Hmm . ..
This blog experiement not going well. The now dearth of latinos in my city has left me bereft of material by which to conduct my linguistic experiment.
Nevertheless, I don't really want to erase this blog . . . there is another blog which is conducted in my pisspoor Spanish, about all things Spanish, created from a basic basic Spanish class I once taught. Perhaps I could bring that blog to this "quartet" of blogs and merge these posts with that one.
I will have to ask Blogger how to do that. I'm still a novice at all this, probably I'll never learn.
Hey, if anybody reading this message wants to post some quick n easy instructions on how to merge the posts of one blog to another, let me know, OK?
Thanks!
Washateria
It's LAVADORIA for goodness' sake!!
WASHATERIA is an insult to both languages!!
and for those gringos out there who care to know, Washateria is a laundromat. Or in some hick towns, spelled "Laundrymat" but that in itself is incorrect.
Both languages are glorious, beautiful things. Let us not spoil both with insane hybrids like Washateria.
Even the word sounds like a central Asian nation. ". . . in International news, today Washateria sent troops directly into neighboring Azerbijan for no other reason than to give them a good scrubbing!"
VG
The City Seems Deserted Now
When I first started blogging this particular blog in 2005, it seemed as though there was a thriving Hispanic community in the city where I live, and I had a front seat to watch the blending of the two cultures, and being a cunning linguist (entendre doble intended!) I wanted to chronicle the language, as you probably know if you bothered to read my other posts in this blog.
But in the past few years, my city and my state has fallen prey to fearmongering and shameless selfishness, and the fear of anything different. And so it established laws that scared people into leaving.
And so, most days, I'm left here like a sofa on the sidewalk, waiting for somebody to come by and pay a little attention to me.
and, of course,
I could rage forever against that injustice, but smallmindedness in America is like a brick wall - you can bang your head against it all you want but all you'll get is a self-inflicted concussion.
So, that's it, it seems - nobody really left to study language.
Suppose I'll have to move to Houston.
Or maybe Austin. Austin sounds nice.
ingléspañol palabra del día: el garaje
While I don't know the actual word that it should have been (and perhaps it was simply brought in from the English to begin with), the word "Garaje" is from the English "Garage" which is, of course, a place to store your cars,
until you have too many tools and (in my case) books (that your wife won't let you bring into the house) that you no longer can park your cars.
El Garaje, noun, masculine.
como,
estoy viviendo en mi garaje, porqué tengo que proteger mis libros. ¡Tengo miedo que mi esposa va a basurerlos!
i/e palabra del día: vacuumar
Otro verbo de inglés al español: vacuumar. Es muy interestante how most new verbs are always conjugated in the AR tense - its as though they just don't make any new IR or ER verbs any more.
Like a quality vehicle, passed over by mass production.
Anyway, the correct phrase is "pasar la aspiradora" which means "to pass the vacuum cleaner"
but, since the stereotype that most hispanic females are or have been at one point in their lives housecleaners, it's really no great etymological mystery about the origin of vacuumar.
Present
yo vacuumo
tu vacuumas
Pasado
yo vacuumé
tu vacuumaste
Ustedes vacuuman
At some point, if the verb continues in growth, the double "u" will probably be replaced by a single accented "u" as in "vacúmar"
But only time will tell.
ingléspañol palabra del día
Troka- n. fem. la troka.
derivación: inglés - truck.
palabra corecta: la camioneta.
frace por ejemplo:
¡Me choqué mi troka porqué manajaba borracho!
Overheard: Our Candidates Ads targeting Hispanics
OK, while I don't have specific links or tags yet, (and I know you guys will want them, because we ARE the visual/audio society) I have to note here today what I overheard on NPR this morning regarding how our presidential candidates are courting the Hispanic vote:
They are each running ads, I believe in Florida (but not sure) targeting the Hispanic population. McCain's ad is aimed at their sense of patriotism, and from what I recall (not a direct quote), he said, "If you look at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, there are many many Hispanic names there . . . and if you look at the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq today, you'll see just as many Hispanics as well"
(and my mind instantly was waiting for him to continue, to say): "and in years to come, I'll make sure that those names are on the NEXT memorial wall!"
I mean, come on! Is this supposed to be "courting" the Hispanic vote? As a Salvadoran, it sounds to me like he's just fine sending me off to war and will thank me for getting killed with a nice engraving on a black piece of stone. Fortunately me for my I'm an octogenarian and nobody really expects much from me but to drop my dentures and curse the way of all things.
Obama's message was a little less clear, it basically consisted of what sounded like an African chant group trying to imitate Norteño music, chanting about how much he understands us.
Again, this is all just what I overheard on my way to work, so if there are details that I missed, or some subtlety that was lost on me, please feel free to let me know.
VG
