My Spanish Is Better Than Yours (QUIERO CARIŇO POR FAVOR)

 

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

The world is a big, beautiful place with millions of cultures and languages. A fascinating terrain for all explorers and travelers. The worst thing though is to go to a foreign country without basic knowledge of the widely spoken language. 

The English language is probably the most widely spoken foreign language in the world, thanks to the great British empire. So, you travel to places in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia and enjoy the familiarity with the language.  People can understand you in the cities and sometimes in the villages. Many of these countries were former British colonies.

But in South America, and parts of North America, Believe it or not, Mexico is actually in North America, and Central America, it's a different ball game. You have to know some Spanish, well except for Belize and Guyana where English is spoken, In Panama City, it's "hit and miss" you can run into folks who speak a bit of English. Then there is Brazil. Brasil is a world of its own. Vocě fala Portuguěs? (Do you speak Portuguese?)

Let's stay with what is popularly known as Latin America, which is really Spanish-speaking America. During the dreary months of lockdown, I learned basic Spanish to survive on my first trip to the South of the border. And I enjoyed my time there although Google helped aplenty. I had a run-in with the Police because I forgot to wear my mask. People in Mexico do not play with their masks. Everyone wears it dutifully outside and inside. Any wonder when many parts of the world were suffering from the lockdowns Mexico was open.

 Although I remember one day in the restroom looking around for some soap to wash my hands, there was only one hand soap dispenser and some girls were at the corner, I said "Por favor necesito sopa".instead of saying "Por favor necesito jabón",  and you could see the girls choking on laughter. Sopa means soup. I kind of knew that but could not remember the word for soap, which sounds nothing like the English version,

At an Oxxo, a convenience store, the equivalent of the United States 7 eleven, a young Indian guy walked in and after looking around and not seeing what he wanted, he walked up to the male attendant and said "Quiero cariňo por favor" Which translates to "I want lover please".

 The dumbfounded attendant shook his head, but the Indian guy insisted. looking at his phone and kept repeating himself. Until exacerbated the attendant told him to leave. This guy was so bewildered wondering what he had done wrong. Apparently, he was looking to buy some honey, and unfortunately, if you google honey in Spanish one of the first words that come up is cariňo which means honey but as in lover. The honey for eating in Spanish is 'Miel" (La Miel). So the appropriate word would have been miel.

My good friend wanted to show off his Spanish skills and wrote to me to wish me a Happy New year on the first day of 2022  and wrote: "Feliz Ano Nuevo" I spat the tea I was drinking on the note. He basically wrote, "Happy New Ass" What he meant to write was "Feliz aňo nuevo" with one missing accent and it's a different word. What an interesting language!

Spanish is as interesting as it is intriguing, it is a language of details and frankly easier to learn than Portuguese, at least most of the words are often pronounced as spelled except for those special ones. Portuguese on the other hand is a different mouth of tongue

So before your next trip to Latin America, it will help to learn the language, Duo Lingo is a good resource and there are countless videos on Youtube like "The language Tutor", and "Real fast Spanish". "Kendra's Language School" but nothing beats living amongst locals and learning to speak by integrating and socializing with native speakers.