Notes in Spanish L!VE – Fun video blogs for Spanish Intermediate and Advanced learners – with all the cool vocab explained for everyone below!

This week, La Chuleta…

Cool phrases from today’s video blog…

La Chuleta – a cheat sheet that you smuggle into exams to copy from (what the guys in the photocopying shop wanted the girl behind the counter to make for them!)

Mi viejo/a - My old man, my old lady, slang for parents.

Mazo – slang for ‘lots’. E.g. Me mola mazo, I really like it, or tengo mazo de curro, I’ve got loads of work (curro is slang for work).

Eres un rajao – A rajao is a person that promises to do something with you, and then pulls out (rajao is short for rajado)

Tengo una movida en casa que no veas – You can’t believe the trouble I’ve got at home…

Fernando Alonso, winner of this year’s Formula One Championship, is having some trouble with his father, who allegedly isn’t keen on the young racing driver getting married. It’s hardly world-changing news (except in Spain, where the prensa amarilla is very popular), but as ever there is some fine vocab to be picked up along the way:

El campeón del mundo se enfrentarí­a a un grave problema. Su padre no traga a Raquel del Rosario. Desde hace algún tiempo se viene hablando de los planes de boda del campeón del mundo. Nada hace pensar, en principio, que ningún impedimento pudiera dar al traste con los planes de la pareja. La familia de Rosario, muy religiosa, le gustarí­a una boda por la iglesia. Nada que objetar por parte del piloto. El único escollo al que se tiene que enfrentar Alonso es a la oposición frontal de su progenitor…

So, today’s intriguing words and phrases include: Su padre no traga a Raquel, dar al traste and El único escollo. Would anyone like to offer a decent definition of the bits in bold?

Once you get into the world of Sport there is even more Spanish slang to get to grips with, just check out this quote on last night’s game between Real Madrid and Écija (from 20minutos.es):

* El Écija dio un baño al Madrid en la primera parte.
* El gol de Beckham abrió la lata en la segunda mitad.
Un marciano que hubiera aterrizado en el Bernabéu habrí­a preguntado por la identidad de ése equipo de amarillo que estaba bailando a los de blanco y al que habí­an birlado un penalti. El aficionado de al lado responderí­a que el Écija.

So, los de blanco and Madrid both refer to the football team Real Madrid, but what do the terms in bold above really mean? Answers in the comments below please!

Jerga, argot, or Spanish slang, may change year by year, but there are a few core phrases that always hit the mark. I was surprised by the BBC Cool Spanish link mentioned in comments below, some of it is quite, well, racey for the BBC! (Although the delivery of some terms, like the wonderful ¡Hostia! is rather tame).

Meanwhile Jergas de Habla Hispana is an interesting project, trying to bring together all the slang from all the Spanish speaking countries around the world. The interface is slightly confusing, but there’s a lot in there, just check out all the ‘C’ words in Spanish!

The on-line newspaper 20minutos.es is a great place to pick up the richer nuances of the Spanish language, and culture. Take today’s article about a new type of young lady, Juanis. The term was coined after the title of a recent (apparently terrible actually great) film, and refers to a certain type of young lady living happily in small town neighbourhoods across Spain:

Son las chicas del suburbio, las pibas del barrio, las peluqueras de tu madre, las novias de los tarzanetes de pelo-cenicero… En tiempos descreí­dos y petulantes de marujeo frí­gido-liberal, ellas se alzan, orgullosas de la tierra natal…

There’s enough slang in there to keep most of us going for a while, and the girls turn out to be, well, an interesting bunch. As the first comment below the article says, Vaya elementas.

So, with just what we have from this post alone, can anyone tell me what the following mean: pibas, tarzanetes de pelo-cenicero, marujeo, and elementas. Answers in the comments please!