Friday, September 5, 2014

Language Laughs

So we have lived here in Spain for nearly 3 years.  We have both passed the language exam.  We can communicate fairly accurate and understand most - albeit it at times grammatically incorrect.  So you would think by now we have a Spanish filter in our brains when we read signs in Spain.

But, oh so not true!

We were up north last week seeing the work of our teammates.  We wandered around a beautiful town named Gijón.  It is on the norther coast of Spain.  It has fresh seafood, as well as other great delicacies.

We saw a sign listing the menu of the day and it said "Tacos de Bonito."  Bonito is a type of fish and Scott proclaimed Fish Tacos.  We knew that was where we were eating lunch.  We even waited on a table, because our mouths were watering with the idea of fish tacos.  We knew they wouldn't be like California, but fish tacos - oh what a great taste from the USA.

We imagined:


We ate our first plate of fabadas - large white beans cooked with chorizo and other meats.  Very typical for the north.  We stopped before we finished the bowls because we wanted to be sure we had room for the fish tacos.  Our mouths were watering as the waiter cleared our bean bowls and prepared to bring our 2nd plate - Tacos de Bonito.


As soon as I saw the waiter heading our way I knew what had happened.  Our brains had malfunctioned.  Our filters were confused.  We translated one word, but not the other.  Tacos de Bonito does not translate to Fish Tacos.  It translated to this:



In Spanish, a taco is a cube, a plug, a wedge.  It is not a Mexican food. 

Scott and I laughed all day long about wanting Fish Tacos.  We enjoyed our "tacos" of fish, but boy were we surprised.  I just wonder, will the day ever come when the two languages don't cross in my brain?  Oh well, guess it is a good thing we can still laugh.