Written by admin on October 17, 2010 – 8:35 am
Ok so 3 more posts today that I’ve dug up – I’m an information JUNKIE on this stuff lately. Give em a browse and let me know what ya reckon. They’re just from a few different sites I’ve been surfing lately that are generally good for information like this…
forbes rich list « Ad me Up before you gogo
Houston ChronicleDuncan heirs added to Forbes richest 400 listBizjournals.comThat compares to his net worth of $3.6 billion on Forbes' list of the World's richest people in March. Other Houstonians on the list include: Hedge fund … …
Schedule update for Sept 25th-26th.
Unfortunately, our services during the weekend Sept 25th-26th will be unavailable. There is no scheduled appointments for these dates as of yet, which is why I wanted to give everyone advanced notice. Thank you greatly for understanding …
[World Wide News Flash] Boeing Space Taxi
By Mark Carreau HOUSTON ? For a commercial space transportation system to ferry crew to and from the International Space Station, NASA's astronaut corps prefers a rental-car model rather than a taxi model, says Chief Astronaut Peggy …
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¿Donde esta el baño? ¿Como esta usted? That pretty well sums up two years of high school Spanish taken as a college prep course almost 50 years ago! Of course, why would anyone ever need to know Spanish having never met a Mexican, let alone thought about going to Mexico? My, how times have changed!
After living in Houston for 25 years, we discovered that Mexico was only two hours away and that it had some very intriguing qualities to offer. In 1984 we bought a condo in Mismaloya, south of Puerto Vallarta, and made semi-annual visits to Vallarta for 13 years before buying a villa in the foothills of the Sierra Madres, overlooking Banderas Bay and El Centro, the downtown area of PV. When we moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, known as PV or Vallarta by the locals, ten years ago, our Spanish vocabulary consisted of about five words.
Fortunately, a few taxi drivers, most restaurant waiters, and some caddies spoke, or at least understood, a little English. In order to survive here, it was imperative to understand and speak some degree of Spanish. During our first month in Vallarta, we purchased text books, manuals, dictionaries, and hired a tutor to come to our villa twice a week. We worked diligently for almost six months, learning Spanish words, paraphrases, tenses, etc. so that we would have a chance of communicating with the locals.
To assist our learning process, we watched our Mexican TV which had about five channels; CNN, Mexican shows aimed at sixth graders, and American movies with Spanish subtitles. We would then turn off the volume and try to understand the movies by reading the subtitles. Not much fun, but the price you had to pay in order to live in Paradise where the average daily temperature during the “high season” of November through May is 73°F with virtually no chance of rain!
We spent that first summer back in the States and upon returning to PV, we got lazy and discontinued our studies. Satellite TV became available in Vallarta and we no longer had the five Mexican channels, but instead had 350 channels from the US. Fortunately for us, the tourism boom in Vallarta was just beginning to occur ten years ago.
During the past decade, there have been thousands of new houses and tens of thousands of new condos, new hospitals, a new University of Guadalajara campus, new airport, new maritime terminal, etc. built in Vallarta. As tourism increased, so did the requirement for speaking English by the locals. If they could understand and speak English, they could obtain the higher paying jobs where interaction with tourists is a routine occurrence. Jobs such as waiting tables, caddying, taxi driving, police department, clerking at front desks in hotels, offices, hospitals, airport, etc. and management positions in stores and other businesses could pay three times as much as construction work, daily labor, cleaning, etc. where there is no requirement for English speaking skills.
The difference in wages was so obvious and substantial that during the past ten years, most all of the younger generation of people in Vallarta are taking English classes in school and understand and speak basic English. Even those that haven’t had a day of classroom English have a good understanding of “Espanglish” and we therefore have absolutely no problem communicating with anyone in Vallarta.
Virtually all educated Mexicans in PV such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, bankers, nurses, teachers, etc. are fluent in English. In fact, the majority of these people seem to prefer speaking English with Americans and Canadians. Typical music in restaurants, bars, hotels, and even dental offices are the popular American songs. American magazines, newspapers, and books are available throughout the city, whereas ten years ago they were virtually non-existent.
In summarizing, having knowledge of Spanish is no longer a prerequisite for visiting or retiring in Vallarta.
The majority of the retirees that live in PV have little Spanish speaking ability and get along just fine. Most all tourists by plane or cruise ship have no knowledge of Spanish and they too have no communication problems. Obviously, Vallarta is not typical of Mexico, however, those considering a trip to or retirement in Vallarta with no Spanish speaking ability, should not be concerned about a language barrier here. At the rate things are changing in PV, who knows, English could become its primary language in another generation!
Jim Scherrer is a retired entrepreneur from Houston, has owned property in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for 24 years, and has made Vallarta his permanent residence for the past ten years. He founded Puerto Vallarta Real Estate Buyers´ Agents (PVREBA), whose mission is to reveal all the recent changes that have occurred in Vallarta while dispelling the misconceptions about living in Mexico. PVREBA acts exclusively as buyers´ agents by introducing North Americans to Vallarta, showing them properties that meet their needs and budgets, and assisting them through the foreign buying process, with all payments made by the listing agents. For the full series of articles regarding Retirement in Puerto Vallarta as well as pertinent Puerto Vallarta links, please visit us at http://www.pvreba.com/
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Scherrer
I hope you’ve been enjoying my posts lately. I thought I might do something different today and rustle up a few bits of info from around the WWW. These are some of the news items and blog posts that have been popular over the last few weeks. Leave me your thoughts.
Cabo San Lucas Lover’s Beach Wedding Photos | Austin, Dallas …
Austin, Dallas, Houston, and Destination Wedding Photographer Table4 Blog. Hi, my name is Jason Huang. And I'm a Dallas native who loves BBQ, Chick-Fil-A, southern sweet tea, and taking photographs. … The day after their wedding, the four of us took a water taxi to Lover's Beach, one of the most popular sites in Cabo. We shared the glass bottom taxi with another family and once we were dropped off at Lover's Beach, we had approximately 90 minutes to get all the photos …
Washington Ave committee – HAIF
I do like the idea of allowing Pedestrian, Pedicabs, Taxi's, and Jitney's only. They just need to be careful with how they approach this idea while not scaring the people away. They will need a lot more parking for availble for example. … Make it one-way westbound between Houston Avenue and TC Jester. Washington becomes one-way eastbound and narrowed to accommodate pull-in parking, wider sidewalks, and a wider-than-normal bike lane suitable for use by jitneys. …
Guy Robs Bank, Gets Away In Taxi — In Houston(!) – Houston News …
We've had bicycling bank robbers, banks robbers who waddled away, and now we've got a cool customer who… See more here: Guy Robs Bank, Gets Away In Taxi — In Houston(!) – Houston News …
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Have a great day!
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