Chilean Spanish

After spending the last couple of months in Chile, I thought it appropriate to highlight the uniqueness of the language. It’s not just Spanish, but it’s a certain type that’s so different from the Spanish spoken elsewhere in Latin America and Spain. It even has its own name among Chileans: “el chileno." “Entiendes el chileno?” [Do you understand Chilean Spanish?] one of the workers at the rehabilitation center asked me one day, to which I responded honestly with the best Chilean accent I could muster, “Sí, ma’ o meno’”. (Yes, more or less). It’s very different from any other type of Spanish because of the unique accent, the speed at which it’s spoken, and all the slang.

There are a lot of “modismos” [idioms] aka “slang words" if you will. A ton. That’s what makes the language so hard to learn and become accustomed to.

Here are some examples. The words to the left are “chilenismos”, and the ones in the middle are standard Spanish.

· Hartos/hartas - muchos/muchas [a lot]

· Pololo/polola - novio/novia [boyfriend/girlfriend]

· Guata - panza [belly]

· Guagua - bebé [baby]

See how it’s so different? And these words (to the left) are unique to Chile. There are tons more, but I don't want to bore you.

I have one story that speaks to the speed of Chilean Spanish and how difficult it is for foreigners to understand. The other two interns and I took a taxi to the airport for our flight back to Punta Arenas from Santiago in late July. At the beginning of the drive, the driver talks to us and tries to make conversation, but he was speaking extremely fast, faster than any other Chilean I’d met in all of my time there. At one point he says, “Qué tal? Divirtieron?” [How was it? Did you have a good time?], and I had no idea what he said until literally 5 minutes later when I processed the words. It just sounded like, “Quetaldivirtieron”... Not even in the form of a question. I laughed nervously and told him, “Mmm...no entiendo, perdón” [I don’t understand, sorry]. He stopped talking altogether after that haha

I made it a goal for the remainder of my 3 weeks here to practice my comprehension of Chilean Spanish as much as possible. Including watching Germán (Er-man), a guy from Chile whose videos on YouTube went viral and turned into both a national and international sensation. He now ends up making half a million dollars a year from them :)

If this isn't good practice, I don't know what is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_586767761&feature=iv&src_vid=CG50cPXuwZ0&v=pCJqZLaiySU