Spanish

[squirmelia]

I had my first Spanish lesson last night. The teacher explained how it is easy to confuse children with pubic hairs.

Comments

[toadflax234.livejournal.com]

Sounds like vital information to me.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

The class concluded it was best just not to talk about children ever.

[toadflax234.livejournal.com]

That works as a general rule, not just for Spanish class.

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

Always a good idea... :D

[eric-the-girl.livejournal.com]

Huh? OK, I think I may need to re-learn spanish now... fairly sure they can't be confused... *wanders off in a mindblown state*

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

It may have been something to do with Spanish as spoken in some parts of South America? I'm not quite sure. I will have to search for it when I am at home.

The anecdote she told was something like, a guy shouted across the street to someone, "how are your sister's children?", but it could have meant, "how are your sister's pubic hairs?"

[flavius-m.livejournal.com]

Not my part of South America, for sure*! I can't imagine how you could mistake nephews/pubic hairs!! Do you remember the actual words? 'Nephew' is 'sobrino..'


* Venezuela.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

She didn't say the actual words, unfortunately. I will search later though! I presume it was some sort of colloquialism, but am unsure.

[eric-the-girl.livejournal.com]

weird... ok, have asked my sister as she's far more good at spanish than me (it's what she does for a living)

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

I had a search and came up with:

"pendejo/a 1 [m, f, adj] [rude, but not insulting] child, kid, boy/girl; [usually appreciative] (someone who looks like) a young person; [derogatory] childish, improper for an adult person, esp. used of something made out of whim and arbitrariness (pendejada [n]); 2 [m] [generally only used among boys, very rude] a pubic hair. (Note well, the first meaning is not an insulting term of address as in Mexican Spanish.)"

[eric-the-girl.livejournal.com]

i think perhaps your spanish teacher has failed to explain herself properly somewhere... also, i can tell you the most important thing is never to confuse raining with fucking.

Ian did that once... my mum and I will NEVER let him forget the day he said "esta jodiendo" instead of "esta lloviendo"

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Her point was just that words can have slightly different meanings in different Spanish speaking countries, and I think she got that point across quite well really, even if she didn't explain it more than that. :)

Wikipedia says this:
"In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pendejo or pendeja refers to a child, usually with a negative connotation, like that of immaturity or a "brat"[citation needed]. Also, in Argentina, "pendejo" is a pubic hair, so someone called "pendejo" is someone of no value as a person. In Perú, however, it does not necessarily have a negative connotation, and can just refer to someone who is clever, especially with regards to street smarts."

I'll try not to confuse raining with fucking. :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Is the Spanish for "fucking in the rain" a tonguetwister? ;)

[eric-the-girl.livejournal.com]

jodiendo en la lluvia? no, not really...

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Shows how little I know about how Spanish works, thanks!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

In Italian, I once confused "coniglio" (rabbit) with "coglione" (arsehole, the expletive) when I meant the former.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

As long as you don't confuse 'with' with 'using'.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Yes, that might be rather dodgy!

[editor.livejournal.com]

My favourite thing about Spanish is translating the names of famous actors, like Antonio Flags, Emilio This Time and Steve Look For Me. (Actually that one might be Italian.)

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

They sound like great names!

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

In Spanish Look-for-me would be Buscame, rather than Buscemi, but it is entertaining, yes :-)

[rosyatrandom.livejournal.com]

Are Spanish children who have pubic hairs easily confused, then?

[(Anonymous)]

I have spoken Spanish for over 30 years and never had a problem with the above mentioned, it certainly didn't happen whilst living in Mexico, guessing your teacher isn't a native speaker?

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia says:
"In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pendejo or pendeja refers to a child, usually with a negative connotation, like that of immaturity or a "brat"[citation needed]. Also, in Argentina, "pendejo" is a pubic hair, so someone called "pendejo" is someone of no value as a person. In Perú, however, it does not necessarily have a negative connotation, and can just refer to someone who is clever, especially with regards to street smarts."

So, it sounds like it could be vaguely plausible, but I suspect the teacher (who I don't think is native) just told us the anecdote because it was amusing, and she wanted to emphasise that Spanish spoken in different countries may have slightly different meanings.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I find the idea of 'pendejo' being used to refer to children quite strange, as it's a pretty well-known insult. Literally, of course, it means pubic hair, but it also means idiot, arsehole, fuckwit etc.

The slang one I avoid is 'chocho' which means chuffed, pleased, over the moon - but it seems like the feminine version should be 'chocha' which is slang for 'pussy', so it's unwise to say to someone 'I hear you got a new job1 You must be chocha'.

[squirmelia.livejournal.com]

The teacher didn't actually say it was 'pendejo', but that was what I came up with when I searched. I think she should have used a different example, as no-one here seems to think it is one that can be confused that easily!

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any other slang terms for pubic hair, and 'pelos pubicos' sounds nothing like any term I know for 'kids'...hmm, maybe a native speaker would be better able to advise.