The predominant language that you're going to speak in Peru is Spanish, but if you get more towards the mountainous, more elevated, the more southern parts of Peru, especially in the Ayacucho zone, you might actually have to speak the Quechua language. I recommend just immersing yourself in the language. And don't worry if you make a mistake, you will. More important than speaking flawlessly is speaking sincerely and earnestly.
This is like the most important thing because once you can speak to them, they are obsessed with you, they think you're wonderful. If you have light a share, like I'm brunette, but they think I'm blonde, right? So they call me Barbie, like they love you if you know their language, okay? So you just have to speak and just like have no fear. They won't be rude. They're the kindest people in the whole world. So they'll tell you what you have to do to be better and definitely talk to the little kids and the older people, older people are very gentle, but the younger kids will tell you what's up and tell you the truth, which is very nice because sometimes the older generation doesn't wanna tell you because they think they're offending you when they're just, you know, critiquing you.
One piece of slang that you may need to know there is the slang that people use when they say esta que. So an example of that would be esta que come, and what that really means is esta comiendo. So in English that would be he's eating, but what they're actually saying in Spanish is he... it doesn't even make sense. But that's what it means. If somebody says esta que duerme, that means he's sleeping. Esta que habla, that means he's talking. That's just one thing that a lot of people say to you, and they'll say it really fast, but it's good to know because it is pretty common.
Just really listen to how the people talk there. They kind of sing their words. They use a special tonation with a lot of their words. And it sounds really weird at first if you already know Spanish, but I would say it's really important to try and mimic the way they speak, which has a lot of influctuations with their tone. And if you can do that, then the people will be able to trust you more because when they understand you better and when you speak like them, then they're more willing to trust you.
The tip that came to my mind for learning the language is don't take it personally if the Peruvians like critique your Spanish. That happened to me a lot when I was first living in Peru and honestly throughout my whole time there they would tell me that my Spanish was bad or that like my accent was bad, but I decided to take it as a chance to learn. I would ask them like, okay, what can I do? Like, what do you suggest? And I found that people were really willing to help me. They saw that I was trying to learn the language and they wanted to help me, so I totally suggest that. Like, get advice from the Peruvians on how you can improve your Spanish and it looks different for everyone.
I would just say, to put it simply, do not read anything in English. Anything that you have in English, do everything in Spanish right off the bat and you will do just fine. If you hear a word that you don't know and you hear it multiple times throughout the day, write it down, figure it out. Do everything in Spanish and you'll be one of the fastest learners. If you can just purge all of the English out of you.
Just talk. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. I mean, you're going to make mistakes, this is not your first language. And people know that, and they're going to be like, oh, your Spanish is so good, or wow, your Spanish needs help. But that's okay, because that's just their opinion, what they think. And don't be afraid to just ask people, what does this mean? Or how do I say this? Or say it in a way that maybe doesn't make sense at first, but then people will help you. So just speak because Peruvians are kind, and they're going to help, and they don't judge.
One language tip that I took a while to learn is that when Peruvians say todavía it actually just means no. So todavía literally it means like not yet but if you ask someone if they are okay with you visiting them they'll say todavía and you can try to say oh then when would work and they'll say todavía. So really todavía means no.