This Is This

My Spanish isn’t of Fishboy standard, but I like to talk badly. Not to anyone in particular, just to the family within earshot as I go about. At breakfast I was known to pronounce: “huevos muchos calientes” for no other reason than I had a plate of them (very hot eggs). I don’t do this in any other country with other phrases I know.

In Germany I don’t say: “Ich bin diene Angstraum” (I am your nightmare)* In France I don’t say: “deux bouteilles de vin rouge.” OK, I might say that, but in a Spanish speaking country, I revert to Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer Spanish.

It might come from having kids that every time I saw an exit, a comically emphatic voice would echo in my head: “Salida. Sal - ida,” followed by lots of American kids shouting “EGGGS-ZIT!!!”

Incidentally, I saw The Simpsons in Spanish (Los Simpsons) and I wanted to see what Bart said instead of “Aye caramba.” Or to see how the guy in the bee suit talked. Maybe he spoke English. Maybe the joke was lost in translation, because all the Spanish speakers thought that a guy dressed in a bee suit was quality entertainment and couldn’t understand the gag. Anyone know?

* I know this from bad German heavy metal bands I listened to as a teenager. I have wide ranging tastes, as opposed to being a nutter.

Also on This Is This
By midday the sun was beating down, we were out of drinking water and has missed our rendez vous with the car. The pickup point was in the middle of nowhere and we weren’t even anywhere near that.
Read this post...

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 8:30 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or leave a comment yourself.