Chilenismos

I started learning Spanish in the 6th grade, continued through high school, and spent a semester abroad in Peru my junior year of college.  Before the start of my scholarship, I took a language test to make sure that my level of comprehension, writing, and speaking were adequate enough to study in my second language. But nothing could really prepare me for Santiago.

Spanish is spoken differently in every country, and Chile is no exception. Whereas in Cusco the language was peppered with words taken from Quechua, in Santiago the language is largely influenced by slang and Chilenismos. These are words that are specific to Chile, and there is a pretty good glossary of terms here.

Chileans also tend to speak rapidly, dropping certain sounds (mainly Ss and Ds) so that you sometimes have to get used to a new rhythm of listening in order to understand what people are saying. ¿Estás cansada? turns into ¿Está cansao? and ¿entiendes? into ¿cachas? I felt terribly embarrassed about having to ask people to repeat relatively simple sentences multiple times when I first got here. But it's ask, or nod and smile, and nobody ever learned anything by pretending to understand.

 Jamie and I get our Cédula(s) de Identidad (Chilean IDs)

My first classes at la Universidad de Chile were terrifying. I could understand everything one professor said, and almost nothing from another. The other students in the class might as well have been speaking in code. Fortunately, my classmates were infinitely patient in answering my questions and explaining what I didn't comprehend. After a two hour class about the Chilean Public Health system, I turned to a classmate for help. "El habla mal", she told me, which directly translates to "he speaks badly" and really means that he speaks with a lot of slang terms. "You should ask the professors to make sure they also teach to the non-Chileans in the room".

Along with myself, there are two other girls from the United States in my class, a Brazilian girl, a girl from Colombia, and one other student from Ecuador. I'm probably missing a few other foreigners - there are 40+ of us in the class, and I don't know everybody yet. Out of all of us, I've had the least recent practice living in spanish-speaking country, which just means that I'm taking it as a challenge and won't be afraid to ask for help.

The good news is that after a month's worth of classes (not as much as it seems, since we only have classes Thursday, Friday, and the occasional Saturday... every other week), my comprehension has clearly improved. I could always get the gist of what the teacher was saying; now I'm starting to understand the jokes.