“Fuck charmingly”

Teacher & Founder at Lengalia
In 1990, José Delgado founded Vita Lingua in Hamburg, a language school specializing in Spanish language and culture. Thanks to his continuous hard work and enthusiasm over the years, he has gained a deep understanding of how to effectively teach Spanish. What does the student know right now? Where does he/she want to go? How do we achieve this goal? Questions such as these have helped him develop a truly efficient method, supported by clear and structured materials, that guarantees success in learning. All these materials are under continuous review, ensuring his students have access to the most effective and up-to-date learning experience possible.

This unique combination of effort, knowledge and experience constitutes what Lengalia is today, a portal specialized in helping you learn Spanish online.
Lengalia, José Delgado

“Fuck charmingly”

“Fuck charmingly”

The Andalusian vernaculars

Many times, I have heard about the Andalusian dialect and one might think that it is at the same level as languages like Catalan, Basque and Galician. Just as often, I have heard about the  1001 lacks which the dialect is said to have, compared to the so-called Spanish norm language. I invite the reader to listen carefully, if he has the possibility to listen to speakers of this “allegedly barbaric” Andalusian region. This region is said to distort the language of our fatherland. You do not need to have trained ears to hear the huge repertoire of language variations which characterizes the language of this region. Some people say “sesear” and others “cecear”. Several people use “vosotros” and others in the same situation “ustedes”, but without using the whole polite form. Equally very widespread are terms like “killos”, “pisha”, “poya” and “zagales”. But why do you say “Andalusian vernaculars” and not just “Andalusian”? The reason is that you cannot call these language variations one language. But I do not want to talk too long about this topic, because there are people who have specialized and who subsist on this subject. What I find more interesting is what not-Andalusian people think to understand, when Andalusian people talk. To be brief: When an Andalusian is talking, one might think that he is joking and can never be serious. The reasons are simple lexical and phonetical details which distinguish the traditional Spanish language from the Andalusian vernaculars.

Once, I was on an advanced training for Spanish teachers whose topic was the teaching of not-native speakers and the learning of the correct handling with swearwords. Theoretically, there were only experts of the Spanish language. But one woman said that it depends on which type of Spanish you speak. She said: “If an Andalusian says ‘fuck’, then he does it with such a charm which is characteristic of the Andalusians.” She continued that therefore, it is all right. But “if you say it in Catalan, it’s wrong”. It is not my job to estimate her amount of professionalism or the quality of her way of teaching. But I do not want to imagine, what she tells to her pupils during class, if she dares to announce such an impudence – and that’s what it is – among  teachers.

This experience is only to exemplify that from what I have written above: from (the loss of) the value and the prestige which are accompanied by  the different variants of the Spanish. The Andalusian is no clown or something like that. He only shows the Spanish language with all of its characteristic traits, like it is spoken in his region. As a Spaniard, Andalusian, Malagueño, Rondeño, Spanish teacher and speaker of the vernacular which is spoken in Ronda (Málaga), I can reassure all the people. I have never had a communication problem. Both pupils and native speakers have always understood me very well. For this reason, I say that everyone who doesn’t appreciate the wealth of languages of the Spanish, can fuck oneself (“charmingly”).