Guide to Costa Rican Spanish

Throughout much of the Spanish-speaking world including Costa Rica, there is no more important time of year than Holy Week. The week begins with Palm Sunday (el Domingo de Ramos), includes Good Friday (el Viernes Santo), and ends with Easter (la Pascua de Resurrección). Known as Semana Santa, the week marks the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem followed by his death and resurrection.

Unfortunately, Semana Santa has lost part of it’s true significance in Central America. Many people use this holiday as an excuse go to the beach to party and consume a lot of liquor. Even through Good Thursday and Friday are dry (la ley seca) people still stock up on their favorite spirits well in advance. As a result, scores of people die in car crashes, drownings and other alcohol-related incidents during Holy Week. Instead of Semana Santa some refer to the time of year as “La Semana de matanza,” or “the week of slaughter” because of the number of people who die tragically.

Easter Vocabulary

Ash Wednesday – el Miércoles de Ceniza
chocolate egg – el huevo de chocolate
Crucify – crucificar
Colored egg – el huevo de color
Crucifix – el Crucifijo
Decorated egg – huevo decorado
Easter – la Pascua
Easter basket – canasta de Pascua
Easter break – vacaciones de Semana Santa
Easter bunny – el conejito de Pascua
Easter egg – huevo de Pascua
Easter egg hunt – la búsqueda de huevos de Pascua
Easter Mass – la Misa de Pascua
Easter Saturday – Sábado Santo, Sábado de Gloria
Easter Sunday – el Domingo de Pascua, Domingo de Resurrección
Good Friday – Viernes Santo
Happy Easter Felices Pascuas
Holy Week Semana Santa
Lent Cuaresma
Palm Sunday – Domingo de Ramos
Passion of Christ – la Pasión de Cristo
Resurrection – la Resurrección

Tiquismos

I couldn’t resist including these egg-related expressions and Tiquismos. I hope they don’t offend anyone.
A puro huevo – with a lot of effort
Ahuevarse – to be come discouraged or disappointed
Cabeza de huevo – egghead
Lamehuevos – an as kisser (vulgar)
Hombre de pelo en pecho y huevos por derecho – a real man
Huevón – a lazy, useless person. It can also mean stupid.
Huevonada – something stupid
Huevos – eggs but can be a synonym for “balls” or testicles
Huevos pateados – scambled eggs. Huevos revueltos or picados are used more frequently
Huevos tibios – a coward (vulgar)
Huevo tierno – soft-boiled egg
Manda huevo que + the subjunctive tense means impossible, no way. Manda huevo que caiga nieve en Costa Rica. It’s impossible for snow to fall in Costa Rica (On rare occasions a little snow has fallen at the top the Cero de la Muerte)
Me cae en los huevos – I don’t like someone (vulgar)
Me tiene hasta los huevos – I am fed up with someone (very vulgar)
Meterse entre huevo y huevo – to have something on mind or be obsessed with something
No matar la gallina que pone los heuvos de oro – just like in English. “Don’t kill the hen (goose) that lays the golden eggs.”
¡No seas tan huevón !– Don’t be so stupid!
Poner todos los huevos en una canasta – to put all of one’s eggs in one basket. You can also say “Poner toda la carne en el asador.” (put all of the meat on the barbecue) or “Apostar todo a un caballo” (bet it all on one horse).
Tamaño huevón – a big man or boy (vulgar)
Tener a alguien de los huevos – to bother someone a lot (vulgar)
Tener los huevos bien puestos – to be brave (vulgar)
Tener los huevos por el cuello – to be scared (vulgar)
Tener los huevos rayados – to be brave

Saintly expressions

Alzarse con el santo y la limosna – to steal everything
Comerse los santos – to be a religious fanatic
Desnudar un santo para vestir a otro – to rob Peter to pay Paul
No ser santo de mi devoción – to not like someone or one’s cup of tea
Perder el santo y la limosna to lose everything
Se le va el santo al cielo – to forget something
Tener el santo de cara – to have good luck
Tener el santo de espalads – to have bad luck
Quedarse par vestir santos – to be an old maid

Costa Ricans approach the presidential elections with such enthusiasm that they celebrate Election Day as if it were a big party or national holiday. People wearing party colors, honking cars and bands playing Latin music all contribute to the festive atmosphere. The Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones lets Costa Ricans know where they have to vote. The day of the election the country’s 6,617 polling places are open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are currently 2,822,491 voters registered for the upcoming election. In Costa Rica prisoners also have the right to vote so there are 37 polling places inside of the country’s 21 correctional centers.

The list of terms below should help readers understand the election process in Costa Rica.

