In episode 70 of Coffee Break Spanish I learned how to answer the telephone in Spanish – “Soy Diana.” That literally means “I am Diana”. I learned something else as well. The standard phrase for that in English (or at least in Scottish English as per Mark, the podcast host) is: “It is Diana.” as in “It is Diana who is phoning”.

Now it makes sense.. why quite a lot of times I would have to repeat myself when making a phone call. Because in my native language you answer phone with more like the way in Spanish rather than in English. So over the years I have used a rotating set of wrong phrases. Well now I know!

This is not the first time this has happened to me. I’m from Latvia, but I went to university in United States. I took French for 2 years. One of the classes I took was advanced French with emphasis on French culture. The funny thing is, I actually learned more about the American culture than the French. This is because I saw from what perspective Americans approached French culture which I was a bit more familiar with because I’m from Europe. I saw what they found weird about the French culture that to me seemed normal.

So, if you are living in a foreign culture and want to learn more about their culture, try taking a class with them about some other culture that you are more familiar with. You may be surprised. 🙂

As for Day 21 of month two, I got in 85 minutes. Here is the breakdown:
5  Duolingo
69 Coffee Break Spanish episodes 67-69
11 Memrise

Till tomorrow!