I have been working for some time in a pretty heavily Hispanic workplace, and I’ve been learning spanish on my own pretty intensively for a few months, on top of already remembering quite a bit from high school and previous attempts at learning. I feel pretty confident in understanding and reading, and my work computer is in spanish so i know a lot of work terms. codigo de barras, etc. My question is when should i start trying to speak with my coworkers? A number of them don’t speak english very well so I’m not doing it to flex. but i still don’t want to be cringe in this particular way. Thank you for the advice.
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Not all of this video is about your problem but hopefully some useful tips you may be able to use. https://youtu.be/3i1lNJPY-4Q
You don’t have to start by switching entirely to Spanish, you can use it to clarify what’s meant if you’re having trouble understanding someone or they’re having trouble understanding you.
If someone doesn’t speak much English at all and I have a reason to talk to them I’d start right away. They’ll understand if you mess up, they’re also a language learner
I am 100% hispanic speaker, but i understand english too, if you want we can practice
Talk to the coworker you feel more closer and tell him you are trying to learn the language and you would appreciate if he could help you to practice unless it makes him uncomfortable. Do this when you ate very low workload without affecting your activities.