First the joke!
Un inglés pregunta a uno de Málaga:
-Please, to Antequera?
-Ante arbañí, ahora toy en paro y cojo caracole…
If you don’t get the joke above, don’t worry! Here’s the explanantion:
It’s a play on the heavy Andalusian accent in those parts. While the English guy is asking the way to Antequera, the local guy thinks he’s saying ¿Tu, antes que eras? – What did you used to do?
To which the local replies in his heavy accent, -Ante arbañí, ahora toy en paro y cojo caracole… – which without the accent would read, -Antes albañil, ahora estoy en paro y cojo caracoles… – Before I was a builder, and now I’m unemployed and collect snails.
If you want to hear more about Spanish jokes, check out Advanced Podcast 57, on Lepe Jokes!
And now the video! If you enjoyed last week’s video from Bangkok, here’s another classic related video from our archives, from Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand!
Feel free to share these resources with your Spanish learning friends!
Gracias Ben y Marina. A mi me encanta Notes in Spanish…Disfrutad Thailandia! Ahora voy a hacer un Som Tam!
Trust me, if you live down here, it’s no joke!
We like to go down to Lo Arriero para toma do cafe – that’s down to our local venta, Los Arrieros (the woodgatherers) to have dos cafés! You eventually get used to the fact that half the words don’t have endings any more!
Another one of our favourites: “Sacabao la marmela!” – or “Se ha acabado la mermelada” – we have just run out of jam!
The problem is, I now find myself saying “Buenas” rather than “Buenos días” and “Mucha gracia” rather than “Muchas gracias” when I speak to Madrileños. It gets you some funny looks!
Hola Ben y Marina, Tengo una pregunta. Han oido este refran, “Para sacar las castañas del fuego, hay que usar la mano del gato.”? Una colega mia lo leyó en algun sitio, pero no podemos adivinar lo que quiere decir. ¡Ayúdennos, por favor!
Thank you for the joke! I’m currently spending this year in Granada and me and my English friends constantly enjoy mocking the “spanish” they speak down here. So, this joke made me laugh a lot!
But, once you understand the Andalucian accent, you can understand anyone!
Haha, I love this!
Thanks for the joke in andalusian.Guessed the second part…..
Please let us have more…
La broma la pago you porque no lo entendí antes de leer la explicación. ¡De todos modos siempre me caen bien Marina y Ben, y Notes en Spanish Advanced!
I’m in SW Andalucia and not only do words not have endings, some don’t have middles either – Cádiz becomes Ca’i, pescado becomes pecao. They also swop round the consonants so Carolina becomes Calorina. Bit of a challenge …
Your Advanced MP3s are helping enormously. It would be nice to have an interview with a native Andalusian!
Hello everyone. Even Spanish people from other parts of Spain have trouble to understand andolousian accent. I tell you a real anecdote that happened to me many years ago in Conil (Cádiz) We were walking on one of the very narrow and twisted streets of this beautiful andolousian village when we heard a motorbike coming. As the street was very very narrow, we waited very close to the wall of one house for the motorbike to have enough space to pass, but as we where just round one of the bends of the street the motorbike rider couldn’t see us and went straight towards us. She had to stop abruptly and she said something we couldn’t understand at the moment but we deduced it was Pero ¿que hacen aquí estos prendas? (What are these guys doing here?). It sounded more ore less like Kacen aquistospremdas? Prenda is used in Andalucía to mean person. I have to add it’s incredible how quickly they can ride their motorbikes in streets very narrow, twisted and steep, we still wonder how could that girl took that bend so fast and from the inner side without falling down or running into the wall.
Me grustó mucho el video de Thailandia y me trajo recuerdos maravillosos cuando estaba en Bangkok en noviembre del año pasado. Gracias Marina Y Ben.
Saludos desde Londres.
Mitsuyo
Great stuff as always thanks so much!
Kathy I have my mum stumped with your Spanish saying (and she is Spanish!) she is asking round but the first part means to sort out your affairs or problems. I’ll let you know more when I find out!
To Kathy and Rosie -
I’m not sure this will be of any help at all, but you may find it interesting! In an 1884 edition of the St Paul Daily Globe, there is the following exchange:
”You’ve started the fire with one of my manuscripts! Pull it out quick !”
”Pull it out yourself. I won’t be made the cat’s paw to take your chestnuts out of the fire.”
So the expression has certainly been around a long time! Still not entirely sure what it means, though….
I just gotta point out that “cojo caracoles” in some countries would mean that he ****** caracoles, instead of collects them.
Thanks for all the comments everyone – as for the phrase “Para sacar las castañas del fuego, hay que usar la mano del gato” – we love it, but have never heard of it either! Wikipedia has this though:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey_and_the_Cat