I work as an Interpreter mainly because I love the mysteries of languages. I speak three, but it's not enough. One language is multiple and infinite. In addition, languages are living beings, they develop in length, width and height. They are born, young, old and die. Sometimes they even get sick! They are polluted with other bugs of a civilization and even with other languages.
As you may realize, they are much more alive than a human being!
And then it’s like your family, you may like it or not, but you have no choice but live with it, speak it! Or do like I, learn the one you really love, find the one that really helps you express what you have to say. I was lucky to be born in a Spanish speaking country, see. Even after speaking two others, I think it’s the richest. And I have my theory for the reason. The extension of lands where it's spoken is so broad, big and large that it embraced several cultures, history eras, and a large variety of people.
The main difference between Spanish and English is that Spanish speakers have many words to say one meaning, whereas the English speaker learns a limited lexicon and can communicate everything, because one word can be used for many meanings. For example, the "unique" verb "was like" can replace them all. The verb to get is to have, to eat, to attain, to obtain, to arrive, to achieve, to earn, to win, and many many more. In Spanish it would be impossible to communicate all that with just one verb!
This weekend we enjoyed many goodies from Argentina and Uruguay thanks to Central Market with several of my friends who are from different Latin American countries. There were alfajores (two cookies filled with dulce de leche and completely covered with chocolate or decorated with coconut flakes). Well, DULCE DE LECHE, is manjar, arequipe, dulce de cajeta, manjar blanco depending where the Spanish speaker comes from. The variety is so big that sometimes it can encounter problems. For your own good, please don't say dulce de cajeta in Argentina...
No comments:
Post a Comment