You may think I take a long time to get to the point sometimes in English; you should hear me in Spanish! I use a strange mix of Tarzan talk (Me go there) and roundabout ways to say stuff, in order to use the few words I (sort of) know (Still I am please from Texas and I studying Spanish since 5 weeks today now until the 8th of May). All of us beginners (and that is almost all of us; there are 21 of us in the moron Spanish class; 2 students are in Intermediate, and 3 are in Advanced) have a long way to go, but we're way far down the road compared to where we began. Today, for instance, I understood many more words in church than I ever have before; however, they don't go together at all to form, say, a meaningful sermon or a communion devotional talk.
But we all are functional now, thanks to the hard work of our determined teacher Amelia and a lot of homework and study. We can go places and do things and actually get things done.
Example: OK, so there is almost nothing to cook with in the upstairs apartment, and I determine to buy a colander for draining pasta and vegetables and fruit that we've washed. First, walk several blocks to the
GayMar (next to Two Gays, I kid you not), which sells dishes and things.
Karen: Por favor, quiero comprar … ummm… una cosa para, no, por … (give up this unproductive language route and start down an alternate alley.)
Necesito un "colander," por favor. (blank look; after all, lots of people don't know the word colander in English. Try again.)
Despues de … ummm… que limpiar unas frutas … (lady shows me a scrubber to wash fruit; I see a closed conversational window and open another.)
Para … ummm… (I slide into a lingual portal where all the people are mute and gestures rule) …por el agua (then I gesture stupidly as if the water is pouring out through invisible holes.)
Saleswoman: ¡Ahhh, si! (She shows me a couple of colanders and says "laksljoigoien jepien guwoolle joeon lo0elw0j lwoen." At least that's what I hear.) I stand there awhile, looking for price tags, and, finding none and fearing another unintelligible "conversation," I select the cheap plastic one, thinking I'm pretty sure I can afford that one without having to try to break a big bill, which Uruguayans fear most in all the world and which brings on conversations I can't handle.
Go to check-out.
Different lady rattles off price, "llopnwdoiwpin- lppej onchwi."
I look at calculator, see price, pay that, and leave with a cheery "!Gracias!" to which she replies "Por favor.")
Nothing to it!
Karen: Por favor, quiero comprar … ummm… una cosa para, no, por … (give up this unproductive language route and start down an alternate alley.)
Necesito un "colander," por favor. (blank look; after all, lots of people don't know the word colander in English. Try again.)
Despues de … ummm… que limpiar unas frutas … (lady shows me a scrubber to wash fruit; I see a closed conversational window and open another.)
Para … ummm… (I slide into a lingual portal where all the people are mute and gestures rule) …por el agua (then I gesture stupidly as if the water is pouring out through invisible holes.)
Saleswoman: ¡Ahhh, si! (She shows me a couple of colanders and says "laksljoigoien jepien guwoolle joeon lo0elw0j lwoen." At least that's what I hear.) I stand there awhile, looking for price tags, and, finding none and fearing another unintelligible "conversation," I select the cheap plastic one, thinking I'm pretty sure I can afford that one without having to try to break a big bill, which Uruguayans fear most in all the world and which brings on conversations I can't handle.
Go to check-out.
Different lady rattles off price, "llopnwdoiwpin- lppej onchwi."
I look at calculator, see price, pay that, and leave with a cheery "!Gracias!" to which she replies "Por favor.")
Nothing to it!
18 comments:
For those who would like to study a more advanced level of direct-translation Espang~nyol, I recommend Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms.
Joe
That was halarious, haha...i feel like that sometimes in the midst of large group of people rapidly speaking spanish to each other...lol
Hahahahaha!!!! I always felt like the little slow girl at church. I think mentally they patted me on the head lots of times (some time they actually patted me on the head) when I tried to make it through a conversation.
Yes, after church yesterday, an older gentleman whose name I don't know, told me he could tell I was trying so hard (kind of a pat on the head for the slow girl)! Oscar preached, and he's the clearest for me to understand (Pablo's clear, too, in class, but a little fast when he preaches), so I was in fact trying hard--as opposed to just tuning out and reading my Bible, which is what I do lots of times! Martin taught class, since Pablo (ironically, as only you will understand, Autumn!) was absent, and he was SO much easier to understand than ever before. I actually caught LOTS of that lesson.
