¿Habla Espanol?

Living in Costa Rica, I'm forced to speak a different language. Well not forced exactly—but it does make things a lot easier.

Recently I've noticed that there are actually three languages spoken in Costa Rica:

• Costa Rican Spanish
  
• Gringo "I Learned Spanish After I Moved Here" Spanish
  
• Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish

Costa Rican Spanish is —well—Spanish like the rest of Central and South America except for throwing in a few "pura vidas" and "vosotros"'s for good measure.

Gringo "I Learned Spanish After I Moved Here" Spanish and Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish, however, are noticeably different.

I speak Gringo "I Learned Spanish in High School" Spanish. I spent four years in high school learning right out of a text book, didn't speak it from 18-29, and then it thankfully all came back to me when I hit the Costa Rican border.

Learning a language via text book ("High School" Spanish) is extremely different than learning via immersion ("After I Moved Here" Spanish).

• I can't hear a word and learn it. Period. But once I see the spelling, I know it immediately.
  
• I know more verbs and conjugations than most of my recently arrived compatriate expatriates (say that ten times fast), but they know more nouns than I do. Why? Because sometimes when you are in a restaurant, they foget to give you a fork and you need to figure out how to ask for one somehow. So you just learn.
  
• I can usually speak far more than they can, but they can usually understand far more than I can. Which is quite funny when two of us are hanging out. One person does all of the talking, the other does all of the listening.