For over two and a half years now, I’ve been learning (and using) Spanish on a daily basis, and I think it’s safe to say that it’s officially one of my favorite languages in the world. Beautiful and expressive, but also pretty straightforward and más o menos consistent, there’s really a lot to love (especially from a student’s perspective)! So, this month, I’d like to honor español and share some of my favorite things about este idioma super chido. ¡Disfruta! Enjoy!
#1 The ability to make things cuter with “-ito”
English occasionally has this ability with things like “duck” and “ducking”, but en español you can add “-ito” or “-ita” to any noun if you want to make it smaller and, therefore, cuter. For example, “engrapadora” means “stapler”, and “engrapadorita” means “tiny, adorable, little stapler”. See how fun?! Of course, it can also be used to differentiate meaning, which is just as cool! For example, “golf” and “golfito”, which would be “golf” and “putt-putt” respectively. Animals also get the “-ito” treatment when they’re babies, as with “gato” and “gatito” (“cat” and “kitten”). However, my all-time favorite will always be “caballito de mar” (“little horse of the sea”) – so cute!
# 2 The super fun pronunciations
I could talk about Spanish pronunciation and why I love it for much longer than most people would care to listen; however, I added this to my list not to discuss how amazingly consistent the pronunciation is, but, instead, just how fun it can be! The high tendency of consonant, vowel, consonant patterns means you get a lot of syllables that (usually) roll pretty effortlessly off the tongue. Sometimes these are just Spanish-ified English cognates, like “panqueuques”, which is just so much more fun than “pancakes”. Sometimes they have a Nahuatl flare like Tucker’s favorite: “cacahuate” (or “peanut”). And sometimes they just end up sounding a little bit dangerous, like “murciélago” (or “bat”). All of which make them great candidates for pet names, passwords, and/or expletive alternatives! And since you pretty much have to say these out loud, here are some English-y phonetics: “panqueques” = pan-kay-kays… “cacahuate” = ka-ka-wah-tay… and “murciélago” = moo-er-see-el-ah-go
#3 The usefulness of the accent marks
Lots of languages use diacritic marks. Even English will still throw in a few just for good measure (think café, façade, and piñata), but Spanish uses its accent marks way more often and way more efficiently. Rather than indicating something like foreignness, history, or even a sound change, Spanish accents will either tell you where the stress of a given word falls (super helpful) or if it’s actually a different word entirely. It’s like a little code within the code that language already is! So cool! Here are a few of my favorite examples: with the accent, “inglés” means “English”, but without it, “ingles” means “groins”. While that one can be quite jarring, others are super common like “sí” (“yes”) and “si” (“if”). Somewhat like seeing someone in English write “no” when they mean “know”, you can learn a lot from whether or not someone “nose” when to use accent marks. 😉
#4 Seeing K-words written with Cs
Another thing I love about Spanish is its commitment to consistency. Many languages have both the letters C and K, and very often they sound the same. But somewhere along the line, Spanish was like, “no thanks, you can keep your redundant K”; therefore, there are a lot of quasi-universal K-words that always give me pause in Spanish, no matter how well I know the rules. Those jumpy animals in Australia: “canguros”. The Asian peninsula known for Gangnam Style and Samsung: “Corea”. And the super boring, beige material that a lot of 90s office workers wore, you guessed it: “caqui” (which is really minus K x2). I absolutely love it, but I have to be completely honest and admit that learning Spanish has severely decreased my confidence in English spelling…and that’s probably already saying something.
#5 Things that just make sense
While I’m sometimes confused when I see a random C where a K should totally be, I’ve definitely encountered more things in Spanish that just plain make sense. It happens quite frequently that I come across a new word or phrase, and although I’d never seen it before, I have no difficultly in deciphering its meaning. For example, I once read the phrase “caja torácica” or “thoracic box”- what else could that be besides “rib cage”? Or “telaraña” which is literally “fabric” + “spider”, obviously “spider web”. And finally, there’s the fact that Spanish loves to simply call a spade a spade: “goths” = “darks”, people who love to snack = “gordos”, and elderly people = “ancianos” – simultaneously extremely helpful in building my vocabulary and lessening my fears of offending someone en español, y por eso, ¡gracias!
#6 Things that make me laugh
But perhaps my favorite thing about learning any language is just how much it shows you the depth of which your own language shapes the way you think. I absolutely cannot get over the fact that there is no word for “toes” in Spanish. They are referred to as “dedos de los pies” (or “fingers of the feet”), and no matter how hard I try, I can’t accept that fingers = toes. They just don’t! Another one that never fails to make me laugh is the fact that peacocks are “pavos reales” or “regal turkeys”. This one is easier to understand, but I can’t help but feel like it paints peacocks in a slightly different light…then again, they do have “cock” in their English name, so who am I to judge? Finally, the last word that I can never use with a straight face is “molestar”. Coming from the same root, the English version isn’t that far off, but in Spanish it only means “to bother”, and it is used ALL THE TIME. Hotels even give you “no molestar” signs for the doors, which Tucker and I always make a point to snicker at. Ah, the joys of learning a new language!
So, there are just a handful of the things that I absolutely love about español. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I do! And personally, I can’t wait to revisit this list in a few years just to see if a) I’ve remembered all these details and b) if there’s anything I’d add to the list in hindsight. So stay tuned! Y por último, I just want to say that Spanish really is un idoma divertidísimo, so buena suerte to all those who are learning it and remember that tener otro idioma es posear otra alma. To have another language is to possess another soul. ❤
One of my goals this year, as I mentioned in my last post, is to really focus on my Mandarin skills. I’m planning to take the HSK before we leave next summer, and I’d really like to do well. The HSK is a Chinese proficiency test for foreigners learning the language. The highest score is a 6, which would demonstrate “a learner who can easily understand any information in Chinese and is capable of smoothly expressing themselves in written or oral form”. I’m aiming for a 3 (haha!), and since I’m likely going on this journey alone (Tucker really has no interest), I’d like to at least share a little bit about what makes Chinese such a difficult language to learn.
Another problem we often encounter with pinyin is that it is more often than not missing the diacritic marks. Those marks represent the four tones of Mandarin, and are essential in its pronunciation. Unlike in English, changing the pitch of your voice while speaking Chinese can actually change the words you are saying. The pronunciation of mā (“mom”), má (“hemp”), mǎ (“horse”), and mà (“to scold”) only differs in tone. Unfortunately for lazy, toneless English speakers (like me), this makes it really hard for native Mandarin speakers to understand exactly what we’re saying. We try for “mom” and end up with “horse”, something which I hope has been more entertaining than irritating for them!
Train = Fire + Car
Alright now! Who’s ready to learn this with me?! Chinese is definitely a language on the rise as far as power and prestige go. Much like what happened to English in the 1700s, increases in immigration, tourism, and business are spreading Chinese to all parts of the globe. In Australia, I was surprised and delighted to find Mandarin on most signage, and, even in Georgia/Florida (quite far away from China), maps and other tourist information can often be found in Mandarin. Some linguists refer to Chinese as the language of the future, and while right now it’s more painfully in my present, I hope to keep it around for my future as well! Wish me luck! 
Dani Francuz Rose 