’s the most important, it’s so much fun.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 07:03 – 07:10 Tamara Do you have any other tips for…? How many languages do you speak, again? You mentioned Dutch, Italian, obviously, Spanish, English… 07:12 – 07:14 Mari Portuguese and a little bit of German.

07:14 – 07:38 Tamara So, for someone who might be listening, “oh, my god, I’m trying to learn a language, just trying to learn Spanish”. What are some of the tips that you would give that you feel had worked with you? No matter what language that you picked up. What are those principles that you noticed that have been consistent throughout you acquiring different languages?

07:38– 08:08 Mari So, I figure that I’m only successful when I focus on the day to day and not on the peak and gold because it is not… You know, fluency is not like something that you can see or something that is tangible, is something that you know either when you have it, I rather not focus on that but focus on enjoying every single time I’m exposed to the language and just be consistent so, it’s just a matter of like enjoying every day and be consistent every day.

08:10 – 08:38 Tamara Yeah, and I think finding what you can do consistently is also important because people are always looking for that next hack like the short cut, or what do you do which is great, I mean, you wanna learn what people have done it before, but I think most of us do better when we experiment on our own and we find what works for us, and if it is something that you can do consistently, you’ll make much more progress even if it’s not the perfect strategy, so…

08:38 –09:28 Mari It takes a lot of try and error to figure out what is that works for you, I try it absolutely all and my focus right now and it’s been at least for a year just focusing on creating like language running habits so, what I would do is that I will make sure that every morning as I wake up, I read in a form of language or every time that I cook I listen to music in foreign languages and that little exposure over the day helps progress, then I also try to speak as much as I can.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast I speak on my own, in my house, I will explain how I’m cooking, I will explain, I will talk to myself out loud and that somehow will help confidence and in… Just like pronunciation as well. 09:29 – 09:56 Tamara Yeah, I always say like if you haven’t practice on your own first, it can be very intimidating when you get in front of a native speaker in that language and you try to start talking for the first time, so, practicing on your own I think is really helpful and one thing I do, you mentioned habits, and I was thinking about something that I started to do in Spanish which help me in my vocabulary too, every time I go to the store I had to write a list I would always do it in Spanish so, I would learn what all my favorite foods were, you know…

09:56 – 09:56 Mari Yeah.

09:56 – 10:07 Tamara Because I will do things like that, it takes maybe 5 minutes, you know, like you say, it’s like having those habits, that you have exposure to the language on a day-to-day basis, so.

10:07 – 10:19 Mari Exactly, planning your day as well in your target language takes a little longer, but at the end you reinforce the vocabulary that you will use, because it’s vocabulary because it’s vocabulary about your whole life.

10:19 – 11:23 Tamara Right, and I think people discount that, I know I was in a forum earlier, a Facebook forum language learning and someone was asking a question like “you know, I’m going to have this language exchange coming up and I don’t know what to talk about. What are some topics that I can talk about?” And someone responded like “you know, talk about the weather” and they were like “but weather is boring”, so, the response is back and further, but he says “yes, but weather can be a springboard to so many other conversations”, you know, do you like the summer? Do you like the spring? Do you think it’s too cold? That can get you start getting you going in a conversation but most people kind of discount very basic things because it sounds boring, it’s actually very useful because most of our conversations aren’t very deep philosophical conversations, so

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast many day to day things that we have to learn in another language at, we take for granted that we can do in our native language, so, I think it is a good idea to kind of get some of those day to day things down that we might, you know, again, we just credit, but those things are very important when you’re trying to express yourself and talk to people.

11:24 – 11:41 Mari Yeah, and if you have a plan or a dream to go one day to the country where the language is spoken, that’s the things you’re going to talk about, you’re not going to meet a stranger and be like, you know, talk about politics right away, it’s not the case, or talk about a deep subject to take about most likely the weather.

11:41 – 11:42 Tamara Right.

11:43 – 11:52 Mari And what you ate, and what you visited, I think that’s very important vocabulary to have and like you said it becomes something else later, so.

