Communicating for Life: The Language Barrier in Health Care

Posted On October 29, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

Learning a foreign language for the purpose of living in another country goes beyond mastering the basic conversations one might have on a street corner. With the complexity of life, comes the wide variety of situations that a person must know how to navigate in their new language in order to get by. But even for those who are conversational or, indeed, fluent in the language of their host country, communication in the context of health care can prove to be a daunting challenge. Because it comprises a highly technical vocabulary, a simple conversation with a doctor or nurse can easily call for a number of words that the patient may never have come into contact with before.

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Unfortunately, this has the effect of preventing some groups of people from even seeking the care that they need. A recent study conducted by a team of researchers at Northwestern University found that non-English speaking Latinas in the US are less likely to receive an epidural during the birth of their first child than English-speaking Latinas and non-Hispanic patients. The language barrier that these women experience in the delivery room, for example, actually prevents them from knowing what their options are and making an informed decision regarding their health care. And that’s only one example. The ramifications of this barrier extend to anyone who has limitations in English and has ever required medical attention.

The stress that an immigrant can experience in a doctor’s office comes from all sides: unfamiliarity with common local medical practices, differences in attention to patients, even the appearance of health care facilities may be quite different from what the person is used to. Add to all of that the language barrier — amplified by a highly technical context — and the result can be a very intimidating experience.

The benefit of studies such as the recent one from Northwestern is that healthcare providers can start to understand the difficulties that Latinos and Latinas face in seeking and receiving care in the US, which can begin the process of finding ways to mitigate them. Whether it’s having a Spanish-speaking employee on hand, or creating issue-specific pamphlets in Spanish with basic information to get the conversation started — institutions and health care providers have a number of ways they can respond to this need.

Indigenous Influence on the Spanish Language

Posted On October 24, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language/ 1 Comment

The history of the lexical influences that have come into contact with the Spanish language is one steeped in geography, politics and colonization. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas representing the Spanish crown, he was immediately put into contact with various native groups and tribes with their own respective languages. As colonization spread out over the continent, the penetration of these influences grew, adding words to the Spanish language that might sometimes be taken for granted as being from the original Castilian.

Spanish words with indigenous origin

With the discovery of new technologies, crafts or inventions, comes the discovery of the terms given to them. One of these which Columbus discovered from the local mode of transportation was canoas. It was not long before the term replaced the word Columbus had used to describe them in his journals — almadía. The Castilian word was simply not an accurate description of this form of transport, and so for simplicity the native word was quickly adopted. The Spanish explorers also discovered hammocks in the Americas, and adopted the indigenous word hamaca to refer to them.

This penetration of local vocabulary also occurred with indigenous flora and fauna which did not exist in Europe at that time, and thus for which there were no existing words in Castilian Spanish. Ají is an example of this (a separate item from “pimienta”, although Columbus used the latter term to refer to the former.) Tiburón was another borrowed word, as well as iguana, manatí and guacamayo. And from the local flora came maní, camote, cacao, tomate, tamal, and papaya, among others. The sheer variety of vegetation and wildlife in South America lent the Spanish language many words in these categories from the region’s indigenous languages.

Because weather patterns also vary between continents, the explorers were simultaneously introduced to both hurricanes as well as the local term for them – huracanes, or huracán in the singular. And not to be left out, geography also contributed some words to Castilian Spanish during the initial period of mutual influence, such as cayo from the many cays found in the Caribbean.

Some Spanish Words of Native American Origin

Indigenous penetration into mainstream Spanish

When these words finally began to make appearances in texts from Spanish writers, they were not included as exotic novelties, as was the case with lexical influences occurring in other regions at that time. Instead, they were used simply as descriptors, introducing their usage into mainstream Spanish and simultaneously avoiding associations with “otherness”, at least in relation to the words themselves. But even with the mainstream introduction of many words with indigenous origin, there were still others that eventually fell out of use, such as cazabe for bread. Moreover, many terms from indigenous languages never extended beyond their local or regional influence. Even today, many terms from the Quechua language — choclo for corn, for example — are not used outside of areas with some connection to the Andes.

Of course, many of the indigenous languages which contributed to the Spanish lexicon no longer exist today. And in those cases, the words that we use when communicating in Spanish are their only living remnants.

