La tertulia

3:44 AM

Since my question is likely to be closed and both of you guys are sort of here, do you have any recommendations for shows in this format?

Nathan Greenstein

@R0MANARMY I'm afraid I don't watch much TV, so I can't really help you there.

I don't think it's a bad question, but I don't really think it's a good fit for this site.

R0MANARMY

@NathanGreenstein I figured it might not be, I've just had trouble finding anything in a similar format. My train ride to work takes about 25 minutes so a half hour show would fit perfectly into my commute.

If it gets closed, let me know if I should delete it or leave it there as a warning to others asking similar questions.

Nathan Greenstein

4:02 AM

@R0MANARMY You can leave it up if it gets closed. Especially in beta, it's important for others to see what's been closed and why.

If you feel strongly or want to discuss with the community, you can post on Meta.

hippietrail

6:29 AM

dila mshvidobisa

Flimzy

6:49 AM

@R0MANARMY: I don't watch much TV either, but everyone says the soap operas are the way to go. I do watch a bunch of movies with Spanish subtitles (and English audio), though. If you concentrate on the subtitles, this can be a good way to practice your Spanish, too.

hippietrail

i know a girl in turkey who learned korean from watching soap operas. but all my romanian friends swear they learned english by watching the cartoon network!

Flimzy

That's a good point... I've heard many people say they enjoy watching cartoons in Spanish... because the vocabulary is usually simpler

hippietrail

the spanish subtitles thing works good - just watch out for the incredibly bad wrong subtitles that seem to be epidemic on the internet and pirate dvd's these days

the only show i ever used to watch was "Los Simpson" (-:

Flimzy

Yeah... and be aware that subtitles (in any language) are rarely a literal translation... they're almost always a shortened version of the actual dialog

hippietrail

"dos equis" was one of my earliest nicks/handles/screen names on the internet! i still use it on slashdot

Flimzy

6:53 AM

cute

hippietrail

sometimes the non literal aspect is what helps you learn new stuff

i also used "tres equis", i can't remember which was first

Flimzy

Wow... would that make you more interesting than the most interesting man on earth?

hippietrail

they stopped making tres equis before i ever went to mexico but i'm always keeping an eye out for old signs and stuff

Flimzy

When were you in .mx?

hippietrail

1996 1998 2000 2006 2007 2008 not for all of any of those years but a couple of times almost

i'v also been to every country in central america once or in the case of guatemala lots of times, including every capital city except of belize

Flimzy

7:07 AM

I may be going to Belize between Christmas and New Years this year

fingers crossed...

I'd really like to go on a long bus trip through much of South America in the next couple years

hippietrail

i've done mexico city to panama city as close to purley chicken buses as i could

you are forced to take some modern buses in costa rica though

i've intended to go to south america twice, as far as investing in an expensive lonely planet each time, but then decided to go somewhere else instead

when i finally do go i'll focus on colombia and then try to spend some time in chubut argentina in the hopes of learning some welsh (-:

Flimzy

chicken buses?

hippietrail

dios mio ¿careces esta experiencia?

Chicken bus

A chicken bus (Spanish: "camioneta") is a colloquial English name for a colorful modified and decorated US school bus and transit bus that transports goods and people between communities in Honduras and Guatemala. The word "chicken" refers to the fact that rural Guatemalans occasionally transport live animals on such buses, a practice that visitors from other countries often find remarkable. The buses are also commonly used in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, and Costa Rica. Often two young men will partner in the operation of a bus, one of whom will have his license, while the other dub...

Flimzy

7:23 AM

interesting

hippietrail

part of the quintessential latin american experience (-:

Flimzy

Indeed

One problem I have is I'll have to work on the road... which means I'll need Internet access where ever I stay.

although hopefully that won't be too hard to find in most cities

hippietrail

i find it hard to find anywhere without internet these days. i just hitchhiked across turkey and most of the time i could get a wifi signal at petrol stations in the middle of nowhere!

anywhere there's tourists or foreigners there's internet

or local kids who want to use chat and skype but don't have computers at home. then there will be cibercafes

Flimzy

I've had some pretty bad experiences with Internet even in DF at "high end" hotels

I mean, they have Internet... if you hold your nose right, and stick your leg out the window

A cybercafe isn't very conducive to my work...

