In the United States, we are taught what is called Neutral Spanish in school, or a Spanish that lacks any regional flavor or dialect. We learn the standard dictionary words for items and only learn the most universal grammar concepts. From my experience Argentina, I know I was taught more vocabulary from Spain and Mexico, which I think has to do with the large amount of Spanish instructors who study in Spain and the large influence of Mexican Spanish in the U.S. today. (For Spanish speakers, a good place to hear Neutral Spanish is on CNN Español—it’s filmed in Atlanta with broadcasters who are trained to speak without their accents. If you listen closely enough, you might be able to identify where they are from.)
One vocabulary word that has been particularly tricky for me is chico. I was taught that it was a noun and meant boy, particularly someone very young. Here are two examples of distinct uses of this word that I have learned since arriving in Argentina:
- Chico, adjective: small. Ex: Tenés algo más chico? (Do you have a smaller
bill?) Asked frequently by shop owners
when I buy Diet Coke. Even though a
100-peso bill is roughly US$12, they still don’t want to give you change.
- Chico, adjective: younger or newer. Ex: Tenés algo más chico? (Do you have a newer bill?) Asked when I try to pass off a bad or old bill to buy Diet Coke. I always try to slip in these bills with bigger purchases and get rid of them as quickly as possible. (UPDATE: Thanks to the careful eye of my Uruguayan friend Fede, there has been some doubt cast on this translation. I am pretty certain this is what I heard. I asked some Spanish-speakers and some say this is a plausible translation, and others no. I'll be investigating more and see what I can find.)
Can you guess which AR$2 is the newer and which is the older?
I had heard the first example many times, but eventually figured out that sometimes the same question referred to a newer bill. So, even though both questions are exactly the same, they are asking very different things. The process of becoming aware of these meanings has been a challenge. Now that I know what’s going on and what the shop owners want, I know to try to use small and nice-looking bills when at all possible.