I worked in Dallas for a year and was conversational in mexican dialect. I made it a point to learn 5 words a day. every day. Now that Im here and they expect me to I refuse to speak spanish. And cubans pretend they cant understand a word if you dont speak their dialect. Ive asked people ,in spanish, how long have you lived here? if they say longer than a year I say to them "and you speak no english?". One girl I gave a break to as she apologetically told me 8 months.