11:53 – 13:29 Tamara Okay, so, we’re going to switch since you talked about visiting different countries to learn language, I personally love to travel but I do know that to become fluent in a language you don’t have to go to that place and live necessarily, there’s a lot you can do before you even travel to prepare yourself, whether you’re thinking about, you know, just taking a trip or relocating one day to a foreign country, there’s so much you can do before you get there and one thing I always tell people is that specially with Spanish because I think that you can attest to this, Mari, that people think Spanish is Spanish and they kind of go, “oh, it’s sort of Spanish is the same” unlike other languages that has this variations, Spanish is just Spanish, wherever you go, but I find not to be the case. Right? For me, especially because the music I like is from the Caribbean, right? So, listening to someone from Cuba, Puerto Rico, is very different from someone from Spain, from Mexico, so… I always tell people to focus on a country of origin, right? Like I always tell people, pick the type of Spanish you wanna learn, even if you want to pretend that you’re a native speaker

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast of Spanish, where would you wanna be from? So, I always go through, what are the differences between different dialects in Spanish, I think they’re interesting and I think that they can also be helpful, so, since you’re from Venezuela, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what’s different about the Spanish from your country and sort of the differences, not only about the accent, but also some of the words you might hear in Venezuela that you don’t hear anywhere else.

13:30 –16:31 Mari It’s very interesting the differences first of all, I constantly struggle speaking with other native speakers like from Spain or other countries because most of the times they didn’t understand me, Venezuela Spanish is very curious because it is in the Caribbean, so we more to the north we have a lot of Caribbean dialects and Caribbean like intonation, but like if you go to the is completely something else, is more like Colombian, or more like even Portuguese.

So, with the immigration and with the immigration we had tremendous amounts of immigration from Europe, and Arabic Countries, and also the Caribbean, so, we have a mix of languages within our own, it’s very interesting and I think is actually very helpful to learn Venezuelan Spanish right now, because they’re so many Venezuelans leaving the country and they’re moving everywhere, so, it’s more like likely that you would find a Venezuelan in your City, if it’s a big City at the moment, especially in the United States, if you go to Miami is like, I don’t know, 20% of Venezuelans at the moment, so, yeah, one of the phrases I normally get misunderstood is pedir la cola which is like “as for a lift” but cola also means “butt” for other people, every time we say something like ¿me puedes dar la cola? “can you give me a lift?” Are so confused, like, “what does that even mean?” Like, we don’t know each other that well, what are you trying to say?

So, I think it is very interesting to see something that for us is so innocent, for others can sound weird, almost like dirty, and just… We just want a lift, so it's very funny you realize those

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast things. We also have some words that come from English, because we used to have a lot of immigration from the United States, because of the petroleum, and one of those… We used to have all of these instructions manuals and all of that in English, so, there’s this one that I found very interesting that is echarle pichón, which is actually pichón comes from “push on” and it means like “keep going forward”, like “moving forward”, echarle pichón is like really work, to work something bigger, but also we have here echarse un palo, it’s like every man in Venezuela would say this, it means also like “take a couple of drinks” but it literally means “through a stick”, so, that’s also very confusing for others Spanish speakers because is like they have no idea what that could mean.

16:32 – 16:35 Tamara Where does that come from? What is the correlation of “throwing a stick”?

16:36 – 16:53 Mari Because un palo it was the name of the currency that they will give workers in Venezuela, though, you’ll throw one of the currencies, it’s like spending it, that’s what a beer costs.

16:54 – 16:56 Tamara Okay. That’s interesting.

16:57 - 17:39 Mari Yeah, and one of my favorites, it’s a little long but it’s llegar a freír tequeños, so, tequeños is a type of food, it’s cheese covered in dough and when you say that is when someone comes super early, so, you come too early to the party, that you came to prepare this type of food, and this one is very common, actually, I said it a lot, like Oh, llegaste a freir tequeños, you came too early to the party and that’s, you know, Latinos, we are not normally or socially the most on time people, so, it’s very common for a foreign to come early and they will hear this phrase for sure.

17:40 –18:07 Tamara Yeah, that’s funny because I think I keep wondering what culture is on time, because every culture I learn about, not just Spanish speaking culture, but black culture in the US or like when I’ve travelled I’ve heard it from some coworkers that are

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast also from India, and they have like this similar kind of thing about Indian time, and there’s black time and there’s Latino time, I’m like, well, who are these people that are on time?! Everybody has a thing about being late, it’s kind of funny.

18:07 – 18:24 Mari I think it comes from where I am now, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. These people are on time, I always have to be like 2 hours, I always come super early because these people are right at the minute. So, I think these…

18:22 – 18:26 Tamara Oh, so was its culture shock for you when you moved?

