Tita says: no sand tacos and no grape or nail cutting either. KTHXBAI
Learning a language is not a straight forward thing, at least for me. It goes in loops and whorls and there are good Spanish days and bad Spanish days and days when my brain seems to have forgotten even the most basic words that I’ve known for years. Sometimes, my brain just substitutes another sort of similar word and goes on. Lazy brain. Sometimes it’s funny, other times it is just run of the mill embarrassing. Here are a couple that happened recently.
I’m at the mall, getting some tacos, and the server asks me if I want corn or flour tortillas. I quickly ask for SAND tortillas. WTF? He’d just said the word for flour (harina), I’ve probably known that word for more than 20 years, but my brain substituted sand (arena) and thought it was good to go. He looked at me, thought, obviously got the error and gave me flour. I just slunk away.
I had all 3 dogs in the truck because I’d taken them out to run at the RV park. I was driving back past the vet and decided to stop in and see if they would trim their nails. This is something Mimi usually does but the vet does it for free. I run in to see if they have time and ask the receptionist if I can bring my 3 dogs in to have their GRAPES (uvas) cut.
She gives me an odd look and tells me that is surgery and I have to have an appointment. I still don’t realize what I’ve said so I look puzzled and say I thought I could just drop in. She’s in the process of telling me that it is a serious surgery when I realize I must have done it again. I start replaying what I’ve said and realize the problem. Except, now the old brain won’t come up with the word for nails (uñas). I fall back on making cutting motions on my hands and now she is really confused. Finally, the word slithers into my brain and I hold my hand up and ask if we can start again. We both laughed but mine was a little fake.
You must’ve been very *embarazada*!
OK, I admit that I have been a creeper! I’ve been reading your blog for a few months now and have never left a comment. I have really enjoyed seeing how you have renovated your house in Mexico, very inspiring! But what made me finally leave a comment is the blog about getting the “uvas” cut. I laughed out loud until I had tears in my eyes!! I am a preschool teacher in MN, I am the lone Spanish speaking staff member (minimal Spanish speaking skills) in our room and we have many Spanish/English speakers with us. Today we had a new child start who is completely Spanish speaking and a few times after saying something to him in Spanish he would look at me quizzically. I am afraid to find out what he told his parents about his first day at school. Thanks for the laugh!
We all do it. I constantly want to have my horse (caballo) cut instead of my hair (cabello). In my defense, I grew up with pelo not cabello as the word for hair.
Now, what I learned in drama was that if you flub a line, just go on, the audience will fill in what they are supposed to hear not what they actually heard. The taco guy probably heard harina.
The uva thing, I just don’t get unless the word for ovary is similar, or maybe she thought you wanted them declawed. Or did she think you wanted them neutered again?
The manicurist told me that when she is talking to Husband, she knows that Spanish isn’t his native language and when he says something odd, she stops, thinks about the topic and usually can figure out what he means. I guess she is more perceptive than most.
regards,
Theresa
And ‘embarazada’ but don’t usually use that in either case
I usually stop on nouns but never on gender or tense
Funny post
I have it worse some days as I have tried to learn German, French and Spanish, so sometimes I have to go through my brain files and find the right language first, then try and remember the correct word, then try and not mispronounce it.
Some days I just can’t come up with the word and have to go about explaining what I want some other way. Very frustrating when I know the Spanish word. Lately I have had a block about 13 and 30 for some reason when a spanish speaker says them they sound alike to me. Grrrr, I know better…..
I’m so glad I had swallowed and put my soda down!
I didn’t, Mimi, and now I’m cleaning off my monitor. It’s those damned nouns. ;^)
Yeah, I never try and say I’m embarrassed in Spanish. The odds of a mistake are too huge plus me abochorno just doesn’t have the right ring to it. (for non Spanish speakers, embarazada means pregnant in Spanish not embarrassed. It’s one of the standard false cognates and lends itself to all kinds of misunderstandings.)
