While I often mindlessly reply “gracias” instead of thank you when I’m grateful for something my family or friends do at home, I found it exceedingly more difficult to say such a simple word when we visited Puerto Vallarta during the last week of winter break.

The mental roadblock I kept running into was the fact that everyone I met was expecting me to sound wholeheartedly American and not even make the effort to say, “thank you." The hotel staff joked with us as we said "hi" each morning, asking us “how much Spanish we were speaking today” and prompting us to say different phrases. To me, this feels like a gimmick for tourists and for a place like Puerto Vallarta that is heavily dependent on tourism, this comes as no surprise. It stems from the belief that tourists can travel wherever they want to and still expect everyone else to speak English and understand them. Honestly, this isn’t a bad thing and I’m fortunate to be fluent in a language so many people make an effort to learn. However, when speaking the actual language of the place you’re visiting turns into a joke, I feel a bit uncomfortable partaking in the awkward laughs.

I recognize this is a bit of a double edged sword, seeing as learning a new language is quite complicated and everyone is bound to sound out of place in the beginning. But I think there’s a distinction between people genuinely trying to learn and speak correctly, and people who phonetically (and terribly) keep pronouncing everything like an English word.

So, throughout the week I kept toying with what I should do. Attempt to speak Spanish and hope I didn’t receive the far too jovial affirmation for trying, or speak English and contribute to the general tourist superiority complex? I ended up with about a 50/50 split, feeling awkward either way. It didn’t help that half the time I kept forgetting the Spanish words for simple things, proving conclusively that five years of Spanish in public school does not translate to fluency.

General advice for anyone traveling soon: just try. Push past the awkwardness and do your best to sound as much like you know what you’re doing as possible. The effort will be appreciated and hopefully, you’ll mostly avoid the pity smiles.