Monday, November 7, 2011

English in Spanish

One of the craziest things that I'm learning how to do here is to speak English in Spanish.
Ecuadorians use some English words, but they pronounce them way differently. For example, when they say "cornflakes" it's sounds like "coneflay" and when they say "facebook", it becomes "fayboo," or just "face" (which is always fun because then they say things like "I'll put this picture on your face").  This actually leads to a bit of a dilemma for me. Since I speak English, I know how to pronounce the English words correctly. However, I worry that if I say "facebook" or something the way we say it in the States, they won't understand me since it's so different. But seriously, I just feel so ridiculous saying "fayboo."
Another exciting use of English here is on clothing. I have yet to see a t-shirt that has Spanish writing on it. Everything is in English. But the thing is, a lot of the people here don't know what their t-shirts are saying. For example, I once saw a little girl with a t-shirt that said "make love, not war" on it. I assume that she, and her parents who bought it for her, didn't understand why an 8-year-old should not be spreading that message to her other 8-year-old friends. In addition to slogans like that, another big thing is the fake university/sports team stuff. We have things like that in the States, but at least they make up names and make it seem a little legit. I saw a shirt here that just said "sports team" on it.
That's all for now, but I'd just like to leave you with the knowledge that I have not been to school for over three weeks, thanks to travel, school vacation, and exams I don't have to take. I love being an exchange student.

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