Bruh, I live in Oklahoma..... Not exactly NYC or south Florida.... There are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans & Mexicans around here but not as many as a larger city. The reasons there are Latinos in that live in Oklahoma because they were in the military and because Texas is next door. I need to start using it more though and you read me right..... I don't have the confidence to use it public.Yeah, I'm generally mindful of words and expressions.
You'll just have to put in the time like I have. It will become easier as you put in more work. I had a thirst for it when I finally decided that I wanted to become fluent, so I put in, at least, 2 hours daily. When you do that, you'll become more familiar with grammatical structuring and the expressions(modismos)that generally confuse people learning Spanish. I come across new expressions everyday that have me like

Learn them and then use them frequently so that you don't forget them and you can easily recognize them. Also, you can learn the nuances that will help you to learn how to translate other expressions.
Yeah, each country/culture generally has their own specific words..... Like "joder..." A word you'll never see in Mexico but is commonly used among Caribbean Spanish-speaking countries. Joder can be used interchangeably with chingar, however, it's meaning generally translates to "play/fukk with, screw over" and is considered vulgar.
Another nuance is within Dominican Spanish..... A Dominican taught me that Dominicans like to use animals /w wings(birds especially) to describe someone that is "gay" and volar(to fly) is used as "to be gay." Of course, this is slang and not meant to be used in a formal setting..... These are the types of nuances you'd never learn from a book.
Haha.... Too easy.... I ain't saying nothing though....