Although a cafe with Internet would be fine

(strange how "cafe with Internet" and "cybercafe" are such different things)

hippietrail

hehe well maybe stick to concrete jungles then, that would be a shame

or get USB modem dongles. i was given one for free in romania and it got a signal anywhere people use mobile phones. and it was fast.

Flimzy

7:32 AM

I can go off-grid for a couple days at a time :)

just not for months at a time

hippietrail

i've had good experience with internet at low end hostels in mexico. i don't know anything about the high end though

Flimzy

The one hostel I've stayed in in Mexico had Internet... in Guanajuato

hippietrail

i don't think i've missed more than one day in the past six months i've been travelling (korea, japan, turkey, the balkans including albania, greece, and now georgia)

Flimzy

actually, come to think of it, the very worst "hotel" I've ever stayed in in Veracruz had Internet, too

it was absolutely dreadful

hippietrail

i haven't been to guanajuato for years

Flimzy

7:34 AM

but the Internet worked

hippietrail

internet used to be a real pain in mexico and guatemala ten or fifteen years ago

Flimzy

I think it was $150 pesos per night... the mosquitos were horrendous... the toilets had no seat, the shower head was directly over the toilet, and no shower curtain

the lack of toilet seats in restrooms in Mexico really baffles me

that's a question to add for the new Latin American culture proposal :)

hippietrail

veracruz is a bit stifling for me. like villahermosa and a few other places in that area

bah white people problems d-;

Flimzy

hehe

I've gotten used to it...

I don't mind so much any more

but it still confuses me :)

hippietrail

i think it's look toilet paper. idiots keep breaking or stealing them so for cheap places its not cost effective to keep replacing

Flimzy

7:38 AM

I don't understand why anyone would steal a toilet seat

Only in a country where nobody has toilet seats would they have any resale value :)

hippietrail

more likely break in the case of the seats

Flimzy

yeah, probably

hippietrail

standing on them. cheap ones have crappy hinges that break easy. you often have seats that are not attached or not even on the toilet but over in the corner somewhere

in places that have lots of eastern visitors unaccustomed to western ways you get lots of broken toilet seats from people climbing up onto the seat to squat! (not in latin america though)

sinks and basins half broken off the wall are also common in latin america which i also attribute to climbing on them

Flimzy

I'm going to make my first million dollars by opening a convenience store chain in Mexico that prominently advertises (and lives up to) clean, free, well-stocked bathrooms.

Clean bathrooms will be my loss leader.

hippietrail

you'll be able to do it in polanco and colonia roma but not in satelite

mcdonalds and shopping malls are the way to go in all international settings where a clean toilet in an unfamiliar place is called for

Flimzy

7:49 AM

I've never tried McDonald's... (I really really hate McDonald's), but Burger King is somewhat hit-and-miss.

Although more hit than Oxxo

hippietrail

i've done many a midnight run to oxxo but can't even remember whether they have toilets

i hate mcdonalds too. i did go to one yesterday for the first time in three or four months though because i was freezing and they had free wifi

Flimzy

not all Oxxos have toilets, but most along the highways do

hippietrail

ah i don't know the highways so well. generally only been on them in buses

Flimzy

I've driven from Kansas to Guadalajara about 6 times

and from Guadaljara to Guatemala and back once

I've seen quite a lot of the Mexican highway system

and of course quite a bit around the GDL area... to Guanajuato, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, etc

hippietrail

i'm adding english translations to some questions in spanish

i've never driven in mexico. something i've thought about doing it once for fun

Flimzy

8:03 AM

It is fun

especially if you have a fast car

since speed limits are pretty meaningless here :)

I've been up to 126mph before

hippietrail

just added a translation to

0

Q: Palabras con etimología prejuiciosa

Hace poco aprendí que el origen de la palabra algarabía es la pronunciación de árabe en la lengua árabe. Otro ejemplo notable es la palabra morisqueta. ¿Existen otras palabras de común uso actualmente cuyo origen prejuicioso no es evidente?

etymology

Flimzy

Of course you can get pulled over for speeding... but you can also get pulled over for not speeding.

I've been pulled over 4 times, and have yet to pay a fine. It's usually easy to get out of it, if you understand the motivation of the cops.

