Foreign Native

Rush hour traffic in Mexico City has reached the point of saturation. Gone are the days of boasting about this great little side road that brings you out just past the traffic light that’s causing the jam. The number of cars that come streaming out of all these so-called short-cuts and rejoining the main flow […]

Some mistakes among foreign speakers of Spanish are caused by the misuse of gender.
As a rule, feminine words end in an ‘a’ and masculine words in an ‘o’, and so do corresponding adjectives. But there are a number of exceptions, a common one being  “el problema,” which is masculine. It’s not unusual to hear foreigners use […]

Mexico’s national football (soccer) team manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has drawn some criticism after their 2-2 draw with Canada in the semi-final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
After stringing three home  victories together in his first games as manager, the former England boss’s next two matches were less impressive, a loss away to a […]

This past week, Mexico’s most famous drunk of the Internet era died - ironically run over by a woman driving under the influence of alcohol.
Guillermo López Langarica, popularly known as La Canaca, became famous when, after being arrested for drunk driving, argued: “so what? I haven’t crashed!”
The colorful Guadalajara character, known locally for his flowery […]

Arráncame La Vida, a film about the life of a politician’s wife in post-revolution Mexico, is the latest home-made Mexican film to challenge the host of Hollywood productions for the moviegoer’s money.
The film’s debut was an auspicious one, according to local press reports on the amount of people who saw it in its first week. […]

Someone once wrote of John Steinbeck that he was the sort of man who would rather be duped out of a dollar by someone with a sob story than risk refusing the money to someone with a genuine need.
In Mexico, there are plenty of opportunities to test the dilemma of the author of  Tortilla Flat. […]

Along with two verbs “to be,” Spanish also has two different verbs for “to know,” as well as two verbs “to have.” This may appear to complicate things, although it also allows for some subtle uses of language which aren’t immediately available when speaking English.
Of the two verbs to know, the irregular saber is generally […]

Mexico’s flirt with low-cost airlines could be coming to an end not too long after it got off the ground. The main reason is the high cost of jet fuel, which has led a number of airlines to cut back on flights, and several have been grounded for one reason or another - mostly involving […]

For a country where people read notoriously few books, and not too many newspapers, Mexico has a reasonably large number of newsstands and vendors - on just about every street corner, in fact.
The larger stands sell more than just newspapers. They usually stock a variety of magazines, and also sell “special” collections of DVDs, books, […]

If you spend some time in Mexico, sooner or later  you’ll come across the word chilango, probably in some derogatory way, such as “¡típico chilango!” or ” ¡tenía que ser chilango!”
Chilango is the name given to inhabitants of Mexico City, who are notorious in the provinces for being obnoxious when they venture out of town. […]