Unos puntos lingüísticos y culturales

Whew! I’ve written before about the variable weather, but right now I am just plain old burned. The sun is really high in the sky, at an angle I haven’t seen since Tanzania and South Africa, and it has just been frying me up. I know, I know—why didn’t I put on any sunscreen? Naïvely I was hoping for a tan. This is the kind of burn, all blotchy, that is not going to darken nicely. Now I have to wear a scarf and sweater for the next few days until it gets better.

Obama has arrived in Buenos Aires, and the Argentine news corps is having a field day about it. Since I got up this morning the TV in the hostel has been streaming a never-ending (not even for commercials, it feels like) live feed of Obama’s doings. Obama’s visit has not been without controversy, for some reasons I’ve mentioned before, and for some other ones that I think I probably shouldn’t go into here, but that I have learned something about being here in the hostel with everyone around me buzzing about the visit.

One thing I can talk about that I find interesting is the use of the word “Yankee” (okay, “yanqui”). I’ve heard it many times here, but before I’d never heard it used outside of, say, U.S. history class—certainly not in other languages and other countries. I don’t know its exact meaning: does it simply mean American, or does it have a pejorative flavor? I’ve only heard it used in the latter sense, sometimes synonymous with “gringo” (as in “That American, he was so yanqui, his haircut, the way he dressed, hahaha”), and sometimes a bit more harshly disparaging (talks of unwelcome foreign influence, for instance). It’s different.

Speaking of slang, yesterday I had a kind of interview with a U.S. PhD candidate for her research that has to do with the Argentine dialect, and it’s gotten me thinking. I’ve never been very interested in learning Spanish slang, because all the times I’ve learned slang it’s been from some native speaker or the other and pretty unique to their country. “Ah, in Colombia we have this one word that means this!” “In Puerto Rico, they call that this.” “Yeah, we say it differently in Chile…” It’s interesting to note the regional differences, but no way do I want to internalize them—the whole point of slang, I feel, is to be consistent. Slang shows you have a regional specialty. And using slang can make you seem more authentic, or pretty laughable (ah, so you’re that kind of gringa!), especially dependent on how accurately you use it; mixing up slang from different areas probably just makes you look ridiculous.

So, as someone who spent most of my life learning Spanish in U.S. classrooms with non-native-speaker teachers, developing a U.S.-generic (maybe bordering on Mexican, if anything, but probably not even that) accent/dialect, learning slang always felt like a waste of time. Even if I’d memorized purely Mexican slang, I didn’t know which Spanish-speaking countries I might wind up in, and a lot of slang is strictly non-transferable. Studying abroad in Spain, I was more amenable to learning slang, considering that it was at least actually in context, but I also guessed that I’d be heading to Latin America later on, and was still hesitant about going too whole-hog Spanish.

But finally, I’m here in a Latin American country for an extended period of time, not just four months (as in Spain), and it’s finally a long enough period that I really want to invest in the slang and focus on the accent and finally, maybe, hopefully, develop some kind of authentic dialect. My accent is so generic and I’ve always wanted one with a nice regional flavor. As it happens, I’ve always been enamored with the Argentine accent. The big aspect of it that everyone always loves to talk about is that Argentines pronounce their “y”s (some of them, anyway) and their “ll”s (as in “llama”) with a “zh” sound (like the “s” in “measure”), rather than the “y” sound (like the “y” in “you”) that most of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world uses. The “zh” sound happens to be my favorite sound in any language—something I adored about Slovak, that it was full of it!—so you can see where my preference comes from. (Fun aside: I once read an article about the linguist who was hired by the producers of Game of Thrones to invent some languages specifically for the show. He was talking about how he’d decided on the sound of the Dothraki language, and he said he’d tried to include lots of words with the “zh” sound in them, because it was his absolute favorite. Hey, me too!!!)

What I like less about the Argentine dialect is how singsong the cadence can be, like Italian—I really grew to love the Spanish cadence, which is much more downturned and direct-sounding—and I don’t really care for the “vos.” Specifically the vos makes me a bit sad because I love irregular verbs, especially the ones that have dipthongs as part of their irregular conjugations (tener à tienes; querer à quieres), and the vos takes away those dipthongs (tener à tenés; querer à querés) and it’s less fun. Ah well… I’m trying to pick up the vos, in part so I sound more authentic, and in part because part of my philosophy of having a good accent/dialect involves not just picking and choosing. The whole point is it’s got to be fully integrated rather than patchily adopted from several sources. 

Even if you only focus on the slang of one country, though, I still feel like there’s a risk involved with using slang, more so than with more formal words. First, you had better really know how to use it, because if you use it wrong it sounds really ridiculous, not just incorrect the way using the wrong formal word does. And secondly, you might come across as trying too hard—we all know those people who are way too “down with tha homies.” I feel this way about the word “che,” which is one of the most famous Argentine slang words. (That’s where Ernesto “Che” Guevara gets his nickname from.) As far as I can tell, it’s a vocative thing, like “hey—” when you’re addressing someone, trying to get their attention. I think I know how to use it, but I’m going to hold off for quite a bit. Don’t want to come off as trying too hard too soon.

Something that’s surprised me culturally is how open and friendly Argentines are. They always say hello to everyone when entering a room, including a room full of strangers; they even will say hi to strangers on the street, or at least smile at them. This is American etiquette too, of course, but definitely not European. Certainly in any European city you are expected not to make eye contact and keep to yourself. I had gotten so rooted in my mindset that outside of the U.S. no one did things like that, that I’ve been completely taken by surprise here. I was waiting outside my hostel to meet my Fulbright contact here yesterday, and a woman was walking by with her tiny daughter who couldn’t have been older than three. Adorably, the little girl looked up at me and piped up, “¡Buenas!” (“hello!”). Child etiquette and adult etiquette can obviously be two very different things, but in the same situation it would have been just as likely that the mother would have said the same thing to me. Certainly on a personal basis Argentines are very friendly, very happy to talk and meet people and help others out. I often see people stopping others to ask for directions, and that’s a very easy, natural kind of interaction.

I’m going to look at one, maybe two, apartments later today (we’ll see how the communication with one of the landlords works out) as possible housing options, so fingers crossed for that. And then my roommate in the hostel (my only roommate at the moment—the Brazilians left yesterday) is apparently a professional tango dancer, and has come all the way from Tierra del Fuego for a giant tango show tonight in La Plata! I had no idea this was going on. She gave me the place and time, so yes, I’ll definitely be there!

Speaking of word-of-mouth, a fellow Fulbrighter friend whom I’ve kept up with since orientation just emailed me today to tell me that there’s going to be a Nobel Peace Prize laureate speaking in La Plata tomorrow! I was familiar with Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who won the prize for his work related to the last dictatorship (“dirty war,” but that’s a bad term), but had no idea he’d be coming here. Tomorrow is the 40^th anniversary of the start of the last dictatorship. I’m definitely going to his talk! All these things going on, and I’m only accidentally coming to hear about them. So much better than not finding out about them at all!

Okay, here's something interesting. Here's a song from one of my favorite Argentine bands. They have a strong Argentine accent, but they call the song "Nadie Como Tú," rather than "Nadie Como Vos." Hmm…trying to appeal to an international audience, I guess? But it's not like they shed their accent...

Love,