I just finished the 10th and last session of my Spanish class via the application Zoom. Instituto Cervantes Manila (ICM) will continue the classes online in the same platform we have been using for the past five weeks (three of which were conducted by our professor for free). In our case, the first session of the next cycle will be on May 9, 2020. Right now, I am not sure if I can participate in this class because of a couple of impediments, but I am hoping for best.
For our concluding get together, we discussed the short story Parábola del Trueque (Parable of Barter) by Juan José Arreola. It is the shortest among the four short stories we tackled in class.
Parábola del Trueque is about an unnamed man who did not trade his wife, Sofía, for a younger, more beautiful, and 24-karat gold model while the rest of the men in his area did, including the guy who just got married. Although the man was tempted by the attractive woman who looked like a leopard, he chose to remain with his non-blonde, non-Caucasian (I used the more general meaning of the word “circasianas” to fit with the blonde hair description), and non-golden wife. Later on, the blonde, Caucasian, and golden women, like a perfect metallic toy, showed some deterioration, and the men who replaced their wives with the previously-flawless women, ran amok and hunted down the seller who tricked them. The man who stayed with his wife realized that with the brunette wife did not look so dark when bathed in the light coming from the lamp.
I commented that this shows the inequality between men and women in relationships with the power belonging to the men and women are treated like commodities that can be traded. I touched on the subject of love between the couple and respect as important ingredients of a successful relationship. I would be amiss if I did not mention the magic realism elements, the exaggerations to the point of making it a little caricature-ish (the men who traded in their wives), and my new favorite phrase “dar gato por liebre”. It means wanting something but getting another of inferior quality. When one of my classmates asked what happened to the old wives, two answered that they must have undergone plastic surgery and had tons of glutathione and were sold to other gullible men who think using their heads down south. I answered that they went to an island (the story happened in an island) full of hot young men who like cougars. And my professor laughed uncontrollably. Then, he asked if I had watched the series Toy Boy. I said I have not (although I saw it on Netflix, I was not interested enough to click the trailer). So he showed us its trailer. It showed hot young men and attractive mature women. I said, that is the continuation of the story. Since Toy Boy is in Spanish, maybe this one will become my new hobby, and I will claim that it is for research. But if it is boring and the actors cannot act, no amount of abs can make me watch it. I already did this with El Barco and Mario Casas, I will not do it again.
The last 40 minutes of the class was spent learning about words popularized or created and innovated due to the coronavirus pandemic. Two months ago, I learned the words covidiot (covid + idiot), quarantunes (quarantine + tunes), and quarantour (quarantine + tour indoors). I read somewhere that a Twitter user named Alberto García-Salido (@Nopanaden) started #Covidcionario.
Spanish words popularized or created due to covid 19.
1. Confinamiento (lockdown) – acción y efecto confinar (lockdown)
2. Pandemia (pandemice) – enfermedad epidémica que se extiende a muchos países o que ataca a casi todos los individuos de una localidad o región.
3. Infodemia – sobreinformación positivas o negativas
4. Balconazis o justiciero de balcón – personas que ejercen de policías de balcones para insultar a quienes circulan por la calle sin, a su entender, tener derecho a hacerlo.
5. Barbijos (barba) – Mascarillas en Argentina y Bolivia
6. Covidiota o coronaburro o covipócrita o Capitán posteriori – adjetivo asignado a quien comete irresponsabilidades que perjudican a los demás: ignora la distancia social, extiende bulos, acapara rollos de papel higiénico… En inglés, covidiot.
7. Coronabolo – se dice de las actuaciones musicales realizadas por la magistrada Pilar de Lara durante el confinamiento. Su último bolo, “24 horas en internet”, reflexiona sobre el uso de las redes sociales en la cuarentena.
8. Coronaburro – covidiota de pueblo
9. Coñazovirus (vulgarismo) – se usa para denominar al Covid-19 o Coronavirus de forma peyorativa.
10. Cuarenpena – período de confinamiento sin poder salir a tomarse una cervecita en el bar
11. Carallovirus – coronavirus en gallego (Our professor explained that this is a vulgar word, which is similar to “cojones”)
12. Confitamiento – ganancia de peso que, debido a la falta de ejercicio físico y dada la ingesta de repostería doméstica, se adquiere durante la cuarentena
13. Coronacoma – momento desastroso que vive la economía
14. Conchinamiento – dícese del aumento de peso provocado por los numerosos excesos durante el periodo de cuarentena, vulgarmente aceptado como; ponerse como un cerdo.
15. Coronials – dícese de los nacidos en época del coronavirus
16. Elejía - dícese del lamento por el tiempo empleado en desinfectarte de arriba abajo cada vez que vuelves a casa
17. EpiMiedólogo - especialista de salón que sabía antes que nadie lo que se avecinaba y sus consecuencias y que lleva unido al título un temor irracional al contagio.
18. Epitafio – indignante escasez de trajes EPI. EPI = Equipo de Protección Indiviual
19. inERTE – dícese del que pasa el confinamiento en su casa sin trabajar porque lo han mandado al paro.
20. Mechas covidcionanas – dícese cuando se lleva el pelo con canas y las puntas de otro color
21. Menoscarilla – mascarilla rebajada de precio
22. Nasobucos (nariz + boca) – mascarillas en Cuba
23. Pandemia – acuerdo tácito entre una gran parte de la población para ponerse a hacer pan durante el confinamiento
24. Tapabocas – mascarillas en México
25. Tele trabajo – los niños tele y el padre/madre trabajo, reuniones, de profe, de cocinero, mediador zen, especialialista de Amazon, limpiador, gran hermano, jefe, nanny, otra vez profe
Sources:
https://as.com/diarioas/2020/04/08/actualidad/1586370644_336757.html