(I've only been pulled over once for speeding)

hippietrail

drivers in georgia and armenia are fast and scary. some in turkey too are faster but not quite as scary

i've never paid a bribe in mexico but it helps that i don't smoke weed (-:

Flimzy

I almost paid a bribe once

hippietrail

i also never lost my tourist card or overstaid

Flimzy

8:07 AM

I was with 4 friends, heading to the border... we got pulled over in Monterrey. They threatened to throw me and my buddy into jail for having an unregistered car (it was registered, and they knew it). I protested... said that if the car was illegal, all they could do was tow it, but that I wasn't subject to jail... they conceeded that point, so threatened to tow... or $10,000 pesos

we talked them down to $2000 pesos, when one of the cops asked my buddy about a nervious twich he had. "Are you on drugs?" My friend replied "No, man, I'm a missionary!"

One of the other cops ran over to the car to talk to my friend's wife... he felt so guilty for pulling over missionaries, they let us go

(I'm not a missionary, but the other 4 people I was traveling with were)

hippietrail

i'm often told in mexico to tell them to take me to the station and they're supposedly to lazy and scared of paperwork

Flimzy

I try to obey the immigration laws. I've never overstayed, either. Although I did have my car in the country illegally for a couple months once.

yeah... that's pretty much the trick.

Just tell them you want to do things the right way, and they usually let you go.

hippietrail

but twice i've had groups of friends kidnapped by the police in DF for a night with the same ATM scam

Flimzy

Although it occasionally back fires... I was with a friend once when he got pulled over... and the cop went ahead and wrote him the ticket

we went immediately to pay it... and the cop intentionally dragged his feet

it took us about 3-4 hours to finally get done

hippietrail

you should really check out travel.SE from time to time

Flimzy

8:11 AM

I've posted a few questions there

hippietrail

ah yeas the beauracracy rubbish. i've gone with a mexican friend to file a complaint against the police. not a quick process.

time to look!

ah yes the two mexico questions i couldn't answer!

Flimzy

hehe

hippietrail

man they're our only mexico questions so far?? ah no we have seven. that's better.

Flimzy

there are a few others with the mexico tag

hippietrail

got an answer for this one?

8

Q: Is it possible to tour the facility where Kahlúa is made?

Now I know you can visit plenty of wineries, breweries, and distilleries around the world. But my favourite alcoholic beverage is Kahlúa, a coffee liqueur from Mexico exported around the world. Does anybody know if it's possible for any random person, or also only under some special circumstance...

tours mexico

Flimzy

8:14 AM

All I know is about the Tequila tours

where is Kahlúa made? Maybe I can find an answer for you

hippietrail

i've never even been able to find out where the factory is. for a long time i thought it was in puebla but now i'm not so sure. they don't mention anything on their site

Flimzy

looks like maybe it's in Mexico City

I have a couple friends there... I'll ask them if they know

hippietrail

i'd never heard of "para con" before

Flimzy

me either, but it's also the kind of thing I wouldn't pick up on in a conversation if I heard it

I'm so far from fluency, it's not funny

hippietrail

actually i do have a new mexico travel question i need to ask

Flimzy

8:22 AM

maybe I'll know the answer to this one :)

hippietrail

i decided to start re reading cien años de soledad as a source of questions

you probably won't know this one because it will be about flying from australia

Flimzy

ah, yeah, probably not then.

I do know that flying to GDL from Capetown is cheaper to go through NYC than through South America :)

So how do you support your self traveling? Do you have a mobiile job, or large savings?

hippietrail

the twist with this question is no stopping on US soil

Flimzy

I'm pretty sure you can go through Argentina

I think it has connecting flights to africa and/or europe

hippietrail

save every cent working a low paying job at home and have no life until i have enough then travel as cheap as possible for as long as possible. i keep getting better at both. used to be in IT which paid well but was rotting my brain.

the argentina and chile routes double the price. from australia you're looking at about 5 to 6 k$!

Flimzy

8:29 AM

I feel quite fortunate to have a job that lets me work from anywhere, and a boss who's very understanding and flexible

Can you go through Canada?

It looks like there's a direct flight from Toronto to Mexico City for US$367

on Air Canada

Why do you need to avoid the US? Are you traveling with someone who has no visa? Or are you a felon? :)

Joze

He's a spy but shh!

