Are Latin Americans as sarcastic as Americans?

Posted by Amit Schandillia at 8:55 AM

While we are busy learning Spanish to be able to communicate effectively in a Latin American country, it is also imperative to understand that the sense derived out of something spoken can be drastically different in different cultural contexts. In all of the Latin American countries I've either lived in or visited, the people react to el sarcasmo (sarcasm) very differently than they do here is the U.S.

Here in the U.S., sarcasm is very widespread and is used as a common, daily form of communication. For example, if a friend or family member purchased a new shirt that was obviously a little strange, you could tease them by saying "Nice shirt!" Of course, when you say "Nice shirt!" what you really mean is, "Wow, that shirt is a little wild or strange".

In Latin America, people usually aren't accustomed to hearing or using sarcasm with each other. For example, I was working with a native speaker who was wearing a very interesting sweater. It was definitely out of the ordinary and a little strange. I said, "Nice sweater!" He looked at me with a thoughtful look and said "Thanks". He didn't get the fact that I was using sarcasm with him. He thought I was serious and was giving him a nice compliment about his sweater.

As I lived in Latin America for two consecutive years in different countries, I began to get accustomed to this new attitude of not using sarcasm. It took quite a while, but soon I didn't use sarcasm at all. Because of the lack of sarcasm in Latin America, it seemed to me that there was generally more respect between people.

Then, after two years of living among the natives and adopting this new mentality, I met up with an American. We were put on a project where we would have to work together every day for a month or so. He had just arrived in Latin America and wasn't used to the language or culture (without sarcasm). Quite a few times, I found myself getting offended when he used sarcasm with me. I had become so immersed into the Latin culture that I found his sarcasm offensive. It took me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things and realize that he wasn't actually trying to be rude or mean. He was just using a similar type of sarcasm that I had used previously when living in the U.S.

Now, some of you may be saying, "I know some Latin people in the U.S. that are sarcastic." If you do, it's probably because they have already begun to adopt some of our cultural behaviors, just like I adopted their behaviors while I was there. Just remember that most native speakers living in Latin America itself usually aren't sarcastic.

I would love to hear from you (newsletter subscribers) in different countries to find out if you use sarcasm in your countries.

Moral of the Story: When visiting Latin America, for business or pleasure, it's important to know about their mentality on sarcasm. On the other hand, even though many Latin people living in the U.S. may have adopted sarcasm and use it frequently, be careful when talking to them, sarcasm still may offend them. Although a world without sarcasm was very different to live in and get used to, I grew to love it and found the people to be very respectful towards each other.

¡Hasta luego! (Until later!)

Cited from spanishprograms.com

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Spanish dialect of New Mexico

Posted by Amit Schandillia at 8:27 AM

New Mexican Spanish is a variant or dialect of Spanish spoken in the United States, primarily in the northern part of the state of New Mexico and the southern part of the state of Colorado. Despite a continual influence from the Spanish spoken in Mexico to the south, New Mexico's relative geographical isolation and unique political history has made New Mexican Spanish differ notably from Spanish spoken in other parts of Latin America, even from that of northern Mexico or Texas.

Speakers of New Mexican Spanish are mainly descendants of Spanish colonists who arrived in New Mexico in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During this time, contact with the rest of Spanish America was limited, and New Mexican Spanish was allowed to develop on its own course. In the meantime, Spanish colonists coexisted with Puebloan peoples and Navajos. Finally, after the Mexican-American War, New Mexico and all its inhabitants came under the governance of the English-speaking United States, and for the next hundred years, English-speakers increased in number.

For these reasons, the main differences between New Mexican Spanish and other forms of Latin American Spanish are these: the preservation of forms and vocabulary from colonial-era Spanish (e.g. haiga instead of haya, or Yo seigo instead of Yo soy); the borrowing of words from Rio Grande Indian languages for indigenous vocabulary (in addition to the Nahuatl additions that the colonists had brought); a tendency to "re-coin" Spanish words that had fallen into disuse (For example, ojo, whose literal meaning is "eye," was repurposed to mean "hot spring" as well.); and a large proportion of English loan words, particularly for technological words (e.g. bós, troqua, and telefón.) Pronunciation also carries influences from colonial, Native American, and English sources.

