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    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.

"Which direction should I follow? Decisions, decisions..." A DIRECTION  is not an address, of any kind. Nevertheless, if given the right DIRECTIONS you can get  to any address. A DIRECTION is more an indication, an instruction or guidance you provide so someone can get to one place.  In Spanish a DIRECCIÓN is the place where something is located or where a person lives. Thus, the translation of DIRECCIÓN is not DIRECTION but ADDRESS.

What are they all looking at?          It depends on what you mean by AUDIENCIA.  Those who attend a performance of some kind, a concert, a movie or a play are collectively called AUDIENCE. An interview with someone of a high rank is also known as an AUDIENCE. "No, mister. We can't imagine what you got in your hands."        An AUDIENCIA is a HEARING when you are called to answer a committee's questions on some specific subject of public interest. You may also be defending yourself so in order to do that a public HEARING is installed. Then you have a chance to present your side of the case.

"If THRIFTY means feeding me of course it is cool!" It all depends. If we call someone THRIFTY, and we do it as a compliment, it means AHORRATIVO. If we call someone THRIFTY and our approach is negative then it means TACAÑO.  If we call something THRIFTY in a positive way it means ECONOMICO. If we call something THRIFTY in a negative way it means LIMITADO (in terms of money). Possible antonyms are Generous (Generoso) or Wasteful (Despilfarrador).

Does it look like that backpack you lost long ago? That little time you stay in one place is a SOJOURN. It might be that you're traveling or visiting somebody; and the time you spend there would be defined as a SOJOURN. e.g. It was during one o my SOJOURNS to London that I had the privilege to interview Stephen Hawking. Synonyms of SOJOURN are visit or stay. It is a bit difficult to find a good translation for SOJOURN.  If we had to translate SOJOURN we could say something like a  CORTA ESTADIA or a CORTA VISITA.