What are you counting to me?

After a long hiatus (and having traveled to three countries in the interim) I have quite a few long-overdue posts.

However, in the meantime I wanted to share some linguistic gems I come across in my everyday life. As I’m getting better acquainted with my students, teachers and meeting more Spanish people I have been able to add quite a few colorful and helpful phrases/words to my vocabulary.

Some of my favourites: (again, note the British spelling)

¡Que timo!...What a rip off!

!Que murro!.. What cheek (as in your taking advantage of me). Muro is the muzzle of an animal. Not sure of the relationship there.

Echar una bronca… To yell at someone. (Echar means “to throw/pour” and I think bronca sounds like a name for a dinosaur. This is my visual when the teachers say it – and they say it a lot because they yell at students a lot).

Acogedor… cosy (cozy)

Sorbo…sip

¡Que follón!…what a mess! (warning: this word is not classy, not to be used in mixed company). **Tim saw this and said I need to clarify. This is a strong word, equivalent to the F word, the nicer way to say it would be "que lio." However, they use the F word much more here so you'll hear it a lot)**

Cutre…tacky

Cursi…prissy

Colmar… to fill to the brim

Arrebatarse… to get carried away with (like with anger or an emotion)


Clearly, words that come in very handy.

However, I’ve also been recently noticing the multitude of Spanglish or “Spanishisms” that lead to some rather funny situations. The other teachers and I were talking about this today, and here are some good ones:

Flirtear… to flirt. The actual Spanish word is coquetear

“What are you counting to me”… In Spanish “contar”, which also means to count means to tell (like a story). Apparently one of the students said this to another teacher.

“I did it for the face”…In Spanish if you are doing something for no reason, to be haughty, you say “Lo hizo por la cara.” Cara means face.

“For the flies”…Just in case/chance is “por si las moscas.” Moscas = flies

“That’s funny”…My kids often mix-up “funny” and “fun.” While you wouldn’t think that the meaning is that different, just imagine someone writing to you, “I had a really funny time yesterday” – could really send the wrong message!

“constipated”… In Spanish “estoy constipada” means “I have a cold.” Not what you would think it means. This one is almost as good as the classic “false friend” – “estoy embarazada” which means I’m pregnant in Spanish, not I’m embarrassed. Embarrassed is “me da verguenza.” And, for the sake of being educational, constipated is “estreñido.”

One of the teachers was telling us that on a menú (that was translated into English and Spanish) they had a dish called. “Female jews and robbers.” A common Spanish bean dish is called “judías” which means Jews. Apparently “chorizo” (the famous Spanish sausage) also can be used to refer to someone as a robber. This is not politically correct, and generally neither are the Spanish.

So, “beans with chorizo” = “Judías con chorizo” = “female Jews with robbers.”


And my personal favorite…*drum roll*

“preocupated” …. In Spanish, worried is “preocupado.” Students often translate this as “preocupated” in English which just makes me laugh out loud each time. It just sounds like some sort of bowel order issue. See above issue.


I have of course also done the same thing in Spanish, it’s hard not to fall into the Spanglish trap because so often the words are very similar. Just a few weeks ago I lost my glove, and in a hurry texted the teacher whose house I had just left (I was there earlier tutoring her son) and wrote:
“Perdí mi aguacate, está en tu casa?” – Which means, “I’ve lost my avocado, is it in your house?”

Aguacate = avocado
Aguante= glove

I realized seconds after sending the text my error. She and I had a good laugh about my “lost avocado” the next day.

Ah, the joys of miscommunication. Makes life funnier that’s for sure 

Anyway, next upcoming posts will be about traveling (London, Asturias Northern Spain, Christmas/Barcelona with Tim) and some new developments (ie. I might be working for an NGO in Madrid!).

And of course more photos. Don’t be preocupated, I won’t forget.

PPS - While writing this post I've been listening to the great music that Pandora.com has lovingly picked out for me. Wait, Pandora in a country outside of the US?? (Pandora doesn't work unless you have a US IP address). Apparently GWU has this IP address thing to access servers if you're out of the country. A friend directed me to it and it works! yay Pandora!!