I was the star student in my all gringo high school Spanish class. My Spanish is on the level of, say, Rick Scott or Bush 43. My vocab isn't great, but I know one word for pretty much everything you'd want to talk about and I know all the tenses and moods. I probably sound like a fifth grader. I understand most of what's on the radio or TV, but I can't really follow slang conversations between natives from the same country. My wife's grandmother had a middle school level education from Cuba and we couldn't understand each other. But I have no problem with her younger relatives. They pick up on my gringo accented slang-free Spanish quickly and return the favor.

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