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Visual Link Spanish™
Newsletter
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Words of the Week
Words are taken from the Locations section of our Visual Link Spanish™ course -----
| | English | Spanish |
| Monday | They are (location) | Están |
| Tuesday | next to | al lado de |
| Wednesday | in front of (and close to) | delante de |
| Thursday | behind
| detrás de |
| Friday | far (from...)
| lejos (de...)
|
| Saturday | close (to...)
| cerca (de...)
|
| Sunday | (over) there | (por) allí |
| Bonus | (over) there - another way to say it | (por) allá |
| New Year's Procrastinators | No, it's not too late to set New Year's Resolutions if you haven't yet. If you don't set any other goals, learning Spanish is a great one. Click here for more information about our Visual Link Spanish™ course. |
Culture ----- Hand Gestures (gestos)
(Responses to last week's newsletter are found at the bottom.)
Today we're going to cover a particular Latin hand gesture that is essential to know. Some of you may be disappointed who wanted to learn how to do a gesture involving a certain "middle" finger to show anger. Sorry -- and remember, this is a family-friendly website. (By the way, that finger sign alluded to means nothing to native Spanish speakers unless they have lived in the U.S.)
The gesture I'm going to teach you this week is one that, if done incorrectly, can cause a lot of problems. In the U.S., and I suppose other English speaking countries (feedback requested), if you want to say "come here" using hand gestures, you put out your hand, palm up, and move your index finger in and out two or three times.
If you make the same gesture to a Latin person from certain regions of Latin America, it can have a completely different meaning. It means that you are extremely romantically interested and is considered a solicitation. You can imagine the trouble you could get into if you didn't know the Latin interpretation of this typical American hand gesture.
The correct way to say "come here" in Spanish, using a hand gesture, is to put your palm down and move all four fingers in and out (together) two or three times. In other words, the "palm up - one finger - English gesture" is completely different than the "palm down - four finger - Spanish gesture". Now that you know the difference, remember to avoid confusing the two!
To show you the trouble you can get into if you make the wrong gesture, I'd like to share the following short story. When I was teaching Spanish at a major US corporation, the managers I was teaching shared the following experience: There was a Latin woman at their corporation who didn't speak much English. She had accused a man at the corporation of sexual harassment. There was a corporate hearing to assess the situation which involved all the managers, the woman, the accused man, and an interpreter.
There was a very serious tone in the room as the woman was asked to explain the charge. After a few minutes of explanation, the interpreter began to laugh wildly. The managers thought this was very inappropriate and asked him to explain why he was laughing.
The interpreter proceeded to explain what the woman had told him. He said that the accused man had needed the woman to come with him for a job-related activity. He had signaled for her to come, as most Americans do, with the palm up and moving the index finger in and out. She then told the interpreter that the man had made several unwanted solicitations. When the woman had told this to the interpreter, he realized that this was a big cultural misunderstanding and began to laugh. Both cultures were then explained to all parties and the situation resolved.
The moral of the story: If you want to signal for someone to "come here" in Latin America, put your palm down instead of up, and use four fingers instead of one. This will help you stay out of muchos problemas!
Sneak peek at next week: More hand gestures.
¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until Next Week!)
David S. Clark -- President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com
866-9SPANISH
P.S. - If you have enjoyed our newsletters, please forward them to friends or relatives -- that is one of the main ways our business grows.
Responses from Last week's newsletter (on ice at night)
Response #1
Good newsletter. I live in the UK, and if you go to American-owned or
American-styled outlets, you get ice. Other than that, you generally don't.
I lived in the States throughout my teens, and despite being back here for
many years, still spot the differences in culture!
Hasta luego
Chris
Response #2
As to the ice in your drink at night problem (or any time of day for that matter), when I was living in Mexico many Americans would get sick from the ice. The reason: the ice is made from tap water. As it melted – in small quantities usually – it added the tap water to the drink. As the tap water is not potable, it made them sick. I don’t know if this is the reason for your experience or not but it is…
… just a thought.
Adios!
Sherry D
Response #3
Dear sir,
I found your newsletter about ice in cold drinks very interesting. I live in India and here too people dont really serve cold drinks with ice in it unless you ask for it. I think the reason for not using ice is because very often ice trays are filled with water straight from the tap and in countries like ours the water from the taps is not fit for drinking unless further treated by boiling or passing it through a filter. So I assume the thing about a stomach upset after you have had a drink with ice in it could well be true.
In a hot country like mine we too offer hot tea to a guest ,cause a cup of tea is definitely more refreshing than a cold drink even on the hottest day!!!!!
neychelle
Other Responses
Other newsletter subscribers wrote back and mentioned how at McDonalds® in the UK, they give you ice since they are an American corporation.
Editor's Conclusion:
It appears that the U.S. may be one of the few if not the only country that customarily puts ice in drinks at night. This is a conclusion I wouldn't have come to before receiving the responses to last week's newsletter. As one response suggested, many Latin people may not put ice in drinks because it is made from tap water. That is a great argument but many of the Latin people themselves drink tap water but still don't put ice in drinks. In addition, even though they don't drink ice at nightm they don't drink any cold drinks at night with or without ice.
I guess this one ends up being somewhat of a mystery.
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