EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

"I'm pregnant, not EMBARRASSED."      This is one of those situations when you must be careful if you are translating. The word EMBARRASSED is quite similar to another one in Spanish: Embarazada.  If one word in a language is spelled similarly to another one in Spanish and the meaning of both is the same, we call that a Cognate.  If the meaning is different, we call that a False Cognate. Embarazada is a False Cognate because it translates as Pregnant, not EMBARRASSED. The correct translation of EMBARRASSED in Spanish is AVERGONZADA or AVERGONZADO.

  "four, three, two, one...(I'm Ok, just playing Hide and Seek)" The word Deception does exist in English, but it does not mean DECEPCIÓN.  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the meaning of Deception is "the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid something that is false or invalid."  The translation of Deception in Spanish is then Engaño , but not DECEPCIÓN. The Spanish word DECEPCIÓN refers to what you feel when you are unable to reach the goals you set for yourself or what you desired did not happen as you expected.  And that is plain DISAPPOINTMENT.

"Why do I feel like playing Tic Tac Toe all of a sudden?" MIERCOLES DE CENIZAS is ASH WEDNESDAY in English and is mostly a Catholic tradition. It is important because it marks the end of Carnival and the beginning of Lent. Lent commemorates the forty-day period Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert. What Catholics do is attend mass on this day which is usually the first Wednesday in March. This mass event is different from others because there is one more rite added: the imposition of the sign of the Holy Cross on the attendees' foreheads. In order to draw the cross sign, catholic priests use ash, hence the name ASH WEDNESDAY. ASH WEDNESDAY also demands from observant Christians the practice of fasting and abstinence, but very few seem inclined to do so these days. 

"I told you I had only climbed Cerro Santa Ana before, but that's a hill, not a mountain!" SOROCHE is not a common word in Spanish, and it is only used in most Andean countries such as Ecuador, Perú, or Bolivia, though it is not as common in Chile, another Andean country. It is apparently a word taken from the Quechua, the language of the Incas, and used to refer to what we simply know as Mal de Montaña or Mal de Altura. That is precisely its translation in English: MOUNTAIN SICKNESS with ALTITUDE SICKNESS as a good alternative. What is MOUNTAIN SICKNESS exactly then? Basically, it happens if you expose yourself to high-elevation environments, low oxygen may cause breathing problems, disorientation, dizziness, headaches among several other symptoms. You may experience some discomfort or all the conditions mentioned before, it is different for every person. Best thing to do? Don't take unnecessary risks and visit the seaside.

" Uer ar mai shus?  ¿Será que así se dice?"       S e dice que la señal definitiva de que usted ya conoce un idioma es que piensa y hasta sueña en tal idioma. Por experiencia propia les puedo decir que hasta eso suceda pasarán muchos años. ¿Se puede acortar ese tiempo? Sí y se lo puede hacer desde el primer día, incluso. Para hablar en inglés usted necesita perder la verguenza a hacerlo. Nada más. Comience repitiendo las expresiones que su profesor le enseñó ese día y hágalo siempre frente a un espejo y con la idea de que se está preparando para una obra de teatro. Para pensar en Inglés no espere que esto se de inconscientemente. Haga un esfuerzo consciente de pensar en Inglés. Por ejemplo, cuando esté buscando sus zapatos en lugar de pensar: "¿Dónde están mis zapatos?" Digase en su mente: "Where are my shoes?" Haga esto varias veces al día cual si hiciera un ejercicio de tipo físico. Acostumbre a su mente al Inglés.

  The word GREA exists according to the picture. It probably means GRANDIO.  Hay conocimientos que debemos saber y nunca olvidar cuando queremos dominar otro idioma. En la entrada anterior ya se señaló la importancia del alfabeto. Apréndalo de memoria y sea particularmente exigente al pronunciar cada letra de manera correcta. En Youtube podrá encontrar canciones del alfabeto que le podrían hacer más fácil este proceso. Y una vez que lo aprendió, tome como reto recitarlo dos veces a la semana de ahí en adelante. Y deletree cuantas veces pueda sin importar si la palabra que está deletreando es del idioma inglés o del español. Por sobre todo debe poder deletrear sus nombres y apellidos. Aprenda los números cardinales. Hagalo de manera progresiva: del 1 al 20, del 21 al 40, y así. Los números en Inglés (sus nombres) poseen particularidades propias, pero su nivel de dificultad no es mayor que el aprendizaje de los números en Español. Una vez que sepa ya los números, siga con las op...

