THOSE LOGICAL BUT FALSE RULES

In contrast to what many people think, teaching your own language as a  second language is not easy. Language is present in people´s lives in such a pervasive way that they frequently conclude that it works in an obvious way. Rules are logical and their exceptions are consequently logical too.

If you have worked as a language teacher you have probably noticed that things are not that obvious for your students and, more than once, they surely have asked questions you did not have answers to. If you haven´t done the experiment, well, you will have to trust me: language affairs are neither obvious nor simple.

Learning a language as you did when you were a child will never happen again. For this reason, we have grammar to try to bridge the gap between you and your chosen language.

However, grammar is logical to a fault, since it is always an abstraction of what really happens when people speak.

One of the most common mistakes is to use some simple and even logical rules that are useful to explain a few clear examples but exclude many others. Being simple makes these rules easy to remember and hard to change for more appropriate ones. Therefore, lots of mistakes fossilize in the mind of the students and it becomes a very complicated problem to correct.

The 3 most common examples of these logical but false rules:

1- Ser is used for permanent states and estar for temporary states. This rule does not explain why we say: Soy estudiante, está muerto, la fiesta es en mi casa, and many others.

2- Imperfecto is used for descriptions and Preterite, for one-time actions. The fallacious idea that Imperfecto is for longer periods than Preterite underlies this claim. Exceptions for this rule are: Juan no fue muy simpático ayer cuando hablamos; ayer te llamé todo el día, durante mi adolescencia salí muchísimo, etc.

3- It is impossible to list all the exceptions for the following rule: Subjunctive is used to express doubt, wishes or irreality.

Although it is true that as teacher, one cannot show grammar in all its complexity, with all its nuances at once, what we can do is dose out the knowledge throughout the course without instilling in the student the belief that things are simpler than they are. A language is a complex entity and one needs time to grasp it all.

Moral of the story: Don´t trust rules that seem to explain everything and… be patient.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN BA

If you have not read the introduction of the book “Che, boludo” yet, let me quote for you an excerpt:

“Argentines love to talk. They comunicate directly, openly and often loudly. In Argentina, there’s no taboo in the use of foul language. A respectable old woman will swear like a sailor and no one bats an eye. Fools are not suffered lightly and anyone behaving in a pretentious or obnoxious manner will be sharply reprimended, sometimes with just a simple gesture of the hands. Political correctness does not exist on Argentina because it would only impede getting your point across. (…) It is evident when Argentines communicate with one another that their freedom of speech is real.”

Well… Sounds great, doesn´t it? And it is even plausible at first sight. However… I think it might be a little bit too much. If porteños were like this man describes, things here would be much better than they actually are.

Is that true that political correctness does not exist?

I do think that getting your point across is important in Argentine speech. There is no problem in calling things by its name; avoiding this is making it shameful. It feels like someone trying not to say a bad word.

We do often use the imperative form instead of other softer choices like the conditional tense, etc.

It is also true that we are seldom formal, neither in speech nor behavior. In Buenos Aires, “usted” form is also used with old people, and not always to be polite. We kiss more and more, even in an work interview.

Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that there is no political correctness. I think political correctness in Buenos Aires is never a matter of  vocabulary or grammar.

I always remember a story told to me by an ex-student. She was at a disco and she had asked a man to take a picture of her and her friends. At some moment, he let her camera fall, and she said (trying to sound understanding) “Eh, boludo!” She could not understand why he got angry.

Yes, “boludo” does have a lot of meanings but the whole issue is about how you pronouce it.

So, in Buenos Aires, you can be extremely polite using “bad words” or very insulting just using a common one, even a “good” one, because what we perceive afterwards is the intention.

As you see, things are not as perfect as they might seem ¡Ojo!

WHEN IN BUENOS AIRES… -part 4-

… speak as the porteños speak

TRANSPORT

Bondi: n. Bus (also colectivo).

Tacho: n. Taxi.

Tachero: n. Taxi driver.

Subte: n. Underground.

A pie: On foot. Exp.: En dodge /en dosh/ On foot, because of its similarity to “en dos” –> en dos pies.

Citraca: n. Citroen esp. VW beatle.

Fitito: n. Fiat 600.

MALE CHAUVINISTIC WOMEN

It is well known -or at least quite known- that Argentinian men are male chauvinist (you girls only need some minutes walking around the streets of BA to confirm it).

However, -like yin & yang- women behave consequenly.

It might seem that women here hate the way men are. Their speech (women´s, I mean) is often full of pejorative expressions about ellos. It´s frequent to listen girls saying that “men are all the same: liar, cheater, insensitive, womanizer, etc., etc.”.  At first sight (specially if you have spent some time here), they sound convincing but, if you read between the lines, it is an undercover way to accept a certain role.

On the one hand, supporting this statements confirms a role as victim. Saying “men are all bad” implies that women are virtuous and good by nature but poor victims who can´t do anything to fight vile men.

On the other hand, depite complaining, chauvinism is accepted. Things like men paying the bill, women cooking for their partners, clearing the table and doing the washing up while men comfortably watches tv; women washing and ironing men´s clothes; advertisements where a submissive woman dances and sings while happyly washing all the family´s clothes… all that kind of things -insulting in other countries- are not even taken as a light offense for not few women.

