Category Archives: Spanish

How Language Affects our Minds

I recently read an article that discussed the influence of language on the way our mind works and the way we perceive reality. I found it very interesting. Whether it is spacial orientation, gender assumptions even on inanimate objects, or even how we see colors, it appears that language changes our view and the way we think of reality.

I do not know more than a few sparce words in other languages besides Spanish and English, but what I have learned in these two have taught me a great deal about perceptions in each one.

In Spanish, you must give a gender to every object. And if there is a group of objects that are both male and female, it automatically goes male. If, for instance, there are 10 women and one man, it is “ellos” instead of “ellas” whereas in English we would simply say “them or they”. In fact, English is so “anti-gendered” speaking that we actively try to remove gender from our vocabulary. We have had whole campaigns to get rid of words that might suggest the gender such as changing from stewardess to flight attendant, or actress to a general term of actor, waitress to wait staff, etc. We even do this to the extent of improper grammar such as when referring to one person’s things we will say “their things” instead of his or her because we feel uncomfortable specifying gender.

Another thing I’ve noticed in Spanish is the use of “you plural” or “ustedes”. In English, generally speaking to say “you guys” or “y’all” is considered somewhat slang or improper. Whereas in Spanish it is completely acceptable. And it also explains why some people who know English as a second language say “yous guys”, this is to signify the plural way of talking to a group of people.

Another form I found different is the acceptance of action. For instance, in English, if an object falls from a shelf for no apparent reason, we would say “It fell”. But if we were holding it, we would feel obliged or compelled to say “I dropped it”. In Spanish, this obligation is not there and you could say “Se me cayó” which would literally be “It went and fell from me” removing the blame or fault from the person. Similarly, “Se me perdió un libro” would be “The book went and lost itself on me”. Whereas in English we would feel obliged to say “I lost the book”.  

And also, some basics in the language show us a little about the different ways of thinking of the world. In Spanish you use formal expressions -there is a distinct difference between someone older than you and someone younger -for older, or more respected people you always use “usted”. In English, these formal titles are rarely used, and in fact, we might feel slightly strange if someone calls us “Maam” or “Sir”. In American culture this is reflected in a value for egalitarianism instead of formality.

In Spanish the use of the imperfect tense is used regularly. This clarifies whether or not something happened only once or was more of a continuous thing. We do this in English, but not to the same extent and we don’t have to explicitly know this when we talk.

One of the hardest forms to understand for the English speaker learning Spanish is subjunctive.  In English, we only see this in old English Shakesperean style. One such subjunctive phrase that is still around in English is “Long Live the King”. In Spanish, subjunctive is used quite regularly for things that may or may not happen. If there is a doubt about it, subjunctive is used. This may suggest a more fluid way of thinking about reality. 

In English the phrase, “I hope that he comes so that I can meet him” would be “Espero que venga para que yo pueda conocerle” or literally “I hope that he possibly comes so that perhaps I could maybe meet him”. In English it is much more of a feeling of certainty. Subjunctive is one of the most difficult things to understand for an English speaker learning Spanish.

And finally there is the use of “estar and ser”. These also explain a different view point of the world. In English you are many things. You are your age. You are your gender. You are also your current feelings. In Spanish, you have an age. You are certain permanent things, like where you are from, your name, your gender (Soy from the verb ser). But you are other impermanent things a little differently. You are happy in the estar form if you are happy right now, or you could be permanently a happy, positive person. This is the difference between “Eres amable” (You are kind -a kind, jovial person) and “Estás alegre” (You are happy -you are currently happy).

These are just a few tips that show how our view of reality may be influenced by our mother tongue and the languages we learn thereafter.

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El que se fue, no hace falta.

…Hace falta el que vendrá.

I love Spanish expressions and phrases. Just as with English, sayings are an important part of any language.

This particular expression: “El que se fue, no hace falta. Hace falta el que vendrá”  means loosely: “You do not need what has already left (gone away). What you need has yet to (or will) come.” 

I was trying to think of an expression that is similar in English. Maybe: “You can’t change the past, but you can know that the best is yet to come.”

Many expressions have a very similar meaning in another language, but the setting, characters, etc of the expression change. For instance:

“Cada muerte de un obispo” literally means: “When a bishop dies”, but figuratively, the expression is trying to say that the described occurance happens very rarely.

In English, the equivalent expression would be:

“Once in a blue moon.”

While I never remember the exact science behind what a blue moon is, and eventhough it is a very different phenomenon than a bishop dying, this phrase means the same thing: a very rare occurance.

So in translation or interpreting, sometimes you have to use the more common phrase in the language you are translating to, or else the meaning is, well, lost in translation.

Like in this other fairly common expression:

“De tal palo, tal astilla” means literally: “Like the stick, so is the splinter’. That sounds very strange and foreign, but what English expression do you think  this is actually trying to convey?