Flimzy

It's hard to spy on a country you don't visit

hippietrail

0

Q: Are there still any "cheap" options for flying from Australia to Mexico without going through the US?

I've travelled to Mexico many times and I'm starting to feel the itch again but I think finding a cheap way there has become more difficult since my last trip 3 years ago. I have some problems with US customs and immigration which makes getting a transit visa a serious pain so I cannot take any ...

air-travel budget australia routes mexico

those cheap flights from canada to mexico always seem to be very short duration tickets. i need an "open" one year ticket. i overstayed a US visa back in 1991 then back in 2001 they made applying for visas a real PITA

Flimzy

yeah... makes me proud to be a US citizen :/

hippietrail

basically there's a high probability that i might find myself in a position where i have to apply for a US visa while i'm in mexico and that my application would be rejected

Flimzy

8:42 AM

You might have to book your trip as multiple trips...

get your round-trip ticket to Tornoto or Vancouver... then buy a separate trip from there to DF... or maybe two one-way tickets

anyway, I'm sure you know more about that than I do.

hippietrail

i've tried that but it always seems to work out double the price. 1.5k for aus-can and 1.5k for can-mex

the first time i went to mexico was from canada and only cost $600

Flimzy

looks like Tornoto -> Mexico city still has round-trip fare for about $600

about the same from vancouver

aircanada.com

hippietrail

how long is the ticket valid?

Flimzy

I tried for 274 days

I just picked a random day in January for departure, then in October for return

I don't know if they have an "open" ticket option for that price

hippietrail

9:04 AM

ah that is looking good! thanks!

Flimzy

9:18 AM

well I'm going to bed... good night

hippietrail

sueña con los angelitos

hippietrail

10:44 AM

0

Q: How to interpret "dar a" or "dar a conocer"?

I only know "dar" in its literal sense of "to give". And I know "conocer" in its literal sense of "to know" or "to get to know". But in reading Cien años de soledad I came to this passage: ... y con un grande alboroto de pitos y timbales daban a conocer los nuevos inventos. Literally "dar...

verbs idiom

hippietrail

11:50 AM

0

Q: Comparisons with English in questions is OK, what about comparisons with other languages?

Given that the topic of the site is Spanish and the language of Stack Exchange is English it seems of course natural to sometimes compare the two languages within a question about Spanish here. But what about comparisons with other languages? Should we accept it in fairness wherever it's relevan...

discussion scope

hippietrail

2:41 PM

0

Q: What does "barrocanrolera" mean?

In the novel Los años con Laura Diaz by the Mexican author Carlos Fuentes there is a word, "barrocanrolera", which is not in the DRAE, the Gran diccionario Larousse, Wiktionary, or Google Translate. ... expendios de comida rápida, complejos de salas cinematográficas, la variedad barrocanroler...

translation spanish-to-english definitions rare-words

Richard

3:54 PM

Over here, I see the phrase "no tiene nada de malo". It got me thinking: is es todo bueno or maybe todo es bueno mean "It's all good?"

hippietrail

i guess so. doesn't sound natural to me though. i would go with "estar" instead of "ser". But I don't think I have such great Spanish sprachgefuhl

Richard

nice use of sprachgefühl

I agree... it doesn't feel right. That's why I'm asking. ;)

Todo esta bueno would be a alright, but I think of that more as "Everything is fine". it doesn't quite carry the connotaiton.

I switched my keyboard to US-International and I keep forgetting that the quote marks now are more than just quote marks...

Rafael.IT

Where are you from Richard?

@Richard Where are you from Richard?

hippietrail

oop i just learned my first georgian idiom. makes spanish seem too easy (-:

Richard

Estados Unidos.

hippietrail

4:01 PM

i would say "no hay problema" but that might not be what a native would say

Richard

I think Spanish is easy.

Rafael.IT

what state, if you don't mind

Richard

Oh, I'm out in Kansas City, both states. ;)

How about yourself? (Other than Autozone :P)

hippietrail

spanish is generally regarded as the easiest language for english speakers to learn and possibly for anyone generally to learn

Rafael.IT

hahaha, I'm from Chihuahua Mexico

Richard

4:02 PM

Aah. Yeah, I have almost no immersion here. :\

hippietrail

i think i've never been to chihuahua but i've been to mexico six times. es mi pais preferido del mundo

Richard

@hippietrail That doesn't surprise me. I think Italian is right up there, though. Followed by French. (But I hate French.)