La bancada – a group of deputies in an assembly that back an initiative, a party or a coalition
La campaña – campaign
El candidato/la candidata – candidate
El ciudadano – citizen
El compañero/ La compañera de fórmula – running mate
El conteo – the counting of votes
El derecho de sufragio – the right to vote
El diputado/la diputada – congressman/woman or representative
Elección arreglada –a fixed election
Una elección cerrada – a close political race
El electorado –electorate or voters
Empadronado – registered to vote
Empardronarse – to register to vote
Fraude electoral – voter fraud
Los escaños – seats in a congress or legislature
Juramentarse – to get sworn in
Un margen estrecho – a narrow margin (vote)
Las mesas – polling places in Costa Rica
Los observadores – people who observe elections to try and make sure nobody commits voter fraud or rigs an election
El padrón – the list of registered voters at a polling place
La ley seca – On past election days the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages. The law was changed for this election so people can buy booze if they so desire. Since the Super Bowl falls on election day we won’t have a “dry” Super Bowl as in past election years.
La papeleta – paper ballot
Los partidarios – supporters
El partido político – political party
Período presidencial – presidential term (time in office)
Politiquear – to do politics using dishonest tactics
Politiquero/a – a person who looks out for his own interests inside the government
El político – politician
La presidenta – woman president
El presi – pres ….slang for president
El presidente – president
El presidente electo- the elected president
El presidente saliente – outgoing president
Postularse/lanzarse – to run for an office
Reconocer la derrota – concede defeat
El resultado – the result of an election
La segunda ronda – a run-off election when none of the candidates received enough votes in the first election to be elected. In Costa Rica this happens if none of the candidates get at least 40% of the vote.
Ser electo – be be elected
El traspaso de poder – transferring of power and duties to a new president
El Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones – the government entity in charge of elections
Las urnas – polls (mesas in Costa Rica)
El vicepresidente – vicepresident
Una victoria abrumadora/aplastante – an overwhelming victory
La votación – vote (noun)
El votante – voter
Votar – to vote

Tiquismos of the week:

Botar la basura – means to throw out the garbage. Sometimes when people ask who a person intends to vote for he or she answers in jest, “Solamente voy a botar la basura.” Botar (to throw out) sounds exactly like votar (to vote).
Hijueputado – a vulgar way to say diputado(congressman). Jokingly it means..Son of a b…. diputado.

Agúizotes (ah-gee-so-tays) are a tradition in Costa Rica and many Latin American countries. They can be defined as a superstitious beliefs. Some people use them to play the national lottery (la lotería) while others use to make their dreams come true for the new year. In the case of the lottery some play the numbers of their date of birth (natalicio or fecha de nacimiento). Others use the numbers of their children’s birthday (cumpleaños or cumple in slang), their own lucky number (número de suerte) or choose number at random (al azar).

Most often los agüizotes are associated with the coming year (el año venidero) and the desire to begin the new year con el pie derecho (to start the year with the right foot). Other expressions are: Año Nuevo, vida nueva (a new year, a new life), Borrón y cuenta nueva (to start with a clean slate) or Comenzar con el viento a su favor (start the with winds blowing in your favor and not against you).

Here are some popular agüizotes:
(1) Wear your clothes inside out on New Years Eve (Noche Vieja or la noche de año viejo) and turn them right side out after midnight.
(2) Using any type of yellow clothing. In Mexico the color of choice is red and in Argentina the color is pink.
(3) Eating twelve grapes at midnight.
(4) Cleaning the whole house to remove the the bad vibes (la mala vibra) or spirits (los espiritus malos) that have accumulated during the past year. The cleaner the house the more chances of good things happening during the coming year.
(5) The lighting of white, red or green candles to bring love, harmony, health and wealth in the coming year. The white candles bring clarity, the red bring passion and the green health.
(6) If you want to marriage, stand up and sit down each time the clock strikes (Dar la hora) twelve times at midnight.
(7) If you want money, see in the New Year with coins or bills inside your shoes.
(8) Wear new clothes in order to acquire a lot of clothes in the coming year.
(9) If you don’t want to be lacking money, put a gold ring in a glass of wine or champagne and make a toast.
(10) If you want to travel next year, put your suitcases (maletas) by the door or walk around the block dragging one of them (hopefully it has wheels).
(11) If you want prosperity, eat a spoonful (cucharada) of cooked lentil beans (lentejas) during the first few minutes of the new year.
(12) If you want to attract money wash your hands with wine and sugar at midnight.
(13) If you want abundance pass out ears of wheat (espigas) to the people with whom you are sharing the evening
(14) To get rid of all of this year’s bad things or evil make a dummy/doll (muñeco) out of you old clothing. Next write on a piece of paper all of the bad things you want to leave in the past. Pin the paper on the doll and burn the whole thing at midnight.

Recently, I was engaged in a discussion about how to determine one’s fluency in a foreign language. The material below should give you an idea about how to figure out your own level of fluency in Spanish.

