standup

i've been here almost a year and a half. most of my friends are chilean and everybody in my office speaks to me in spanish, but i am still a long way from where i wanna be. i can communicate just fine, but i want more than to simply be able to communicate and interact. i want to communicate with precision. i want total fluency. 

i have found that to practice my listening skills in spanish that it's highly important to find something that i actually like. making goals like listening to the news sounds great, but will never actually happen because i despise the news. i WANT to be into the news and what's going on in the world around me. every year i make goals and every year i complete all of them but one. guess which one?

anyway, i love love love standup comedy and so i listen to alot of chilean standup comedy. in fact, i have a secret goal of doing standup comedy in spanish one day. shhhh!!! (actually, i have had a goal of doing it in english for a long time, but now that i am here, of course, i want to do it in spanish)

the other day i got to see a few of my favorite standup comedians live. i like Pedro Ruminot quite a bit. here he is talking about how badly chileans speak: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfA9ZRieNrk

surprisingly chilean comedy is very relatable even though the culture and language are different. unlike british comedy where it's the same language, but it's often thought to be an acquired taste by americans. 

sorry that was prolly boring. it's just that i love standup comedy so much that i can't help but go on and on!!!

bailando (dancing)

Yesterday I had my second salsa class. So far, I really like it.

 

I had been thinking about taking a dance class for awhile. One reason is because I’m in Latin America, not learning how to dance would just be rude! The other reason is that I’m NOT a shy person, but when it comes to dancing, I’m quite shy and it’s something I have wanted to overcome for a long time. Now that I am single, it’s winter and I’m bored, I finally have time to do it!

                                                                                                   

I actually have pretty good rhythm. I can do all the steps in time (finally, playing crappy guitar pays off!!!). And although I’m not a bull in a china closet, I’m not exactly feminine either. I have no idea what to do with my hands and I am almost certain it’s impossible for me to move my hips. In my mind, it’s like I’m trying to solve a math equation, when really, it’s something you have to FEEL. Strangely, it’s a lot like most sports I’ve done – skydiving, paragliding, rowing, whatever. The body innately knows what to do, but your brain takes over and tries to mathematize that shit, which never works. It’s only when you get so frustrated that you give up and relax and let your body take over and do its thing, that it starts to work. And after that, it’s simply a matter of repeating that thing until you don’t even have to think about it anymore.

 

The thing is… I LOVE learning. Unfortunately, I am always the kid who gets picked last for everything, but I’ve come to embrace it because there’s no better high than working my ass off and getting frustrated and then… finally getting it!!!

grabatos (swear words)

I love to swear. Love it. Love it. Love it.

 

I know it’s not very lady like, especially for someone who is 37 years old. I don’t care. I do it anyway. I try to reduce it depending on who I am with because I do find it annoying when someone swears excessively. To me, it’s a sign that a person lacks the tools to express themselves adequately so they resort to being a caveman. Blah blah blah.

 

I love to swear. It’s an art form. You can add the eff word to any word you want, but there is an art to knowing when to do it, the word that you add it to, where you put the emphasis, and of course the rest of the words that come out of your mouth.

 

It’s this love and respect for swearing that has deterred me from learning how to swear in Spanish. I wanna do it well or not at all. Sure people think it’s funny for a gringa to say ‘concha tu madre’ or ‘chucha’, but I want it come naturally without thinking. because i FEEL it. just like i feel the eff word.

 

Interesting note: Gringos tend to emphasis swear words by saying them slower than the rest of the words in a sentence, but latinos, at least Chileans, they don’t do that. So it’s funny for them when we say ‘concha tu madre’ so slow.