18:27 –18:57 Mari Yes, a little bit because for work or for school I’m normally early, like we have that sense in Venezuela, like if you go to work, you have to be on time, we’re very responsible like that, but when it comes to social events, 7 means 9, you know, it’s like… It’s not a burden, it’s just like a hike out, so, I have to realize that here when people say at 6, it means 6, and then they’re planning to end at 7, so, it’s not like “oh, will see how it goes”.

18:58 – 19:00 Tamara Are there any other expressions from Venezuela?

19:01 – 19:39 Mari Yeah, actually I have one that I love to always explain to foreigners and it’s something that you say when someone is really being really annoying, and going over the same topic over and over again, and it’s ¿vas a seguir, Abigail? And it comes from a Telenovela that was on for so long, like years, that’s not normal for telenovelas, so it was like “oh, my gosh, vas a seguir, Abigail?” Like “are you going to keep going with this, Abigail?” That’s the name of this… So, it’s very funny and it’s something that, for example, my grandma will always say to me, I think is hilarious.

19:40 – 19:49 Tamara I have a personal one for me, because I always like to know this word wherever I go because it’s my favorite fruit, so, how would you say a passion fruit in Venezuela?

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 19:50 – 19:52 Mari It’s actually parchita.

19:53 – 19:55 Tamara ¿Parchita? Okay.

19:55 – 20:00 Mari Yeah, so it's like parcha smaller, parchita. Yes.

20:01 – 20:05 Tamara I have to keep track of it. I'm running a list of places to go and how to order passion fruit, because…

20:05 – 20:07 Mari Yeah. Another word that changes a lot is straw.

20:08 – 20:17 Tamara Oh, yeah, straw is different. Someone just asked that the other day, and I can only think about calling in Puerto Rico, because that’s where I learned.

20:17 – 20:23 Mari I know some places call them like pajilla, Mexico is popote, for us is pitillo.

20:24 – 20:25 Tamara ¿Pitillo? Okay.

20:25 – 20:29 Mari Yes, but pitillo means drugs in other countries, so, you shouldn’t use it.

20:29 – 20:30 Tamara Oh.

20:30 – 20:34 Mari Yeah, I figured it out the wrong way.

20:36 – 20:42 Mari That’s why I learned straws is the one that changes a lot, also popcorn changes a lot.

20:44 – 20:48 Tamara Oh, yeah. In Puerto Rico is sorbeto. So, it sounds really not at all like any of the others.

20:49 – 20:51 Mari Yeah. Sounds very different.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 20:53 – 20:59 Tamara That’s interesting, yeah, it’s definitively, and that’s again, that’s why I always say you got to be really intentional, you know, with language, like…

20:59 – 20:59 Mari Yeah

21:00 – 21:26 Tamara Because you can end-up in a lot of situations unintentionally where your state, mean it, but I know this is right, but, when you’re a learner you might not be aware, because you just ask someone from Venezuela how to call it and they don’t know because they’ve only lived in Venezuela, right? You go somewhere else and you use the word and you’re like… Oh. So, you mentioned you learn it the hard way that’s not the word for straw in other places. How did you find out? I know there’s a story behind that.

21:26 – 22:03 Mari I was in Mexico with my family and my mom was with us, we were kids, and we were kids, like 10 or 11, with my cousins and my brother, and she asked to the person at the restaurant if he could give us pitillos, straws, and the guy was confused because this woman, lovely, chubby, cute woman with 5 kids and she’s like “yeah, it’s for the kids” and the man was very confused. He told my mom what it was, we do not do this in here, kids are not allowed to have those…

22:03 – 22:03 Tamara Oh my God.

22:03 – 22:07 Mari And my mom was more confused now because she’s like “what are you talking about?”

22:09 – 22:17 Mari So, somehow, we figured it out and then my mom was so embarrassed, we never were back in there, and it was the closest restaurant to the Hotel too, so it was like a pity, but…

22:19 – 22:26 Tamara Oh my God, that’s so funny. And that’s the thing, you don’t realize until you have those moments but then you never forget it, right?

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 22:27 – 22:28 Mari Yeah, exactly.

22:30 – 22:42 Mari And I can imagine that to Spanish learners it’s very confusing, so I actually agree with what you said, just stick to a country and just try to go with it.

