Today was kind of a hard day of classes. I got some news yesterday that is by no means bad, but is certainly unexpected and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had a hard time concentrating, and I think out new teacher got a little frustrated with me. I hate that.
So at the end of the day, when all I really wanted to do was speak some English, I couldn't stop thinking in Spanish. Every time I would use a conjuction in my head, it was always in Spanish (case in point, I almost typed "siempre" instead of always, even though that's an adjective and not a conjuction).
But then I remembered my scooter, and all was cool again.
Sorry to be a bit vague today, this entry is kind of more for me to remember than it is for people to read about. I'll be funny again tomorrow, promise.
"No urine a mi pierna y me diga está lloviendo."
-Juan
2 comments:
"Not urine to my leg and tell is raining me."
hmm, either my translation site is crazy - or you are! - (notice I didn't say 'yours is')
oh, and your parting Spanish words on Sunday were kind of strange, too. "I am detras of stick."
hmm.
'detras of stick' - is that a good thing?
Translating tools don't work. We've seen proof of that several times in the past, case in point the two or three paragraphs I wrote in Spanish last week. We're dealing with a different language, and a literal translation isn't going to cut it; you've got to look past the literal and see what the intention of the phrase is. It's a little arrogant to think we can just take Spanish words, substitute them for the English equivalents and have ourselves good grammar. Hispanics don't walk around saying, "To me, to me it pleases your cooking" once they've learned to speak English. That's bad English. But in Spanish, it's perfect grammar to say, "A mi, me gusta su cocinando."
Explanations of my past two posts:
The word "urine" is the "usted" command form of the verb "urinar" which means "to urinate." By adding "no" before it, I made it a negative command, making the phrase into "(You) Do not urinate on my leg and say to me that it is raining."
Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. Common phrase in English that is used to say, "Don't tell me one thing when it's incredibly obvious that it couldn't be further from the truth."
As for "detras de palo"
"Detras de" means "in back of" or "behind." While "palo" literally means "stick" in Spanish, it is a slang term for tree. "Estoy detras de palo," therefore, means "I am behind a tree." This is a Tico phrase to indicate that you are out of the loop, similar to the English "I've been living under a rock."
But thank you for reading, and I appreciate the effort you have put into making sense of the things I say in my post. Just remember that, much to my chagrin, there is far more to learning a language than simple word substitution. If it were that simple, everybody would do it.
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