www.CostaRicaTicas.com

YO linguistic lovers:

Come to think of it.......perhaps we need a category for Portuguese posters. I nominate two of our most well traveled Rio hombres, Dino and Don Papi, to head this up. They certainly have done more than share to translate chica negotiating for various CRT members. If it was not for that damn long ass plane ride old Circus would churn those Rio waters again.

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

I hear you brother! I haven't had health insurance for four years. Fortunately, I'm in decent health for my age (at least I think so...the last time I saw a doctor was 1991). What a country! Over 40 million people without health insurance. Is that what Bush meant by 'compassionate conservatism'? Ridiculous. The government has been doing everything in their power to stop US citizens from importing cheaper drugs from Canada. You see, the lobbyists for the drug companies are busy influencing our elected officials (whores) in Washington. The best government money can buy. Many municipalities and a few states have been ignoring the law and importing drugs anyway. Good for them! Now I see the Canadian government is attempting to stop it. Inexpensive health care...I guess that's another good reason to move to CR!

(Sorry if I 'hijacked' the thread).

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

YO Circus ,



You ain't just "a-whistlin' Dixie" there, amigo...check this out:

Washington Post 6/9/05

A Census Bureau Report shows that over 6 million new Hispanics accounted for almost half, 49%, of the growth in the U.S. population since 2000. Births have also replaced immigration as the largest source of Hispanic growth in the U.S. this decade. Of the 43.6 million U.S. Hispanics, half are under age 27. By comparison, half of non-Hispanics whites are over age 40.



It seems that we latinos are slowly but surely taking over the "land of the free and the home of the brave", no?

CCP

But don't forget that the flights are mostly overnights. Jump on a plane out of Miami around 10/11PM open a few minatures and then wake up around 6/7 and you are almost there. All this does make it easier.

YO Downandup:
You are right about the night flights but I just do not travel as well as I use to and I cannot sleep on planes and trains. Also, it's a long trip there and back to make and not get laid.......which is sadly poor old Circus's problem.

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

Let's not get carried away here. What I'm simply suggesting is that in future trip posts and girl reviews, continue to write the posts in English, but please take the liberty to sprinkle in generous doses of Spanish. That way, we'll all get the general gist, and many of us will learn some Spanish as a bonus.

Gracias

While I find it both admirable and useful to learn castellano, I think that posting in Spanish, particularly in trip reports to be ill-advised.

There are certain chicas who can and do access the Internet, and unfortunately some even know enough to visit this site. I do not want to give these chicas any ammunition that may be used against me or any fellow CRT member.

Secondly, there are some guys here who overestimate their own ability to speak Spanish; you may end up with bad information.

Let's keep the lengua franca of CRT English. Spanish practice can be accomplished elsewhere.

Just my opinion, of course...y si quiere Ud. practicar castellano aqui, no puedo impedarle.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

I'd like to stay a little more tuned-in to Spanish between trips, but maybe I'll go looking for local Latinas, and the quest for language improvement (which happens to me every day in CR) can be one of the hooks.

Cremaconpalo may have hit on something muy perfecto for us -- median age 27? That's how many young Latinas, much closer by than we thought? Maybe it's not just a travel across borders thing, but a crossing of cultural prejudices? And the prize is ours, we who boldly go where no Gringo has gone before...

Circus;
Why don't you pop a few minnies before the plane takes off - then just pass out?
Also, you've been coming to CR since before the revolution in '47, how come you never learned espanol?
LVSteve

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Just an old horney, fat gambler.

YO my old amigo LV:
Pop a few minis and pass out.......Yea, right...I can't remember the last time I passed out. Flight is too long for a piece of tail. As for espanol, old Circus knows more than he let's you know.....and it has worked well to "really" know the true intent of chicas, ticos and some gringos alike. As an old gambler like you knows........don't show all of your cards when you do not have to.

Racetrack: Yea, this thread has gotten a little off track like so many have before but the practice you suggest has been in progress for several years. I know you have good intent and are suggesting it in a logical way. Most all of us sprinkle a little espanol in along with some good old sultry american slang but I've seen some posts that go too far and become "see how smart and linguistic I am" type posts. It's not a trait you will find from seasoned posters here.

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

I love speaking Spanish, but I have found that the worst way to learn is to speak with somebody you should really be communicating with in English.

For example, somebody above used the word eslabon for link, as on the Internet. Eslabon refers to the kind of link that say Catholics in the United States might have with Catholics in Costa Rica. The word for a "link" as on the Internet, is vinicula.

YO ND,

Not to put too fine a point on it, but "Spanish" (as you may know it) is not the same in every Latin subculture: There are many different words, expressions, idoms, accents inflections, etc. that, when taken in a given context, or at certain times and/or under certain circumstances can and do mean different things: Genuine Hispanics/ Latinos (i.e. El Coqui, El Gamin, myself etc.) can attest to this phenomenon as we travel around/speak with and/or compare our own native dialects (i.e. Puerto Rican, Cuban, Colombian, Dominican, Mexican etc.) with those spoken by other Latinos in/from other parts of the world, and can usualy adapt fairly easily to them, whereas the typical non-latino "Pimsler-taught" student may have a difficult time adjusting to these variations and will (understandably) find them confusing. I, for one, find these multiple variations in "meaning" and/or significance delightful and fascinating.

For example (and there are literally THOUSANDS of them), the word "culo", to a Spaniard (from Spain), means the "heel" of a loaf of bread: Hence if a Spanish couple is dinning and he asks her, "deme el culo, por favor", he is asking her to pass him the heel of the loaf of bread that is on the table; If the couple were, say, Cuban or Puerto Rican (or a combination thereof), the guy might get slapped (or laid...with a trip down the ol' Hershey highway ) because he has just asked her: "give me your ass (as in anal intercourse), please".

Most Latinos will often find it relatively easy to tell what country another Latino is from after just a few minutes of conversation just by recognizing the inflections, accents, and/or expressions unique to the subculture of the other latino (i.e. Argentinian, Mexican, Spanish (from Spain), Colombian etc.). Examples: Puerto Ricans="bendito"...Dominicans="diache"...Cubans="vaya"...Mexicans="andale" etc.

Not to over-simplify, but you might consider it elementally similar to the differences between British "English" and American "English". Comprendes? Copiastes? Grabastes? Filtrastes? Entendistes?

Either way, so long as you speak enough Spanish (regardless of the dialect/variation/idiom/inflection/slang terms) to negotiate getting get laid, you are probably in good shape!

CCP

Damn, I never heard that word (vinicula) before. Spanish is my first language but when it comes to computers, it's English, but I do know that vinicula is not the word for link, a better one should be "enlace".

For those trying to learn words, this link could help: http://www.spanishdict.com/

CCP, that's pretty damn funny!

That word (vinicula) is not in my Spanish-English dictionary, published in the pre-Internet area. I learned it in Costa Rica, talking to Costa Ricans in Spanish. There could very well be different words used in other Spanish speaking countries. Although I have been to Spain and South America, my Spanish was learned mostly in Mexico and Costa Rica.

Spanish is more varied idiomatically than English, because Spanish speaking countries have not been influenced for as many years by a mass market culture of books, movies, and advertising. That's all changing now, because everybody in Latin America hears the same dubbed in Mexican Spanish in movies and on television.

What's really having an affect on Spanish is English. English sex slang and idiom gets translated directly into Spanish (like venga for C*m). Thanks to us partly. Plus we end up taking Spanish words home with us cause they are so organic and descriptive (like huevos for balls). So we are changing Spanish and English.

This just illustrates how language translation tools don't really work. There is no substitute for being there.