Thursday, July 17, 2008

Mejor en Espanol

I had a chat with my friend Vivian today. If I had to write an acrostic poem about VIVIAN, it would go something like this:
Vivacious
In-style
Very cool (hubbyhubs says "oh please, that's a cop-out ... don't transcribe my words!")
Interesante
Absolutely fabulous
Nobody's better.

Anyway, I digress. So, I was talking to Vivian (never Viv) today, about how certain sentiments are just better expressed in Spanish. Vivian, for the record, is an American-born Cubana. She humors me when I speak Spanish to her all the time. Anyway ... these are the words that have no meaningful English translation:

Estrenar: loosely, it means, "to debut," but that doesn't quite cut it. You would use it to tell someone that you are wearing your new outfit for the first time, or that a movie is opening this weekend. There's no real, concise way to express this in English.

Antelacion: loosely (again), it sort of means "lead time," or time ahead. Eg: I want to get to the theater with enough "antelacion" to buy tickets and get a seat. I am convinced that there is no single word in the English language that can express this. For that reason, I am trying to Anglosize it. Pronounce it: an-tu-lay-shun. Let's see how that goes.

Janeado: I think this is the right spelling. This was Vivian's contribution. It means that something is in your way, like when a bunch of annoying tourists stop RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SIDEWALK and you are trying to get to work. Janeado.

(Full disclosure: due to my ridiculous chest cold, I've been drinking a hot mix of scotch, lemon juice, and honey. I'm not sure it's helped, but I'm more than a little drunk. Oops. Forgive my nonsense.)

Hubbyhubs is laughing at me.

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