Courting Votes and Taking Notes: The Delicate Act of Appealing to Latino Voters

Posted On October 15, 2012By TranspanishIn Latinos, Spanish Language/ No Comments

A recent BBC article picked up on a gaffe U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made while trying to appeal to Latino voters in this year’s upcoming election. In fact, many news outlets ran the story, noting that it fits into a tradition of presidents or presidential candidates embarrassing themselves before the largest minority group in the United States.

When asked by a Cuban-American radio host what his favorite fruits were, Romney unwittingly listed one in particular that is a slang term among Cubans for a woman’s body part. While no doubt more than a few people got a laugh out of it, the exchange also points to a timely question: When it comes to courting votes among minority groups, where is the line between offensive or patronizing, versus respectful and genuine?

Although Romney wasn’t intentionally trying to make a joke or be crude, the issue of what seems appropriate often comes down to how genuine the person comes across. When George W. Bush spoke to Latino voters in Spanish, most did not take offense to his decidedly Texan accent in part because it was in line with his Texan accent in English, which got plenty of mockery as it was.

In Obama’s case, the “yes, we can” line has been well received as translated into Spanish. As it turns out, the phrase didn’t originate with Obama during the 2008 race for the presidency, but rather with Cesar Chavez nearly 50 years before. With a history as a community organizer, and perhaps because he is a minority himself, Obama has mostly come across as genuine in his efforts to reach out to the Latino community.

Getting back to business

Anyone who has visited a Spanish-speaking country was likely able to spot the tourists from the U.S. just by the way their accent sounded (and depending on who you are, might have felt comfort in their shared awkwardness.) Many tourists from any country have felt the hesitation in speaking a foreign language, not wanting to embarrass themselves but also not wanting to seem rude or cold. While news items such as this one don’t necessarily help that self-awareness, they do potentially provide an opportunity for us to collectively laugh at ourselves, and then get back to the business of communicating.

In that regard, both presidential candidates deserve to be recognized for at least trying to connect with Latino voters in several ways. Sitting down for an interview on Univision, for example, the most popular television network among the Latino community, is not in itself patronizing or offensive. Romney’s self-tanner, however, might have crossed the line for some.

Are you a Hispanic living in US? How do you feel when a candidate try to reach out to your community by speaking in Spanish?

A Guide To Peruvian Slang

Posted On October 10, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language/ 3 Comments

In many places, slang is a natural inhabitant of the Spanish language. It’s so common, and yet so often different depending on the country, that people can sometimes find themselves in an embarrassing situation saying something they didn’t intend. It is particularly prevalent in Peru, where so many native languages and cultures intermingle. So taking that into consideration, here is a guide to some of the most common words you might encounter and what they mean.

Originally referring to a stuck up or snobbish person, the word “pituco/a” can sometimes be used to designate a person from one of the wealthier neighborhoods or, more commonly, a particular way of speaking. The “pituco” intonation draws out the nouns a bit longer and is usually accompanied by a deeper, slightly more bored tone of voice. This can sometimes be so dramatized that the word “gracias” makes you feel as if the “a” is falling down a hole, only to barely come out again by the end of the word.

On a lighter note, hearing a young woman referred to as “flaca” or a young man referred to as “flaco” is not uncommon. It is a friendly way of injecting casualness into an exchange, much the same way “amigo” works when you call a waiter or want to get someone’s attention for some other reason. However, this particular word is not used ironically, so if the girl really isn’t “flaca” – as is sometimes the case – there’s probably no harm intended.

This last term can also be used to denote a girlfriend, as can “costilla” (literally “rib”, of the Adam and Eve variety.) Another common one is “patas” to refer to one’s friends. A popular advertisement currently on the radio sells a large Pepsi that you can share with your “patas”, for example. The same youngish groups that you would hear using these terms might also say “bacán” or “chévere”. Both are common ways to say “cool”, and can be heard flying around university campuses or seen on social media sites quite often.

Yet some slang words are simply abbreviations of regular Spanish words – “cole” for colegio, “cumple” for cumpleaños, “porfa” for por favor, or “grifo” for griferia. And still others are elusive as to their origin: you might go to work at your “chamba” (“job”), and afterwards have a cold “chela” (“beer”) with your friends (the respective verb forms being chambear and chelear), and at the end of the evening say “chaufa” to everyone (a take on the customary “chau” as goodbye.) To avoid any confusion, chaufa is also the fried rice that you get at a Chinese restaurant.

If you go to any of the local markets, you will probably hear customers calling the women who sell produce “seño”, with the emphasis on the first syllable. While it may sound more like señor to the uninitiated, it’s actually an endearing way to say señora.

