Piñatas and product placement

Having a 6 year old means going to lots of birthday parties. We've (or various percentages of the family) been to several recently and it is interesting to compare the features of different ones. Ellyn's palette of friends is pretty diverse given that her school is populated by people from a variety of embassies as well as local Hondurans. So far we have been to parties hosted by United Statesians, Canadians, and Hondurans. 

Today's party was for one of her closer friends from school and neighborhood and had a few of its own distinctive features. It offered us a variety of ways to, let's say, "appreciate" cultural differences.

There was a clown, games, music (not too loud, actually). Both Debbie and Ellyn got roped into games for which they did not understand the rapidly issued instructions. 

After the obligatory bludgeoning and dismemberment of a cherished cartoon character (a Lalaloopsy doll in this case) and the concomitant scurry for candy, things proceeded to cake. This was one of the odder moments. The assembled guests--native Spanish speakers to the last one (present family not included)--began to sing "Happy Birthday to you." So what? you say. But they were actually singing it in English, that is heavily accented English. As it turned out, because she hadn't caught what was going on, the only person singing in Spanish--"Feliz cumpleaños a ti!"--was Debbie. It...they...what?!

Then the choir launched into the second verse: "Ya queremos pastel..." which means "Now we want some cake..." Added to the end of this was a brief refrain "Y un Coca-cola." I can only imagine that the people at Coca Cola would be thrilled to find their name so naturally associated with the most oft repeated song in the world. 

Language Barriers

In moving to a foreign country one expects a certain amount of difficulty communicating across the language and cultural barriers. This is true even for those that are semi-competent in the local language.

By and large we have been able to communicate more or less effectively. Stephen's Spanish is adequate and Debbie is learning.

There have been some additional and unexpected language challenges, however.

First, Ellyn's best friend here is the child of deaf parents that work with New Life Deaf Ministry, whose director attends Union. At 7, Carolina already is competent in Spanish, English and Lesho, or Honduran sign language.  (She would like to learn French and Chinese!) Needless to say, our interactions with her parents are limited to the two signs we know: "hello" and "thank you."

Today yet another language challenge faced us. Along with the other household items that belong to the church, the previous pastor and his family left behind a fan which has been sitting at church since their departure. Since the warmer months are coming we thought another fan at home would be a good idea.

HOWEVER.

When we went to turn it on we were confronted with this:







All is not lost. The ones in the picture on the left appear to be (reading from the bottom up: on/off, high, medium, low). That toggle switch, though, has me stumped so far. Fortunately, we do go to an international English-speaking church and I know of at least one Chinese speaker in the congregation.

Sight of the day

A lot of cast-off clothing from the US finds its way to Honduras. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of those t-shirts printed for the World Series losers end up here.

This means that it is quite common to see people roaming the streets with clothing sporting brand names or English text. The wearer's grasp of English being what it is (or isn't), this can create some humorous pairings.

Like the portly, middle-aged Honduran man I saw at the auto mechanic shop the other day sporting a sweatshirt labeled thus:

FDR would be amazed

Americans love acronyms. They are ubiquitous. Just think of how much time you spend on CBS, NBC, and ESPN watching NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA not to mention CSI, CSI:NY, and NCIS. The government is in on it too: CIA, FBI, DEA, FDA, etc. (or perhaps ad nauseum).

One of the contributing factors to this is that all but one of the names for letters in English are monosyllabic. (You're smart enough to figure out which one isn't.) This fact is more important than you think. By contrast, in Spanish ten letters have two syllables (f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, x, z), one has three (w), and one has four (y). What this means is that approximately half of the letters require two or more syllables to pronounce. That can lengthen the pronunciation of an acronym by 50-100% easily.

Consider ESPN. In English this is an unproblematic string of single syllables: ee-es-pee-en. But in Spanish (and yes, we have ESPN access here) two of the letters are double syllable making it eh-ese-pe-ene, or 50% longer. Worse still is Major League Soccer, the MLS. All three of these are double syllable--eme-ele-ese--making the acronym 100% longer than the English original.

