Spanish Language Blog

¡Qué antipático!

Un tipo muy antipático está de visita en Ecuador, y va a la Catedral de Quito a visitar la tumba del general Antonio José de Sucre, líder revolucionario en la Guerra de Independencia. Allí hay un guía que lo explica todo:

- Y este es el gorro que Sucre usó en la batalla de Pichincha
– ¡Qué va! No tenía gorro Sucre – dice el hombre.
– Y este es el sable que Sucre usó en la batalla de Pichincha.
– ¡Pura paja! No tenía sable Sucre.
– Y este es el poncho que Sucre usó cuando cruzó los Andes.
– No juegue, chico, que Sucre no tenía poncho.

Y así molesta el hombre durante todo el tour hasta que llegan a la tumba de Sucre.

- Y estas son las cenizas de Sucre…

- No voy a tragarme esa guayaba, que no fumaba pa’ na’ Sucre.

Vocabulary

¡Qué va! – Come on! I don’t believe that!
¡Pura paja! – Hogwash! (lit. Pure straw!)
No juegue – Don’t play around, stop kidding me
No voy a tragarme esa guayaba – I don’t believe that. (I’m not going to swallow that guava!)
pa’ na’ – at all (short form of para nada)

English translation

How obnoxious!

A very obnoxious guy is visiting Ecuador and he goes to the Cathedral of Quito to visit the tomb of General Antonio José de Sucre*, a revolutionary leader in the War of Independence. A guide is explaining everything there:

- And this is the cap that Sucre wore in the battle of Pichincha.
- Oh, come on! Sucre didn’t have a cap – says the fellow.
- And this is the saber that Sucre used in the battle of Pichincha.
- Hogwash! Sucre didn’t have a saber.
- And this is the poncho that Sucre wore when he crossed the Andes.
- Don’t play around, kid, Sucre didn’t have a poncho.

And this fellow keeps bugging during the entire tour until they arrive at Sucre’s tomb.

- And these are Sucre’s ashes…

- I’m now buying that one! Sucre didn’t smoke at all.

*Antonio José de Sucre became the first president of the Republic of Bolivia; the Battle of Pichincha liberated Ecuador from Spain in 1822 in the War of Independence

Hey, what’s up?

One of the coolest things about being able to speak another language is to understand humor in it. As I’m Brazilian, American comedians’ jokes started to become funny after I started learning about American culture and was able to understand the cultural aspect of each joke or comment. And the same happens with Spanish, each country has its own cultural issues and oftentimes comedians make fun of their own life and customs.

So one of these days I was looking for stand-up comedy in Spanish and I came across some very interesting videos from a VH1 stand-up comedy special. One of the comedians, Argentinean Fernando Sanjiao, caught my attention because of his comedy style. In the following clip he talks about the setbacks of being shy and the outcome of it. This video contains a lot of slang (and some bad words, too, so be careful!) and it’s a great opportunity to train your ear to this kind of spoken language.

I hope you have fun and also learn some Spanish and don’t worry if you think Fernando speaks too fast, you just have to get used to the rhythm of natural speech, and that takes time.