Las rocolas de mi abuela

I went out to lunch with a few co-workers to a new Mexican restaurant.  It's gran apertura (grand opening) was just 2 weeks ago.

Anyway, I noticed they had a brand new jukebox.  It wasn't like the ones I grew up with, it was a modern version that took credit cards.  And then it dawned on me, what the heck do you call a jukebox in Spanish?   Lucky for me the waitress told me.  A jukebox is called a rocola. 

Since we're on the topic of rocolas and music, let's talk about a few more things.

To talk about playing music, whether it be on a rocola or on the radio, you need to use the verb tocar.  Here's a good example:

¿Cómo se llama esa cosa que toca musica?
What do you call that thing that plays music?

That's what I asked the waitress in order find out what you call a jukebox in Spanish.

When you listen to Spanish radio, you'll probably hear:

Tocamos solo éxitos
We only play the hits

You may have noticed our next word, éxitos - hits.  You'll probably also hear things like "los mejores (grandes) éxitos.  The best hits.  Usually the best hits are pegajoso - catchy, which is what makes them éxitos in the first place.

And just to be thorough, a song is called a cancíon, and the lyrics are called letras.  

Now let's take a walk down memory lane.  At least it is for those of us old enough to remember the old-fashioned record, or album, known in Spanish as a disco, which you could buy in a disquería.  Which you had to play on a tocadiscos.    But these days we tocar our music on a reproductor de MP3 (MP3 Player). 

All of this reminds me of another word I learned, traganíquel.   I learned this from a panameña (a woman from Panama).  It's a word they use for jukebox, and if I'm not mistaken, it's used in Nicaragua as well.  Traganíquel can also refer to any machine that takes coins (monedas), like slot machines. 

That leaves us with one last piece of unfinished business.

Las rocolas de mi abuela
My grandmothers jukeboxes

That's actually the name of a short blog entry talking about old-fashioned jukeboxes.  For some of you this will just a be a great opportunity to practice your Spanish, and for the rest of you it wil probably bring back some good memories.  Here's the link:

http://peruinside.com/blog/2008/01/17/las-rocolas-de-mi-abuelo/

That's it for today!

¡Cuídense!

No te hagas

The first time I heard this, it was actually directed at me.  Since then it's become one of my favorite phrases.

Essentially, it's a way of telling someone to "stop pretending", "stop acting like..." or "don't act like you don't know".

Let's take a look at how we might use this:

You loan your friend $20, the next day you see him with a pocket full of money, and you say "Great, you can pay me back that $20".  He says "What $20?".  Your response:

No te hagas (el tonto / el pato)
Don't act stupid/Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about

You may have noticed that you can tack on "el tonto" or "el pato"  to this expression.  While "el tonto"  actually makes sense, because it can mean "fool" or "silly", but I have no idea where "el pato" comes in.  Tha's just the way the expression works.

Here are some more examples:

No te hagas el enojado
Stop acting like you should be angry

No te hagas la victima
Don't act like you're the victim

There are other ways to use this phrase, but this will certainly get you started.

¡Hasta la próxima!

YO NO FUI !!!!!

¡Yo no fui!

You probably learned that that this translates to "I didn't go".  And that would be 100% correct.

¿Fuiste el super?
Did you go the supermakert?

No fui.
No, I didn't go.

But as always, phrases in Spanish typically have more than one meaning.

If someone is trying to blame you for something, the second definition of "yo no fui" is something you'll want to remember:

Quien dejó la puerta abierta? - Who left the door open?
Quien quemó el pollo? - Who Burned the chicken?
Quien hizo eso? - Who did that?

¡¡Yo no fui!!
It wasn't me

In fact, I recommend you blame you someone else...

Yo no fui, ¡ fue Anthony!
It wasn't me, it was Anthony

Of course if it’s something good like…

Quien limpio la cocina? - who cleaned the kitchen?

I would say “Fui yo!” - It was me!

¡Hasta Pronto!

Ya se petateó

This was another one of those expressions that gave me that famous deer in headlights look.   