22:42 – 23:04 Tamara And speaking of Venezuela, I’m curious, because we haven’t talked about, we talked while we met, there was a live in the news about Venezuela, right? There’s all political appeal, and the president and all this, so, can you give us a quick update like how are things now? So, I know you still have family there, so, what’s the situation of Venezuela? Because it’s not really been on the news lately.

23:05 – 24:50 Mari Yeah, so, the situation is more or less the same, it’s very difficult to live, it’s very expensive right now, for example, everything is… A lot of people use the dollar, if you are in a good position you can use the dollar, which is actually not legal, but everyone uses it. So, for example, like a can of Coke will cost you maybe 5 dollars, which is a lot, like, it’s more than in the countries were dollar is used, it’s more than the Euro even, so, it’s very expensive to get with some things, other things are still cheap and some other things you get so fine, but it’s just overall hard plus is not safe, is not really a safe place to be, so, you cannot really go out with your phone in your hands, you cannot… You have to be overly aware and like my family always tells me they don’t go out at nights anymore, so it’s after 6 pm, when is dark, people don’t go out as much, so, it’s a very difficult, for me it’s kind of normal because I grew up with it, and I saw it gradually go down, so, it’s kind of normal.

And I also try not to read so much about the news because it’s really hard when it’s your own country, so… You know, if I hear about Iran or other countries for me it’s like it’s terrible but I don’t feel it the way I feel it with my country, so, it’s very difficult, I think it’s very difficult to be there but it’s also very difficult to leave, so, there’s not like a right answer about what to do over there.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast

24:50 – 25:21 Tamara It is really difficult to sort of, you know, keep up with the news and really what’s going on, but I think it’s unfortunately, it’s another one of cultural things that people don’t realize it, a lot of Latin America, unfortunately sometimes the way politics happen is just not the same as it is in the U S and right now everyone is, you know, very politically divided time in the US as well, and we have debates about it but it’s not the same, right?

25:22 – 25:46 Mari No, it’s not the same because even if the US is not political ideally right now, everything still functions and everything… You’re so… Well, in most places I’ve lived I haven’t lived in the US but I believe that you can still have a lot of opportunities, and a lot of like, yeah, opportunities, a lot of growth.

25:46 – 25:49 Tamara Yeah, the lights don’t go out down here because people don’t like the president.

25:49 – 25:50 Mari Exactly.

25:52 – 25:56 Tamara That’s the thing people don’t realize. Is that still an issue with power and everything?

25:56 – 26:35 Mari Yes, it’s always been an issue, ever since I can remember. Ever since the... Well, ever since I can remember it’s been this government, so, for me it’s like it’s ever since I can remember, and yes, it’s always the power, the water, and the internet too. They fail sometimes. Also, because there’s no maintenance, there’s no more investment into equipment, so, even if the whole world right now will have 5G, we wouldn’t get it, at least not in the same quality, because there’s not the infrastructure to provide it, so, it’s very old everything is regarding technology in Venezuela.

26:35 – 26:41 Tamara Yeah, it’s also… I know, I visited the Dominican Republic there’s also a thing where, you know, the lights would just go out and…

26:41 – 26:41 Mari Yeah.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast

26:41 – 27:01 Tamara It’s just normal and I made a mistake, I remember this as my embarrassing story, so I was asking ¿porqué se fue la luz? Right? Why? You know, because I didn’t, I mean, I didn’t know that the lights were out there, so I was just trying to make conversation, so, when I asked why the lights went out, they thought I was saying they didn’t pay their bill, like the light.

27:05 – 27:19 Tamara They said, “No, we paid! It’s just…” and I was like “Oh! No!” I wasn’t trying to be insulting, I was trying to, like, you know, because I knew about it, I was trying to make conversation because I know this, and they took it like I was trying to say they didn’t pay the light bill. I was like… that didn’t go well.

27:20 – 27:39 Mari Yeah. And it also happens sometimes, a lot of political situations where just to piss people off, take the lights off, so… That’s something. It’s a wrong question to ask. ¿Por qué se fue la luz? Oh, where do I start, honey. It’s a lot.

27:41 – 27:43 Tamara Yeah. So, don’t ask that question if you are hearing this.

27:43 – 27:45 Mari No, it’s too complicated.

27:45 – 27:51 Tamara Yeah, I learned the hard way, that one, right? It's like se fue la luz, but at least you know what it means. Se fue la luz, the lights out.

