You may have heard the phrase “chulo!’ before; in some countries it refers to someone being attractive, in others it’s just ‘cool’. The second meaning is what I understood it to be when I came to Chile. Luckily, my Chilean mother stopped me the first time I said it in front of her (although it took a ‘chilena’, a chilean girl, to fully explain how the term is perceived here) and prevented any future faux pas; in Chile, ‘chulo’ is the equivalent of something trashy.<\/p>\n
The substitute word that Chileans have given me to use is the term \u2018Bac\u00e1n\u2019.<\/p>\n
This is just one of the many new words that I’ve learned since coming to Santiago. It means ‘cool’, and is a word [apparently] only used in Chile.<\/p>\n
(Offbeat information: The term actually comes from the American term \u2018Rock on!\u201d \u2013 they sound very similar when said quickly and heard by someone who doesn\u2019t speak both languages fluently.)<\/p>\n
This is just one example of the ‘chileanisms’ or \u2018modismos\u2019 (a word that means \u2018idioms\u2019 but also used for \u2018slang\u2019) that are used so often here, and one small example of something I hadn\u2019t even though about encountering.<\/p>\n
Some others that I particularly like:<\/p>\n
Additionally, the \u2018word\u2019 \u2018po\u2019 is added on to the end of a lot of things as a kind of emphasizer (words from the mouth of a chileno). The add-on is actually a shortened form of the Castillian\/Spanish term \u2018pues\u2019, which means \u2018well\u2019, \u2018as\u2019, or \u2018so\u2019. As such, it\u2019s very common to hear \u2018s\u00edpo\u2019, \u2018nopo\u2019, or even \u2018yapo\u2019.<\/p>\n
Although these terms aren\u2019t exactly academic and aren\u2019t words that will aid me tremendously in furthering my educational Spanish\/Castillian, they are the things that I love learning because it\u2019s part of the Chilean lifestyle- part of the culture. Knowing these things is [to me] a sign that I\u2019m starting to integrate, starting to [partially] become a more like the most important part of Chile- its people.<\/p>\n
Hasta luego,<\/p>\n
Dela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You may have heard the phrase “chulo!’ before; in some countries it refers to someone being attractive, in others it’s just ‘cool’. The second meaning is what I understood it to be when I came to Chile. Luckily, my Chilean mother stopped me the first time I said it in front of her (although it … <\/p>\n