7 letters, one meaning. Looking at this word what is the first thing that comes to mind? If you are a woman with some basic knowledge of Spanish, meaning you only slept through the second half of the semester, you will look at the root and feel disgusted. If you are a spanish woman you wil lbe cooing and smiling with joy when a spanish man whispers this in your ear. For me, it was the adverse effect. Sitting in a tapas bar with a few friends of all nationalities, a spanish friend of mine taking notice of my new dress leaned across the chair and whispered "gordita" in my ear. I mmediately i was offended and my face of jovial laughter turned to that of when you eat a sour lemon. PERDON i responded GORDITA! YO? He thinking i was being coy repeated the phrase "si guapa estas muy gordita". Ia beyond the basic level of spanish and i know plain out that gordo means fat. At this point during the evening my arms became crossed i no longer wanted to eat my tapa and i was thouroughly offended as i do not consider myself in the least bit heavy. It wasnt until 3 minutes later and several glares that i came to know that the phrase gordita in spanish is a pet name that men use with their female friends and does not mean " hey lean off the churros". This is just one of the many things to which sometimes becomes lost in translation. This has occured here in spain a few times to which once caused an argument and other time for my face to turn red as the girls on my team during a 2k ( yes i had to make crew reference). Needless to say im beginning to see that sometime our real selves are not always converyed correctly when we are speaking another language and nevertheless beyond the basic level of competency and fluency in a language that this indeed is another key component. As long as i dont offend anybody's momma i think we are fine here.
Spanish people as i have come to know are all about connections and being seen with people and saluting one another. Needless to say one evening on my adventures in the city i ran into a bar with a friend to which unknowingly a spanish acquaitance of mine was also there scarfing down the same free tapas and 1 euro drink. I failed to see him and salute him and left unknowing. Let me tell you, later i knew everything and then some. A long voicemail message in Spanish let me know that he had seen me for the evening and was offended beyond words. A simple mistake led to 2 voicemails, a meeting next day, 2 glasses of wine, 2 hour conversation in broken english, spanish and some catalan, and finally a solution and apology. Its the little things here about cultures you come to know, things that should be written in textbooks but never are. Perhaps in my free time i should look into doing this and give it a catchy name. Im open to suggestions.
xoxo
Worldly woman
Song of the day:
Gypsy Kings
Escucha Me
I have a title for you book " Is that a Gordita In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy To See Me."
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