Friday, June 11, 2010

Language Lessons

So, I've been taking Spanish classes down here in San Miguel de Allende and been fascinated by slang and idiom... so I thought that I would share a few with our readers.
The new (and not so new) slang:
Chido = cool
juey= a not very nice term, meaning stupid, derived from a word for ox, but used by the teens as a term for their friends.
"¡Que padre!" or "¡Muy Padre!" = cool


Short Rhymes:
These are some phrases like when we say "See you later, alligator" "After a while, Crocodile."
"Okay, mague." literally: "Okay, aloe plant", but means "okay."
"¿QuĆ© te pasa, calabasa?" lit. "What's up, pumpkin?"
"Nada, nada, Limonada." lit. "Nothing, nothing, Lemonade."


Other phrases:
"Ponerse los cuernos" lit, "put horns on you" or "Venado" lit. "deer"- this means to be made into a cuckold- when your significant other or spouse is cheating on you.
"a la orden"= "I'll loan it to you."- a typical response if someone compliments your clothes or jewelry.
"Juzgas a la ligera" - to judge or jump to conclusions about someone.


One word in English, for 2 in Spanish:
in English, "feedback" has multiple meanings- if I understand it correctly it is a response or a looped effect (response or electrical) that returns to its source and impacts the present or future of a system.
In Spanish:
verbal feedback is "retroalimentaciĆ³n"
audio feedback is "desajustado"


Just a few words:
"apodo"= "nickname"
"empate" = "tie" As in: "Today, Mexico was in a tie with South Africa in the Mundial."
"Mundial"- "The World Cup" (Soccer is pratically a religion here.)
"Monje"= "monk"
"Fraile"= "Friar"
"Flojo" or "Floja" = characteristically lazy
"gula"= "gluttony"
"chantaje"= "blackmail"


En-ton-ces... I hope you enjoyed your mini-Spanish course.  I'm certainly enjoying my studies here in Mexico!


- Kat

1 comment:

  1. Well, I am just so glad that "Que te pasa, calabasa" is still cool! And I love "My Mama!"...lol

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