ismos

so there's a lot of slang here, so much so that i felt compelled to buy a book on chilean "modismos" before i got here. it's safe to say that there's more than 200 phrases or sayings here in chile that any other spanish speaker might be only able to take a guess at. not to speak negatively at all about these interesting/different sayings, but it's been suggested that due to chile's relatively isolated geography (the andes separate it from argentina on the eastern edges and to the north is the atacama- the driest desert in the world) language has developed without the influence of other south american spanish-speaking countries.

so what you end up with is words like:

• ¿cachai? meaning "get it?" or "did you hear?"(also used as a verb- cachar- meaning to have sex- apparently comes from the english "to catch"- like fishing? or "he's a catch!")
  

• sí po' or no po' = yes or no, yes of course, no of course not

• huevón (pronounced weon). this is scott's favorite. its closest equivalent is "dude" and depending on stress and intonation can be "buddy" or "a%*hole" so take caution

• bacán which i have seen used in situations as "cool" or "neat" but i think in many more contexts means "poser"... might need some clarification on this but i use it anyway and people don't think i'm weird... i think

aside from entirely new, chilean specific words, you have two other issues. number 1 is words that don't sound like "spanish" because they are missing too many letters to sound like anything you're used to. examples are "fósforos" (matches) which sounds like "fawforo"; "pesado" (heavy) which sounds like "pe-ah-o"; "se-i" for "seis"; "discu" for "disculpa-me/nos" (excuse me/us) and "más o menos" (more or less) which sounds like "ma or men-o" and is really a descriptor for just about anything that has an amount.

issue number 2 is when you are in situations where a chilean pulls a spanish word out you know you know but in reality it means something entirely different here. situation- walking down the street with scott. we hear some huevón yelling at us but not sure what he's saying. finally we hear him say "flaco- tienes el tiempo?" (hey skinny- you have the time?). now, scott isn't sure at this point whether to be flattered or apprehensive. keeping "flaco" in our heads we hurried home to consult the survival book. "flaco" in chilean means "buddy" or "pal". i suppose there are worse things to be called....

in third grade they teach you that head in spanish is "cabeza", eyes are "ojos", hair is "pelo", teeth are "dientes"... no no no! not in chilean.... cabeza is coco or mate, ojos are pepas, pelo is chasca, mechaso or peluca, dientes are chocleros or alcachoferos (choclo means corn and here it is rather difficult to chew, no wonder why it's associated with teeth). it's like re-learning everything! so issue 2 can be bifurcated in this way: you don't know what you think you do and you don't know anything at all.

friends and family

Since I have been in Santiago there have been a several exciting developments in the lives of our friends, mostly in the form of engagements and babies-to-be. I've always felt like I wasn't old enough, or something, for these kinds of things to happen to my closest friends. The realization has hit while I've been here, I am old enough now! I'm 25 for goodness sake. It's been interesting to meet that reality while also living in a foreign country, where I am meeting new people/making new friends.
Scott (usually a bit more sentimental than I, although I am impressing myself with this post) and I have been really happy to have been kept in the loop with what all is happening in your lives! We miss you (ok he's not here right now but trust me he does) and hope all of you who can possibly make it down here (friends AND family), get down here ASAP! Also, we updated the settings on the blog so even those who don't have a google account can comment!

Love you guys!