the very strange conversations in the kitchen

Monday, December 15, 2008

If you had been a fly on the wall in the Pintos-Vargas kitchen last night, and you understood Spanish, you would have heard a conversation that went something like this:

Cristina: "To waaaaake up. To wark up? Waaaaake up. To take off your clooooooothes, to take off your clothes. To Wake up. To say goof bay...no. To say good bye. TO say good bye. To take off your clothes. To wake up. To say wake up. AH! No."

Monsi: "To waaaaake up."

Cristina: "To waaaaaake up."

Carlos: "To take off your cloooooothes."

Cristina: " Ay yi yi. To take off your clothes?"

Monsi: "Si! To take off your clothes."

Cristina: "To take off your cloooothes, to wake up, to say goodbye!"

Monsi and Carlos: "Good!!!!"

I was so wrapped up in the language lesson my family was giving me, and their dedication to my correct pronunciation, that it wasn't until about 10 minutes into this strange recitation that I realized how extremely funny it must have sounded to them...like the conversation above. But they weren't laughing. They were extremely serious about it the whole time

You see, these three words are so similar to me, that I'm having a really hard time distinguishing between them. As you can see above, a REALLY hard time. They are as follows:

Despertarse - to wake up
Despedirse - to say goodbye
Desvestirse - to get undressed

Wow, right?

I DID, however, manage to learn fork, knife, and spoon this weekend. Oh, and "little spoon". And for that I am truly grateful!

Adios, for now :).