Gracias. Es muy amable.

I cannot count how many times I have said this to shop keepers in the old shopping district along Via España in the barrio of Calidonia. Thanks. You are very kind, it means, and for the harried lady at the cash register in Picadilly or el Titan with a seeming endless line of disgruntled shoppers in her life your polite comment will always be appreciated.

Upon entering a taxi, an elevator, or crowded waiting room anywhere the proper thing to do is to say, Buenos dias if it is before noon and Buenas tardes if it is after twelve noon. If the sun has gone down you will want to switch to buenas noches. You repeat the same upon leaving the taxi, elevator, or waiting room although folks in my apartment building tend towards hasta luego when exiting the elevator. These greetings, good day, good afternoon, good evening, are standard good manners in the Spanish speaking world but are often forgotten. Remember them and you will earn the gratitude of folks who generally expect gringos to be clueless.

Take classes in Spanish. Watch television with the closed caption feature turned on. When you hear a word that interests you watch for it to scroll across the bottom of the screen and write it down. Head over to Exedra Books on the corner of Via España and Via Brazil in Panama City and pick up a Spanish to English dictionary.

And do not forget to reward the guy at the meat market to gives you good service with “que tenga un buen dia.” Have a good day, take a look at the other articles on this site, and learn Spanish in Panama by being polite.

To find a class or a tutor to learn Spanish in Panama, to find out about investment, real estate, or offshore banking opportunities in Panama, or to find out where to go and what to do in Panama contact us.

Email us at The Panama Club

+507-836-6542 / 43 (Panama) | 1-(305)-503-9957 (USA)

This wonderful school founded in 1994 is located in the heart of Panama City. ILERI is a small school that guarantees Spanish language learning through all the experiences that you will discover through Panama’s life and culture.

ILERI is a school that focuses not only on teaching Spanish, but teaching foreigners and tourist all the wonderful things to do in Panama and the amazing mixture of cultures that we have. ILERI institute’s goal is to make the students love Spanish, love the Panamanian culture and to feel confident at practicing Spanish everywhere.

Panama offers amazing things for foreigners. It has a wonderful ecosystem, and is a stable democratic country.There are many tourist adventures available.You can visit the Panama Canal, hike in different forests all over the country, visit Mi Pueblito, take canopy tours in El Valle de Anton, snorke in the Caribbean, learn about the native cultures like Kuna cultures in San Blas, go river rafting, bird watching, or swim at the Pacific Beaches. There are amillion more outdoor and indoor adventures that you can do in Panama to learn about its culture.

The school’s surrounding areas like El Dorado, offer a wide variety of restaurants, shops and Internet cafes. The school has three classrooms and sometimes offers outdoor classes. The classrooms are fully equipped with air-conditioning, TVs and DVD players for audio and visual learning. ILERI institute also offers a huge garden with hammocks perfectly placed for you to enjoy your breaks.

The ILERI institute offers a very relax and welcoming environment that allows you to learn Spanish in a very natural method, by seeing, hearing and repeating.

For more information about Learn Spanish at the ILERI Institute in Panama click here

To find a class or a tutor to learn Spanish in Panama, to find out about investment, real estate, or offshore banking opportunities in Panama, or to find out where to go and what to do in Panama contact us.

Email us at The Panama Club

+507-836-6542 / 43 (Panama) | 1-(305)-503-9957 (USA)

Keenan arrived in Panama knowing only the word for bellybutton.  We were visiting Panama City’s immigration headquarters where he used the time standing in line to memorize the list of prohibited things one might act out in the government office. “No ombligo afuera.” I heard him repeating to himself.  No exposed bellybuttons allowed. It was a useful first sentence for maybe a prison guard, but for Keenan it became more of a motto.

“No ombligo afuera” he would say to a waitress at the local deli. He sometimes would even point at the menu while using his phrase as if to further confuse the victim. “Yes, I would like to order the no ombligo afuera with rice?”

As his Spanish started to improve, Keenan began to sound less like a psycho and more like a confused robot. It’s a natural step on the road to proficiency, the process of connecting simple nouns with verbs, but with his Chinese descent, Keenan’s Spanish had a way of coming off as oddly rude and demanding.