Rafael.IT

Chihuahua is just below Texas

hippietrail

oh so if i cross from san antonio i'm in chihuahua? then i've been (-:

Rafael.IT

I read you are from Australia @hippietrail I always wanted to go there

not really Texas is big

Richard

4:04 PM

I would expect that German would be easy to learn. I've heard it's hard from some people, but English is germanic... shrug

hippietrail

italian has some fancy made up rules they took from french that spanish doesn't bother with

Rafael.IT

if you go south you could either be in Chihuahua,Coahuila,Tamaulipas or Nuevo Leon

Richard

@hippietrail Yeah? I can't remember. I picked it up once. But if you stick to the major cities, everyone speaks English, so I never used it.

hippietrail

in 2001 i crossed from texas and headed to real de catorce. never been back to the US since

Rafael.IT

so where are you living atm?

Richard

4:06 PM

Wow. that question died quickly

hippietrail

no german is a real pain. too many verb prefixes that are ungraspable and too much basic vocabulary that natives use but learners take forever to get a decent amount of

Rafael.IT

I deleted it.

Richard

@hippietrail Yeah, that surprises me.

Rafael.IT

didn't want to ruin my rep :p

Richard

@RafaelIT Oh you did? I thought a moderator did. Usually the SE staff moderators aren't that responsive, though.

I can understand that. Sometimes it's good to have those questions around, though. For example:

-3

Q: In general, how well does Google Translate work?

I've had troubles with translations programs in the past. It seems that most take a word-for-word approach to translation. Obviously this falls short in most circumstances. It seems that Google's translation engine is different, however (although I'm not sure which algorithm it uses). Also, t...

translation

Vote it down!! ;)

Rafael.IT

4:08 PM

I wished they were more open that kind of questions

I wish*

since that could be actually helpful

Google translation sucks btw lol

hippietrail

yeah thats a bad question

Richard

It just doesn't fit well. They used to allow those types of questions, but they just drew opinions and low quality answers.

The goal is to attract experts and these types of questions don't attract experts, they're just for fun.

hippietrail

especially bad for setting the tone during the important beta phase

Rafael.IT

well you made a point

Richard

@hippietrail Yeah, exactly.

Betas are fun!

Rafael.IT

4:10 PM

I couldn't know, before this beta I've never been really involved in SO.

Richard

@RafaelIT This is my third so far. (Since August or so.)

Rafael.IT

nice, whenever I see how people gets involved sometimes it makes it look like an online RPG lol

Richard

@RafaelIT I think that with the rep system, it's pretty gamed.

hippietrail

you're supposed to read the FAQ and a bunch of other stuff but they would probably do better to have some kind of active guidance somehow

Rafael.IT

yeah.. I'm not really good at reading FAQs lol

hippietrail

4:13 PM

i was on the beta of japanese, travel, and linguistics. at least those were the ones i was really active on. i was also on german i think but less active

nobody is good at reading FAQs

Richard

@hippietrail Usually the people who participate in private betas have some SE experience, so it's not quite so critical. Once it hits public beta, we get pro-tem moderators and they jimmy up the FAQ.

@hippietrail True.

hippietrail

maybe they could have somebody in the chat room and not let new people start posting till they've been chatted to by the SE people there. would be more personal for the less techy nerdy types

well usually yes but the further the topic is from IT the more non geeks - and that's what they're pushing for if you read and listen to the blog and podcasts

Rafael.IT

hey just curious.. are you the ones from your pictures?

hippietrail

i star in my very own picture

that's me escaping a major tsunami on the black sea by raft a couple of months ago

Rafael.IT

nice, hey looks like you've all around the globe

who would be surfing on a Tsunami though ?

lol

hippietrail

4:21 PM

unas partes carecen de mi (-:

anyone know much mexico city slang?

i want to ask if it has a name - i think it's called Caló but i know that's also used for some gipsy argot somewhere

Rafael.IT

I know some of it

you mean if the mexico city slang has a name?

hippietrail

yes. i know other varieties of slang sometimes have names

Rafael.IT

well I know it as jerga

hippietrail

like cockney and one kind of french slang, i think from paris

Rafael.IT

not sure we are talking about the same thing though

hippietrail

4:33 PM

jerga is just the normal word for all slang though isn't it?