As a final note, many things in Peru seem to revolve around beloved food items like chicken, potatoes and eggs. And the slang is no exception. Many of these are harmless, although some can be an insult if said with a particular inflection and directed at a person who isn’t a friend. As with many Spanish expressions, the key is in the intonation.

Twenty Reasons to Choose to Study Spanish as a Foreign Language

Posted On October 8, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language/ 1 1 Comment

If you are thinking about learning a new foreign language, Spanish should be at the top of your list. Why? Twenty of the very best reasons, divided into specific sections, which explain why Spanish should be your first choice in foreign language study are listed below.

Society, Communication and Travel
Social groups and structures are changing. With more people choosing to emigrate every year, the world’s face is rapidly changing. People travel more now than ever (for work and for pleasure) and more people are willing to live in other countries. This means that communication in foreign languages is even more important than ever. Being able to communicate in Spanish is particularly important for the following reasons:

1. Spanish is the mother tongue of approximately 350 million people in 21 countries, including Mexico: 95 million, Spain: 40 million, Argentina: 38 million, Colombia: 35 million. However, what is more interesting is that at the end of the 1800s, only 60 million people spoke Spanish. Today, almost 500 million people across the world speak Spanish.
2. Almost half of the population in the Western Hemisphere speaks Spanish. Spanish is just as important as English for the people who live in this sector of the world.
3. Spanish has always occupied an important place within US society, but over the past decade many people have begun to select Spanish as their preferred foreign language, after English, across the European continent too.
4. By learning Spanish fluently, you will be able to get by in Italian and French too, because of the similarities in grammar and vocabulary between the Romance languages.
5. Spanish is the second most used language, after English, which is used in many forms of international communication.
6. Spanish is also one of the six official languages used by the United Nations.
7. There are 28 different places in the world where Spanish is either the primary language or the largest secondary language. These places include: Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gibraltar, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela.
8. Approximately 5.8% of Internet users speak Spanish. This means that Spanish is the 4th most common language used online, coming in behind English, Japanese and German only.

Economy and Finance
A large part of our lives in the 21st revolves around the economy. Our finances and investments are important. Spanish is becoming an integral part of the global economy and many international partnerships and investments.

9. Spanish-speaking countries are experiencing lots of economic growth. This development is attracting a lot of interest from the English-speaking world in terms of finance and investment.
10. The creation of the MERCOSUR and other free trade agreements between South American countries and North America (ALADI, the Andean Community, CACM, NAFTA, G3) help to support and strengthen the respective economies of these countries,. This support helps to make Spanish-speaking economies more efficient and more competitive on a global scale.
11. Analyzing Inter-European trade, British, French and German companies have explained that the main barriers to international trade occur when there are language barriers that cannot be overcome. By investing in Spanish language learning, the developing economies in the Spanish-speaking world become potential investment and business opportunities.

Education, Business and Career Opportunities
Opportunities for working at home, working as a travelling entrepreneur with nothing but a laptop in tow, are growing rapidly. The face of employment is changing at an amazing speed. For this reason…

12. Over the past ten years, the demand for Spanish Language courses worldwide has risen by almost 50%
13. In both the US and Canada, Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn.
14. Thanks to these developments, the demand for the media (radio, television, newspaper, magazines) to be in Spanish has notably increased.
15. Work opportunities abroad in Spanish speaking countries are limitless (as too are volunteer projects and internships).
16. Taking your business to a Spanish-speaking audience is easily done via the Internet from the comfort and familiar surroundings of your home country.

Fun Facts about Spanish in the US
There are even more reasons for learning Spanish if you live in the US than anywhere else because of the high immigration figures from Latin American countries and the opportunities for trade that geographical proximity provides.

17. The Hispanic population in the United States has grown by 60% in just one decade and can boast the fifth largest Hispanic population worldwide, with three out of four people who say that Spanish is their primary language.
18. 28 million in the US people speak at least a little Spanish.
19. By 2050, the number of Hispanics in the US is projected to grow to over 100 million people, which will form about one quarter of the total U.S. population.
20. In the New York City area, the Spanish-language Noticias 41 and Noticiero Univision, normally report higher ratings than new programs on CBS, NBC and ABC.

The Use of Voseo

Posted On September 21, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ No Comments

Voseo involves the use of an alternate pronoun and conjugation of the second person singular form in some Spanish dialects. The majority of Spanish speakers use tú as the more intimate/familiar form of address; however, in countries where voseo is employed, the word “vos” is used alongside of or as a replacement for tú.

