Tag: Spanish

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Hopefully my Spanish sounds better

The other day while speaking with one of my long term Spanish tutors via Skype I made the comment that my Spanish was too poor to have been studying the language for as long as I have.

A few days later he sent me his video.  The comment basically translates as “imagine you have been studying English for 5 years and you ended up speaking like this guy.”

Of course he sounds like every other good old boy I have ever known in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas or Missouri.  One of my self-deprecating jokes is that I speak Spanish with a Southern accent, and it is not from the south of Spain.

Years ago I wrote a blog posting My Chinese Nightmare that was a take on this theme.

And so it goes.

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Un Chicago or Una Chicago

Porous Frontiers

You do not really need to know another language to know that linguistic frontiers are very porous, resulting in words from one language being incorporated into another.

English is a wonderful example of this, beginning life as a Germanic language that imposed itself on the native tongues of what was to become Scotland, England and some extent, Ireland.  That mash-up, in its turn, having Nordic languages stamped on top of it.  The Normans were so kind as to invade, Continue reading “Un Chicago or Una Chicago”

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Spanish Tutor Cracked Me Up

You are going to need just a wee bit of background to appreciate this… or not.

There is a stereotype involving Latino mothers – especially Mexican mothers – involving their ability to do accurate long distance child correction using a well launched chancla, chancla being the Spanish word for flip-flop. Practically every Latino I have spoken to more than casually has a chancla story. If you doubt the stereotype, just type chancla into the YouTube search box and you will have a wide selection to choose from.  One of my favorites can be found at this link: Hispanic moms don’t miss with that chancla or the video at the bottom of this post.

I’ve been working with a Mexican young man, Saúl, via Skype for Continue reading “Spanish Tutor Cracked Me Up”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #7,420

There is one word in Spanish that I should never had had to learn, tiroteo.  The literal translation is shooting, but they seem to use in the sense of mass shootings.

Obviously with the situation with guns here in the United States, with mass shootings seemingly happening every week, sometimes multiple times, if you are discussing the news with someone in another country, the subject of mass shootings is going to come up.

It is one word/concept that I wish I had never heard of… or learned in another language.

And so it should not go.

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Interesting Cultural Difference

In my Spanish class this morning we were practicing the grammatical structure used in Spanish when talking about hypothetical situations.  My teacher kept pushing me for more examples, and I was struggling to come with some after the first rush of inspiration.  So I made up one about growing horns and chasing Señora around the house…thinking I was talking about being a bit randy (or horny, if you prefer) which, lamentably, is occasionally hypothetical as I continue this head long rush of aging.

“Oh Señor, I am so sorry,” my teacher said to me.  Apparently in Mexico and probably other Hispanic countries when they say a man has grown horns it means his woman is running around on him behind his back aka he is being cuckolded.  But it can apply to the woman too.  He showed me a painting by the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, of herself,  as a deer, with a huge rack of antlers and her  body pierced by many arrows.    Her husband, the Mexican muralist, Diego Rivera, was famously a less than faithful spouse.

Vive les différences culturelles.

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Nice Compliment?

I have started working with a new iTalki.com teacher on my Spanish language learning journey, a young accordion player – accordions being prominent in Mexican music – from Guadalajara, Mexico.  He has a Masters in French, but teaches Spanish online as there is more demand for it and he can charge more. Besides Spanish and French, he also speaks some Italian and wee bit of Arabic.  While he speaks English, he does not list it on his iTalki profile as he is after more advanced students. As he said to me, he does not want to be someone’s dictionary.  I know he lived in Chicago for a while, actually not too far from Barrington.  However, given the size of the Hispanic community in the Chicago area, it would be very possible to live there and only speak Spanish.

The other day for some reason he asked me what I thought of my Spanish. Being the wise ass that I am I used the line I use with waiters in Mexican restaurants, hablo español como un perro negro, I speak Spanish like a black dog. It never fails to elicit a laugh from a waiter.  I went on to say, in Spanish, that I speak a very Gringo type of Spanish, and I wish I was more fluid than I am.

His reply to me was, “I just wish my English was as good as your Spanish.”  Of course, I have never conversed with him in English to know the level of his English skills  but nevertheless I am going to take it as a compliment.

And so it goes.

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Corn on the cob

This morning I had a session of Spanish conversation practice with a young indigenous woman from Guatemala, Zelaida Guox.  She is currently going to school to become a teacher.   She had on a pair earrings that were small plastic corn cobs, maize – corn – being very important in the cultures of Mexico and Central America.

We talked about her earrings for a bit, then she asked me if we eat corn here. Claro que sí, señorita… But of course we do, corn on the cob being a very typical food of summer. I then went on to describe how we tend to soak our corn on the cob in butter.  She thought this a little strange. She then described how they commonly eat corn on the cob in Guatemala.  One way is that they squeeze lemon juice, followed by salt, followed by squeezing lime juice on the cob.  Or they put ketchup (salsa dulce) on their corn on the cob or sometimes mayonnaise.  I had heard the mayonnaise addition before, and I am betting it is very good.

Something different to try next time you have one of the emblematic foods of summer.

And so it goes.

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Lemonade

“Si del cielo se caen limones, aprende a hacer limonada.”

Or in English, “If lemons fall from the sky, learn how to make lemonade.” Obviously very similar to the common proverbial phrase here in the United States, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, belaboring the point, an expression meant to promote optimism.

One of my iTalki Spanish tutors, Moisés, lives in El Salvador.  He is an interesting gentleman, and our conversations flow easily and cover a wide array of subjects.  He frequently speaks of his father Continue reading “Lemonade”

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Yiddish for a Good Marriage

Senora when she gets upset or annoyed with me – yes, I know, hard to imagine – has a tendency to call me something in Yiddish.  Not knowing exactly what she is saying, although I am picking up on her tone of voice and expression, I just smile at her.

All o f which started me hypothesizing  that perhaps the secret to a good marriage is not understanding what your partner is saying… at least at times.  So far I have resisted the urge to test my hypotheses by going tit for tat with her using my Spanish against her Yiddish.

But I am wondering how you  do say, “Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words never will” in Yiddish.

And so it goes.

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La Fiesta de San Juan

One thing I really love about studying español is my conversations with people in other countries. Via Skype, I can practice and sharpen my burgeoning skills (do I dare insert LOL here) with the language.  I love it because I get to learn about other countries and other cultures.  When they asked me questions about my country and culture, I sometimes see our practices, our attitudes, our beliefs in a new light, perhaps I am even forced to re-exam some of my own long held tenets. Occasionally, I am at a lost for an answer. Try explaining our gun laws to a foreigner, it somewhere between very embarrassing and impossible. As a whole, I have learned how similar we human beings can be, while appearing very different.

Via Skype, I was visiting with a young accounting student, Konrad, who lives Continue reading “La Fiesta de San Juan”

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