by Eileen | Nov 24, 2008 | Uncategorized
Santiago has more than its fair share of stray dogs. There are stray dogs who have houses (on the street), who are fed kibble, or cut up hotdogs and other leftovers by passersby, neighbors and even the police. Cute ones with short legs, and lopey ones who limp around...
by Eileen | Nov 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
This is certainly related to the chip-changing post of the other day, which stirred more emotion than I was expecting. Everyone’s saying, yes! the chip! the chip! And I’m thinking, barbecue-flavored? Because I’ve already gone onto another topic....
by Eileen | Nov 19, 2008 | Uncategorized
In Chile people always talk about having to cambiar el chip, or change the chip in their brains to switch from one language to another. As though by making a slight key-turning motion by the side of their head, it is actually possible to activate, for example, the...
by Eileen | Nov 17, 2008 | Uncategorized
So I’m on Long Island.Fall here is like a plate of cut/up crisp green apples and peeled cucumbers and maybe celery with a small fan directing the smell into your nose, and into your brain. At the risk of waxing excessisve, it’s like an unwarm shower on a...
by Eileen | Nov 14, 2008 | Uncategorized
In what is perhaps one of the most memorable articles I ever read as an undergraduate and aspiring linguist, Berlin and Kay (1969) set up a system of categorizing languages by how many color terms there are. Here’s a wikipedia description. But the main point...
by Eileen | Nov 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
Chilean Spanish is rife with slang nearly unintelligible outside of its narrow confines. It’s been called the most difficult Spanish, the slangiest Spanish. Even Chileans speak with pride of their children with beautiful diction and vocabulary because the nana...