Rainy day catch up on your blog day...entertaining as always. Thanks for the birthday call to Delaney. She really lit up when she heard your message.
I find that international sign language works best when words fail, too!
Kurt says he wishes he could send you some of the cookies he's baking right now. YUMMY!
love to all,
Shelly
Yeah... I found Oscar to be the easiest to understand. I always gave Pablo I hard time when he didn't show. I got to where I could quote Heb 10:25 in Spanish. "No dejemos... something or another." I guess he was off filming a commercial.
Martin does a great job with class.
I miss all of them. Please give them my love.
As I was blundering through a conversation in France on my honeymoon. About halfway through what I felt was brilliant Frenglish this lady stopped me, deadpan looks at me, and says, "we can do this in English."
Do you get the feeling that most of the people you talk to speak English, but don't want to - would rather you blunder through in their language.
I know that about 90% of the non-English speakers that come into the office at some point chime back to a question I phrase - without waiting for the interpretation.
I love that hilarious honeymoon story! The other problem I have, Kenny, is often speaking Spançais or Franish or whatever, because, when I think in a foreign language, it's automatically French. So I mix up French and Spanish mercilessly, so much so that I'm wondering whether or not the gallophilic portion of my brain may have simply died from embarrassment.
And yes, a lot of people speak at least some English. However, not as many in Uruguay as in many other countries apparently. Plus, I think some people really want to help me out to learn, since I often begin with the magic phrase the girls taught me, "Estoy aprendiendo español," "I am learning Spanish." That phrase seems to turn the most hostile of Spanish speaker (one who rightfully, in my opinion, resents Americans who don't speak any other language) into a colleague in the learning process. It's really magical! :)
I love that hilarious honeymoon story! The other problem I have, Kenny, is often speaking Spançais or Franish or whatever, because, when I think in a foreign language, it's automatically French. So I mix up French and Spanish mercilessly, so much so that I'm wondering whether or not the gallophilic portion of my brain may have simply died from embarrassment.
And yes, a lot of people speak at least some English. However, not as many in Uruguay as in many other countries apparently. Plus, I think some people really want to help me out to learn, since I often begin with the magic phrase the girls taught me, "Estoy aprendiendo español," "I am learning Spanish." That phrase seems to turn the most hostile of Spanish speaker (one who rightfully, in my opinion, resents Americans who don't speak any other language) into a colleague in the learning process. It's really magical! :)
Confused between being French and Spanish - not sure if you should be drinking wine and surrendering, or drinking tequila and not working between 11 and 2. Either way, pretty good way to live.
Karen,
Too funny about the shops Tugays and Gaymar...and I confess that I have shopped at both...in fact some of our dinner ware at the CASA contaminated. I know that you all are off to Maachu Pichu. I really look forward to hearing how it all went down...or up for that matter. I sure enjoyed my visit with you and your family.
One last item....I must also confess that I misplaced, lost, or can't find the narrative you all wrote for the website. Could you send it to me? Blessings, Kevin
karen - I wonder how tyler and thom would do there - they both have pretty strong spanish - which is cheating, I think, for our learning Italian because they are blowing us away. I am honing up on phrases like "where is the closest english speaking person" and such - ciao. otre languages con difficult.
I had to laugh about mixing up Spanish and French. You should see the look on my Spanish speaking patients faces when I make these sort of Spancais instructions. They don't know if it is me or the pain killers! Anyway, finally went thru the process of subscribing so I can post so I'll try to check in more often. Love hearing about everything!
Gaah. I hope everyone has enough sense NOT TO CLICK THE LINKS on those random posts like those by akiogal and dumuro above.
They bring you to spyware sites....
joe
Yes, sorry Joe, about the CLICK HERE and other manipulative folks who stalk and pollute websites--those stupid-head spammers are so annoying. I'm trying to delete any of those folks who post on our site, but they catch me unawares on occasion. Hope nothing bad happened. GRRRR...
Karla, Shelly, and Lisa, Hi! It's GREAT to have my girls aboard the blog! I haven't heard from either of you in AGES! Are you well? How are things with you and yours? How does sometime in July look for a Camp Creek Girls' Scrappin' Time sound? Karla, would you check out some dates for us, pretty please? I will want to do my South America album, and you'll want to do the Italy thing by then, I suspect, as well.
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