Comments on: Cutting grapes

By: Beryl Gorbman

Beryl Gorbman — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:57:59 +0000

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

By: Lin Dorton

Lin Dorton — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:15:34 +0000

I call these idiomasyncracies, and have started a series of them on my blog. This is a cute story.

By: Mexico Cooks!

Mexico Cooks! — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:39:14 +0000

Hey, I love feeling más mujer.
Cristina

By: SonoraTim

SonoraTim — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:46:22 +0000

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.

By: linda lou

linda lou — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:59:41 +0000

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.

By: Jonna

Jonna — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:54:46 +0000

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.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:10:23 +0000

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).

By: Anne Johnson

Anne Johnson — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:46:38 +0000

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?

By: Mexico Cooks!

Mexico Cooks! — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:21:32 +0000

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

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:01:44 +0000

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.