
Websites and Blog Posts from Around the World

Websites and Blog Posts from Around the World

Photos from Flickr: 1. potatoes by FotoosVanRobin | 2. POPE by BRAYDAWG | 3. Oh Darn by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious | 4. MY Latte! by valentinapowers | 5. Cocaine by Valerie Everett | 6. Father/Son A and B by heymarchetti
Yes, SEVEN meanings with just the four letters P-A-P-A. And if you mix in a couple other words with PAPA then there are even more.
In a recent article Ignore These 5 Fundamentals to Become Fluent Faster I stated that beginning Spanish learners should ignore the El/La articles on nouns, as well as the accents on words.
However, with PAPA, if you follow my advice from that article, you may confuse your father with a potato or the Pope. Or you may think someone suggested giving your baby drugs instead of a milk bottle. These extreme changes in the meanings of PAPA are only clarified by an article, an accent or a country’s border.
Here are the various meanings of PAPA:
la papa (everywhere): the potato.
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Certain words in a country turn out to be words that are heard daily, hourly and sometimes even every few minutes. Since these words are a fundamental part of the local language, learning them will quickly expand your vocuablary. They also have the added benefit of making you sound more like a local. The Most Important Word in Chile: HUEVEAR post explains one of those words with its numerous variations. The Chilean use of CAGAR is another one of those words and may be considered the second-most extensive word in Chile.
Here are several variations although there are many more uses just in Chile, not to mention other meanings that may exist in other countries.
A cagar: to the end, all out, all the way
A cagar no más: damn the consequences
Cagado: stingy, tight-fisted
Cagado de la risa: dying of laughter, laughing your ass off
Cagado del mate: nuts, screwed in the head
Cagar: 1) to take a shit, 2) to be amazed by something, 3) to fuck someone over, 4) to be fucked up, really messed up, 5) nuts, off your rocker, 6) screwed, over with.
Cagarla: The most common use of this term is la cagó which may mean you screwed it up or you did it excellently, depending on the context.
Cagaste: you missed your chance
Estar cagado: 1) fucked, in trouble, 2) scared shitless
Ir a cagarse: to tell someone to fuck off
Ni cagando: no fucking way
Quedar la cagada: to be a messed up or fucked up situation
Si la cago me avisas: when you know for sure that you screwed up. If you want to sound really local, say avisai (as in av-is-eye).
Do you know of any other Chilean usages? What about other usages in other countries? This search for CAGAR will give you a list of different usages for the word.

Last weekend I was trapped in a Sunday Football get-together. All the Americans were hypnotized watching the game and between commercial breaks, I was able to chat with a friend from Mexico. She asked me if I have ever heard the names of the NFL teams in Spanish. I was completely puzzled, because for me American Football was a unique sport from the United States and I though that no one else cared about it. She explained to me that NFL games are broadcast in Mexico in Spanish and, of course, the names of the teams have been translated.
I was curious about this and here is the list of all the NFL team names in Spanish. At the end is a video that I found of a sports news report from Mexico. It mentions eight of the teams so you can have a “taste” of what the NFL in Spanish sounds like.
| ENGLISH | SPANISH |
| Arizona Cardinals | Cardenales de Arizona |
| Atlanta Falcons | Halcones de Atlanta |
| Baltimore Ravens | Cuervos de Baltimore |
| Buffalo Bills | Los Bills |
| Chicago Bears | Osos de Chicago |
| Cincinnati Bengals | Bengalíes de Cincinnati or Tigres Bengales de Cincinnati |
| Cleveland Browns | Cafés de Cleveland |
| Dallas Cowboys | Vaqueros de Dallas |
| Denver Broncos | Broncos de Denver |
| Detroit Lions | Leones de Detroit |
| Green Bay Packers | Empacadores de Green Bay |
| Houston Texans | Tejanos de Houston |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | Jaguares de Jacksonville |
| Kansas City Chiefs | Jefes de Kansas City |
| Miami Dolphins | Delfines de Miami |
| Minnesota Vikings | Vikingos de Minnesota |
| New Orleans Saints | Santos de Nueva Orleans |
| New York Jets | Jets de Nueva York |
| Oakland Raiders | Invasores de Oakland |
| Philadelphia Eagles | Águilas de Filadelfia |
| Pittsburgh Steelers | Acereros de Pittsburgh |
| San Diego Chargers | Cargadores de San Diego or Cargueros de San Diego |
| San Francisco 49ers | Los Cuarenta y Nueve de San Francisco |
| St. Louis Rams | Carneros de San Luis |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Bucaneros de Tampa |
| Tennessee Titans | Titanes de Tennessee |
| Washington Redskins | Pieles Rojas de Washington |
| Carolina Panthers | Panteras de Carolina |
| Indianapolis Colts | Potros de Indianápolis |
| New England Patriots | Patriotas de Nueva Inglaterra |
| New York Giants | Gigantes de Nueva York |
| Seattle Seahawks | Halcones Marineros de Seattle or Halcones Marinos de Seattle |
Were you able to identify the eight teams he mentioned in the video? Here they are in order: Los Empacadores (Green Bay), los Carneros (St. Louis), los Delfines (Miami), los Potros (Indianapolis), los Patriotas (New England), los Acereros (Pittsburgh), los Gigantes (New York) and los Santos (New Orleans).
The Super Bowl
If there are Spanish translations for all the NFL teams, there should be one for the most important game of this sport: The Super Bowl. So, in Spanish, the final game of the American Football season is El Super Tazón.
Before YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, a famous house paint commercial from Puerto Rico became viral locally during the 1990’s. To promote their company, Harris Paints created a song with Caribbean rhythms and a patriotic lyric coupled with images of colorful splashes of paints. Frequency and a captive audience ensured this song stuck in the minds of a whole Puerto Rican generation. This commercial was aired for years in all of the movie theaters around the Island.
Even though the ad is not shown anymore, it is considered as the “second national anthem of Puerto Rico”. I will share with you the complete video and lyrics of this masterpiece that will bring good memories to Puerto Ricans and will help others to learn the colors and some other local words in Spanish. So stand up, place your right hand over your heart and sing with me:
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