Come Se Dice Revisited

July 8, 2011

A couple of days ago – for once – we had some forewarning of a scheduled power outage starting at 9AM.  I’m pretty sure these events are probably broadcast over the town’s loudspeakers, but after a year here, try as I might, I still have a hard time understanding any announcement (“Como Se Dice?").

Todd and I were prepping for guests arriving at two of our friends’ homes, and I scurried around early morning getting several loads of wash done that HAD to be done before the  guests arrived that day and the next.  Todd dashed about taking care of his chores…..And then – alas – the power never did go out that day or has since. But by, golly – we were READY this time.

Ecuadorian Rule of Thumb #1:

The power will go out only when you are completely unprepared and at the worst possible moment (i.e.; in the middle of a nice dinner party, or while eight loads of laundry waiting their turn on a short house turnaround, or during the middle of a “glued to your seat” DVD movie, etc). You get my drift.

Really, by now I thought my Spanish would be better.  And maybe it is, because lately our local friends have complimented Todd and I about our language improvements. Many here want to learn English as well, and at least along our area of the coast (Olon/Montanita), we are more often hearing English being spoken.

No doubt this is because our area of the Ecuador coast attracts an international crowd of young (and older) folks passing through.  I’m sure we would be much more fluent if we ever spent an hour a day or so doing “homework” together, but this inevitably ends in one of us stomping off in a huff, so we are learning by immersion.  Interestingly, Todd, who has never (“nunca”) taken a lesson in Spanish in his vida (“life”), comprehends the spoken word here better than I do now. To me (four years of A+ high school Spanish) they sound like they are talking with marbles in their mouths along the coast of Ecuador. Todd is an “auditory” learner, has no pre-conceived notions of the language, and is learning like a child would. I speak Spanish better (albeit generally still in present tense), but Todd has overcome most of his shyness about speaking in Spanish (I think this phase is fairly typical for anyone learning a new language) and is progressing by leaps and bounds. Especially, together, we do pretty good...He is our ears (“las orejas”) and I am our mouth (“la boca”).

A good recent example of the “slurred” Spanish spoken here: (STOP HERE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE SORT OF A SICK SENSE OF HUMOR):

Todd and I were up at Barb and Robert’s house in Curia working a couple of days ago. Their caretaker guardian Manuel and his wife Barbara were there too. Manuel and Todd were talking; I stepped outside for a moment, and entered back into the conversation a few minutes later. Evidently I missed a couple of crucial sentences. I thought they were talking about a “perro”/dog that Manuel enlisted/adopted to help guard the house….

Manuel emphasized that perro could not walk or “bark” –at least as well as I could understand…. And he wasn’t a very good eater either... I was thinking “well, what kind of guard dog is that”???

I interrupted the conversation to ask a few words of clarification, fortunately only asking “intelligent” questions and comments in the best of my Spanish like:

“And why doesn’t he walK?”

“The lack of “barking”/“speaking” ability could be a little bit of a problem”

“Oh, sooner or later, he will eat whatever you put in front of him”

...Etcetera....

Fortunately, Todd saved me in time (once he realized I was somewhat off track on the translation) when he pointed out that the conversation was not about a “perro” but “Pedro”, our friend in the recent car accident (and Manuel’s brother-in-law). Those two words “perro” and “Pedro” (thanks to the local marbles-in-mouth accent) can sound very similar here, and the discussion was about Pedro’s recent return home in Curia, though his recovery is likely to be slow, but a blessing nevertheless that he is able to be home now, with his family.

Kinda how I think my
Spanish must really sound  by now.