Spanish Word of the Day

April 28th, 2017 at 5:29:21 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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"Lucía y el sexo" is a 2001 European Spanish drama film available on Netflix. Just in case you need lots of steamy sex scenes to keep your attention during your Spanish language lessons.

The plot is confusing as it jumps forward and backwards in time, and in and out of fiction without bothering to tell you which parts are real and which aren't.

May 12th, 2017 at 2:31:58 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
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Movie with subtitles. Google translate ain't no help.
Smart aleck gets out of taxi, supposedly in Mexico. Says keep teh dinero. Driver mutters Pedanjo (or something similar in the subtitle). I imagine it was not flattering but what does it translate to: cheapskate?
May 12th, 2017 at 2:49:54 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Fleastiff
Smart aleck gets out of taxi, supposedly in Mexico. Says keep teh dinero. Driver mutters Pedanjo (or something similar in the subtitle). I imagine it was not flattering but what does it translate to: cheapskate?


The word "pendejo" literally means "A pubic hair". Feminine version would be "pendeja".

The level of vulgarity varies considerably from country to country. My grandfather was from Spain, and he used it to mean "stupid idiot", but you have to be very careful when you use the word as you could be more insulting than you meant to be. In the southern cone it is usually only mildly insulting.

(pejorative, vulgar) arsehole, asshole, dirtbag, scumbag
(pejorative) dumbass (stupid person).
(Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay) young boy.
(Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay) punk (an adolescent who presumes to be an adult.)
(Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama, Puerto Rico) coward.
(Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, US, Venezuela) dickhead (stupid person).
(Bolivia, Peru) smart.

Words like "gringo" may come from the phrase hablar en griego (“to speak Greek”), with a similar connotation to the English phrase "it's all Greek to me". Generally it is translated as foreigner, but it usually implies a white Anglo person. It can be used merely as descriptive but if you say it with enough emphasis it can be an insult.
May 12th, 2017 at 3:08:23 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
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Recent film about Canadian Forces men in WWtwo who married UK women had a strange example.

UK: Keep Your Pecker Up = Keep Your Chin Up.
USA/Canada: It sure ain't the chin that they are talking about.

Its strange that the Spanish word meant 'dickhead' in the movie (Las Cabos, Mexico) but could mean 'smart' in Bolivia and Peru.
May 12th, 2017 at 3:19:16 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Pacomartin
The word "pendejo" literally means "A pubic hair". Feminine version would be "pendeja".

The level of vulgarity varies considerably from country to country.


It's a word used to denote someone stupid and malicious. In other words, right now it means Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
May 12th, 2017 at 10:31:04 PM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Nareed
It's a word used to denote someone stupid and malicious. In other words, right now it means Donald Trump.


How would you rate it's vulgarity in Mexico. Would someone say it at work in a public meeting. Would you commonly hear it in mixed company in a bar, or would it likely get you into a fistfight.

BTW, there is a movie on Netflix called Ocho apellidos vascos (English: Eight Basque Surnames), known as Spanish Affair in English, is a 2014 Spanish comedy film directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro.

Although it is set in Basque country, only one of the actors is Basque. Can you rate the accents? Is the dialogue difficult to understand if you speak Mexican Spanish?

It was a box office record setting comedy in Spain, and spawned a sequel the next year. The principal actor and actress are now a romantic couple.
Three beautiful Basque girls are vacationing in Seville, and run into a bunch of guys who make Basque jokes. But she is sexually attracted to the Andalucian man, and he immediately falls in love with her fiery spirit and makes the first trip of his life out of Andalucia.

Other very popular European comedies are about provincialism. A french comedy was also about the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, a cold and rainy place inhabited by unsophisticated ch'tis who speak a strange language provincial France. The English translation is "Welcome to the Sticks"
May 13th, 2017 at 7:43:14 AM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
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Quote: Pacomartin
How would you rate it's vulgarity in Mexico. Would someone say it at work in a public meeting. Would you commonly hear it in mixed company in a bar, or would it likely get you into a fistfight.


Well, there was this one time we partnered with a shipping company for a project. While reviewing documents, one particular guy in our company, call him P, got into what I call his PWOT mode (Pointless Waste Of Time). P wanted the address on the tax register had to match exactly with the address in the phone bill. The difference was really irrelevant. One stated "Torre 3" and the other T-3."

The shipping company's head guy for that meeting, who is a ship's captain so let's call him the Captain, was rather annoyed. He said such things don't matter and to move on. P insisted on making changes (which would require wasting hours with the phone company, not to mention getting them to issue another invoice for the month).

The Captain finally said, "Look, P. We've made proposals for this client many times, and we've never been disqualified for these kind of pendejadas. Why don't we focus on actual work?"

The reaction was stunned silence (I wanted to give a standing ovation). When I re-tell the story (every chance I get), the reaction si usually startled laughter.

Quote:
BTW, there is a movie on Netflix called Ocho apellidos vascos


Yeah, I'm on a break of paying for Netflix until they premiere season 3 of "Rick and Morty" or debut the mythical new Trek series. In any case, the total number of movies or TV in Spanish I've seen in the past thirty years is zero (0).
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
May 13th, 2017 at 10:32:31 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
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Quote: Nareed
"Torre 3" .....pendejadas.
?????

That idiot would never have raised the issue if it had to be he who did the actual work of dealing with the phone company.
May 13th, 2017 at 10:45:04 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: Pacomartin
Ocho apellidos vascos (Eight Basque Surnames), known as Spanish Affair in English.
Although it is set in Basque country, only one of the actors is Basque.
Three beautiful Basque girls are vacationing in Seville, and run into a bunch of guys who make Basque jokes. But she is sexually attracted to the Andalucian man, and he immediately falls in love with her fiery spirit and makes the first trip of his life out of Andalucia.
Any deficiency in the local dialect can be compensated for with establishment shots, small role actors who speak in a distinctly Basque style, etc. Viewers tend to pay more attention to the plot line and the females than the accents.

The Sticks, in France? I wonder what those in Normandie call other areas of France? And the French language? In Canada there are dozens of schools that issue French of the People certificates to proudly differentiate themselves from what might be termed the Official French language.

I'll check for the Basque film on Amazon's free area. Else, I'm out of luck.
May 13th, 2017 at 11:58:51 AM permalink
Pacomartin
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 1068
Posts: 12569
Quote: Fleastiff
I'll check for the Basque film on Amazon's free area. Else, I'm out of luck.


Trailer with English subtitles.


The older actor that plays her father is the only actor that was actually born in Basque country. Incidentally Basque is not an Indo-European (IE) language, but is instead an isolate. Over half the world speaks an IE language.

In the English subtitles they refer to the protagonist as Southern, but in Spain that refers to Andalucia. Anadalusia consists of Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Seville. Its capital is the city of Seville. The name "Andalusia" is derived from the Arabic word Al-Andalus.

Basque nationalism had its inception in the late 19th century and is often violent, hence the jokes about "safe houses" and "terrorist bombs". When Spain re-emerged as a democracy in 1978, autonomy was restored to the Basques, who achieved a degree of self-government without precedent in modern Basque history. The average citizen of Basque country is not an advocate of violent terrorism, so it can be joked about in a romantic comedy.It actually makes the men from Seville seem very provincial.