EnglishisEasy/Elinglésesfácil

"Just 10 cents...Well, it's the 1950's anyway." A SHOESHINER, as the name clearly suggests, is a person (traditionally a boy) who polishes shoes or boots. It is what in Spanish we call a LUSTRABOTAS or just a LUSTRADOR DE ZAPATOS. Shoeshining is a job that practically exists worldwide and is also relatively new (there are no records that talk about SHOESHINERS before the XIX century).While in many countries, such as Ecuador, SHOESHINERS are underappreciated in others the situation is different and SHOESHINERS are often organized in associations. SHOESHINERS or SHOE SHINERS are also known as BOOT POLISHERS, or SHOESHINE BOYS.

"It's been thirty minutes already...maybe thirty more? Damn recipes!" Here is another example of how rich English vocabulary is. While in Spanish we need to say COCINAR A FUEGO LENTO, in English you only say SIMMERING. TO SIMMER  is to prepare food, usually in liquid, below the boiling point of water. What you actually do is let it boil and then reduce the intensity of heat so that bubbles stop forming and then  continue cooking, It's excellent for cooking soups or stews,

"I call it Scabby "       Whenever we get injured, blood comes out of our wound(s)á. Soon after that, our blood tends to solidify. This process helps our body to heal our injuries. The resulting product of the solidification of the blood that came out of our injury covers it creating a protecting layer that prevents potential infections.  Not only that but also under the layer new skin is being produced to replace the skin lost when the injury was inflicted. This useful layer is called SCAB in English and in Spanish is called CARACHA (at least in Ecuador) or COSTRA.

"Ahoy, Monty! Are you there? Say something, dammit!"  We are supposed to say something when we answer a phone call since remaining silent is not a smart option. It is also logical to say HELLO because as an item HELLO is conveniently short and not too formal or informal. Therefore HELLO is perfect in that sense, otherwise it would not have endured for so long. Still, the question remains: Why HELLO precisely? Who came up with that idea? Amazingly enough, it was not the inventor of the Telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. For him the best option was "Ahoy!" How did he come up with that idea? AHOY is the way sailors greet each other, and HELLO was not at the time (the 1870s) a standard greeting yet. HELLO was used the way we use HEY in our days. It was none other thanThomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the Lightbulb, who suggested to use HELLO instead of AHOY, and that was the beginning. In fact, the use of HELLO became so popular afterwards that people began u...

    If all AGONY AUNTS looked like her... Have you ever heard of Agony Columns? An Agony Column is a specific feature you can find in papers or magazines. Readers submit letters to those sections detailing their personal problems in order to receive advice. An AGONY AUNT is the common name given to those who answer those letters sent to Agony Columns. Some Agony Aunts are quite good at giving advice and become famous like Marje Proops, a well-known AGONY AUNT in Britain or Anna Williamson (photo) in the U.S..     Are there AGONY AUNTS in the Spanish- speaking world? There are and have been plenty, but there is no specific name for them and the translation, TIA AGONIA, just does not work out. An AGONY AUNT is then only a CONSEJERA PERSONAL and if the problems she responds to are sentimental in nature she would be a DOCTORA CORAZON.                                     ...

"I'm not quirky. I'm just a winged pig...wait, I'm quirky!" QUIRKY is anything that is offbeat, peculiar, odd. Yet it is not necessarily offensive, so do not get ready to punch anybody if you are called QUIRKY. In Spanish, QUIRKY would be RARO, DIFERENTE, INUSUAL. Out of the three, when we say something is RARO that is often not a positive thing to say. Still something we have concluded to have un aspecto raro (a QUIRKY look) could be something good - our impression of the object, whichever it might be, is favorable. We just do not get it, at least not entirely.

Don't worry. It's only a dilapidated cistern, not the entrance to Hell.   The spelling is quite similar actually - CISTERN. We can also call it a WATER TANK or a WATER RESERVOIR.  There are several types of CISTERNS, but perhaps the most common one in Ecuador, and more specifically GUAYAQUIL, is the UNDERGROUND CISTERN.  Our CISTERNS are usually built underground because it is homeowners who require this specific facility (an underground CISTERN is desirable because it saves up space and has a minimum aesthetic impact). Modern houses do not require CISTERNS since the water service is much better these days. The same cannot be said about the quality of the same service in the past. That just had no name.