Spanish Word of the Day

Quote: Nareed

Sean Penn? Regardless, he should invest in armored cars and bodyguards.

It sounds like El Chapo invited him and it wasn't Sean Penn's fault the police may have been following him.

Quote:

BTW, I was certain el Chapo would be killed rather than captured. Now the question is whether he'll escape before he's extradited to the US (harder to escape from there). He has a few years to do so.

I have a bet he will escape again within a year, paying 6 to 1 odds.

Quote: Wizard

It sounds like El Chapo invited him and it wasn't Sean Penn's fault the police may have been following him.

"Fault" is not a concept that weighs as much as a feather on these kinds of people, nor on those authorities who fight them. Look at the body count of the "drug war" merely in Mexico.

He may not go after a high profile target like Penn, especially in the US, but if I were him, Athena forbid, I'd stay the hell away from Mexico forever and hire 24/7 security.

It would seem Ted Cruz knows some Spanish according to this exchange in the South Carolina debate.



I was curious to hear more than that little quip. I couldn't find anything but he has been interviewed by UniVision but he answered in English and and translator dubbed his responses.



Can anybody expand on Cruz's Spanish ability?

Quote: Wizard

Can anybody expand on Cruz's Spanish ability?

Univision made a comment

Quote: Univision.com publicado: feb 14, 2016 12:58 AM

La noche en que Ted Cruz habló español
Por Fernando Peinado @FernandoPeinado

Cuando menos lo esperábamos, en medio de un evento en inglés, Ted Cruz se olvidó de su complejo por su "mal" español.
Fue una frase breve, con fuerte acento, pero sirvió para demostrar en el noveno debate republicano que él también maneja la lengua de su padre.
"Ahora mismo díselo (a la audiencia) en español, si tú quieres", retó el senador por Texas al otro candidato cubano-estadounidense en el escenario.
Cruz estaba refiriéndose a una entrevista con Univision en la que Rubio habla de su postura sobre las acciones ejecutivas de inmigración del presidente Barack Obama.
"No sé cómo sabe lo que dije en Univision porque él no sabe español", se defendió Rubio atacando.

Here is my translation of that, in the unlikely event anybody cares.

That night in which Ted Cruz spoke Spanish by Fernando Peinado

When we were least expecting it, in the middle of an event in English, Ted Cruz completely forget about his "bad" Spanish. It was a brief phrase, with a strong accent, but serving to demonstrate in the ninth Republican debate that he also drives the tongue of his father.

"I'll say it (to the audience) right now in Spanish, if you want," replied the senator from Texas to the other Cuban-American candidate on the stage.

Cruz was referring to an interview with Univision in which Rubio spoke his position about the executive actions on immigration by President Barack Obama.

You don't know what I said on Univision because he doesn't know Spanish," the attacking Rubio said in defense.

Quote: Wizard

"I'll say it (to the audience) right now in Spanish, if you want," replied the senator from Texas to the other Cuban-American candidate on the stage.

"Tel it (to the audience) right now in Spanish...."

Quote:

You don't know what I said on Univision because he doesn't know Spanish," the attacking Rubio said in defense.

"I don't know how he knows what I said on Univision because he doesn't speak Spanish."

Quote: Wizard

"I'll say it (to the audience) ...

Imperative of 'decir'
yo -
tú di
él/ella/Ud. diga
nosotros digamos
vosotros decid
ellos/ellas/Uds. digan

'se' and 'lo' are pronouns. The accent is necessary to keep the emphasis on the verb.

díselo -> say it to them



Cruz is ordering Rubio to repeat his statement in Spanish, not offering to speak himself. The fact checkers said that Cruz was correct and Rubio was lying. Many people felt that Rubio was saying that his statements made to the press in Spanish were not for the consumption of English speakers.

'manejar' means to drive, to manipulate, to use, to handle, to operate, and to manage. It is a cognate of English verb "manage".

'atacar' does mean to attack, but in this case an "aggressive challenge" is more the context.

All due credit to Cruz for the proper usage of decir, which I certainly wouldn't have conjugated properly.

I wonder if he is otherwise trying to hide his Spanish a bit, for fear it will remind his very white and religious base that he is half Hispanic (correct me if I'm wrong).

I'll give any candidate extra credit for knowing a foreign language, especially a useful one. Note that I don't give Romney much credit for speaking French, I hear fluently, because he came off snooty enough as it is.

Quote: Wizard

All due credit to Cruz for the proper usage of decir, which I certainly wouldn't have conjugated properly. .

I don't know if Cruz would have been able to conjugate the verb. Nareed translated the sentence, but I thought you would appreciate seeing the grammer. It's a commonly used word, and you can find hundreds of examples if you google it.

Quote: university of Peru

Díselo es la forma imperativa del verbo “decir” más los pronombres personales pospuestos “se” y “lo”, que equivale a ‘quiero que se lo digas’ o ‘quiero que le digas algo a él’ (Díselo pronto y marchémonos).

Just got back from spending a week in Mexico. I'll share information on it gradually. I must say I was pretty proud of my ability to communicate.

Due to getting sick, I came home early. AeroMexico wanted to charge me over $800 to change my return flight, so I booked a one-way flight on Volaris, which I took yesterday. Volaris is a Mexican airline that evidently caters to economy travelers. Consider this post a review of my Volaris flight.

The cost of a one way flight from Mexico City to Las Vegas was $169. That is remarkably cheap. That taxes and fees on that were $100, so the base ticket was only $69. So, all due credit for a low price.

The line to check in was nice and short. They said my carry on bag was too big, so I had to do some reorganizing, but I don't hold that against them. The flight left on time and the boarding process was efficient.

On the negative side, the plane was filled to capacity, or close to it. Extremely little leg room. My knees were touching the char in front of me and I'm 5'10". There were no free beverages or snacks. Everything you had to pay for.

I guess you get what you pay for. AeroMexico, by comparison, has about 3" more of leg room and good beverage/snack service.

When I got off the plane I usually say "thank you" to the flight attendants but in this case I had absolutely no communication with anybody the entire flight. So I didn't say "thank you" because there they did nothing for me to be thanked for.

More on my trip later.