Use of voseo in a Mafalda comic strip, created by Argentine cartoonist Quino.

While the use of vos is perhaps most closely associated with Paraguayan Spanish and the Rioplatense dialect of Argentina and Uruguay, voseo is also widespread in some parts of Central America, particularly Costa Rica and Nicaragua. To a lesser extent, Spanish speakers in Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador employ voseo. Pockets of voseo can also be found in other regions within Latin America, including parts of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

In addition to the use of the pronoun “vos,” voseo includes a special conjugation of verbs in the present indicative and affirmative imperative tenses, and in most countries, the subjunctive mode (with the Río de la Plata area being the major exception). Conjugations vary widely depending on the region. For example, in Argentina, the standard tú puedes in the present indicative tense becomes vos podés; however, in Chile the same verb is conjugated as podís and in Venezuela, podéis.

In Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, the use of the pronoun “vos” and its accompanying conjugations has almost completely supplanted tú in both spoken and written language. Voseo is considered the norm at all levels of society and can be observed on TV and radio, in literature and music. In contrast, Chileans restrict the use of voseo to informal situations, and even then, the pronoun “vos” is frowned upon. In other words, the voseo conjugation is utilized but paired with the pronoun “tú” (e.g. tú podís). When Chilean speakers use the pronoun “vos,” it’s generally considered offensive.

Spanish speakers who utilize voseo also replace the independent pronoun “ti” with vos. For example, “creo en ti” becomes “creo en vos.” However, the direct and indirect object form “te” stays the same (e.g. tú te pones/vos te ponés). The possessive pronouns used with the tú form also correspond to vos: tu(s), tuyo(s), tuya(s). Lastly, the prepositional pronoun “contigo” changes to “con vos.”

The meaning of ‘pucho’

Posted On September 10, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Lunfardo, Spanish Language/ No Comments

Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In Lunfardo, the word “pucho” has a variety of meanings. These include “remainder,” or “the leftovers of something,” but it can also be used to mean “cigarette” or the “cigarette butt” which clearly derives from the idea of the “remainder or leftovers of a cigarette.” When used in its diminutive form, “puchito,” the term means “a little,” “a bit,” or “a small piece of something.”

It is possible that the word comes from the quechua (South American indigenous language) word “puchú,” which means “residue.”

Related words in Lunfardo include:

noun faso: which also means cigarette.

Usage examples: Vamos a hacerlo de a puchos, // Let’s do it little by little
Sobre el pucho, nos dimos cuenta de…. // Suddenly, we realized….

The song “Sobre el Pucho,” composed by Sebastián Piana and with lyrics by José González Castillo beautifully features the word “pucho” to describe how it feels to be suddenly discarded like a cigarette butt (pucho) in the street.

Sobre el Pucho

Un callejón de Pompeya

y un farolito plateando el fango

y allí un malevo que fuma,

y un organito moliendo un tango;

y al son de aquella milonga,

más que su vida mistonga,

meditando, aquel malevo

recordó la canción de su dolor.

Yo soy aquel que, en Corrales,

-los carnavales

de mis amores-

hizo brillar tus bellezas

con las lindezas

de sus primores;

pero tu inconstancia loca

me arrebató de tu boca,

como pucho que se tira

cuando ya

ni sabor ni aroma da.

Tango querido

que ya pa’siempre pasó,

como pucho consumió

las delicias de mi vida

que hoy cenizas sólo son.

Tango querido

que ya pa’siempre calló,

¿quién entonces me diría

que vos te llevarías

mi única ilusión?

Use and Origin of the word “che”

Posted On September 4, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 5 Comments

It’s difficult to walk the streets of Buenos Aires without hearing the word “che” at some point. In fact, Spanish speakers in some countries such as Mexico so strongly associate this word with the people of Argentina that they’ll occasionally refer to an Argentine as “un che.” Although most commonly used in Argentina and Uruguay, particularly in the region of the Río de la Plata, usage of the word “che” is not exclusive to these two countries. Neighboring Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil sometimes get in on the act too (although the word is spelled tchê in Portuguese-speaking Brazil).

Ernesto “Che” Guevara

So, what exactly does the word “che” mean? Che is an interjection that’s generally used to call attention, similar to how the word “hey” is used in English. It can also be used to express disgust or surprise in the way that “man” or “dude” is employed. The word is almost exclusively used in informal settings, among friends and/or family.

