Foreign Languages

“… not affluent in that language …”

Foreign Languages, Outsider's Perspective

I heard this the other day while watching an instructional video.

Problem:
The speaker used the wrong adjective.

Explanation:
The instructional video was about Keyword Elite, a tool for generating keywords and optimizing the placement of advertisements on search engines.

I believe that the narrator of the video is Brad Callen, a genius when it comes to Internet marketing.

Brad was discussing how a non-native-English speaker very easily can misspell a keyword when searching for something.

He then picked on himself and said that he likely would misspell a keyword, too, if he were “not affluent in that language”.

I strongly suspect that Brad’s use of the adjective “affluent” where the adjective “fluent” was required was simply a slip of the tongue.

So I am not picking on Brad, who seems to be a native speaker of American English or perhaps Canadian English. I could not quite pinpoint the accent.

Instead, I believe that his gaffe teaches us two lessons:

  1. It teaches us to lighten up when it comes to language mistakes. Anyone can make them — even geniuses. And you have to admit that being “affluent in that language” is a humorous phrase!
  2. It teaches us to have patience with non-native speakers of our language. After all, if someone as smart as Brad can slip up with his own language, then imagine how easy it is for a non-native speaker to use the wrong word.

Solution:
“… not fluent in that language …”

103 Words

Foreign Languages, General

I have yet another book to recommend.

It is titled 103 Words that will make YOU A well-rounded Conversationalist!.

As with 101 Words … and 102 Words … by Kim Rogers, this book would be a wonderful gift for a teenager or adult.

“Comestible” is one of the words in this book and is a good example of the value of learning another language.

“Comer” is the Spanish verb for “to eat”; “comestible” in Spanish means edible or comestible in English.

So, although “comestible” in Spanish is pronounced differently than “comestible” in English, these two words with identical meanings have identical spellings.

In other words, “comestible” is a Spanish/English true cognate.

This book contains many words that are not at the tip of my tongue. I recognized all of them but would have failed at correctly providing all of their definitions.

So, as with 101 Words … and 102 Words …, I can imagine some of these words appearing on an SAT exam.

And, as with 101 Words … and 102 Words …, the price is right, too.

No matter whether English is your native language or is a foreign language, I highly recommend that you read what the author says about this book and then buy it!

“Ten-gallon hat”

Foreign Languages, Mispronunciations, Outsider's Perspective

This term has generated at least two plausible speculations about its origin.

Contrary to the first impression at hearing or reading the term, a ten-gallon hat does not hold ten gallons. Such a hat would best befit a clown, not a cowboy.

No, “ten-gallon” does not refer to the internal volume of the hat.

Instead, there are at least two possible origins to the term.

Both origins are from Spanish, both origins relate to distinguishing this type of hat from a sombrero, and both origins represent the effect of an outsider’s perspective in hearing a foreign-language term and corrupting it into something in the listener’s native tongue (in this case, English).

The first possible origin is based on the idea that a “ten-gallon hat” is for the upper classes, in contrast to the lowly sombrero for the lower classes. Upper-class cowboys were considered to be more gallant than commoners. The phrase “so gallant” in English is expressed as “tan galán” in Spanish.

If you “squint your ears” at the sound of “tan galán”, you easily could get “ten gallon” in English.

The second possible origin is based on the fact that a vaquero — Spanish for “cowboy” — would be awarded for cowboy expertise a narrow band, often braided, around the crown of the hat. Ten of these narrow bands on one hat represented the ultimate in cowboy skills. The Spanish word “galón” refers to such a band; “galones” is the plural of this word.

A non-Spanish-speaking, native-English-speaking listener could easily misinterpret “galones” into “gallons”.

The other meaning of “galón” is, in fact, “gallon”, so a native-English speaker with a knowledge of this primary definition of “galón” could easily interpret “diez galones” as “ten gallons” instead of “ten bands”.