In order to figure out whether you are fluent in a language, you need to analyze your own language abilities. According to the “official” definition, fluency refers to an ability to converse fluidly and easily. Do you feel comfortable speaking the language? Can you communicate easily with native speakers? Can you read newspapers, listen to the radio, and watch tv? Are you able to understand the gist of the language as it is spoken and written, even if you don’t know every single word? Can you understand native speakers from different regions?

(1) Novice (Beginner)
A novice has extremely limited vocabulary and grammar, understands very little of the language when spoken normally, has difficulty making self understood by native speakers, and thus has serious problems in an immersion situation. A novice may be able to order food in a restaurant, buy a train ticket, and find lodging for the night, but only with great difficulty.

(2) Survivor (Intermediate)
A survivor converses using basic vocabulary (time, date, weather, family, clothes); uses the present, past, and future tenses more or less correctly; and is aware of difficult grammar topics (e.g., subjunctive, relative pronouns), but either uses them incorrectly or awkwardly rearranges sentences in order to avoid them. Still needs to use a dictionary and/or phrase book around, but can survive in an immersion situation: order food, give and receive directions, take a taxi, etc.

(3) Conversationalist  (Advanced)
A conversationalist has the ability to converse about fairly abstract ideas, state opinions, read newspapers, understand the language when spoken normally (on TV, radio, film, etc.) with slight-to-moderate difficulty. Still has some trouble with specialized vocabulary and complicated grammar, but can reorganize sentences in order to communicate and figure out the majority of new vocabulary within the context.

(4) Fluent

Context- A fluent speaker may have some gaps in vocabulary, but is capable of figuring out these terms in context. Likewise he or she can reword sentences in order to describe an object, explain an idea, or get a point across, even if he or she doesn’t know the actual terms.

Thinking in the language - Pretty much everyone agrees that this is an important sign of fluency. Thinking in the language means that you understand the words without actually translating them into your native language.

The reverse is also true: when speaking or writing, a fluent speaker doesn’t need to construct the sentence in his/her native language and then translate it into the target language – a fluent speaker thinks of what he or she wants to say in the language he or she wants to say it.

Dreams - Many people say that dreaming in the language is an essential indicator of fluency. This is debatable.

Debater A fluent speaker can participate in extended conversations, understand the language when spoken normally (on TV, radio, film, etc.), figure out meaning of words within context, debate, and use/understand complicated grammatical structures with little or no difficulty. Has good accent and understands dialects with slight-to-moderate difficulty.

(5) Native speaker (Mother tongue)
Someone who has spoken the language from at least the age of 5 (this age limit is subject to some debate: According to some theories a native speaker can have started learning the language as late as any time up to puberty). In theory, understands essentially everything in the language: all vocabulary, complicated grammatical structures, cultural references, and dialects. Has a native (i.e., invisible, “normal” in his/her region) accent.

Tiquismo of the week –

Lora vieja no aprende a hablar – You can’t teach an old parrot to speak or you can’t teach an old dog new tricks

Having a good vocabulary is one of the keys to understanding and Speaking Spanish.  If someone asks you a question in Spanish and there is a word you don’t know, there is a good chance you won’t be able to understand the question. Conversely, if you are asked a question and there is a word or words you do recognize, you just might understand what is being asked.  Furthermore, when a native speaker is talking to you at full speed, you don’t have time to think about the meaning of words or you will be lost. Having a good vocabulary will help you avoid this situation.

It is surprisingly easy to build your Spanish vocabulary, because all that is involved is memorizing nouns, verbs and then learning how to use them to form sentences.  With a little self-discipline and motivation, anyone can build a Spanish survival vocabulary of between 200-3,000 words in a relatively short period of time. Even if you are lazy, you can learn a minimum of one new word a day.  At the end of a year you will know over 300 words.  If you are really motivated, then try memorizing five or more words a day.  By using this method you will be able to become your own teacher after a while.

An excellent way to build your vocabulary is to carry a pocket-size notebook around with you wherever you go and play a vocabulary game by asking yourself the names of different objects on the street and in your home. Then use a dictionary to find the meaning and start to make lists in your notebook. Visualizing the new word and associating it with the object it represents can help you learn easier. Study your new words everyday. Then practice using the words in simple sentences. Let’s  say you just learned the word “casa” (house).  To practice you can say, “La casa es grande” (The house is big).

You can also use a type of “pigion” Spanish to make yourself understood by using your vocabulary. For example,  by using a series of nouns you can describe a whole day’s activities. For example, Ayer (yesterday), mi familia (my family), coche (car), la playa (beach), agua (water), sol (sun), calor (heat), tarde (afterneoon), la casa (house), la cena (dinner), siete (seven o’clock), etc. As you can see by just using this method you can make yourself understood.