Fijate bien

Fijate...

It's a word I had seen many times, and comes from fijarse, but I never could quite get a handle on what it meant. That's partly due to the fact that "fijate" has many definitions.

Today we'll look at a few commonly used definitions of "fijate", the first of which is to take a look at something.

Fijate si dejé mis llaves en el coche.
Look and see if I left my keys in the car.

Fijate si esta lloviendo allá afuera.
Look and see if it's raining outside.

¿Te puedes fijar si dejé mi cel en tu carro?
Can you look and see if I left my cell (phone) in your car?

It can also mean to be careful.

Fijate (ten cuidado) con quien te metes.
Be careful who you get involved with.

Fijate (ten cuidado) que no te vayas a caer porque el piso está mojado.
Be careful not to fall because the floor is wet.

It can also mean to pay attention:

Fijate bien
Look carefully or pay attention

Fíjate en lo que haces
Pay attention to what you're doing.


These are by no means the only uses of fijarse, but certainly are very common. If you've never noticed fijarse before, if you "fijate bien", you'll probably start to notice it everywhere.

¡Hasta la proxima!

¿Me da mi calaverita?

Halloween has come and gone, and so has El Día de los Muertos.

While you may be tempted to think Día de los Muertos is Halloween, you'd be wrong.   They're celebrated at pretty much the exact same time, but they are very distinct events.

I'm not going to attempt to explain this celebration to you, but instead point you to this awesome video that sums it up quite nicely.  Way better than I ever could.

If you can't see the video, here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2vJz68CK04

There's one image that has become the bona fide symbol of the Day of the Dead.

She's La Catrina, and her image is unavoidable during Halloween and Día de los Muertos.

If you want to know where the image of La Catrina came from and what she represents, then check out this 45 second video.  You'll have to read a little Spanish, but it's not that hard and will help you put that Spanish you're working so hard to perfect to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bh7-OzVQpU

At this point you should  at least have a vague idea of what Día de los Muertos is all about, which means we can move on to talking about Halloween.

Yes, many Mexicans celebrate Halloween as well, so let's talk about some of the Spanish you'll need to trick or treat like a true Mexican.

The actual act of trick or treating is called pedir calaverita.

Some examples...

Tus hijos van a pedir calavarita?
Are your kids going to go trick or treating?

Fuiste a pedir calavarita con tus hijos?
Did you go trick or treating with your kids?

And if you're the one doing the trick or treating, you can say:

¿Me da mi calaverita?
Trick or treat

Ok, that so that last one is far from an exact translation, but that's how you ask for you share of the Halloween candy. 

I made another post last year about Halloween in México, Dulce or Traversura, which you may want to read. There's also a great post in WordReference that discusses Halloween, you can read it here. It's a mix of English and Spanish, so you can get in some great reading practice as well.

Next we need to talk about calaveras.

The word calavera actually has several meanings - skull, and colloquially also means skeleton. The official word for skeleton is esqueleto.

And since we're on the subject of calaveras, or calaveritas, I will point out that as a part of El Día de los Muertos, they sell calaveras de dulce - candy skulls. Here are a few photos:

The chocolate ones really look delicious if you ask me.

I said calaveras has multiple meanings.

Well, here's another one: a funny or sarcastic phrase or poem about the dead (muertos).  Technically they're called calaveras literarias.

The first one reads:  Here rests my dear wife Brujilda Jalamonte, "Lord, receive her with the same joy that I'm sending her to you with.

And the second:  Here rests Pancrazio Juvenales, Good husband, good father, bad home electrician.

Aqui yace mi mujer, fria...como siempre.

Here lies my wife, cold like always.

I was actually in Mexico one year for El Día de los Muertos, but I was pretty much ignorant to the celebration and missed an opportunity for a great cultural experience. Oh well, maybe next year.

I hope you've enjoyed this, as personally I love learning about the culture of México as much as I do the Spanish language.

¡Hasta Luego!

¿Me explico? vs ¿Me entiendes?

Today I'm going to ir al grano, or as we say in English, get to the point.

¿Me entiendes?

A really simple Spanish sentence, that means notthing more than "Do you understand (me)? So what's the big deal you ask?

Well, in Spanish this seemingly innocent phrase potentially carries a very negative connotation. As one person put it...

Es como llamarte bruta en tu cara, (Its like calling you ignorant to your face)

Ouch! I know I've used this in the past, and I certainly had no intention of conveying that message!

So then what should we say?

That's where ¿Me explico? comes in. It translates to "Am I explaining myself?", which is considered more polite, or at least by some.

Needless to say, as I was trying to process all of this, I decided I needed a little more expertise, and decided to ask my maestra about this.

Here's what she told me....

Definitivamente te recomiendo que digas "Me explico?" estoy de acuerdo!

"Comprende?" es lo peor que puedes decir! Ademas muchos gringos lo usan de manera racista y para hacerte sentir como un idiota e idiota.

Here's the translation, in case you need it:

I definitely recommend that you say "Me explico?".

"Comprende" is the worst thing you can say. A lot of gringos use this as a racist way of making you feel like an idiot.

Although I never use comprende, I certainly had no idea it might carry a negative connotation. Incredibly this is something textbooks leave out.

So, how did I hear about this? From another very useful blog (Voices en Español), and here's the link:

http://spanish-podcast.com/2009/10/19/the-most-annoying-expression-in-spanish-is/

I also found several other interesting links:

This article is in Spanish, and discusses this topic as well as other annoying phrases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/participe/2009/10/091012_1053_expresiones.shtml

Another discussion (in English) of this topic
http://www.mexperience.com/blogs/foreignnative/?p=111

An interesting discussion in Yahoo Respuestas (In Spanish)
http://espanol.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070125175531AAIPkNK

Me imagino (I imagine) that some of what is considered annoying or offensive is subjuctive, but it's certainly something to keep in mind, especially as you become more and more proficient in the Spanish language, because when people see that you have a good command of the language, it's very difficult for them to determine whether or not you made a mistake due to language or cultural misunderstandings vs you potentially just being a jerk.

Espero que te sirva (I hope this helps),

Hasta Luego!