Examples:

“Che, Fede…¿salimos hoy de noche?” // “Hey, Fede…are we going out tonight?”

“Che, no lo puedo creer.” // “Man, I can’t believe it.”

There are several theories that attempt to explain the origins of the word “che”:
Some linguists speculate that che arrived to Argentina and Uruguay with Italian immigrants from the Veneto region of Italy. The Venetian dialect word “ció” is used much in the same way that che is employed.
Others feel that the roots of the word “che” lie in one of the region’s indigenous languages. In Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people of Argentina and Chile, che means “person” or “people.” Che is defined as “man” in the Tehuelche and Puelche languages. Lastly, che bears the meaning “my” or “I” in the language of the Guaraní people of northeast Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.

The Dictionary of the Real Academia Española states that the word is an onomatopoeia that mimics the sound made when trying to catch someone’s attention.

Finally, there are those who hypothesize that the Rioplatense che arose from the Valencian Spanish word “xe,” which is used to express surprise.

A Linguistic Feature of Rioplatense Spanish: Hablar en capicúa

Posted On August 22, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language/ No Comments

Rioplatense or River Plate Spanish, the dialect of Spanish spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina, is characterized by a number of features, most notably the use of voseo and Lunfardo slang; however, a lesser-known phenomenon called “hablar en capicúa” or “hablar en sánguche” also exists within the dialect.

Hablar en capicúa (known in English as epanalepsis) consists of taking a word or pair of words appearing at the beginning of a sentence and repeating it at the end. In Rioplatense Spanish, there is typically a slight pause and a downward inflection when the repeated words are spoken.

The word “capicúa” means palindrome (a word, sentence, etc. that reads the same forwards and backwards). Thus, hablar in capicúa is to speak in palindromes, as the repetition of the same word at the beginning and end of the sentence produces a palindrome of sorts. Others refer to this rhetorical term as “sandwich speak” (hablar en sánguche) presumably because part of the phrase is sandwiched between the two repeated bits.

Examples:

Me tomé todo el vino, me tomé. // I drank all the wine, I drank [it].

Sos un buen tipo, sos. // You’re a good guy, you are.

Tengo que morfar, tengo. // I have to eat, I have to.

Unlike Lunfardo and voseo, which have been adopted by Rioplatense speakers at all socioeconomic levels, hablar en capicúa is primarily employed by less-educated speakers.

“Spanglish” Finds Its Way into the Spanish-Speaking World’s Most Prestigious Dictionary

Posted On August 16, 2012By TranspanishIn Spanglish, Spanish Language/ No Comments

The Real Academia Española (RAE), the Spanish-speaking world’s language authority, is finally rolling out the welcome mat for the word “Spanglish” (or espanglish, as the term is written in Spanish). The RAE plans to incorporate the word into the 2014 edition of its master reference work known as the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (DRAE).

The RAE’s decision to finally include the word “espanglish” came about as a result of years of lobbying by the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), an organization that defines Spanish language standards in North America. In the past, the DRAE neglected to designate terms as specific to U.S. Spanish speakers, but with the growing number of Latinos in the United States, the RAE realized that it could no longer afford to ignore this segment of the population. As such, the next edition of the DRAE will specifically indicate if a term was coined by Spanish speakers in the United States.

While the linguists at ANLE are celebrating the inclusion of “espanglish” in the DRAE, not everyone is pleased about the new addition. Language purists view the existence of Spanglish as threatening. A number of noted Spanish-language writers and academics have made disparaging remarks about the rise of Spanglish, and one linguist in particular warns that the Spanish language as a whole is in danger of devolving into something of a dialect without clearly defined standards.

The highly esteemed academic Antonio Garrido Moraga offered this opinion about Spanglish, “I advocate for Hispanics to learn English and preserve Spanish. Now, if they don’t learn English and they only express themselves in that jumble of Spanish and English, they’re condemned to the ghetto.”

Like it or not, the acceptance of the concept of Spanglish by the RAE opens doors for the inclusion of other Spanish words “made in the USA.” The word “forma” instead of “formulario” (form), “aplicar por” instead of “postularse” (apply for), and “aseguranza” instead of “seguro” (insurance) are just some of the words that are heard daily on the streets of New York, L.A. and other major American cities with a significant Hispanic presence. If Spanglish advocates get their way, these words will soon be gracing the pages of the DRAE as well.

Example of Spanglish:

Spanish Language