Comments on: What Exactly Does it Mean to be Fluent in a Language?

By: Roxana S.

Roxana S. — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:00:29 +0000

Luis, thanks so much for your very insightful comments! Qué interesante la historia que cuentas de Colombia y me encantaría saber qué más pensó tu mamá después de regresar 25 años más tarde. It must have been amazing!

I’ll tell you, I just got back from our trip back to my home country, Perú, and I didn’t even notice any of it…

Chelsea, estaba la rana sentada cantando debajo del agua? I LOVE that song. It brings back a lot of happy memories as a child Thanks for adding another very interesting conversation to our community!

By: Luis Tobon

Luis Tobon — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:17:43 +0000

Welcome. I am glad you liked it and I too was also thinking of all the other words. That one sign for parking in Colombia was not the only instance. There were many retaurants, business and many other things that have names that are Anglicized. My mother was shocked by all the Spanglish she saw because she remembers where it was almost illegal to have anything in any other language other than Spanish. Then again, she had not been back in over 25 years.

Luis

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:13:47 +0000

Gracias, Luis. I appreciate your lengthy response, and it makes me feel much better to know that native speakers have these questions, too. The anecdote about the sign in Colombia is so interesting. I hope that I soon have an opportunity to travel to a Spanish-speaking country again, as I’m sure I would notice these Anglicisms all over the place.

After I wrote this post, I started thinking of tons of other examples: “el driveway,” por ejemplo. I’m sure the list of Spanglish terms will continue to grow, and grow to annoy me even more!

By: Luis Tobon

Luis Tobon — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:41:39 +0000

My wife wants to learn spanish and has some of the same questions. Heck, I have some of these questions sometimes.

I will try and offer my opinion/thoughts on your questions.

1. Ud. and tú
I’ve really never used Ud. and have always just used tú. I understand the reason of formal and informal but I agree, the lines get blurred.

2. I also have issues of sometimes trying to remember or know what the spanish word is for anything.
I know you used these only as examples but they are great samples. Most people usually don’t know the correct word in spanish and defer to the spanglish word.

el toilet = la taza del baño
la van = couldn’t find anything
la yarda = couldn’t find anything
parquear = estacionar

Some of these words have filled in where spanish may not have a direct word or does not have one at all. So much so that on a trip I took to Colombia, all the signs for parking actually said parqueadero instead of estacionamento. I didn’t understand why because both words are just about the same length. One is a little harder to say but I figured that it was used for some reason and I came up with 2 plausible reasons:

A. Most people only know it by the Spanglish word and may not know the correct Spanish word for it.

B. It is much easier to say it Spanglish than it is in Spanish.

Another word that fits perfectly into this scenario is the Spanglish word: lonche. Not many people know it but many people use it. The Spanish word is almuerzo but it is not used very often, at least that I hear it.

3. Idioms can be tough in any language. Sometimes there are idioms that translate or have a counterpart in other languages but probably isn’t what you are trying to convey.

4. I haven’t heard you speak Spanish but as long as people can understand you, it shouldn’t matter. This world has many different accents and we didn’t get a chance to choose one.

I didn’t expect for this reply to be so long but it happens. I hope it makes sense to you and other readers.

Luis