Probably my most used phrase—”no hablo español.” When applying for the Santiago trip, my biggest concern was the language barrier. I can count to ten in Spanish, say hola and por favor, but that’s pretty much it. In high school I took Latin classes, which sometimes helps with root words, but other than that is almost no help. Thankfully, I am usually with Lisa during the trip, who knows enough Spanish to get us by.
This entire trip has been a learning experience. Slowly I am building my vocabulary word by word, just through interactions with the locals. Here are the most important things I have learned so far:
“I’m sorry” – “Lo siento”
“Excuse me” – “permiso”
“How much?” – “quantos”
“Can I have the check please?” – “la cuenta por favor”
When talking about the price of things, it is the number followed by “mil”
“bathroom” – “baño”
The Baquedano Market—where I got to practice my Spanish
Relative to the language barrier comes the term “gringos,” meaning a white, English speaking person. “Gringos” is considered a derogatory term, and I have encountered it a couple of times. The first time it was really directed at me was when a few of us went to this bar to just check it out and see if it would be a good place to go another night. Upon entering, we were greeted by a waiter who only spoke Spanish, who yelled down to the 4 women in the basement, the only other people in the place. He told them we spoke English not Spanish. The women replied with something in Spanish but we caught the word “gringos” among the words. Immediately after that interaction, the waiter turned towards us and said drinks were 10,000 pesos, which is similar to $15 in the United States. Obviously he tried to take advantage of us and we left.
Today, we visited Quinta Normal Park and the Museum of Memory. During our free time we went to lunch at a small, cheap restaurant near the museum. Half-way through our meal, a man across the streets yelled to the ladies at the table next to us in Spanish: “Oh I see you’re sitting by the Gringos.” I thought this was a really weird thing to say. In America, this would never happen. It doesn’t matter who you sit by, we consider ourselves equal. This man did not just say that, but he yelled it across the street. I did not get offended because I know it is something that their culture does and has been doing for years. It just made me think about how diverse and integrated the United States is compared to Chile, which was something I have never thought about before and was very interesting to think about.
Hola Megan!
I too was a bit concerned about the language barrier between all of us “Gringos” and the locals here in Chile. If it makes you feel any better, I took Spanish in High School for 3 years and I was still having problems remembering everything of what I learned and utilizing the language here in Chile. Luckily after about the 3rd day I was able to understand and speak a bit more Spanish as the days went by. Can you imagine all of us staying here for a month instead of a week? Our Spanish speaking skills would’ve defiantly improved if we stayed longer.
I’m so sorry about the waiter treating you girls unfairly though. It’s unfortunate there are people in this world who try to take advantage of those from another country. What’s even sadder is that Chile isn’t the only country to call out people for being of different ethnicities and culture. But I’m really glad you girls were able to leave the place and not give him a single peso!
I really loved going to the Museum of memory because of how important it was to learn about Chilean history. There were definitely moments of sadness and tears when learning about the horrific and torturous things the Chileans prisoners of War had to go through. It made me realize again how much suffering and grief people have and are still going through due to past Wars/current Wars.
Megan and Pamela,
I was actually surprised when I first realized that we were being referred to as “gringos”. I’m familiar with this word, I know what it stands for. I’ve felt a little bit of annoyance from certain waiter/cashiers here- I had a feelings that they disliked us the moment that we opened our mouths. But, fortunately for us, we came across many, many people here that were willig to help us through our babbling spanglish, knew English, or were just genuinely attentive and understanding with a smile. Today for example, at the icecream shop by Santa Lucia, the cashier lady was absolutely uninterested in helping us along in our order, BUT the girl scooping the icecream, was kind and patient with a beautiful smile that I truly appreciated in that moment.
This race and language experience has shed some light on a few things that I should appreciate more…
When someone of a different country, that speaks a different language than I, is trying to speak with me, I should not lose my patience. But encourage, improvise, and help along the situation. Also, I’ve come to realize how unintegeated this city is. In the U.S., I think we take for granted the integration that has occured, the distance we’ve come. Of course we aren’t perfect, there are bad people who say bad things, people who are ignorant, we sometimes make poor decisions… But I’m proud that my country is accepting of other ethnicities and cultures for the very high majority. I hope people feel welcome and safe in our country when they visit, just like I have felt (for the majority) here.
When coming here I too was a concerned about the language barrier, however I liked it too. It gave me and all of us who don’t speak fluent Spanish the chance to see what it truly like to be a foreigner. I have always been tolerant and understanding of people who do English in back home, but now I understand how they feel when trying to communicate. Same here, I was lucky to have someone who did speak Spanish whenever I wanted to order food or get my carry a small conversation with a Chilean local.
We too also encountered some racial “insensitivity”, however it seemed like it was not meant to be taken as disrespect. I think most of the world sometimes sees the U.S. as “white only” country, so to think of that there are other races and there seems absurd. There was a waitress who wanted to know where we were from, did not understand that when some of us said the United States. She was actually curious about our nationalityand not what our race was. I can not be too upset about it but because she was polite in asking, and just wanted to know more about us.