How about:
“Like father like son.” Or perhaps…”The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Others are a lot closer both in meaning and in the figurative description such as:

“Andar por las ramas” which literally mean “going around/walking around the branches”.
In English, this is “beating around the bush” which is to say, talking too much and not getting at the point, or reason for the discussion. And which is completely different from “beating the bushes”, which means to look for something, drum up business, etc.

I think idiomatic expressions are a really fun part of any language. They tell a lot about a culture and how it explains its values.  There are so many expressions out there and I think it can teach a lot about language and also culture -including from your mother tongue! I will share more with you in the future. Any fun ones you can think of?  The best has yet to come, so please share.

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The Mambo Kings Make Me Happy

So I was over at the High Plains library here in Greeley the other day (a fairly regular occurance) and I was perusing their latest in new selections. I am always on the prowl for a good tropical book as you know, when I came across “Beautiful Maria of My Soul” by Oscar Hijuelos. I had no idea this was a sequel to his Pulitzer Prize winning “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love” (which I hadn’t read or known anything about -maybe because I was 9 when it came out and his stories are a little, shall we say, adult in nature).

Anyway, I get all the way through the novel and fall in love with the style and story and find out that this is, indeed, the second telling of the same story, but told from Maria’s perspective instead of the Castillo brothers. It happens so often for me that I fall in love with the characters, setting and story of novels that by the end of the book I just want more…and this one has more, even if I do read it in a different order.

So today I went back to the library to pick up “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love”… AND I also picked up the movie “The Mambo Kings” (starring Antonio Banderas) in old school VHS format (we’ll have to dust off the old VCR). I guess I have some reading to do and Britton and I have a movie for a chilly evening this week. Yay. Here’s a clip from the movie:

Have you seen the movie or read the books?

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Spanish Tip of the Month -Los Acentos y Tildes

In speaking Spanish, you really don’t have to worry about accents much, but in written form, they are very important. It is a part of grammar and spelling just like commas and spacing and other fun stuff are in English. The accents have two main functions. One is to tell you on which syllable to put the emphasis and the other function is to distinguish meanings on otherwise same spelling words.

Another example that demonstrates the importance of these Spanish orthographic components is the tilde ~ ‘ (both the ~ and  the ‘ are called tildes although they are somewhat different). In the case of the ~ tilde, it goes over the n to make it a separate letter of the alphabet .

With the tilde on the n the word año (pronounced anyo) it means “year” without it, the word ano means “anus”. As you can see, these little dashes and wiggle marks (diacritical marks) can make a big difference!

The placement of an accent is not by accident. There are many regular words in Spanish that have an emphasis on the second to last syllable (the penultimate). These are words like:

casa =house
mesa =table
Pablo =Pablo (Paul)
señorita =miss
computadora =computer
ojos =eyes
examen =test

All of these words must end in either s, n, or a vowel. If they do not end in s, n or a vowel, then the regular words have the emphasis on the last syllable. For example:

regular = regular
particular = private, particular
nariz =nose
normal =normal

Words whose emphasis is NOT on the second to last syllable for s, n, and vowel-ending words or whose emphasis is NOT on the last syllable for all the others are irregular and need an accent where the emphasis SHOULD go. These include:

teléfono =telephone -if it were standard it would have the emphasis on the “o” after the f since it ends in a vowel.
lápiz =pencil -if it were standard the emphasis would be on the “i” since it ends in a letter other than s, n or vowel
educación =education -if it were standard the emphasis would be on the “i”  

If you change a words by making it plural (adding an “s”) this can sometimes remove the accent. For example:

población =population
poblaciones =populations

or the opposite:
examen =test
exámenes =tests

In the first example (poblacíon) because it has become plural and there is an s, the emphasis goes to the second to last syllable which is where the emphasis should be and why there was an accent before. In the second example since it ended in an n, the stress should be on the “a” but when you make it plural it would move to the second e (the second to last syllable).

However, in this following example the accent stays because the second to last syllable would be the “i” and the emphasis needs to be on the “a”

lápiz =pencil
lápices =pencils

The other reason to add an accent has nothing to do with signaling the pronunciation emphasis/stress, but rather to specify what the word is refering to. For example:

tú versus tu – means “you” while tu means “your”
él versus el – él means “he” while el means “the” (for a masculine object)
sé versus se – means “I know” OR “Be” while  se is the reflexive part of a verb
más versus mas –más means “more” while  mas is a conjunction that means “but or although”
cómo versus como – cómo means “how” and like dónde, cuándo and other words that start a question, they have the accent whereas  como means “like” or “as”. It can also mean “I eat”. As in the joke: ¿Cómo comes? Como como como.  (How do you eat? I eat like I eat.)

For more on these common Spanish mistakes, visit this site. It is in Spanish, but is quite useful.

 This site also had some games you could play to work on your Spanish. Try the él versus el or tú versus tu ones.

Don’t worry too much about accents unless you are writing something formal, or hanging a sign or otherwise doing something that is in stone. It is kind of like writing dont instead of don’t, pry instead of probably,  thru instead of through or loose instead of lose. But as I said before in the example of año and ano it’s good to at least be aware!

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