My wife and I have an amusing time communicating in Mexico. We go to Oaxaca, not nearly as touristy as some of the Mexico destinations, so some of the locals speak good English, others very little. Back in high school, forty years ago, I took two years of Spanish. I learned many words and pronunciations at the time, but many of the words have flown the coup. My wife speaks reasonably good Italian. She has been studying it now for about five years at a local college and with a private tutor. Italian is, in many ways, similar to Spanish. For example, days of the week are not quite alike, but they have many similarities. There are other ways in which the languages veer in opposite directions from one another. It can be hard to guess just when that might occur. Case in point: We were in a nice restaurant And we wanted some butter for the bread (Pane in Italian, Pan in Spanish) I, for the life of me, could not remember the Spanish word for butter, if I ever learned it. So, in this case, figuring that a basic product like butter might be said much the same or "close" in both Spanish and Italian, my wife asked for butter in Italian. Oops. You can click on the photo of the butter dish below to see what it is that she actually ordered when the Italian word was translated back into Spanish. That is the long and the short of it. We ordered a burro brought to the table. The Italian word for butter is burro. Unfortunately, the Spanish word for butter is not even close -- "mantequilla". Oh well, you win some and lose some but who cares if you have a good time. By the way, the burro we ended up with was very stubborn but fun and we got to ride him around the block twice. Thanks for stopping by, Steven L. Smith
Haha! What a great post. It's amazing to think how similar yet how different some words can be in different language. I believe she was ordering a donkey if she said burro!
I hope you'll remember me if you learn of anyone moving to "The OC" and I will do the same!
Best regards,
Michael Caruso, Broker ABR ABRM CRB CRS GREEN GRI
2007 President, Orange County Association of Realtors
Michael,
Yes, she was ordering a donkey. In this case it was more like ordering in English than assuming that Italian was close enough.
The word we use for something nonsensical -- "bull" (or the longer version...) -- doesn't translate to Latins as the same thing. You can't say in Spanish, "aw, that's just a bunch of bull." Doesn't translate.
When we use the word "baloney" (indicating we don't believe what someone is saying, "aw, baloney") -- they use the word "naranjas" or oranges.
When we use the word "shrimp" (to indicate a small person) -- "shrimp" when used by Latins while driving indicates a bad driver - "learn to drive, you stupid shrimp!".
When we use the word "turkey" when referring to a weird person -- a "turkey" to them, or "pavo," when referring to a person indicates one who rides the bus and jumps off without paying the fare.
Just some slang for you the next time you visit there.
Some words translate and some don't!
Does this mean Steve, we should take Spanish when we go to Italy =)
Thank goodness it is Friday, I hope you have a great weekend!
Paul
The burro was cute, how could you go wrong?
If you would have taken your little friend to the restaurant I bet he would have known what the word was....
Very funny post!
You and Charlie B are on a roll today....doing fun blogs that are creative.
Hey Steven,
Catching up on my blog reading and I'm glad I read yours. This is too funny! I also know Spanish from school, but not sure if I would have known the Spanish word for butter either.