senorsuitcase
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- Joined
- Aug 11, 2010
- Messages
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- 34
So – we’re back in BA and, having honed our wilderness survival skills in Patagonia (first things first), we’re now trying to improve our Spanish. After all, there are only so many times you can say “Muy bien. Y vos?” to the doorman before he is forced to duck under the desk every time you emerge from the lift.
Back in the UK we had somewhere in the region of a lesson a week for a year. All of this tuition has furnished us with the combined ability to say “thank you”, “medium rare”, and “is there a library near here?”. No offence to our teachers, who were all excellent, but as the old adage goes, if you don’t use it you lose it, and we weren’t speaking much Spanish in SW London (unless you count asking for chorizo at the Waitrose deli counter).
So, on Tuesday we ventured down to Beerlingual at Sugar Bar. It’s essentially a bi-lingual pub quiz and it’s a lot of fun. Aside from the glory of winning the prize of a scary red-eyed frog (?) for Best Team Name (“Quizteam-a Fernandez” – a nod to the president), we were still left with far more preguntas than respuestas.
Next week we are stepping up the campaign further with a full week of lessons. Hopefully this will finally equip us with the ability to speak in the past tense. At the moment we speak only about the present and the future. Although you could argue this is a very healthy way to live your life in general, it means that we essentially don’t exist in Spanish. We weren’t born, we never left England, we never ate breakfast. We’re Hispamnesiacs.
Another reason for the lessons is that Google Translate, as brilliant as it is, seems to have abandoned us of late. It can handle menu translations and the odd transactional e-mail, but when it comes to local banter, it comes up a little short. I leave you with a series of Google Translated exchanges taken from the lively banter between the porteños with whom I play football:
“AJAJJA bleed from the wound … brings you a basket full of the goals! ajajaja”
“Already sunk! And beware that if you hit a rock you can drown you! The pipe, to count as such, must serve!”
“Come prepared to see how your network is moving all the time! I do not mourn you after I warned you!”
“Today you get the signature of the spoils of all the bites on my ankles and knees !!!!!!!!”
“Those who go to get away with it very red tail is you! Llloooooooserssssssss”
“It plays down the field! Do not bet what’s nickname Fer again because I want to make a little more enjoyable! Last-born of ice cream you little chest!”
It is worrying to think that this is probably how our best Spanish sounds to local ears. The next blog entry will be written in Spanish. It will either be very brief, or posted in 2014.
Señor Suitcase
http://www.senorsuitcase.com
www.twitter.com/senorsuitcase
Back in the UK we had somewhere in the region of a lesson a week for a year. All of this tuition has furnished us with the combined ability to say “thank you”, “medium rare”, and “is there a library near here?”. No offence to our teachers, who were all excellent, but as the old adage goes, if you don’t use it you lose it, and we weren’t speaking much Spanish in SW London (unless you count asking for chorizo at the Waitrose deli counter).
So, on Tuesday we ventured down to Beerlingual at Sugar Bar. It’s essentially a bi-lingual pub quiz and it’s a lot of fun. Aside from the glory of winning the prize of a scary red-eyed frog (?) for Best Team Name (“Quizteam-a Fernandez” – a nod to the president), we were still left with far more preguntas than respuestas.
Next week we are stepping up the campaign further with a full week of lessons. Hopefully this will finally equip us with the ability to speak in the past tense. At the moment we speak only about the present and the future. Although you could argue this is a very healthy way to live your life in general, it means that we essentially don’t exist in Spanish. We weren’t born, we never left England, we never ate breakfast. We’re Hispamnesiacs.
Another reason for the lessons is that Google Translate, as brilliant as it is, seems to have abandoned us of late. It can handle menu translations and the odd transactional e-mail, but when it comes to local banter, it comes up a little short. I leave you with a series of Google Translated exchanges taken from the lively banter between the porteños with whom I play football:
“AJAJJA bleed from the wound … brings you a basket full of the goals! ajajaja”
“Already sunk! And beware that if you hit a rock you can drown you! The pipe, to count as such, must serve!”
“Come prepared to see how your network is moving all the time! I do not mourn you after I warned you!”
“Today you get the signature of the spoils of all the bites on my ankles and knees !!!!!!!!”
“Those who go to get away with it very red tail is you! Llloooooooserssssssss”
“It plays down the field! Do not bet what’s nickname Fer again because I want to make a little more enjoyable! Last-born of ice cream you little chest!”
It is worrying to think that this is probably how our best Spanish sounds to local ears. The next blog entry will be written in Spanish. It will either be very brief, or posted in 2014.
Señor Suitcase
http://www.senorsuitcase.com
www.twitter.com/senorsuitcase