“You drive to the bank right now for me” he once said to a taxi driver. It was less that he’s inherently disrespectful and more that his vocabulary was simply limiting. “Bring me bottle of beer” he might request. “Bring me cold bottle now, please. Bellybutton?”

The common way to order food at a restaurant in Panama is two-fold. To sound like a local, you must first demand the item like a king, but then follow it up with a polite qualifier. “Give me the steak and fries…please” is one we like to use. If you mistakenly pause long enough in between, you come off sounding like an asshole.

Keenan’s Spanish hurdles were not limited to the service industry though. They found their way into his social life as well. Take the time he received a missed call from an unknown number on his cell phone. He called the number back in an effort to clear up any confusion but instead his Spanish simply made matters worse. “Someone will call me from this phone?” he said. “Someone, will call me now? Who are you?”

That’s the problem with Spanish: you get one verb tense wrong and it totally changes the direction of the conversation. Instead of figuring out who had accidentally dialed his number, Keenan was demanding a courtesy call from a stranger. “No” the person said. “Why should I call you?”

Rather than admit defeat, Keenan has made serious efforts to learn, what I like to call, pre-packaged phrases. Tried-and-true sentences or commands which have been pre-approved by friends or acquaintances. That way, even if the context in which its used is inappropriate, at least the mistake is made with decent grammar. “Ya me voy” is a good one. “I’m on my way.” You don’t even really have to get the circumstances right to sound semi-expert-like.

Learning Spanish in Panama is an ongoing process for Keenan, who’s made leaps and bounds since he arrived and knew only the word for bellybutton. He now knows how to say “chocolate oranges” and “Oooh, that smells like dog sauce” which are considerably more practical than what he began with.

source: http://www.costaricapages.com/panama/blog/learning-spanish-through-a-bellybutton-441

To find a class or a tutor to learn Spanish in Panama, to find out about investment, real estate, or offshore banking opportunities in Panama, or to find out where to go and what to do in Panama contact us.

Email us at The Panama Club

+507-836-6542 / 43 (Panama) | 1-(305)-503-9957 (USA)

When we ask people about Panama as a destination to learn Spanish, we mostly get something like “well I don’t know. I don’t know much about Panama. Is it safe?”

Compared to Costa Rica – which has established itself as a prime ecotourism destination – Panama is surprisingly unknown to most people. Our main goal therefore is to familiarize you with the modern Panama, the path less traveled….

Safety
Panama City is a safe place to visit. Here’s why.

Panama – three cities in one
A modern city, a colonial heritage & the first Spanish settlement on the Pacific ocean.

Multicultural and authentic
What about seven indigenous tribes and a trading history that has resulted in the most varied mix of cultures of Latin America?

The Panama Canal
The seventh wonder of the world, period. This impressive feat of engineering will leave a lasting impression on anybody, a stunning testament to what humans can accomplish.

Natural diversity that equals Costa Rica
Dense jungle, 1518 islands , more bird species than all of North America most accessible, sea turtles on both coasts.

Panama’s fascinating history
From it’s pre-Columbian days to its separation from Colombia and the creation of the Canal, Panama’s history reads like a novel. Your language study will be intertwined with living history.

The climate
Welcome to the tropics. Being a city at sea level you won’t experience any chilly days or nights. Another good reason to take a break for language study.

Language & Leisure
Want to learn SCUBA diving? Play golf and learn Spanish? Have lunch at the beach and take a dive after your morning class or go (kite) surfing? Panama makes it easy.

Standard of living
Excellent roads (with lots of cheap taxis), drink water from the tap and air conditioning everywhere. And Panama simply has the most advanced communication infra structure of Central America.

The City of Knowledge
A former military base converted to create a cluster of academic and non-governmental institutions and technology companies. It’s pretty unique and we fit right in.

Close by and easy to travel to
Panama and Costa Rica are at very similar distances from major US gateways and served by all major airlines. And, it’s just one hour flying -east, not south – from San Jose to Panama City. Perfect for multi-country programs.

To find a class or a tutor to learn Spanish in Panama, to find out about investment, real estate, or offshore banking opportunities in Panama, or to find out where to go and what to do in Panama contact us.

Email us at The Panama Club

+507-836-6542 / 43 (Panama) | 1-(305)-503-9957 (USA)