My story: I had a challenge. I had to move to Mexico for my health and retire. Sure, I spoke English, a few words of French from high school, about 12 words of Spanish which might wind me up in fight or worse in a Mexxican jail, yeah – mostly curse words.I was in trouble and when I arrived in Mexico, I needed help.
Luckily, I met Reuben Varela, a well known Restauranteur at the Balneario Hot Springs in San Juan Cosala, Jalisco, Mexico and Gerardo Tolentino, an English teacher who was teaching 1st year English.
Reuben pushed me to find ways of studying and practicing Spanish, and Gerardo help me create the Gringo Guide. I was the gringo — and I definitely had to have a guide to get me through the experience of living here in Mexico.
We searched the internet, and books on Spanish, and listened to conversations in the English speaking sections of restaurants in Ajijic and San Miguel de Allende where most of the gringos hang out.
By the time we were finished, so was the book and we had part of it recorded so that pronunciation would be no problem for anyone to learn. The book was finished and put up on our site speedread.org