Visual Link Spanish Newsletter (V:2; I:13)

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Spanish Words of the Week -----
Words are taken from the Becoming Acquainted section of our Visual Link Spanish™ Course

	English	Spanish
Monday	He can	(El) Puede
Tuesday	She can	(Ella) Puede
Wednesday	You can	(Ud.) Puede
Thursday	sing	cantar
Friday	listen to	escuchar
Saturday	songs	canciones
Sunday	rock music	música rock
Bonus	the radio	la radio
Review Every Day!	Be sure to use these weekly newsletters to review the words you have learned from our complete Visual Link Spanish™ course! Click here to learn Spanish with our Complete Course.

Spanish Culture ----- Visita personal - Part II

This Week's Vocabulary
mencioné - I mentioned
la semana pasada - last week
la oportunidad - the opportunity
miles - thousands
gente - people
hogares - homes
interesante - interesting
una cosa - one thing
diferente - different
hombres - men
esposas - wives
puerta - door
esposos - husbands
un mes - a month
aquí - here
amigos - friends
cultura - culture
pueblos - poor small cities
dinero - money
comida - food
persona - person
hace unos meses - a few months ago
años - years
¡Te has engordado! - You have gained weight!
delgado - skinny
diferencias culturales - cultural differences
probablemente - probably

As I mencioné la semana pasada, when I lived in Latin America, I had la oportunidad to visit literally miles of gente in their hogares. As a result, I learned some very interesante and fun cultural tidbits while visiting gente.

Una cosa that really shocked me and still seems very diferente was how a lot of hombres referred to their esposas and vice-versa. If an hombre would answer the puerta and we wanted to visit with both him and his esposa, he would usually yell something like "¡Ven acá gorda!", which meant "Come here 'chubby' or 'overweight'". This really shocked and surprised me whenever I heard it. Esposas would also talk this way to their esposos.

In the United States, if I called my esposa "gorda", I would probably have to sleep on the couch for a un mes! It is something that culturally we just don't do aquí in the U.S.

Muchos native Spanish speakers actually nickname their amigos "gordo". As I began to be more integrated into the cultura, I started to realize that the names "gordo" and "gorda" weren't as insulting as I had initially thought. In many of the pueblos, when the gente earned enough dinero to buy better comida, they would usually start to gain a little weight and become a little "gordo". So, I guess in a round about way, being called "gordo" or "gorda" is a compliment becasue it means the persona has enough dinero to buy good comida and become "gordo" or "gorda".

Hace unos meses, some Latin American amigos I hadn't seen for años came to visit me here is the U.S. The first thing they said to me, with a surprised tone, was "¡Te has engordado!". Even though I know the cultura well, I still couldn't help but get a little self conscious. And - just so you know, I am hardly "gordo" (at least I don't think I am). I was just super delgado when I had known them years before.

Word to the wise: Even though people within the Latin culture call each other "gordo" and "gorda", I would still avoid using those names just to make sure people don't get offended.

Moral of the historia: Diferencias culturales are real! If you ever go to Latin America and someone happens to call you "gordo" or "gorda", don't get offended, just realize that it is probablemente a sort of compliment!

Sneak peek at next week: ¡Salud a tu mami [maw-mee]!

 

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¡Nos vemos! (We'll see you!)


David S. Clark -- President
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com

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Response from Last Week

My husband and I live in Lima, Peru and are studying the course. We just made a trip to Otavalo and Quito, and we discovered that the double l in both of those Equadorian cities is pronounced with a j sound, whereas in Lima, it is pronounced as a y sound.

Side note: We also found that overall, the food is not nearly as tasty in Equador as it is in Peru- however, the air quality is much, much better (at least than in Lima at this time of the year).

Mary Winfield-Kutza