Language Hacks I Learned from My Immigrant Abuelo ✈️

Jorge and Acacia Buceta, my grandparents, boarding an Aerolineas Argentinas jet (Comet 4), 1965.

By Paul Ponce

Want to improve your language skills? Forget grammar drills. Forget waiting until you’re “ready.” Here’s how my abuelo hacked English—straight off the plane in 1965—with zero apps, zero classes, and definitely no Duolingo owl stalking him at midnight.

✈️ Windy morning. Ezeiza Airport, Buenos Aires, 1965.

That’s my grandparents in the photo, boarding a flight to the U.S. My abuelo? Airline exec. His English? Pretty much “hello, goodbye, thank you.”

So how did he become fluent? By being tossed into the fire: the FAA, contracts, airports, and a thousand awkward conversations.

One of his favorite stories: buying gas for his new Chevrolet Malibu. The attendant asked “cash or charge?” But all my abuelo heard was “keshachach.” He smiled, paid cash, and drove off. Later he figured it out—and realized something bigger:

👉 Real-world English is blended speech. “Gonna.” “Wanna.” “Lemme.” If you’re waiting for textbook-perfect English, you’ll miss half the conversation.

That’s how he built his English: one messy misunderstanding at a time. And those same hacks work for any language you need to land into.

My Abuelo’s Language Learning Hacks

1. Don’t panic. Smile. Panic makes you deaf.

2. Use the scene. Context, gestures, and tone give you half the answer.

3. Echo what you catch. Parroting invites correction.

4. Ask one blunt question. “Slower?” “Credit?” Short wins.

5. Watch, don’t guess. People love to demonstrate.

6. Get it in writing. Spelling clears the fog later.

7. Make tiny public bets. Coffee, gas, directions—low risk, high gain.

8. Save new chunks. 2–3 phrases a day. No more.

9. Laugh at mistakes. They’re not failures—they are the curriculum.

Immigrant English isn’t pretty. It’s not perfect. It’s scrappy, awkward, and full of “what the hell did they just say?” moments.

But it works.

So if you’re learning a language, stop waiting for perfect. Take off before you’re ready.

👉 What’s your own “keshachach” moment—a time when you totally misunderstood something in another language, but learned from it?