*sigh* My first Spanish presentation is officially out of the way... and my grade is set in that class... and the teacher never takes attendance... and its boring... (Stop tempting me, peoples! No, but really, I’ll go. I’ve decided that I have to makes friends with some guys in the class. They’re from Ukraine and are absolutely hilarious... make me laugh every class. SO! I’ll go...)
Anyways, the presentation went really well. I was a part of a group that covered sports in Spain... I know. Michelle doing a presentation on something that involves organized sports... Ironically, none of the other three girls in my group were into sports, as well. Oh! and we had five days (including the weekend) to throw it all together. Amazingly, it went really, really well. And, Anna, if you’re reading this, you were my favorite! Very animated. Oh! And easy to understand. Nicely played! Anyhoo...
Oh! ...OH MY GOSH! Okayokayokay... This is embarrasing. Enjoy...
I was sitting in class the other day, and we were talking about the amount of Americans vs. Spaniards that get plastic surgery done. And, since I live in Southern California... I was trying to explain that the majority of women either injected themselves with Botox, or had their breasts enlarged. You would think that of all the words to struggle describing, that “breasts” would not be a problem. But, it was. I totally blanked (mostly because “el pecho” sounded too masculine to describe the girls). SO! I tried *cringe* and failed *contort* to get around it as best as I could with the vocabulary I already possessed. The lucky word-lottery winner was “chichis” which is a playful way of saying “boobies” in Mexico... According to my Spanish prof. from City College, one “chi” is for one side, and the other “chi” for the other. ¡Son Gemelas! (they’re twins). Well, aparently, not all slang words travel across the ocean very well, and when “chichis” left my mouth, I knew that this was one of those instances. My professor’s face turned from ghostly pale to bright red, and then she began laughing... at me! Don’t worry, she quickly pulled herself together, and said, “Michelle, (this is a translation, by the way... mkay) what do you think that means?” ...*with look of horror on her face, Michelle cups hands under her boobies and makes bouncy motion* “Ah! ...I see. Well, it means emm... it’s a vulgar word for describing a part of the woman’s anatomy. You probably shouldn’t use it here.” (Oh! and “buey” is useless as an insult here... ) Anyways, I wanted to crawl under a rock, but opted to turn about twelve shades of red instead...
Then, a few days later, I was on the Metro with my friend Benjamin from Districto Federal (Mexico City), and I suddenly remembered what had happened the week before. Wanting to verify that the word in question meant what I thought it did (boobies?) I leaned in and began telling him what had happened (didn’t want any elderly women to pass out from such vulgar language). ...He laughed... and then thanked me... and then laughed. And, yes. It means “those fun little fiddly-bits”... just not here...
Well, hope you are all having an excellent week. Mine has been VERY educational! Hope to talk to you soon! Love you!
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3 comments:
HOLA Michelle!...Tengo que comentar respecto a este cuento. SIIII, soy yo... Sra. Lozada! Una voz de tu pasado que está siguiendo tu presente...gracias a un aviso de tu padre. ji ji ji. Yeah..I know, that was a bit stalkeresque. Nevertheless, I have a great similar story of using a Mexicanism in Peru with equally horrific results. Te cuento que estaba en Arequipa visitando un colegio cuando saqué una foto de un salón de clases. Una jovencita volteó para mirarme y le dije "Te caché" como se dice sin problemas en Mexico para decir "Gotcha or I caught you". El problema era que en Peru, el verbo cachar se usa vulgarmente para decir 'tener sexo'. Así es...entendiste bien...sin saber de antemano que cachar era una grosería peruana, yo declaré a una joven, enfrente de todos sus compañeros de clase que "lo habíamos hecho". Toda la clase se murió de risa al escuchar una gringa entrar de visita y usar una grosería como una palabra normal. Me estoy divertiendo mucho leyendo tu blog y viviendo tu experiencia virtualmente. Sigue divirtiéndote mucho. Cuídate. Hasta pronto. Abrazos, Sra.
¡Hombre! ¿Qué Tal? No eres una fantasma del pasado... ¡Bienvenidos a mi vida! Lo siento que no he escrito mucho en español en el “blog”. ¡jaja! Me acuerdo que dijiste algo de esta cuenta en la clase de español en Dayton (hace dos años, cuando yo era niña...). ¡Gracias por todos!
un beso
Ummmmm... THANK YOU for making me laugh harder than I have in like weeks. Good heavens! First of all, that you would be discussing boobies in class... then that .. aww man. I miss you!
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