  English is present in every continent and absent in none . (Wow, what a statement!) Algo que es importante recordar al momento de aprender un idioma como el inglés es no desconocer el hecho de que todo lenguaje está asociado a un componente cultural propio. En otras palabras, cuando aprendemos un idioma también debemos aprender la cultura que está conectada al mismo.   Esto podría ser difícil al considerar que al Inglés se lo habla en varias partes del mundo como los Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido, Australia y Nueva Zelandia e incluso hay una república en Centroamérica llamada Belice donde el idioma oficial también es el Inglés. ¿Qué podemos hacer? En este caso hay que recordar que no es necesario aprender la cultura de un punto específico. Lo que se debe entender es que las personas que hablan un idioma pueden tener ideas diferentes, procesos lógicos, razonamientos y costumbres que a nosotros nos podrían parecer extraños. Debemos estar abiertos a estas situaciones porque ...

"OK, good night! I'm going to sle...eh ...bed" If you said GOING TO SLEEP you were right. The only problem with GOING TO SLEEP is that it is not the most common expression to express that idea. It is more likely to say GOING TO BED or BEDTIME than GOING TO SLEEP. Another problem with that expression is how well it translates into Spanish. That is not necessarily a problem unless it happens all the time. There are intrincacies that pertain only to English that Spanish lacks and vicecersa, and when you are aware of that your English sounds a lot better.

"Hey, are we friends already?" "Nope, still only ACQUAINTANCES" An ACQUAINTANCE is a person we know, someone we may say hello to, somebody who we are on friendly terms with. But that's it. A person may be your ACQUAINTANCE for years and never become your friend. It is the same in most Spanish-speaking countries where a friend is an Amigo and an ACQUAINTANCE is a CONOCIDO.  "An old ACQUAINTANCE" and "an ACQUAINTANCE of mine" are common expressions that go into Spanish as "Un viejo CONOCIDO" y un "CONOCIDO mío".

"See? It's magic. It was not there ten seconds ago." CASPA is how we call in Spanish that white dust that appears in our shoulders when we have a condition in the scalp. It is particularly annoying because is usually accompanied by itching and sometimes also redness. Different factors may produce the appearance of CASPA and the disappearance of those factors may also mark the end of this problem.  CASPA is commonly an unusual amount of dead scalp cells, Then using shampoo appropriate to our scalp may be the solution. The word used in English is a little bit odd: DANDRUFF.  

You  never stop learning a language because languages are like vast ever-changing living ntities.   Once you have achieved a certain English level the worst thing you can do is to attempt to maintain that level. You must never be happy with your English. When you do you stagnate, and when that happens eventually your English "fossilizes" which is the same as going back to basics. That means no English at all. To avoid that you must remember that learning a language is not like learning how to ride a bicycle. If you have achieved an acceptable  level of English you should aim to increase it not maintain it. For that all you need is commitment. Learning English is a life decision, and that is precisely what you have to do: make English part of your life. Thus, you will have the necessity to speak the language on a regular basis, and that will make the difference. 

                                                           "I'm the Ultimate Muscled Man! So many muscles I can't move."      ULTIMATE is not ULTIMO. LAST is, but not ULTIMATE. Though sometimes it is translated as ULTIMO (to mean the most recent), it never means "the one after which there is not another". For instance, we say: "the last episode" of a series and not "the ultimate episode".  ULTIMATE is generally used to indicate something is conclusive or the best as in "the ultimate guide to tablets" indicating that there is no better source to get data on tablets than that one. ULTIMATE may also indicate that something is so good in what it does that it cannot be overcome or defeated as it is the case of the man in the picture, a wrestler called The Ultimate Warrior, famous in the eighties and nineties and who was...