Mangling Spindi
I was at the new midtown Kati Roll recently ordering an aloo masala and listening to the Bangla workers talking to a Latino coworker in broken Spanish. It reminded me of my cousins, who are learning enough Spanish to drill their kids on what they learn in class.
Oh my sensitive ears. ‘Rojo’ (red) is said with an ‘h’ and does not sound like a Mani Ratnam movie. But how can you broach that when they’ve been so kind with your ghetto Hindi? Back in the ’80s, our Latina soccer coach called my brother Ra-ha-neesh. In apparent retaliation, my parents took to calling a nearby urb ‘San Josie.’
I giggled, but my comeuppance was nigh. I mangled an order of ‘cioccolata’ (chocolate) in front of a cute Roman barista. Apparently it doesn’t begin with ’see-o-co…’ Who knew? 
In Bombay, I learned from a thoroughly confused cinema clerk that Ankahee (Unsaid) is pronounced un-ka-hee and not un-kaa-hee, brayed like a donkey. But what was really left unsaid was that it’s unwatchable either way.
on Monday, August 6th, 2007, 9:31 pm in Musings › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
Bengali and Spanish-those are the two languages I hear all day (apart from English). Can understand a bit of both now, though I speak neither. I get a lot of ‘preguntas por la maestra” from the parents of the kids I work with (sorry, not sure about the spelling). I now know the days of the week in Bengali and all my colors in Spanish!
Funny read.
Interestingly, pronunciation was top of my mind today thanks to a visit to the neighborhood grocery today.
I shout out to the cash girl, “hey, where’s your basil?” BTW, I pronounce basil as bay-sil. Why? Because.
She points out large uprooted bushes sitting in a bucket in a corner.
I glare back - say, “WTF. I need some leaves for my tea, not a giant Topiary”. (ok, not the topiary bit.).
So we start talking about Tea.
This older guy had been hitting on the sales girl when I butted in. Sales girl is attractive, Korean and a new Canadian. I think he had multiple fetishes going on and I took away his thunder. He was floundering. Decided to do a Colonel Buckshot and edumacate. Always good to show the natives their place, eh? He bleats, “Oh it’s BAi-sil. It’s not Bayy-sil. hrrmph”.
I say, “eh?”. Sales girl says, “oh?”. I think, “BAin-ch**”. And we keep talking.
Thanks for listening. Back to your regular programming.
My last visit to SF, I nearly spurted chai from my nose at this Pakistani restaurant (Punjab, I think?) when I heard my neighboring table yakking about a trip to SanHojhay… The loins of Punjab shall never go barren.
Am I the only one whose parents don’t mispronounce English words?
But, have no fear, I do. When I was nine the Flatiron district became flaaah-teee-rawn. Sigh.
If I actually ever did script a sitcom, I would call this episode the Tenderloin of Punjab.
Thank you. Come and Come again.
My Spamil anecdote is from a lazy afternoon two summers ago in Komala Vilas, where I was gorging down a delightful South Indian spread served to me by some hombres equipped with shiny stainless steel buckets of kootu and rasam, when I was interrupted by a red-faced and generously proportioned Tamil uncle from the adjacent table, hollering insistently above the bawling of his snot-nosed infants, to the servers, “Sambar, amigos!”
As for this post, thanks for alerting another orotund auburn faced uncle to the dangers when the desires of Mexican minimum-wagers and Indian injineeyers collide. In a never-before cross channel collaboration, Lou Dobbs and O’Reilly bring you, starting tonight, “The No-Spindi Zone!”
After fifteen year in Amreeka, i still have trouble with emphasis. Second syllable is the general rule, I tell myself . Works fine when i tell the man i am off to Yo-semite for some weekend pho-tography, but he never understand why i need to work on my cho-reography. Sigh!
oh keindi POMP UP THE JAM
no but seriously, this is a hot track. Can’t beat Govinda’s dance moves…
And on mispronunciations… my Dad has been making us Chicken FA-TI-JAHS for a long while… I’m not complaining ;-)
you had me at kati roll, manish!
my mother was very impressed that my niece - newlywed and transplanted from kerala - pronounced her new home, san jose, properly. though after nearly 40 years of living in NY, my mother still cannot pronounce BQE properly (”boo-koo-ee”). and have you ever heard a tamilian pronounce ohio? ay dios mio.
Ronak, agree with you totally, great to see Chichi back.
And what about Salman bleating out “Maria te quiero” in the oddest pronunciation I’ve ever heard?