8. “Como se dice…”
Translation: How do you say…
For anyone learning Spanish in an immersive environment, this is a pretty essential phrase. Everyone in the group, even our resident Spanish major, Darby, used this throughout the week. We would be attempting to engage a kid or a teacher in conversation and would run into a word we didn’t know (or remember despite numerous language classes), and we would turn to one of our translators with a question starting with “Como se dice…”. Being able to ask this question enabled all of us to add depth and meaning to our interactions with those around us who don’t speak English.
7. “Pasa el balon”
Translation: “Pass the ball”
I played a lot of soccer this week. I was trying to play with the kids for at least an hour a day, and for the most part I succeeded. When I was here 3 years ago and my Spanish was considerably worse, I had trouble communicating to the kids that I wanted the ball. Well, that certainly wasn’t a problem this year. Since the last trip, Ive grown 4 inches and gotten a lot better with a soccer ball, so as long as I said something like this, the kids would happily pass off the ball/
6. El tiempo de estufa
Translation: Stove time
One of the main missions Escuela Integrada has is to provide every student’s family with an eco-friendly, cement stove. Throughout the week, we installed 3 of these estufas, and each time, it was dubbed Stove time. Installing these stoves usually involved a couple of us hauling a couple hundred pounds of cement through harrowing conditions, such as a quarter mile trek uphill, a hundred meters at a 30 degree incline, or a 4 block shuffle on Main Street (and I mean down the middle of Main Street) and into someone’s home. And then the stoves needed to be installed. It was tough work, but the gratitude and the occasional cute dog made it worth it.
5. “No me gusta tu”
Translation: “I don’t like you”
My full capacity to insult someone in the Spanish language while at the same time drawing a laugh. This was a good way to interact with the families. For instance, if someone said they didn’t like Hawaiian pizza, they would say “No me gusta la pizza Hawaiiana.” I could then fire back with “No me gusta tu,”, as if I were the pizza, and the family or peer group nearby would snicker a bit. It’s a stupid joke on the surface, but it really made people comfortable to open up to me. I guess juvenile humor is a universal sign for people to let their guards down.
4. “Te gusta futbol?”
Translation: “Do you like soccer”
I spent a lot of time with young kids and tweens this week, and for the most part we didn’t share a language. However, almost all the kids share my love for The Beautiful Game. This was my go-to conversation starter with almost everyone this week. Soccer is so prevalent in Guatemala that almost all the kids play and love the game. This made it really easy to engage even the young kids in conversation, and lead to paths where I could ask them about their favorite team (invariably Antigua GFC, the local squad and Barcelona.) and their favorite player (invariably Messi). This one simple question allowed me to connect with kids I otherwise might not have been able to understand.
3. “De nada”
Translation: “It’s nothing”/“You’re welcome”
A lot of people said thank you to me this week for various things, such as stove hauling and installing, cleaning, and leaving behind makeshift soccer balls we had collected, and this is the customary response. There’s not much to this, other than the fact that the people we interacted with were always especially kind and grateful for even the smallest things.
2. “Lo siento/permisso.”
Translation: “I’m sorry”/“Excuse me”
Antigua is a crowded city, and Escuela Integrada is a crowded school. You can’t get anywhere without bumping into anyone and saying I’m sorry or excuse me. Normally I say these a lot in English, to the point of apologizing way more than is necessary. I started this week the same way, apologizing for everything, especially for bungled Spanish. But as I grew more comfortable with the city, the language, and the people, I found myself apologizing less and less. It almost felt like the people in Antigua were actively helping me fix one of my bigger flaws.
1, ”Gracias”
Translation: “Thank you”
There are so many reasons to say thank you to everyone I met in Guatemala. Everyone, especially the students, were patient with out unrefined language skills and poor hearing (it can be heard to hear a kid speak when the a bus with no muffler drives by every time they open their mouth4.) The people put up with us asking them to repeat or restate their sentences at everything turn. Every single family we visited was gracious and made sure we had a seat and a cold drink, 2 things some of these families find hard to come by. These families often had dirt floors below them and corrugated metal above, but they still made sure that they showed the utmost hospitality to us foreigners. And for that, Antigua, I must say gracias.
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