If you're planning your travels in South America, there's no better way to make foreign friends than to understand the local tongue. Rod Gilmour, who spent two years in Chile, tells you why. |
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 Pass through South America as a traveller and chances are there will be times where you walk away from a conversation believing all your hard work at understanding Spanish has come unstuck.
Countries always differ as to how the local dialect is understood from a foreigner's point of view. And if you happen to find yourself working in a country such as Chile then chances are there will be moments of pure panic during your conversations.
One minute you might be telling yourself how it was you were able to feel so in command in the taxi from the airport, before failing to understand that the photocopier had run out of paper 3 weeks later in your place of work.
That's what happened when I entered into Chilean office life for the first time. "Hey, Huevon," my boss would say in the morning before delivering his dose of daily tasks; great, I thought, I was slowly being accepted.
Little did I know that depending on what mood he was in, Chile's favourite slang word 'huevon' meant two things: buddy or ass. And there started the confusing and wonderful world of Chilean slang and amusing Spanish sayings.
Chile's history of migrants have played a significant part in creating its own brand of slang. German, Italian, Yugoslav, English and Welsh communities all settled in different regions up and down Chile's thin land, which in turn led to different interpretations of Spanglish.
Perhaps Chile's slang also bears its fruits from the country's geographical layout. Travel from Arica in the North to Puerto Natales in Patagonia and it feels like travelling across 4 countries. With the Andes protecting Chile from neighbouring Argentina, Chileans feel sheltered and with that comes a sense of exclusion.
But it's not without imagination, too (Chile has produced two Nobel poets after all). Two of my favourite Chilean phrases pay testament to that. "Mandar el condorito" means "to make a complete balls-up". This comes after Chilean goalkeeper Robert "El Condor" Rojas cut himself with a razor on the pitch against Brazil during a World Cup qualifier to initiate an away win. His feigned injury cost Chile as they were thrown out of the World Cup and he was banned from football.
 "Mas perdido que Teniente Bello" also means "I'm more lost than Lieutenant Bello" and comes after Bello's plane mysteriously disappeared over the Andes one year. I said this phrase on the way to a party one night and ended up drinking local tonic Pisco Sour with the people I had stopped in the street. They laughed at the context of the phrase and revelled in my choice of Chilean slang. I never did make it to the party.
Of course, I didn't learn all the slang on my own. If you can source English bookshops for anyone who has written a lexicon on local slang in different South American countries then life will be that much easier.
In Chile, "How to survive in the Chilean jungle" saved me. It is an English lexicon of Chilean slang and Spanish sayings, written by an American who felt it was time other travellers didn't feel as perplexed as he first did, and if you're planning a lengthy stay in Chile, it might just save you too. You'll also find yourself in some hysterical situations.
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