The Living Language

Hola! It's November 12th, the sea is as calm as a duckpond and I spent the morning sitting in the sun wearing a skirt and my bikini top ( I started off in a T-shirt but it just got too hot!), doing my Spanish homework. As you can see.

I could write about the great jazz/flamenco concert we went to in Chiclana on Friday night-tickets at 5 Euros each. However, I thought instead I would share some of the reasons why Spanish-especially around here-is both fascinating and frustrating.

• The word that you will find in the dictionary for a mandarin-you know, the fruit- is mandarina (The word for a person of Mandarin Chinese origin is Mandarin)
• However, sometimes mandarinas are called mudarinas because there is a word to peel, which is mudar. Mudar is also something that snakes do with their skin, although you can also mudar la cama (change the bed) mudar tu opinion (change your mind) and mudarse (move house)
• Do not assume from this that you can use mudar to refer to the peeling of a potato. No! The word you need if you want to talk about that is pelar, although pelarse is to get one's hair cut.
• The verb to want is querer. However, in Chiclana older people often us tomar to mean the same thing, this being old Spanish. Normally tomar means to take or to have something to eat or drink although it can also be used in pharses like tomar el sol, that is take the sun, tomar en cuenta, to consider or tomar parte en, that is to take part in.
• A common informal address in spanish is chico/a meaning roughly the equivalent to our colloquial "kid". However, in Andalucia, chico can also be used as an adjective to mean little. So, in our local panaderia or bread shop, when I asked for some bollos or rolls, I was asked if I wanted grandes o chicos, big ones or little ones.
• Chico, however, is an abbreviation of chiquillo. And, never ones to miss an opportunity to drop a few letters, the local Chiclana word for a kid is often not chico at all, but quio. Who would have thought it?
• Finally, ser un bollo is not as you might think to be a bread roll, but to be a piece of cake, something that learning Spanish is not!

Spanish lesson over! I only wanted an excuse to tell you what a lovely day it has been here. Have a good week quios!