Joy of different languages … idiomas son tan locos!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015 Mexico 0 Comments

I am sitting in the lab and suddenly “kurva” here, “kurva” there. It’s like being home, hahaha. Noo, I am joking… It would be only an ordinary word which means the “curve” in English. However, this Spanish word means in Slovak “a bitch”. When we continue, Spanish bitch ‘puta’’ means Slovak “handcuffs” I definitely had some fun explaining each of the meaning. The only problem is that the fisheries lab is full of kurvas, kurvos, and kurvitas…and most probably this word have reached the wider audience considering the enthusiasm of my friends. Haha, I think I created the mexicano-colombiano monsters. I hope they will forget it soon but something tells me it won’t happen. Just like different forms of my name. My second supervisor somehow (surprise, surprise) forgot my name and so he called me “Conchita” which seemed to be really funny for everyone around but it’s not at all. In Europe this is the name of our Eurovision song winner “Conchita Wurst”. If you don’t know who is she/he then look it up I won’t go into details. The other time I was called Matilda by him and I also often hear versions such as Hana, Chana, Diana or Llana. Ese no es mi nombre (that's not my name), I often say! The other thing that most of the people don't get is the fact that I am not GRINGA, which is how the American people are being called by Spanish-speaking people in Latin countries. The gringo/gringa originated from the words "green" and "go" and this refers to the desire of some locals to have the U.S. military (who allegedly wore green uniforms) leave the island by telling them: "Green, go!"

Besides this craziness…I managed to teach my colleagues some Slovak words…in my classic way, so we started with Ahoj – Hola/Hi, Ako sa mash? – Como estas/how are you?, Dobre – Bien/Good, Dakujem – Gracias/Thanks and A ty – y tu/and you? When we played volleyball one day I taught my friend how to say “mueve tu culo”...(*mas educado, mueve tu trasera) – Pohni ritou, apparently very useful in this play! Sadly my most favourite word “cucoriedka” doesn’t have so much fame over here as it had in England. 

 

What is better than learning new words by songs? Other day, my friends got an idea to translate a Colombian hit song "Serrucho" (The saw) by El Presidente, which is by the way a huge hit here in Mexico...catchy beat with some of the weirdest lyrics I have ever heard. Rather random words which definitely have some double meaning beside: "Yo soy su campintero...serrucho, serrucho, serrucho" (I am her carpenter, the saw, the saw, the saw). Now my friends Trixie, Manuel and Elena are enjoying the Slovak version: "Ja som drevorubač, pila, pila, pila".

Overall, it’s nice to watch how people like getting involved in new things. They are curious just like me and I am really enjoying being part of this environment even after such a short time I spent hereI really hope to progress in my Spanish although it’s a bit difficult as I don’t have any normal classes and so I can only learn from what I hear or ask. However, I take on this challenge no matter what it takes. The languages are the source of freedom for me. To be able to communicate freely with anyone is such a treasure! One of my aim is to write some post in Spanish in the end of my stay here. Hopefully, I will be able to do it. So Please, keep the fingers crossed for me.