In order to understand this expression, we need find out what a petate is.

There's nothing better than a picture to explain things, so here you go:

A petate is (as you can see) a mat.  One of it's uses is for sleeping.  Another one of its uses was for burying people (at least that's what the Aztecs did), which is the key piece of information we need to understand our expression.  The deceased were wrapped and buried in a petate.  

Now we can move on to the verb petatear, which means to die.  Consider it a synonym of morir.  

At this point you probably don't need my help translate our expression.

Ya se petateó
He's already dead OR
He's dead now

If you want to learn a little more about petates, then click here.  I found it pretty interesting, but then again, I'm sort of a geek.

Well, that's it for today. 

¡Hasta pronto!

Se me ponchó una llanta

If you don't know, a llanta is a tire.   And as we all know, tires often go flat.  I had a flat two weeks in a row, both at almost midnight.  Yeah, it sucked.  But I digress.

In Mexico, when you want to talk about getting a flat tire, the verb you're likely to hear is poncharse.    So if you want to say you got a flat tire, that's where our phrase comes in:

Se me ponchó una llanta
I got a flat tire

If you want to talk about other people who got flat tires, you can say:

Se te ponchó una llanta
You got a flat tire

Se le ponchó una llanta
He/She got a flat tire

Se nos ponchó una llanta
We got a flat tire

Se les ponchó una llanta
They got a flat tire

A flat tire, the tire itself that is, is called a ponchada.  And the plural version is ponchadas.  You may also hear the word ponchadura.

If you want your tire fixed, you  might want to go to a "taller para reperar llantas" - a workshop where they repair tires.   These places go by several names:

"ponchaduría", "desponchaduría", "desponchadora", "vulcanizadora"  or "vulka".

These workshops aren't your Sears or Wal-Mart tire centers, but instead might look something like this:

In fact, if you take a drive through a Mexican neighborhood, you may see a desponchadora that hopefully isn't as quite as untidy as the one in our photo. 

Like always, in the Spanish language there's more than one way to skin a cat.  Especially if you're talking about flat tires.  Other words to take a look at are pinchar, gomas, and desinfladas to name a few.  Wordreference.com is a great place to look if you're interested in alternatives.

Anyway, that's it for today.  Be careful not to ponchar any llantas in the near future!

Tengo cosas en el tintero

Until I heard this phrase, I didn't know what a tintero was.  So why don't we start there.

Here's a picture of a tintero...

So now we know what a tintero is.  The little bottle that holds your ink.  Lucky for us the the ball point pen came along.

As usual, a literal translation won't work.  There aren't to many things (cosas) you can put into a tintero.  So let's just make our translation:

Tengo cosas en el tintero

I have some things on my mind

I happen to like this expression, don't ask me why.  And I learned this from a Peruvian friend, so I really have no idea how universal this is, but don't let that stop you from using this phrase.  If the people you're speaking to aren't familar with it, explain it.  I bet in return they tell you their version of the expression and it's a win win situation for everybody.

That's it for today, ¡hasta pronto!

Quiero quitarme la llantita

If you don't already know, llantita is the diminutive form of llanta, which means tire.  On it's own, it could be interpreted as a "little tire", but that's not the case in this context, so let's take a look at things and figure this out.

Quitarse means "to take off", and is a quite a useful verb, but maybe we'll discuss quitarse at a later time in more detail. 

Llantita is a colloquial way of refering to what we like to call a "spare tire", and not the kind you keep in the trunk of your car.  Yes, I'm refering to the ever annoying roll of fat that lives around our waist and can be nearly impossible to get rid of. 

Now we're ready to make our translation...

Quiero quitarme la llantita
I want to get rid of my spare tire

You could also refer to your spare tire as a "llanta", or "michelines". 

Another way to talk to about losing your spare tire is to use the verbs eliminar or bajar.

Pan comido, right?

I'm sure none of us like talking about our spare tires, but if you have to, you can now talk about them in Spanish!