27:51 – 27:56 Mari Yeah. A lot of stuff.

27:57 – 28:12 Tamara Definitively, I don’t want to end on a bad note with that, I want to talk about the good things about being from Venezuela, some of the things that make you proud to be from where you are, despite, you know, some of the issues the country has been having lately.

28:12 – 29:05 Mari Yeah, so, for me, Venezuela was a country that was… Had a lot of immigrant’s influence, we were welcoming, the rest of the world was during a war, was like the paradise to go, endless

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast summer and I’m very proud of that, because it says a lot about my ancestors and it says a lot about how little trouble we had with different races and different perspective and different cultures, so, I think that’s amazing and also, Venezuelans are very… Have like an entrepreneur soul, so, you will find in places where there’s a lot of Venezuelans like Madrid, or Miami, you’ll find a lot of Stores that are owned by young Venezuelans because for us, it’s like a normal thing to do, to be an entrepreneur and to really go for it.

29:09 – 29:20 Tamara Very cool, and is there… You mentioned the Caribbean part, and it’s funny because I usually don’t think of Venezuela when I think of the Caribbean, but there are some Islands, right? In the northern part of the country?

29:20 – 29:52 Mari Yes, there are all the northern costs, and we have… I think it’s over 20 islands that are in the Caribbean, they are small and there are a few bigger islands like Isla Tortuga, Margarita, so, yeah. I for example, will spend all of my Christmas in an Island and my family, I have family that is from the Caribbean side, it’s very cool, I think, because they have like a little bit more, I don’t know what to call it, like sazón, a little bit more flavor.

29:55 – 30:02 Mari Is actually from… If you step in some places like in Aruba, you can see Venezuela, it’s very close.

30:02 – 30:18 Tamara So, maybe for those of you out there thinking “Oh, I don’t want to go to Venezuela because all the trouble there now”, maybe the Caribbean coast and checking some of the islands there are near Aruba, would be a good way to experience the country without some of the, you know, security concerns.

30:19 – 30:19 Mari Yeah, exactly.

30:20 – 30:31 Tamara Well, Mari, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join me in a talk to the podcast, if you want to get in touch with you, where can they find you on social media?

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 30:31 – 30:54 Mari Yeah, so, you can find me on YouTube as maripolyglot, that’s m a r i polyglot, and then you can find me also in Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, I post every week on YouTube and then every day in my social media on how to learn languages effectively and I’m also sure my own journey learning all the languages that I’ve learned and that I’m learning at the moment.

30:54 – 31:19 Tamara Yes, it’s amazing because if you follow Mari on Instagram you’ll know all the different ways she really does make language learning a part of her routine, I’ve been watching some of your stuff with Japanese and different languages, so, she’s got some really great tips out there, so if you’re looking for a little inspiration or some great ideas of ways to incorporate language learning into daily schedule, follow her on Instagram and check out her YouTube as well, a lot of very useful information.

31:19 – 31:20 Mari Thank you so much for having me!

31:24 – 32:28 Tamara I hope that conversation with Mari Salvestrini has really inspire you to keep going as you’re learning Spanish and also, if you heard some of her stories that making mistakes is a part of language learning and I say that so much now, that it’s becoming cliché but, even a native Spanish speaker from Venezuela going to a different country has had some embarrassing moments with language, so, don’t ever feel bad about getting something wrong because that’s how you learn, that’s how you grow.

Next week we will be continuing with another interesting conversation, and will be talking about why it is that you maybe not necessarily have to relocate or even travel to become fluent in Spanish. So, a lot of us think that if we have on a plane or if we have drop off in a foreign country that that’s the best-case scenario who full emerge us to become fluent, and while it can be an immersive experience, there’s also a great argument for why might actually not be the ideal way to learn a language to fluency.

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast 32:29 – 32:42 Tamara Okay, so, we’ll be talking about that next week, so, as always, I hope that something you heard on the podcast would take you one step closer from being a beginner to bilingual. Hasta la próxima.

Show Notes: https://www.learnspanishconsalsa.com/59

Guest Information Mari Salvestrini Website: https://www.maripolyglot.com/blog Twitter: @maripolyglot Instagram: @maripolyglot YouTube channel: Maripolyglot Podcast: https://anchor.fm/maripolyglot

learnspanishconsalsa.com/podcast