Unbearable... Wasted Spanish

I ate at Don Pablo's on Sunday.

I regret to inform you that I pronounced some dazzling Spanish to my waiter... who spoke German.

¡Híjole! ¡Que insoportable!

I'm gettin' serious....

OK, I have broken out my Spanish books: I'm on a mission.

Ahora (now), yo sé (I know) that this is going to take a long time, but I have to start somewhere, right? I am so excited, I can't wait to learn the language and be able to keep up with my Spanish-speaking counterparts!

The worst part is that I don't have anyone speaking the words to me, so my pronunciation will probably be very, um, amusing to say the least.... I know a few teenagers so I think I will point to words in the book and hopefully they will pronounce them for me, after they recover from their fits of laughter. Oh, well, que será, será....

All right, hasta más tarde... until much later!

Um, pick a language.

OK, I am exporting a Central American product, that was modified in the US, into Canada.

Both ends of the process are tipped with native Spanish-speakers. This is good for them, not the best for me. They do speak English fairly well, thankfully. However, the plot is thickened with a little French: since the product is going to Canada it has to be labeled in French as well as English. That would be OK accept that I have to produce the language for the label, which is no problem save for the fact that the Spanish-speaker in Canada has to supply me the information, which I then have to translate into French....

Can we say, "lost in translation"? This could be very interesting, and potentially disastrous.

I am so screwed up, I can't decide whether to hablar or parler.... I'm having difficulties even speaking simple sentences in English. I'm in trouble....

My Mother

Yesterday my mom said, "Aye caramba Chica Perica;" I almost wrecked the car.

My mom is challenged with the English language. I tried to teach her a few simple French phrases as she went with me to France for a high school trip. My ears nearly bled and I'm frankly still not over it after 16 years. I had lost all hope of ever making her the least bilingual.

What is the world coming to when my mom speaks Spanish to me? Kind-of gives me hope....

Definition: Chica Perica

Look up "perica" in a Spanish dictionary and you won't find it. It's a slang derivative of "perico" which means "parakeet". Now, in Spanish, words ending in 'o' are considered male, and words ending in 'a' are considered female. So, using this rule, perica is a female parakeet.

(It took me quite awhile to figure this one out as my second language is French, pas espagnole.)

In Spanish the word for "girl" is chica. So, if we put the words together the phrase means "girl parakeet" or "parakeet girl".

So, how on earth did this crazy gringa get to be called "Parakeet Girl"? Well, for a long time I thought that it was a pet name, and perhaps because I reminded the person who tagged me with this nom de plume of a bird considering my tendency to talk incessantly.... I was pretty much on target.

In Spanish, at least in Latin American countries, chica perica is a colloquialism for "chatterbox". Well, OK, I admit I had a moment of, "Excuse me???", but then I had to laugh-- no nickname has come closer to describing me so perfectly. So, I have charged ahead, embracing my chatterboxiness to proudly call myself Chica Perica!

So, world, here I am to chatter away at you. I will happily share with you my trips (literally) through the world trying to speak too many languages at once. At times I have to admit I can't even figure out which language to think in! You may have heard of "Spanglish", a blend of Spanish and English, but what do you call English, French, and Spanish-- besides insanity-- with a little Italian, Chinese, German, Latin and Greek mixed in to spice things up? I call it my new-found life in International Business and trying to survive it.

I hope that - j'espere que - yo espero que - oh whatever - I hope that you enjoy it!