To compensate Spanish speakers make their acronyms longer. The point of this is to form the acronym into a collection of letters that can be pronounced as a word. The result is some astounding acronyms. A skim through the paper here on an average day yields an absolute alphabet soup of these, so many I can't keep track of them all. ENEE, SANAA, CONASIN, UNAH, IHNFA, FARP, AHCORENA, SOPTRAVI, etc. The list is endless. (Notable examples of the same phenomena  in English would be POTUS and MADD). Explaining one will suffice. One of my favorites is INJUPEMP. It just looks silly to me and doesn't even work that well as a Spanish word. That m-p consonant blend is unusual. Here's what it stands for: Instituto Nacional de Jubilaciones y Pensiones de los Empleados (roughly translated: National Institution for Workers' Retirements and Pensions).

The NFL suffers the same fate as MLS; its acronym requires six syllables rather than three. Maybe it could improve its chances if it modified its acronym in Latin American countries to NaFoL, or better yet LiNFA for Liga Nacional de Fútbol Americano.

That and if it could somehow become as interesting and beautiful a game as fútbol. 

Missing all the fun

Several times recently Debbie has related to me her adventures in communicating with Spanish-speakers. She has spoken to the guard at church multiple times and even managed to get information from the garbage man about what days he comes. She is quite aware of her linguistic limitations and very self-effacing when relating these events to me, willingly including details of her failure. I never fail both to be amazed by her results and get a chuckle out of the proceedings. The only thing I regret is that I never get to see these verbal forays in person!

Switched up

One of the humorous, small things to get used to here are the letters on the faucets. Many have Spanish labels and so the one on the left says C for "caliente" and the one on the right reads F for "frio." However, many faucets I have seen are in English. The confusion this causes is that most of the the English ones are installed with the nob labeled C on the left to coordinate with the Spanish "caliente" leaving the right, cold nob to read H. This is even the case on those that are additionally color coded with blue for cold and red for hot. In case you visit, know that in general, regardless of the labeling, hot is on the left and cold on the right.

Boon and bane

I frequently get asked how my Spanish is. It seems to me that this is kind of like asking someone how good of a spouse they are. In answering one must navigate between the Scylla of arrogance and the Charybdis of false modesty. I will never regard myself as fluent because I know that I am a perpetual learner. There is so much involved in mastering a language that I know I will never achieve. So I usually describe my Spanish as serviceable or functional. It certainly has been helpful to be functional.

I have discovered of late that my Spanish is just a little too good for my own good. What I mean is that many people that I speak with assess my Spanish as good enough that they don't have to be simple with me. Instead, they speak at full speed and complexity assuming that I'm following along without a problem. I suppose I'd be flattered if I wasn't so busy trying to keep up!

Language Games

In addition to the adjusting discussed in a previous post there is, of course, the adjustment to life in a culture that speaks a different language. Each of us negotiates this differently.

For Stephen all those years of teaching Spanish have been extremely helpful in communication. That said, he regularly finds himself in conversations where his knowledge of vocabulary is insufficient, e.g. when discussing a repair project to keep the church from flooding again. He also pretty regularly discovers that the word he knows for something is not the common word here. When approached in Spanish unexpectedly (like at the store) it sometimes takes him a bit to get his bearings in the conversation. All in all he seems to understand and make himself understood. He visits www.wordreference.com frequently.

Debbie has a good ear for language (must be all that music). So if she knows what a conversation is about she follows along pretty well. When addressed in Spanish by someone who doesn't know that she doesn't speak it (again, as in the grocery store) it is not uncommon for it to just seem like a buzz with no discernible words. A friend at church who has worked with a tutor has already approached her tutor about adding Debbie to her schedule. Once life gets settled a bit she will likely pursue that avenue. Most importantly she is game to learn.

And then there is Ellyn. Like most things 3 year olds do Ellyn does not approach the language issue in a straight line. One morning she was eagerly pointing out items at the breakfast table and asking how they say that in Honduras. In those moments she actually repeats words quite well. She unwittingly tries to replicate what she has heard especially with names. "Barahona" become "B'dona" and "Efraín" becomes "Efadín" which are closer than many English speakers would come reading those names. Frequently, however, she just lapses into Elly-speak whenever she hears people speaking Spanish which is just making up words. (She responded similarly to hearing her friends' mother addressing them in Hindi).

It would be possible to dwell in an English bubble probably and not get beyond much more than the basics to negotiate life. But knowing more opens up other opportunities. Even within the congregation there are several people for whom Spanish is much more comfortable than English. It is an act of love and respect to learn and use the language of our brothers and sisters in Christ to whom and with whom we minister.