# Looking for a place near expats in or near Tijuana



## monkeybutt (Feb 20, 2015)

Hi, I'm currently looking for a place to live short term while I decide to live in Mexico. I'm in Playas de Tijuana now, looking at apartments but so far the thing that is the bothering me the most is I haven't met any expats. I like meeting locals but my Spanish is not as good as I thought it was (4 years in high school) so it's been tough meeting people and learning the culture. If anyone would like to meet up and maybe go on a tour I'll buy you lunch or dinner.


----------



## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

Your Spanish will improve while you search for other expats. If you find too many, your Spanish will not improve nearly as fast.


----------



## monkeybutt (Feb 20, 2015)

Thanks. It has improved. Yet I have a fixed budget (and thus fixed time a week or two more). Once I have a stable place to live that will be my next priority.


----------



## mes1952 (Dec 11, 2012)

you're going to find that in Baja the places that cater to ex-pats are usually more expensive than regular housing so don't think you'll find anything cheap. Many Americans on limited income move to Baja thinking they will save a lot of $$$ only to discover the opposite. Anything American including stores such as Walmart are more expensive than using Mexican stores. I have seen this happen so many times with those who refuse to assimilate into the local culture. Also if you have a problem it's highly unlikely expats will be able to help you so it is in your self-interest to learn some Spanish and make friends/acquaintaines with locals rather than sequestering yourself with expats.


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

Hey Monkeybutt! Yeah, you’re looking in the right place. By way of contrast, Playas is the opposite of Rosarito and Ensanada, which have big communities of expats and a heap of businesses set up to specifically service their needs. You won’t find either of those things in Playas, which is why I enjoy living here and you might too…. It’s a fun, cheap, vibrant place. The few expats I’ve come across over the months are transient, here one day and gone the next. There's hardly even a miniscule established community, so not surprising you didn't run into any expats. If you make a few more posts, message me and I’d be happy to meet up and show you the area. The complex where I live, right on the beach, has a couple of apartments available too btw.


----------



## diablita (May 7, 2010)

monkeybutt said:


> Hi, I'm currently looking for a place to live short term while I decide to live in Mexico. I'm in Playas de Tijuana now, looking at apartments but so far the thing that is the bothering me the most is I haven't met any expats. I like meeting locals but my Spanish is not as good as I thought it was (4 years in high school) so it's been tough meeting people and learning the culture. If anyone would like to meet up and maybe go on a tour I'll buy you lunch or dinner.


I don't understand why someone would want to move to another country to be with others of their ilk instead of wanting to mingle with the locals. It makes no sense to me. And not being somewhat fluent in the local language beforehand is another enigma. I decided I wanted to live in Mexico only after I had vacationed there several times. To prepare I took 4 courses in Spanish at a local community college and practiced with co-workers at my job. Due to vacationing in Acapulco I had made several friends there, visited their homes to get the lay of the land and found an apartment to my liking in my price range waiting for me when I was ready to move. Everything went very smoothly. But I guess that's just me. There is a lot that I don't understand.


----------



## buzzbar (Feb 9, 2013)

I think that’s being a little sanctimonious and judgmental - the poster simply said he wants to meet expats in an area where there are few.


----------



## claybob (May 6, 2015)

I'm also interested in the expat community in Tijuana - specifically Playas De TJ.

We spent some time there last fall and I didn't run into any expats. I really hope to connect with a few just to get a better understanding of life in the area and specifically the border crossing situation.

I was able to get around in Playas with just my broken Spanish and a translator app on my smartphone, but one goal of our relocation to the area would be to improve my Spanish.


----------



## KaiyanaM (Feb 10, 2015)

Hey  I've been living in TJ for about a year and a half with my boyfriend Nd our 8 month old son. I too, know very little Spanish :/ but am slowly learning. Would love to meet fellow expats!


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I did not speak a word of Spanish when I moved to Mexico and learned it here, everyone is different. There is nothing wrong to decide to move to another country not speaking the language, it just makes the move a little more difficult.
Some people learn languages easily and others cannot ever become fluent, that is another fact. I do not know the reason for it seems to be the reality.
People associate with people they feel comfortable and there is nothing wrong with that either. People move to Mexico for various reasons and learning the language and the culture is often not a priority so be it..


----------



## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

citlali said:


> I did not speak a word of Spanish when I moved to Mexico and learned it here, everyone is different. There is nothing wrong to decide to move to another country not speaking the language, it just makes the move a little more difficult.
> Some people learn languages easily and others cannot ever become fluent, that is another fact. I do not know the reason for it seems to be the reality.
> . . .


The fact that you were already bilingual when you moved here, made learning a third language easier. It has something to do with how learning a second language changes the language-learning part of your brain. And the fact that you are a native speaker of French made learning Spanish easier since they are, so to speak, linguistic cousins.


----------



## xolo (May 25, 2014)

My experience is that the great majority of people are about the same in their ability to learn other languages as an adult, which means that almost everyone can. The big differentiator is the motivation, it is a major time commitment to learn another language.


----------



## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

más chueco que la fayuca said:


> My experience is that the great majority of people are about the same in their ability to learn other languages as an adult, which means that almost everyone can. The big differentiator is the motivation, it is a major time commitment to learn another language.


Age and deafness trump motivation for many.

I recently saw an article that claims ease or difficulty in learning a language is in your genes.

Then, there's the ease with which young children not only can pick up languages easily, but know which one to use with which relative. My mother grew up in a large extended family which included immigrant grandparents from two different countries, and all the kids knew three languages as a result, including English.

It's all a puzzlement.
:juggle:


----------



## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

The most difficult language is the second language which for me was German after that your brain has it figured out and I learned English and Spanish without ever trying to translate. I started English when I was 14 and Spanish when I was 53.
I have been studying Tsotsil and there, there is no help from any language I know so it is much more difficult but I can pick up some of the Tseltal which is close to Tsotsil, that is for the understanding part, the spoken part is way more difficult for me.
I think you either pay attention to what you hear or you do not and with age the not paying atention part gets worst. If you do not try to listen then you never learn.
Not all young children learn languages easily, my sister was good and my brother was awful.


----------



## xolo (May 25, 2014)

Yes there are lots of factors to learning a language but I firmly believe almost anyone can learn if they want. I teach undergrad Spanish and I see this. My investigation area concerns an indigenous language and yes non-Indo-European languages are a different issue.


----------



## RVGRINGO (May 16, 2007)

I have noticed that most estadounidenses try to translate word by word, which doesn‘t work too well, and that they also avoid learning verbs and conjugations early on. As a result, they cannot form even simple sentences. Yes, listening well to phrases will help a lot, as will at least one hour a day with an online tutor like Duolingo (free online).
I also agree that the first new language is the most difficult, but even a high school stint of three years will help if the language is put to use and not allowed to fade. 
Subsequent languages will come much easier, but I am personally aware that they can fade away very quickly if not used regularly; especially when fluency is never reached.
That said, the average person on this planet seems to be able to manage in three or four languages, and I once knew a five year old with fluency in five and a 75 year old with 13 languages and not a word of English. The kid had a very multi-cultural family and was ‘the interpretor‘, while the old gentleman was a poet, who had worked on railroads in many countries in the earlier days of rail.


----------



## billgreenthal (Jun 9, 2015)

I live in Real del Mar 10 min South of Playas off the scenic coastal highway between you and Rosarito.


----------