I am not trying to be judgemental but making a point. It is always useful to know the whole panorama.

OUTFIT

WHEN IN BUENOS AIRES… -part 3-

…speak as the porteños speak.

SIGNIFICANT ANIMALS AND FOOD:

Gato (cat)= Prostitute.

Nabo (turnip) = Dumb.

Bagre (codfish)= Ugly.

Salame (salami) = Idiot.

Vaca (cow)= Fat. 

Banana = Man who acts confident and seductive but is actually pathetic.

Yegua (mare)= Bad woman.

Bombón = Pretty woman.

Jamón del medio = Beautiful woman.

Idioms with food.

Mandar fruta = To say or to write something you are not sure about acting as though you were.

Agarrar para el lado de los tomates = To misinterpret what somebody said.

Hinchar(le) los huevos a alguien = To piss somebody off.

FREUD vs. TANGO… DRAW?

The reason why BA is one of the cities where people go into therapy the most is uncertain. Is it a consequence of our personality or -instead- are we now a result of what once was a social trend?
The only thing that I can speak about is what I have found to be true. Given this point, I am going to talk about how this state of affairs is present throughout porteños´ daily life.

Once, while talking to an English therapist, he told me that saying “patient” to a “client” would be politically incorrect because “patient” implies that they are crazy. This brings me to the first difference I can think of: we don´t go to the psychologist because we think we are crazy.

In these fetishistic times we have turned everything into objects-no matter if it´s a thing, an idea, a feeling or a person-. Everything is put there to be admired or criticized but not to be experienced. We have created a vacuum between us and the world surrounding us. In this context, anguish, frustration, depression, dissatisfaction, etc. are common occurences and every culture looks for a different way to fill that feeling of emptiness.

What is the first thing we do when we are at a crossroads in our lives and we have to make an important decision or when we feel we just can´t go on by ourselves? We start therapy. We are convinced that we are self-saboteur and that we need an objective and qualified opinion to guide our acts for a stretch of our lifes. Have you ever seen one of those paintings you can´t understand if you stand too close to it but, as you move away, it starts to make sense?  For us, therapy is a dual way -distancing and introspection- to find out what really makes us happy.

To achive this goal, a short treatment is not enough. Things that you unconsciously drag throughout your life cannot be analized and corrected in a month. It takes years.

That´s how our therapist goes on to be an important part in our life. Much more than an ordinary doctor, they almost become a lifelong friend. We talk of what our psychologist said just as you would talk of what your mother or a friend said, and their criteria is even more reliable.

As you probably guessed, psychological vocabulary is everywhere in porteños´ speech. An actual therapist would not dare to use as many technical concepts as ordinary people do.

It is all part of the local color.

WHEN IN BUENOS AIRES… -part 2-

… speak as the porteños speak.

Vivo: adj.  Person who wants to get the most with the minimum effort. Mostly used with the undefinite article. Ej.: ¡Sos un vivo!

Vivada: n. f. What a “vivo” does.

Avivarse: v.  (de algo): To realize sth.

INTERCULTURAL LOVE

Compiling my own experience on the subject and my students´, I have learnt -at least- one thing: men and women are the same all around the world… but they are also different.

The scope of the problem exceeds the language matter.

The first sensation about people from another culture is often exoticism. Everything is new and attractive: Latinamerican guys show their feelings!, Germans are less male chauvinisctic!, Americans leave their parents´home at 18!, you have to kiss everybody in BA!, the French cook amazingly!, porteños are so clothes-conscious!,  Swedes are so blond!, Mexican so dark!, etc., etc… At first it seems as though these new people have everything our own don´t.

After a while it may start to raise the feeling of something missing. Even if both speak each others language fluently , nuances may still remain unknown. I´m talking about humour, body language, irony, prosody… in a nutshell, the distance between what you say and what you actually communicate.

Just to mention a few examples of BA: the simple fact of a man inviting a woman for a dinner has flirting connotations here; a woman dancing with her back close toward a man´s front -like hip hop dancing- is an open invitation to have sex; if a girl is not even kissed on the first date she will think that he didn´t like her; if a girl says “no”, that might mean “yes” depending on the intonation; if a man you dated on Saturday didn´t call you yet, wait until Wednesday to consider it to be concluded; and so on…

And I am only talking about “courtship”. Just imagine the scene in a  whole relationship! wrong interpretations, misunderstandings, etc.

I´m not saying it can´t work. However, if you are starting a relationship with somebody from a different culture, don´t take anything for granted. Don´t try to drop a hint or take one as with a “fellow countryman” unless you are sure about how it works for the other person. Otherwise, choose the direct way. Synchronize what you mean with what you say and be patient.

It might be an interesting experiment.  

How to squeeze your advantages as foreigner over locals (Coming soon)

FOOTWEAR

NO

Keep your trainers only for sports activities. To go out, choose something more discreet, with less sole.

 

YES

Black, white, brown, silver… pick the colour you prefer!