WARNING: THIS IS A BILINGUAL BLOG!!

Sometimes I feel like writing in English. This is how my mind works. I know some people (as if I had a real readership) will think I am being a snob but I couldn’t care less. This is a means of expression for me and I sometimes like to spit things out in Spanish, often times in English. It just so happens that is how my thoughts formed: with two languages swimming in my brain. When I was five and already fluent in Spanish my parents decided to move to the States and so one language replaced the other and, doctor, doctor, that is why I am so screwed up.

If your mind works in two different channels, does that a split personality make? I certainly hope NOT. But it does kind give you a kind of ugly duckling syndrome. With benefits of course.

You really can’t beat certain phrases in English. Take phrasal verbs for example. Specially poetic phrasal verbs such as “snake through”, “breeze in” or “wisk away”. You just cannot say that in Spanish no matter how hard you try. You have to resort to the “como una serpiente", “como el viento", to come close; but you always fall short.

Isn’t it great that you can “talk yourself out of a situation”? It’s no fun to “zafar de una situación gracias a mi labia”. A “die hard fan” es…¿un fanático muy fanático? Sí, un fanático incurable supongo. An “old fart “ is definitely not “un pedo viejo”. Road Kill is “animales que quedan muertos en la ruta cuando los pisa un auto”. No contest.

Don’t get me wrong, Spanish has better adjectives but they are really hard to use well and the pro of course is, without a doubt, Georgie Borges, with his wondrous way with words (he would not like this alliteration). For example Borges always writes things like: “decía Treviranus blandiendo un imperioso cigarro”. I’m not even going to try to say that in English but an imperial cigar would not cut it.

Pigheaded is not cabeza de chancho.

Some that translate well into Spanish:
Stone faced: cara de piedra
Aftertaste can now be “retrogusto” (I have heard it related to wines).
Windbreaker can be rompevientos but you would never say it.

More later.