Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Some (Spanish) banter.

The other week at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, I brought in a big bag of sweet cherries that I had bought on sale ($1.99 a pound!), and I got out two big curry dishes and split the cherries between them, leaving one up front for the people up front and then one in back for the people in the back.

And, because the (Spanish) word for "cherry" (cereza) sounds a lot like the word for "beer" (cerveza), I had some fun with that, too, with a number of my (Guatemalan) coworkers.

Like, initially I started by pointing out that I had brought the cherries in for everyone -- Un regalo para mis favoridos, I was like ("A gift for my favorites") -- and then I also made sure to tell them stuff like, "Come cerezas, pero no bebe cervezas" ("Eat cherries, but don't drink beers"), and I also would give them a more-extended explanation that A trabajo puedes comer cerezas, pero no puedes beber cervezas ("At work you can eat cherries, but you can't drink beers").

Later, though, that devolved into me just stopping them randomly when I was back in the kitchen and being like "Cereza, es OKAY, pero cerveza, es NO OKAY."

And, all displayed various levels of amusement or toleration, with this.

Towards the very end of the night, too, my one (younger) (female) (Guatemalan) coworker told me that she doesn't drink beer, and when I asked why, she said that it's because in (Guatemala) women don't drink alcohol.

?Todas las mujeres?, I was like ("All the women?").

And then she paused and shook her head and was like, "Algunas..." ("Some...").

?Las putas?, I was like ("The whores?").

And, at that, her eyes just got really wide and she actually lifted her hand up and covered her mouth in what was either shock or surprise, and then after she recovered, she was like, yes, those are the ones who drink.

And then, she asked me what the word for puta is in English, and I said we had different words for the profession ("prostitute") versus the personality ("whore"), but the latter isn't the same, because it's mas negativa ("more negative").

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