Oh, jeez. I'm actually a terrible amateur. But, I'm working on it. I'm getting down the form of regular verbs and I'm building vocabulary. I embarrass myself with my Puerto Rican friend periodically just to stay humble.
For instance,
"¿Como Estás?"
"Muy Bueno."
Uhmm, I've been told that transaction has a lascivious overtone. Seems harmless linguistically, but I'm finding Spanish is replete with nuance. In some regions, the use of the verb "coger" is so tainted, that people tend to not use it. In Spain it is almost always okay.
In English, "Very well." or "Very good." would have no significant difference to an interrogative "How are you?".
Written English is relatively clinical (X disagreed with me initially, but all her examples used tone and context).
I'm finding Spanish to be nearly the exact opposite with the idiomatic use of words doing much of the work that intonation and context does in English. According to my Puerto Rican friend, there is little difference in pronunciation in Spanish from region to region but within 5 minutes, someone will know that he isn't a local due to the choice of words.
I'm mostly hoping to be able to communicate under normal circumstances with modest precision, but doubt I'm young enough to get the subtlety of the language.
Like
Statement "I'm doing a good job."
Response 1: "Sure you are."
Response 2: "You sure are."
The construction of Response 1 could express a broad spectrum of meaning and is ambiguous. This is a funny idiom. Response 2 is less ambiguous, but could take on a different meaning with the wrong tone, like implying it was a response to "I'm doing a good job (screwing it up)." |
