Almost 8 years in the country, gringa still doesn’t speak Spanish properly.

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - British woman, resident in the city for almost eight years, continues to offend and confuse locals with her questionable Spanish abilities.

Sarah Allen, 30, has been living in Cochabamba since September 2014 and claims to have taken classes from local language schools and completed considerable amounts of independent study - something that she does not display in many of her interactions with locals.

A former landlady of hers told us, "The day we met Sarah, she told us that she had gone to the US for treatment for extreme constipation. We were very concerned for both her well-being and the well-being of our facilities here. To travel all that way surely meant a very severe condition. However, we came to find out what she meant was training. I don't understand how you get those two mixed up."

We also talked to a mother whose child was in Sarah's class. "We went to a Mother's Day party, and after an emotional moment watching a video of our children telling us why they loved us, up flashed a message," she says. "Happy Breast Day!" The parent said this added an unexpected layer of confusion to what was otherwise an enjoyable day for the mothers and their children (who were, thankfully, still unable to read).

Sarah also reportedly requested that her classmates "move their men" in a Spanish lesson. "We were playing Simon Says to review the different body parts," said a classmate. "Then suddenly, she took it in a different direction. There was visible bewilderment throughout the room."

Additionally, she regularly tells people that her mother is sick rather than a nurse and that her father is a desktop printer. Equally, she often attempts to make English words Spanish when she cannot find the word, simply adding an e to the start and an o to the end.

"It's hard to believe that she's managed to function this long in a country that so often struggles to understand her," said one acquaintance. "I told her we don't call people the Pablo or the Jessica, but that appears to be a hard habit for her to kick."

We reached out to Sarah for comment but did not immediately receive a response. We are hopeful she may have been busy in Spanish classes - perhaps finally learning the subjunctive.

This post is part of a blog hop with Exhale—an online community of women pursuing creativity alongside motherhood, led by the writing team behind Coffee + Crumbs. Click here to view the next post in the series "Breaking News".