Job Discussion Forums

[Guy Courchesne]

What kind of people do you socialize with in your Latin American country?

Ex-pats, co-workers, locals, family, no one...? Any difficulties?

My Canadian girlfriend finds it difficult sometimes to socialize with Mexicans as she feels her Spanish isn't good enough. We tend to socialize with foreign teachers more and have a few very good Mexican friends.

[TeresaLopez]

Well, I am already sort of an odd fish, I'm half Mexican, half Irish, spent many years in Chicago, but almost as many in Mexico, so I pretty much socialize with people I like, don't really look for any one in particular. Having said that I would have to say that 90% of my friends are Mexican. I do meet some Americans in my day to day life, but most of them are of the everything-is-wrong-with-Mexico variety. And they know exactly what can be done to fix it. I also sometimes meet ex-pats who don't want to/can't learn Spanish and are put off that "no one" speaks English. I find Australians (in my experience) to be very lovely and open minded and curious. I am really not trying to start anything with my observations, these are simply my opinions based on my experience, your mileage may vary.

Teresa

[Isla Guapa]

Teresa, I think you'll find a few Americans at Dave's who actually like living in Mexico, me for starters !

[TeresaLopez]

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that most, if not all, the posters here do. I hesitated to post that, since I didn't want to have anyone think I was talking about them. Online communication has it drawbacks, you can't hear inflection or see facial expressions, so it's sometimes easy to misinterpret posts. But I pretty much say what I mean most of the time, just seems easier to keep track that way. And I'm sure you've all met at least one or two people like that. I was actually thinking about some specific people I met recently, and shouldn't have generalized as much.

[naturegirl321]

I socialised with expats. Women expats, since they knew what it was like to be a foreign woman in Peru. At the begining I had more Peruvian friends, but then moved to a different city.

[just_a_mirage]

When I first came to Ecuador, I socialized mostly with expats, but it seems like most dont stay long-term, so began socializing with Ecuadorians as my Spanish improved. Now I�d say about 80 percent of my close friends are Ecuadorian. Mostly other teachers, but some neighbors, etc.