Chile Forum

I also think 10 years is stretching it... I'm now in my 3rd year in Chile, and I had a year in Bolivia many, many years ago. My Spanish is reasonably fluent. I work from home in English, but my partner & his kids don't speak English, so my daily life is mainly Spanish. I think it would help working in a Spanish speaking environment, but that's not really an option for me. As others have mentioned, wages can be very low here.

zaebis mentioned this:

yes but u r assuming official employment. nanas (and a lot of grunt labor) always work under the table or with a contract (e.g. not FT job). Many (if not most) ppl in Chile dont earn anywhere near minimum wage being employed. Same holds true in all LA countries.

zaebis, can you quote where this information is coming from? It doesn't match up with what i've found, but then i'm in Antofagasta, and I know salaries are higher here than in other parts of the country. For example, the woman who comes a couple of times a week to clean for us earns more than the minimum wage in her 9-3pm job as a nana, then works every afternoon for cash. Other people I have talked to pay their nanas around $300.000 a month - pay less and you don't get anyone to stay. Other comments on the forum like Apple products being too expensive for most chileans also doesn't seem to be true here - it seems like every second person has an iphone! (This from my chilean partner who says everyone at his work eg nurses, paramedics, admin staff has the latest iPhone. Now he wants one).

Fugger wrote:

FrankPintor wrote:As for how long it would take to get fluent in Spanish, given complete immersion and having your better half as well as in-laws to interact with, 10 years is waaaay over the top.

I agree, 10 years seems significantly too high. Unfortunately I never had total immersion (never worked for a Chilean company, while family language is Spanish, I made an effort not to speak in Spanish with the children).

For myself I decided to take at least one DELE exam per year - for self-motivation purposes - and admittedly had to repeat the C2 level, so it took my 7 years. Once you reached B1 or B2 level, taking courses will not be of any assistance, so it comes down to do as much reading on your own as possible.

My pronunciation is still horrible, but I'd like to think that my vocabulary is better than for many educated Chileans.

This is excellent. I'd never heard of D.E.L.E., but just investigated. It's exactly what I need to complement my other studies, and would be very motivating for me, also. Thank you for mentioning it.
Love this forum.

rachelmarama wrote:I also think 10 years is stretching it... I'm now in my 3rd year in Chile, and I had a year in Bolivia many, many years ago. My Spanish is reasonably fluent. I work from home in English, but my partner & his kids don't speak English, so my daily life is mainly Spanish. I think it would help working in a Spanish speaking environment, but that's not really an option for me. As others have mentioned, wages can be very low here.

zaebis mentioned this:

yes but u r assuming official employment. nanas (and a lot of grunt labor) always work under the table or with a contract (e.g. not FT job). Many (if not most) ppl in Chile dont earn anywhere near minimum wage being employed. Same holds true in all LA countries.

zaebis, can you quote where this information is coming from? It doesn't match up with what i've found, but then i'm in Antofagasta, and I know salaries are higher here than in other parts of the country. For example, the woman who comes a couple of times a week to clean for us earns more than the minimum wage in her 9-3pm job as a nana, then works every afternoon for cash. Other people I have talked to pay their nanas around $300.000 a month - pay less and you don't get anyone to stay. Other comments on the forum like Apple products being too expensive for most chileans also doesn't seem to be true here - it seems like every second person has an iphone! (This from my chilean partner who says everyone at his work eg nurses, paramedics, admin staff has the latest iPhone. Now he wants one).

It is not my experience either. Chilean nanas by law get the minimum wage (usually much more). Few people would be foolish enough to not have them legally registered and pay their imposiciones. Nanas who don't want to be on the books find it very hard to get a job. No one wants to leave themselves open to future accusations, fines etc. Even nanas who come once a week need to be on the books if they come on a regular schedule. Occasional services: babysitting, random days of cleaning or extra help do not.

There are also no valid generalizations about all of Latin America. Labor laws and local customs vary widely from country to country.