by Eileen | Sep 27, 2014 | chile, food, home, language, santiago, shopping, spanish
As you may know, I grew up in New York. And my parents were adventurous eaters. I have fond memories of walking through neighborhoods far from home where my father would hold up different food items in a store and ask simple questions. “Soak first?” or...
by Eileen | Jul 22, 2014 | chile, food, language, spanish
Me importa un comino means, literally “it is as important to me as/ I don’t give a cumin seed.” Cumin seeds, as you may well be aware, are quite small. And yes, I really did set up the light box (made out of materials purchased at Sodimac (like Home...
by Eileen | Jun 12, 2014 | chile, language, spanish, Uncategorized
Muletillas means “little crutches,” where muletas are crutches (may you never need this word, and also not cabestrillo, which is a sling, which is not related to this post, but may you never need one of those, either). So muletillas would be little...
by Eileen | Nov 13, 2013 | chile, language, spanish, Uncategorized
I was sitting at the dining room table of a friend’s beach house a few years ago in Maitencillo, when someone offered me a bite of something they were eating, holding out the fork to me. It was some kind of cake. And since I don’t like Chilean cake,...
by Eileen | Oct 28, 2013 | chile, haha, spanish
One day, you may be asked to play Cranium in a language/culture that is not your own. You should heed this tale, and consider yourself mas que advertido (strongly warned). So one day, I was at a party at a friend-of-a-friend’s house. The host is a hilarious,...
by Eileen | Oct 21, 2013 | chile, language, spanish
Must write about language. Again. When first learning a language, you start to notice the expressions or words that you use all the time in your native language that you can’t find in the second one. In Chile, I struggled with “afford,” as in...
