Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

Is anyone fluent in Mexican


Alpo

Recommended Posts

I'm sure there are people out there that are not aware of this, but "Spanish" is not all the same. They speak Spanish in Spain, but they speak Cuban in Cuba, Guatemalan in Guatemala, Puertorican in Puerto Rico, and Mexican in Mexico.

 

I discovered, when I was in Puerto Rico one time, that if your car has a flat tire you don't use a jack to pick it up to change the tire. You use a cat. Uh huh. The name for that tool is a gato.

 

I checked with a gentleman I know from Columbia, and they also use a gato.

 

So now I am on a quest to find out if all Spanish speaking countries use a gato.

 

So is anyone fluent in Mexican, or Guatemalan, or Chilean, or Peruvian? What do you pick up the car with to change the tire in that language?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My wife's college roommate was from Venezuela and spoke Castilian Spanish (along with five or six other languages including Mandarin Chinese) and wanted to "challenge" the Spanish classes for credit.  If she could pass the test before a board of five Spanish professors, she would get full credit for the classes. 

 

She went to take the test and we (Me, my soon-to-be wife and the lady's soon-to-be husband...my frat brother) went to a local cafe to wait for her for an estimated hour.

 

She came storming in about fifteen minutes later, madder than a boiled cat and using five  or six languages worth of profanity and proclaiming to any and all that the board didn't speak Spanish, they were speaking Mexican!

 

She eventually got her credits, but there wasn't a language professor on campus who wanted anything to do with her.

 

After graduation she married my frat brother and they moved to New York while he worked on his Master's degree.  

 

What did she do to fill her time?  She got a job as a translator at the United Nations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Alpo said:

So is anyone fluent in Mexican, or Guatemalan, or Chilean, or Peruvian? What do you pick up the car with to change the tire in that language?

 

El cinder blocko y 2 x 4.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

My wife's college roommate was from Venezuela and spoke Castilian Spanish (along with five or six other languages including Mandarin Chinese) and wanted to "challenge" the Spanish classes for credit.  If she could pass the test before a board of five Spanish professors, she would get full credit for the classes. 

 

She went to take the test and we (Me, my soon-to-be wife and the lady's soon-to-be husband...my frat brother) went to a local cafe to wait for her for an estimated hour.

 

She came storming in about fifteen minutes later, madder than a boiled cat and using five  or six languages worth of profanity and proclaiming to any and all that the board didn't speak Spanish, they were speaking Mexican!

 

She eventually got her credits, but there wasn't a language professor on campus who wanted anything to do with her.

 

After graduation she married my frat brother and they moved to New York while he worked on his Master's degree.  

 

What did she do to fill her time?  She got a job as a translator at the United Nations.

And good for her.  

What a great job. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

 

El cinder blocko y 2 x 4.

 

12013308_BooHiss.jpg.46717315b71e8384b0f032d680d75e14.jpg

22 minutes ago, Badlands Bob #61228 said:

Banyo?

Baño

 

But what does the washroom have to do with picking up your car?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK Alpo, 

I work in Anaheim, in the shadow of Anaheim Stadium, across the freeway from the Pond and just down the street from Disneyland.  All that to say that our shop is probably 90% Hispanic, so I checked for you.  Yes, the jack you use to change a tire is a Gato.  Nobody quite knows why.  

 

 

image.png.31e80fd489ac1778e2502ec5a343f740.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Most of the Mexicans with flat tires I see around here seem to be standing by the side of the road pecking at their phones.

 

4 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Just like white people.

No denying that.:( Nobody knows how to change a tire anymore. Some newer cars don't even have a spare. My daughter had a 2012 Buick that came with an air pump that plugged into the power port and a can of Green Slime.:wacko:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

 

No denying that.:( Nobody knows how to change a tire anymore. Some newer cars don't even have a spare. My daughter had a 2012 Buick that came with an air pump that plugged into the power port and a can of Green Slime.:wacko:

 

 

The Nissan Leaf we leased 6 months ago has no spare, no jack, no pump.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

I used to have a cat named Jack...

 

There's your tie-in.  :)

 

 

       915280580_DapperJack.jpg.9cedb3fc0298cecfe2066e09f7947876.jpg

Is that cat wearing a bow tie?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Alpo said:

Is that cat wearing a bow tie?

 

He WAS~!!  :lol:

 

Sassparilla Kid had just for fun slipped it on the cat... and the darned cat strutted about proud as all get-out.  He LOVED it!  ^_^             

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This doesn't say why, or not that I saw in a quick gloss, but it is an interesting read:

 

https://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/16712/why-is-a-jack-called-un-gato

 

Another page suggested that some jacks look like a cat arching its back, and I instantly thought if a scissors jack.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.