I took two years of Spanish in High School a zillion years ago. Useless, except for learning pronunciation.
For a time, I worked at a Pet Cemetery in Huntington Beach; all of the grounds crew were Spanish speakers SOLO (alone) or solomente (collective "only") and they helped me with conversational Spanish, then I took a Conversational Spanish course when I got back into 9-1-1 dispatching after a two year hiatus.
I now speak what I call "Call box Spanish" because I worked in Dispatch Centers where we answered highway call boxes and it was necessary to assist so many callers. It's kind of specific to the situation, so I still needed to conference an interpreter on occasion. I paid attention to those interpreters to learn more.
I now work in a different environment, but the Spanish speaking janitor gal is learning English and we teach each other. She is invaluable to me - especially since she is fascinated by my keeping chickens! Yes, gallo and gallina is for living, breathing chickens, not food. Although she does ask me about my "pollitos" - chicks.
The name of one of my coops is Gallinas Lindas, both for "pretty hens" and honoring my name.
(The sign is on the coop, this is just to showcase it when I first got it.)
The descriptive adjective comes AFTER the word: Cielito Lindo, Beautiful Heaven (but Linda/Lindo is not really "beautiful" but more "cute." Bonita is pretty.
