El español

Between work, classes and conversations the past couple of days, here are some things I've been learning about Argentina and the Spanish language itself.

Work

The longer I live here and work at my internships, the more I realize that my brain needs to be just as much of an English thesaurus as a Spanish dictionary. Another project I completed at work was watching a video in English about web design for a client, and translating it to the designer in Spanish. The company knows all of its viewers are not English-speaking, so the voice speaks slowly, but they still use ridiculous words that most English native speakers wouldn't even be familiar with. Watching this video and being the English speaker at work, my mind needs to think fast and can't always use a dictionary. Between the video and finding some graphics for a project, here are some quick translations and how my mind has processed them the past few days.

• assets --> traits --> rasgos (Spanish)
• place order--> finalize the purchase --> finalizar la compra
• hover--> scroll the mouse --> move the mouse on top of the screen --> mover la ratón encima de la pantalla
• mockup--> rought sketch --> draft --> borrador
• And now...the reverse. Searching for images on a graphics website, my coworker had typed in "doble baby carrier." She wasn't finding what she wanted and asked what could be searched in English to figure this out. Even I had trouble thinking of this one, but what she was looking for was a double stroller. Typing in stroller didn't fully produce what we need, but "stroller for twins" --> stroller para gemelos worked out perfectly!
• Osos means bears, and I later discovered that searching this term actually meant searching for stuffed animals. It makes sense: most people associate stuffed animals with teddy bears, but how would a non-English speaker know that term? Thankfully, I was able to figure this one out with some body language of motioning the size of stuffed animals and more.

Spanish class

Our Spanish teacher, Alejandro, is very intelligent and solicits clarification after just about everything he says. Here's proof; I counted during class.

• 18- "¿Soy claro chicos?" - Am I clear?
• 14- "¿Comprenden chicos?" - Do you understand?
• 7- "¿De acuerdo?" - Agreed?

Most of you know that when I laugh pretty hard at something, I start crying. One amusing thing about my experience in Argentina is that in the past month and a half, I have cried of laughter daily. Each day, something that funny happens (to me at least) that I burst out in tears. Jordin especially will watch for it when I begin laughing, pointing out my turning point to tears. Yesterday, this moment was in Spanish class, and my roommates and I were giggly for no reason. But of course, the tears were a dead giveaway so Alejandro taught us that there's a word for this in Spanish.

• Tentar/estar tentado- to have ganas de reír/a desire to laugh. An English translation shows the word as meaning more of a temptation to laugh or trying to hold back tears. What a funny lesson!

Journalism seminar

In Wednesday's journalism seminar, we watched & discussed a documentary from Jorge Lanata on Argentina's economic crisis in the late 1990s, and especially 2001. Carolina, our professor, was in Argentina toward the end of it, but studying in Europe in the beginning. Here are three excellent quotes I recorded:

• "What can I do? I have a flight in two hours and we don't have a president!"
• "I called my parents to ask what I supposed to do. And my parents said you know our country, just come. It was ok, then I came back to Brussels."
• "And the demonstrations. That was really really weird."

Más

One warning the study abroad office gives you before you leave is that when you share your experiences with family and friends, you can't get upset if they don't fully comprehend or even appreciate what you're telling them. They advised us that they'll listen and laugh with you, but continue to move on and discuss themselves. I didn't really believe that this was the case, but the more I Skype and chat with people, the more I realize this is true.

It's not any offense toward my friends, family or how I explain the story, but the idea of being there and speaking Spanish. My Iguazú trip was an experience where words cannot truly capture the beauty of seeing the waterfalls and walking around the national park. When we share our work stories, crazy weekend adventures of being tourists, meeting people, restaurant experiences, city commutes and more with friends, we notice that only my roommates and I can understand the fact that we don't speak in English. Our Spanish improves immensely each day as we go to work and listen in class, so much that we have come to appreciate the stressful experiences and issues we face in the United States, because we're speaking English. We've enjoyed making comparisons, such as these:

• Have you ever been afraid of getting lost driving around Jefferson City? Try getting dropped off two miles from your home in front of an obelisk by a taxi at 4 a.m. and finding your way home.
• You thought booking the MO-X shuttle to Columbia was difficult? Try having Despegar cancel your flight and knowing that the only way you'll end up at your destination is arguing the situation in Spanish for three hours.

Stacey put it well, explaining that when we make plans with people we meet in Argentina or receive assignments at work, there are times where we probably only understand about 60 percent of what was initially said. (Note: That is not implying anything about our Spanish proficiency, but more the fast-paced culture.) But then it works out. We have fun. We learn. At the end of the day, we have great life experiences we'll be taking home with us. I have to apologize to Becca, because she started an internship in Australia that assigned her a 10-page report on the business's HR department. Instead of empathizing at the time, I responded: "At least it's in English."

We don't necessarily have it more difficult, but everything's relative. A 10-page report is difficult. So is a Spanish interview, documentary, or press release. Thus, we're learning to appreciate work, directions and getting lost in the USA after everything we've learned here.