Poorly Translated Salvadoran Sayings

Here is a real head scratcher: "...whenever you hear fireworks, you are out there fetching the stick..." Example usage: Teenager to Parent: "I am going out to a party across town." Parent: "There you go again. Whenever you hear fireworks, you are out there fetching the stick." hoyestado.com Believe it or not, this one actually has some sense to it, but before we unravel that mystery, here is the original Spanish version of the saying, as illustrated in the example usage: "No pueden reventar un cohete que ya vas a buscar la vara." In many outdoor celebrations that take place in El Salvador, it is customary for folks to set off fireworks. For reasons unknown to me, the firework of choice is a large bottle rocket, with a rod about 3 feet in length attached to it -- like the one demonstrated in the picture above. After the rocket explodes, gravity takes over and the rod ends up landing at some random nearby spot.  Side note: At th...

Here is one that you are almost certain to hear where kids are present: "...horse without an owner..."  Example usage:   "...[s]he behaves like a horse without an owner..." animalsake.com The original saying in Spanish, as illustrated in the example usage: "...ese niño parece macho sin dueño..." That's right, the idiom basically equates a person's behavior to that of a mustang. This idiom is likely rooted in the agrarian aspects of many Latin American cultures, where there would be a high probability one would encounter a mustang that is difficult to tame.

My family and I share a lot of laughs over the rather colorful idioms common in El Salvador. Even funnier are the results one gets when attempting to translate said idioms from their native Spanish over to English. Many simply cannot be properly translated, but given the humor to be had, attempts at doing so are worth sharing. So here it is, a blog dedicated to sharing all the hilarity that accompanies these saying, with some history sprinkled in between.