Lost in Translation

Three weeks in and I have yet to experience a “lost in translation” moment. Either this is really good or really bad: my Spanish is either good enough that native speakers understand me fairly well or my Spanish is so poor that they just nod their heads in response to me. I think the most difficult part about the language barrier so far has been explaining very American things that do not exist in other countries. For example, I play lacrosse and nine out of ten times I revert to explaining lacrosse through pictures because how do you explain people running up and down the field with sticks that have pockets trying to whack the ball out or trying to score goals. Don’t even get me started on how to explain the difference between men’s and women’s lacrosse. Another difficult part is when you know a word in English and you know the word in Spanish but sometimes it just comes out as the English word with o or a on the end of it. It is also difficult because many of the teachers I have had are from Spain or studied in Spain therefore the majority of my vocabulary is Spanish from Spain. It is interesting to notice the differences in vocabulary in simple words such as pencils or pens can vary from country to country. I have heard pluma and boligrafo. Also, hacer surf and correr table both of which means to surf, something that is very popular in Lima that I would like to try at some point.
I have learned some interesting slang phrases and sayings here both from professors and students of the university Universidad Femenina del Segrado Corazón and Air Force High School. ¡Qué chevre! Is the Peruvian way of saying that cool or awesome. ¡Es papaya is the same as es facil, which means it is easy. At first, I thought it was weird saying its papaya! Until I realized in the US we say “easy as pie” or “piece of cake” so I guess Peruvians are just healthier than us. Another food comparison is ¡es yucca! which is the same as es dificil or it is difficult. Yuca is sweet potato. The best part about being emerged in culture like this is hearing these sayings used in everyday language and throughout conversations.