We got mostly Castilian (in my New York City school in the 1970s). I didn't notice anything odd at the time, because the only things written in Spanish that I wanted to read (i.e., not textbooks) were the poems of Pablo Neruda, and his Spanish was close to what I had learned.
Fortunately, when I started living in upper Manhattan in the late '80s, my Dominican neighbors were willing to meet me halfway, or more than halfway. Later, I understood the long telenovela PSA saga of Juan and Marisol, and could mostly understand El Diario/La Prensa, though my actually buying a copy, not just reading the headlines on other commuters' newspapers, surprised the man at the bodega downstairs. (The headline was about Subcommandante Marcos and the rebellion in Chiapas, and I knew there wouldn't be significant coverage in the local English-language papers).
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zvi
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Date: 2017-11-05 01:18 pm (UTC)Fortunately, when I started living in upper Manhattan in the late '80s, my Dominican neighbors were willing to meet me halfway, or more than halfway. Later, I understood the long telenovela PSA saga of Juan and Marisol, and could mostly understand El Diario/La Prensa, though my actually buying a copy, not just reading the headlines on other commuters' newspapers, surprised the man at the bodega downstairs. (The headline was about Subcommandante Marcos and the rebellion in Chiapas, and I knew there wouldn't be significant coverage in the local English-language papers).