“This we-wee-weekend I’m going to the BE-BEECH.” At that moment her face turned red and her eyes darted around the room to see the reaction of the other students. There were a few raised eyebrows, some half hushed gasps, but more importantly, an ensuing silence that only Donald Trump could break.
I had just asked what their plans were for the weekend. It was a hot, somewhat stuffy Saturday morning in San Ramon and I was leading my weekly English conversation group. The students come every week as they are motivated to get guidance on their English conversation skills and are very supportive of one another. The reaction to this comment though, was perplexing.
Something was going on here, like an inside joke that I was not let in on. My haunch was that it was a cultural or lexical detail that I had missed. If only my wife were here to whisper the answer into my ear… Well, that was not going to happen, so I quizzically began to study the students, looking from one to the other, trying to get one to share their reaction.
Eventually, one shared, “Teacher, how do you say BEECH?”. Now we were getting somewhere. “Well, it’s pronounced ‘beach’”. I responded. Mildly puzzled, they countered, “and how do you say BEECH?”. Hmmm, hadn’t I just explain it? Or am I going to need a visit to the ear doctor?
I still wasn’t following what they were asking so I prodded, “What do you mean by BEECH?” I asked. The response I got was in Spanish and was something along the lines of someone doing sexual acts for money. Then it hit me, and not wanting to take the conversation any further off course than necessary, I followed up with “Oh, you mean a female dog, don’t you?” Receiving an affirmative head nod I was finally back in the game and could take the reins of the group again.
The hold up was that the “bi” sound sounds like the “be” sound in beach when pronounced in Spanish and is why Spanish speakers tense up when using this vocabulary. I would too, knowing the consequences of any little mistake.
I’m proud of the students for coming and having the courage to bring their language concerns to me, even at the expense of embarrassment. I was in their shoes too, and the best way to never forget a word is to have a memorable moment using it.
I’ll never forget, when having dinner with my very first host family, I made a grammar mistake and they corrected me. It was a simple mistake that I should have known, so I apologized by saying how embarrassed I was. This response though incited laughter from the family because I had made an even bigger error. I assumed embarrassed translated roughly to “embarazado” like so many other English words. The word did exist, but it meant I was pregnant.
Or the time my friend learned how to make tortillas and proclaimed she was a tortillera. She made this claim assuming the nouns could be used for people (example: a carpenter does carpentry, a plumber does plumbing etc). She was right about the word existing, but didn’t realize that locally, it meant she was a lesbian.
Moments like these I’ll never forget as I assure myself that I’ll always be the “person that makes tortillas”. I’ll never be mistakenly pregnant again, but I’m sure I’ll still make the same small grammar mistakes.
We only meet for a few hours on Saturdays to informally chat in English, but this discussion will probably stick with them long after the sessions have concluded. These students already have a good handle on their English and they use me as an open book for detail work. We spend a lot of time going over these details and often times discover new nuances we never knew existed. Did you know if you really fudge the pronunciation of ‘beer’ you can make it sound like ‘mirror’.
I might have to invest in a dictionary or really study up on pop culture as these students will push you. I can’t think of a better way though to uncover language’s best kept secrets than in a dusty, glorified storage room with a group of eager apprentices. The opportunity they have is something that if I had had, probably would have saved me from some “enlightening” experiences to say the least.
So the next time you are in Costa Rica, or any Spanish speaking country in Latin America, think back to this article before you tell the locals you’re going to “hit the beach”.
Thanks for reading this blog and feel free to share your comments. Have you ever had an embarrassing language moment? ¡pura vida!
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