I have always been in love with Mexican and Latin American culture. I took about a year and a half of Spanish in high school but transferred to a school my sophomore year that didn't offer languages as electives. After that I basically gave up on my Spanish until I started working in restaurants and found that most of the kitchen staff in restaurants are native Spanish speakers. I found it's helpful to get things done quickly and properly if you have a good relationship with your kitchen staff and what better way to bond than to speak to them in their native language.
However, most of the Spanish I've learned before signing up for spanishpod101.com was only useful in the kitchen and was a simple process of me asking a cook "Como se dice?"
I live in Chicago, which has a very large Hispanic population so knowing more than what we call "restaurant Spanish" is helpful in general.
As of recently I started dating one of the Kitchen staff from my work who is from Mexico and has only been living in the U.S. for a little over a year. His English is good but not enough for us to have good communication (which I've heard is good for relationships). I decided to learn Spanish to not only be able to talk with my boyfriend but also to help him with his English by being able to answer him when he says "Como se dice?"
Our relationship has become more complex because he plans on returning to Mexico soon and there has been some talk of me moving there with him. If this happens I don't want to have to rely on him to be able to communicate with people when I'm out in the world.
