Although we felt like we were starting to understand Spanish in Costa Rica, I now think our teacher Ileana, our neighbours and our local shopkeepers were so used to us saying "despacio" (slow down) that they automatically talked to us like two year olds. Not so much in Ecuador. Here we often feel caught in the tides like the poor octopus being hunted below (we found out our camera works, just not the viewfinder).
It's like the nursery rhyme. We may be aware that the words are "Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy", but to most of us it sounds like "maresey doats and dosey doats and little lambsey divey". Spanish here is multi-accented - some natives have a sing-song pitch, some a nasally pitch and some mix it with words and expressions from one of the many native dialects spoken in Ecuador, but whichever it is, it's all spoken very, very fast and sounds like "maresey doats" to me . We are still trying to practice our Spanish, but most of the time end up feeling like a big, blue-footed boobie.
It's like the nursery rhyme. We may be aware that the words are "Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy", but to most of us it sounds like "maresey doats and dosey doats and little lambsey divey". Spanish here is multi-accented - some natives have a sing-song pitch, some a nasally pitch and some mix it with words and expressions from one of the many native dialects spoken in Ecuador, but whichever it is, it's all spoken very, very fast and sounds like "maresey doats" to me . We are still trying to practice our Spanish, but most of the time end up feeling like a big, blue-footed boobie.
Happy Birthday dear friend!!!! Hope you have the most awesome day!!!!
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