Rafael.IT

yeah, never heard they call it differently here in Mexico

hippietrail

you know DF slang is completely its own thing. lots of tricky wordplay that is hard to figure out for non chilangos

Rafael.IT

yeah, I've been there several times

hippietrail

ah yes the french one i was thinking of has the name "verlan"

Rafael.IT

never heard a word for thier lingo though

but I haven't live there

just business trips

hippietrail

4:36 PM

i think the most well known word of it might be "simón"

aha!

Caló (Chicano)

Caló (also known as Pachuco) is an argot or slang of Mexican Spanish which originated during the first half of the 20th century in the Southwestern United States. It is the product of zoot-suit pachuco culture. Origin According to Chicano artist and writer José Antonio Burciaga: "Caló originally defined the Spanish gypsy dialect. But Chicano Caló is the combination of a few basic influences: Hispanicized English; Anglicized Spanish; and the use of archaic 15th-century Spanish words such as truje for traje (brought, past tense of verb 'to bring'), or haiga, for haya (from haber, to have...

looks like i have some details mixed up though

Rafael.IT

yeah simón is quite common lol

and it deribated a lot more of slang

like simonkey, simontas, sincho, simona la cacariza

haha is funny

hippietrail

heres another type of fun spanish

0

Q: How widespread was (or is) the phrase "La mamá de Tarzán"?

I came across the phrase "La mamá de Tarzán" when reading Los años con Laura Díaz by top Mexican author Carlos Fuentes. The part of the book was set in the early part of the 20th century if I recall correctly and immediately made me think of English phrases like "the bees knees" and "the cat's p...

slang mexican-spanish

hippietrail

5:03 PM

google.com/…

looks like it's more recent than i thought. '60s '70s

wow this site has a definite preference for short answers

0

Q: How can we encourage people to flesh out their answers a little?

Is it just me or are there more extremely short answers here than on many SE sites? Stack Exchange obviously prefers longer answers. Not bloated and not with "filler" but also not just a sentence or less, because they all come up under the "review" link. Is there a post by Jeff or Joel we can r...

discussion answers

Flimzy

5:36 PM

Why is our site called "Spanish Language and Usage" but our little icon says "Es"?

2

Richard

@Flimzy Excellent question!

I have no idea.

To avoid confusion with SharePoint.SE?

Flimzy

maybe :)

So I was just about to ask a question, but deciced it's not really Spanish-related, so I'll ask here...

Does anyone know if the 'finger nod' is common outside of Mexico?

(Does anyone even know what I'm talking about?)

Aarthi Devanathan

Dunno about the finger, but the casual jutting up of the chin (like a nod, but up instead of down) is common in about 7 other tropical cultures.

Flimzy

I don't think I've seen that

Aarthi Devanathan

I saw it a lot in Texas. shrug

Flimzy

5:48 PM

Well, maybe as a "What's up?" gesture, but I've seen that a lot in the U.S., too. Does it have another meaning?

Aarthi Devanathan

@Flimzy It can be seen as a challenging gesture in some groups.

Flimzy

Hmm, okay. Yeah, don't think I've seen that a lot.

but maybe people are just too intimidated by me to challenge me ;)

Aarthi Devanathan

laughs

hippietrail

6:26 PM

@Flimzy because "Spanish Language & Usage" doesn't fit on an icon and "es" is the ISO language code for Spanish that matches the "ja", "fr", and "de" on the other beta language sites. English gets a real icon because it survived the beta

i don't believe i know the finger nod

Rafael.IT

well it is in the USA but you would know that

Flimzy

@RafaelIT: The figer nod is in the U.S.? I've never seen it there.

