Dear Chile,
Remember when we first met, and I told you how I came here to teach English and learn Spanish? I said I've been wanting to see if teaching is something I'd like to do and I was so excited to be fully immersed. Well Chile, I have definitely learned a lot. For that I'm thankful. We have enjoyed a very wonderful relationship so far.
You've taught me that it's totally ok, to have tea every 3-4 hours and to think of life as what happens between meals. You taught me that to hurry is in fact to lose time. Lastly,you've also taught me that my language, English, is really hard to learn.
With five months under my belt, I've found teaching to be very fulfilling. It challenges the way I think and reminds how little I know. Mad respect for teachers.
As for the learning Spanish, I've learned some language that if you listen between the po-s, add some s's, and make an educated guess, might be Spanish. At first, I was kind of overwhelmed and upset, then it was funny, and now, it it what it is. I've realized that where ever you go language will always gain or lose a few things as it's adapted. For short I'm going to call this Slanguage.
So Chile, I guess what I'm saying is thanks. I'm so grateful for every new experience I've had contigo po.
Jameisha
Slanguage affectionately known as Chilenismos:
Po-I've referenced po, but I don't think I've really talked about it. Po doesn't mean anything, but you will hear po everywhere in Chile. No-po, si-po, vamos po literally just means yes, no, come on/let's go. My sophomores, could not stop laughing as I incorporated po into our English lesson. Let's go po. Sit down po. Paulo po what's up with you po? In English po.
-cito/a, ito/a: In Spanish, when something is small or little you use -ito/a. For example a puppy. Perro-dog becomes perrito-puppy. Great, super easy right?! Except, pretty much everything takes on it's minature form in Chie. Chicititos/as replaces chicos/as. Or if you're sitting at lunch and you understand every word except viejitos, you might want to ask what are viejitos? To which someone might make the following reply: En serio po? Los viejitos son los viejos-the little old people." Oh haha...right. Po can be a lot like duh in English.
Fome- From what I've gathered it's means to be boring or stupid. Basically, you don't want to be fome as I learned week two this semester: A student yelled out, "Es FOME profe!!!" after I told a very cheesy joke. My co-teacher shook her head in disbelief. Then he asked her "how do you say fome in English?", silence. Finally, he asks me, "Jameisha como se dice fome en ingles?" To which I respond,"His name". With the whole class laughing, another student chimed in Jameisha 1-Student 0. Lesson learned: Jameisha's jokes are not fome!
Bacàn-Cool. Que bacàn! That's cool!
Ka tai-means how's it going?
Nomàs-means just/only. So if someone says venga nomàs, they're not saying don't come anymore, they're saying just come!
I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! There are so many more and I promise to learn more slanguage soon. In closing here's a phrase I have found to be very meaningful that comes from Patagonia:
El que viene apura’o a la Patagonia viene a perder el tiempo. He who is in a hurry loses time.
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| Dos dias atras nomas hacia mucho sol...Que pasa Coyhaique? |
You are too cool.
ReplyDeleteAnd now some of your stuff is in Oregon, too! ;)
Hurry, home, Love, but not before you make more memories and go on more adventures!