A dispute on (Mexican) Spanish.

My one (Mexican) coworker at the rest home sometimes lets me talk to her in Spanish, and the other day I was telling her about going to see a film and I used the word “la peli,” but she didn’t know what that was and she corrected me to “la pelicula.”

So, I broke into English and told her that I had just seen a (younger) (Mexican) friend use that word on Facebook for “la pelicula,” so I had assumed that it was okay.

She still hadn’t heard of it.

So, I had to take out my phone and google “la peli” to show her that it was okay to use that in some Latin American cultures, and of course it was.

I wonder if she’s been here so long that maybe with the media she watches and her being off the internet and the people that she talks to, she isn’t necessarily plugged into the words that a person from the same country who’s 40 and under might say?

I told that to her, and she thought that it could be the case.