Ha! During crossword time with my coffee vendor friend a fellow struggled to place me. 😁 I had him stumped!
Him: Argentina?
Me: No!
Him: Brazil?
Me: No!
Him: Portugal?
Me: No!
Him: ...Spain?
Me: No!
Him: ...France?
Me: No!
Him: 🤷♂️
What confused him was that although my Spanish has an accent, it is richly paisa, with all the right softness and many constructions only found in Romantic languages. His experience with North Americans is a coarse Spanglish, lacking in local flavour. #CanadianPaisa 🎉
That's lovely. Good for you for blending in so well while at the same time keeping up a certain mysterious, intriguing je ne sais quoi.
When I was in France many years ago someone asked if I was German. That's my Franco-Ontarian accent with bonus anglicization she was hearing. 😂 🤷
That's the real fun of it, isn't it? Figuring out exactly what they're catching on linguistically, to give them the impression they have of where you're from. :)
Today's new vocab, from the crossword, included this macabre synonym for a carousel: tiovivo.
What a weird history. The term comes from the owner of a famous carousel who either claimed that he was alive just before dying, or gave everyone a shock when it seemed like he was coming back to life after death.
Ergo "tío" (uncle, also friend) "vivo" (is alive): because his state of being kept turning, like the carousel he'd owned! 😂
Language is SO WEIRD sometimes.