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How to identify a Latino

Posted by Amit Schandillia at 5:55 AM

You know you are a Latino (or Latina), if:

1. You have ever been spanked with chancletas.

2. You have later been spanked with la correa, or the plancha chord.

3. You know your mom is sneaking up on you because you can hear her chancletas on the linoleum floor.

4. Your mother yells at the top of her lungs to call you to dinner and you only live in a one bedroom apartment.

5. You can get to your house blindfolded by the smell of the chuletas.

6. You light a candle the night of the Lotto drawing.

7. You get scared whenever someone mentions el cucuuuuiii or el cuuuuuco.

8. You have gone to the Pulga every weekend for years. Two points if you actually enjoyed it!)

9. You have gone to Titi's house and passed through the beaded curtain in the living room.

10. You step into a house that has all those little figurines taking up every inch of space on/under the TV and you have a porcelain cat, dog, Buddha or elephant in your livingroom.

11. You have plastic slipcovers on your sofas.

12. You swear Choco Mil is the same as Slim Fast and try to lose weight by drinking it.

13. You have a perpetually drunk uncle.

14. You know at least one person in your family named María, Carlos, Papo, Juan, José, Tony, Tito or Luis.

15. You not only know who Don Francisco from Sabado Gigante is, but you tell people he's your tío.

16. You have ever had to beepiar a friend on his or her pager.

17. You have told your kid not to walk the floor barefoot or they'll catch a cold.

18. You go to a wedding or quiencienera, gossip about how bad the comida is, but be the first to take a plato to go.

19. You drink all beer with limon and salt. (Two extra points for a splash of Tapatio)

20. You have a chola in your barrio named La Flaca: who's bigger than a house.

21. You have a cousin named Guero who's darker than night.

22. You know a chola named La Shy Girl who is loud and obnoxious.

23. You've tried to bring a mango back to the US from Mexico, and a bonus point if you actually made it all the way home with it.

24. You have sat in a two-passenger car with over seven people in it.

25. You have at least 2 statues of saints in your house (and a bonus point if one of them La Virgen de Guadalupe, or Santa Barbara).

26. You draw others' attention by saying chhh chhh or Pssssst.

27. You drive a Cheby (Chevy), an Ohsmobeel (Oldsmobile) or a Bolswahgon (VolksWagon).

28. You call all sneakers, tennis shoes.

29. Your car has fifteen speakers in it and you fix it every weekend.

30. You swear a malta is a drink of the kings.

31. You are still afraid to open that umbrella in your house.

32. You always try to find out what town another fellow Hispanic's family is from even though you have no idea where that town could possibly be.

33. You call a rug, Carpeta; typing, tipiar; parking, parkear; stress, estress; library, libreria (instead of biblioteca); or, to knock, knockiar.

34. You need a cup of coffee after every meal.

35. Your sister has more mustache hair than your father.

36. One of your aunts or your mom weighs over 300 lbs.

37. Your cousins are delinquents.

38. You think Cristina beats Oprah any day.

39. Your uncle owns more gold than a jewelry store.

40. You have your country's flag hanging from your rear-view mirror.

41. Your mom made you keep lettuce under your bed the night before the Three Kings' Day so that the camels had something to eat and the leave you a gift in return.

42. Your family never lets you forget the day you missed Mother's Day.

43. You can dance Cumbias and Salsa without music.

44. You need to point out how much something you just bought cost.

45. You attend at least 3 weddings a year.

46. You have a picture of Jesucristo in your house.

47. You have a bottle of Bacardi in your house right now.

48. You just cannot imagine anyone not liking Spanish food.

49. You dread those boring stays with family in the campo.

50. You refuse to use el diario for anything but reading, except, maybe, as the only proper way of wrapping fish.

51. You can speak with your face: For example, you twitch your nose like a rabbit to ask, what do you want.

52. You do that funny, pointing thing with your nose and if the other people doesn't understand you, you use your lips for emphasis.

53. You are an adult and you are still forced to be with your family by midnight every New Year's eve.

54. You think your name begins like this: Ave Maria Purisima.

55. You walk around saying, chacho or chacha or ay bendito.

56. Your mom has put a balled-up piece of thread on your baby cousin's forehead to stop her hiccups.

57. You have at least thirty cousins.

58. You are 50 years old and you still call your parents, mami y papi.

59. You start clapping every time your plane lands on the runway.

And last, but not least...

60. Your grandmother thinks she has the miracle cure for everything.

This joke is from the collection at www.usaone.net/jokenet.

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