by Eileen | May 22, 2019 | chile, haha, language
I thought I knew about cats. Yes, cats. After 15 years in Chile, surely I know enough not to look for their fifth foot, from the expression “no buscarle la quinta pata al gato,” which means to keep on looking for an explanation for something when there is...
by Eileen | Apr 1, 2018 | chile, haha, language, spanish, wildlife
First of all, in the photo there is not a rat Or if there is it is small and hidden in the grass. What you see is a kind-of relative of a bunny you might say. Except that for reasons that I do not understand, this bunny is not a rabbit, but a hare. Sure I can look up...
by Eileen | Sep 28, 2013 | chile, language, meta
In my last post, I posted an audioclip of a man pretending to speak English. Several people I know, and even some I don’t told me how much they enjoyed it. So far, it’s going strong at 269 listens, which is a lot of people listening to someone speaking...
by Eileen | Sep 15, 2013 | chile, language
There’s this thing that happens quite a lot in Chile, when people hear an English speaker speaking Spanish, they respond, usually among their group, not to the foreigner in question, by exaggerating an English/American/gringo accent in Spanish. You know, the one...
by Eileen | Jul 4, 2013 | chile, language
Nosotros. You learn it early on in Spanish class, the first person plural, what happens when you add someone to your self. I plus you is we. Right? Not so fast. As you may or may not know, I just got back from Paraguay. So, Paraguay. There are many reasons why...