Theresa and I had a great conversation about this tonight and she said something I thought was really true. If you are in a taco stand, whatever you say they should assume it has to do with ordering food, not zippers or sand or beach balls. So, most of the time even if you butcher it, a smart listener will be able to guess what you want.
and yes, it’s those damn nouns again. Did you know internet, that nouns are the first thing to go when you get senile. You’ll remember the description, round, white, small, hard, you throw it, etc but you won’t remember the word, baseball. Goodie, I’m losing nouns in two languages now.
Julia, sesenta and setenta (60 and 70) are the numbers that sound very similar in my ears. It can be confusing when trying to be a sharp bargainer, I’ve raised the price a couple times
Back in ’89 I was thrown into a situation where I needed to learn French for survival purposes. Thirty years earlier I had taken four years of French in high school (two years of first-year French and two years of second-year French barely passing the second year of each). While I never became “fluent” with the language I did become “proficient” at it, and during the process I did some reading about how the brain processes languages.
A person’s primary language is located in a specific part of the brain and it is the same place for every person in the world. However, a second language will find a home in another part of the brain and that spot differs with each individual. Sort of analogous to the way a hard drive uses whatever empty space it finds on the disc to store information. Additional languages find available spots as they are added. So Julia’s comment about going through her “brain files” is absolutely correct.
I am retiring to Panama and am struggling with adapting to learning Spanish as I approach my 7th decade and though I’m beyond the “donde esta el baño” phase and am able to hold a basic conversation with people I find that my tongue sometimes freely substitutes French words for their Spanish equivalent no matter how hard I try to avoid it.
Is the verb *abochornar* used much in your part of the world? I have never heard it used anywhere in Mexico–but I haven’t been to Mérida yet.
In the Central Highlands and everywhere else I’ve been (28 of the 31 Mexican states), the way to say, “I’m embarrassed” is “Me da vergüenza” or “Me da pena”. Either one is MUCH easier to say than abochornar and is immediately understood by all and sundry. Try it in Mérida, I bet they use it there too.
xoxo to you both
Cristina
I constantly forget words and I speak only English! I try to appease myself by believing I have so very much information inside my brain that it is not always possible to come up with the correct item every time.
Enjoying your blog so much. I see Tita is getting to be quite a lady. Has she calmed down any?
J:
It happens, even to us native speakers. Theresa gave you excellent advice.
Sluff it off and move on.
If you are talking about embarassment, I’d use the “Me da vergüenza” that Cristina mentioned. If you say “Me da pena,” I’m concerned that in some tongue tied moment you’ll say “pene” instead and indicate something involving penises. Yikes!
The apt looks simply wonderful. Kudos to the Mimster (and Sky).
Cristina and Mike, thanks and I’ll remember (sometimes) to use me da vergüenza for embarrassed. I had no idea how to say it, no one that I know of has ever had the need to say that to me, so I just looked it up. I will stick to that phrase since I really don’t need to add a penis to the pregnant confusion.
Theresa meet Mike, Mike meet Theresa. You are my two Cuban-American friends and I love that you’re meeting here.
Good luck with Spanish Richard. I too took many years of French and it has helped because I understand the structure better and often the root is the same or similar.
Anne, Tita has calmed down some and she now competes with the kitten for affection which is a big improvement over her previous attitude. She’s still horrid with strangers but she’s gotten much better with me.
I love it when I hear about other people doing this. I do this way too much, way too often. My worst is introducing my mexican friends to mi esposa, senor. My other bad is asking someone if they are mas mujer instead of mas mejor. A policia friend of mine recently moved locations. I asked him, in front of his family, if the new location was mas mujer. His wife and old tia could not stop laughing.
Nice website. Great story. I’m Mexican American and my parents speak nothing but Spanish & that happens to me from time to time. As long as the person you are trying to communicate with understands your trying to come up with the correct word… they are usually pretty patient. The locals just get a real good kick out of it.
Hey, I love feeling más mujer.
Cristina
I call these idiomasyncracies, and have started a series of them on my blog. This is a cute story.
Glad to hear other people are making these mistakes. I thought it was just my advanced age. My worst mix-up is cansada and casada. Then there’s huesos and huecos.
b