Rough day

1 Dec 2011

Today turned out to be a rather trying day classroom management-wise. There were a couple of students running through the classroom, students who wouldn’t use English, and students intent on creating their own rules for an activity I had planned. However, rather than recount the ways in which today was hard, I’d like to focus on something more positive and interesting to me—linguistics.

jolín--it means "shoot" or "darn." My kids say it ALL the time.

despistado/a--absent-minded or scatter-brained

aguafiestas--literally joining "water" and "party." It means that someone is a killjoy.

diluvio--pouring

Constipado/a—this word threw me off the first time that I heard it used. It’s what we call a false friend or a false cognate. It looks like it might mean something like “constipated.” On the contrary, it actually means “congested” as in “my nose is congested.”