Not that I've spent sufficient time in all parts of the U.S. to have noticed it

Rafael.IT

maybe we are talking about something else then lol

what do you mean by finger nod

Flimzy

My prolonged experience is primarily in the midwest and the northwest

when someone "nods" their finger the same as one would nod their head, to indicate agreement or answer "yes"

I see the finger wag (usually in a condescending context) in the U.S. to mean no, or disagreement

hippietrail

woah i just found tarzan's mum in costa rica!

i only know the finger wag in english speaking countries. i haven't noticed the finger nod in mexico

Rafael.IT

6:32 PM

oh ok sorry I thought you meant to someone else

I don't think is that common

is weird to explain but nodding the finger seems like saying yes

is like I don't know why but if I see it the sound gets in my head lol

Flimzy

I can't find any reference to it on google, either

"Everyone" does it here, though... almost in preference to a head nod

hippietrail

i guess i was just oblivious

Flimzy

When they do it, it looks like they're mimicing the boy from The Shining when his finger "talks"

@hippietrail: I'm not sure if it's a Guadalajara regional thing, or an all-of-Mexico thing

Rafael.IT

it is all of mexico

hippietrail

oh and i know a great idiomatic australian translation for mama de tarzan too

0

A: How widespread was (or is) the phrase "La mamá de Tarzán"?

While looking for some example uses on Amazon I unexpectedly found the phrase in a book on Costa Rican Spanish - including a definition! Official Guide to Costa Rican Spanish by Christopher Howard (2010) Creerse la mamá de Tarzan - To be conceited So at least this sense is not at all what ...

Flimzy

6:42 PM

Nice find. That definition fits the song quite well.

hippietrail

i should listen to the song but i'm watching a documentary on walmart in another tab already

Flimzy

the recording is very low quality

which is why I posted the lyrics, too

hippietrail

oh you did?

Flimzy

well, a link to them.

hippietrail

haha we have an equivalent for that too but it has a "rude word"

Flimzy

6:49 PM

yes :)

Flimzy

7:32 PM

Where's the 'Community Wiki' check box when posting/editing a question?

oh, I have to flag it for moderator attention

hippietrail

i think cw answers are now easy to make and cw questions hard to make

Flimzy

yeah, it seems that way

My question may get closed anyway

it is a list question after all

But I thought private beta was the right time to test the waters on that one

hippietrail

7:50 PM

yes it's hard to know whether it's higher priority to test things or just aim for high quality. i think we get a bit of a mixed message

Flimzy

are tags better plural or signular?

hippietrail

all the sites i'm on prefer plural

but there are some caveats. don't just go plural all over the place. Let me find my guidelines from travel.se ...

4

Q: Tags should be plurals (with a few caveats)

Hey travellers I'd just like to revisit an old issue: Plural tags should be the lead tag in a set of tag synonyms. At least that's what we seemed to decide from the clickvoting back then. Somehow at least a couple of reversals have slipped through the cracks: airports redirects to airport. Ca...

discussion support tagging tag-synonyms

basically tags which are nouns should be plural for "countable" senses but not for "mass" senses or "definite" senses

some words can be used in more than one way and as such need a bit of thought to see which works best

Flimzy

yeah, I suppose a grammars tag wouldn't be ideal :)

hippietrail

woah i hit the ceiling!

Flimzy

rep ceiling? yay, Mortarboard badge for you today :)

hippietrail

8:01 PM

exactly. it's both definite and mass. one trick is to think of it as a heading or topic, another is to think of it in a test sentence like "I like X"

\o/

feels kinda nice

i'm #4 across the board. it's too bad some of the other top contributors aren't hanging out here in chat a bit. what can we do to get more people in here at least to meet and greet? maybe schedule a "say hi to each other" chat room event?

Flimzy

we could @ ping them all :)

hippietrail

(-:

i think i heard that pinging only works for people that have previously been in the chat room. which means it can't hurt to try

Flimzy

that may be true

hippietrail

hey @Flimzy any grammar questions that involve word order are to do with syntax. i'll tag the adjective position one for you. i've a few questions with it so far

Flimzy

8:22 PM

good call

hippietrail

8:39 PM

this is just baldly asking for a huge list isn't it?

0

Q: suffix-rules & options to transform a adjective into a noun?

Spanish has to my knowledge more possible suffixes than for example English or German. Many adjectives can be transformed into nouns by adding -ness,-ism in English, -keit, -heit, -ismus in German. What rules or patterns exist in Spanish for this case, which one should know to make vocabulary l...