I’m a pocha, loud and proud, and I communicate in Spanglish.
Everywhere. In letters, in conversation, in emails, in cards and, most recently, in text messages. But, my BlackBerry hates my Spanglish and is constantly trying to correct it. In fact, it often changes my Spanish words to random English words when I try to send my messages, rendering them practically intelligible. Damn you, auto correct!
A few choice examples: “gracias” into “grass,” “mañana” into “banana,” “mucho” into “macho,” “chingado” into “changed,” “oyes” into “ones” and “amor” into “amok.”
–Sara Inés
So, as the whitest gabacho on the POCHO staff (yes, I did actually grow up in small town Connecticut) I try to educate myself in little ways so that I don’t seem quite so out-of-place around here.
I use Spanish in day-to-day life wherever I can (thanks, Berlitz!), I try not to insult chefs by putting Tabasco on my mole instead of Tapatîo, and I generally keep my mouth shut whenever Lalo’s talking because – hey – he’s just funnier than me.
But sometimes, Spanglish is the best way to communicate exactly how completely chingado things are, particularly when texting my few Spanish-speaking gabacho friends.
iPhone spell-check, unfortunately, just ain’t helping.
It blunders around the living room like the Alzheimer’s-ridden granddad at the Super Bowl party, oblivious to everyone yelling at him because he’s too busy telling himself it’s “time to freshen the dip.”
Hey, Apple, about the screwups pictured below – when are you gonna fix this? Orale, pies!
— Mack
So tell us – is your iPhone, Droid phone, Crackberry or other digital chingadera Mangling your Spanglish and committing Manglish?