- Hello, everyone.
It's your neighborhood Pocha Concha.
I have a little bit of a Spanish update for you guys.
Como se dice Spanish update?
(mic thuds) Oh, ow!
How do you say Spanish update?
(Siri) Actualización de español
What?
(Siri) Actualización de español
As you guys know, todavia estoy apriendiendo como hablar español.
But the thing is, it's like,
a lot of people who are learning Spanish,
like little kids, they learn from their parents
or their family members or their friends at school.
But me, the people who I most learned Spanish from
are two Dominicans,
because I am surrounded by them all day, every day.
Which is great.
It's like, super fun.
But one day, I realized this was an issue
when I was talking to my friend Norb,
and I was like, “Ta tu sabe!”
And he's like, "Maya, that's super Dominican.
"You're not Dominican.
"You're Mexican."
And I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right.
And he's like, "you should be saying Mexican slang."
And I'm like, oh, yeah, you're right.
I think I should probably learn more slang
that is closer to my culture.
So here's the plan.
I'm gonna learn a bunch of Mexican slang.
And then I'm gonna put it to the test.
Let's go.
- Perfect. (both laugh)
- I'm gonna call my grandmother.
I call her my Nonnie.
She's first-generation Mexican-American,
so I want to see how much she knows.
Hola, Nonita.
- [Nonnie] Hola.
- I wanted to know if you know any Mexican slang.
What is that?
- Yes. - What is it?
- [Nonnie] Simon, it means yes!
- Oh.
- [Nonnie] Well, I know a lot of people say
You know.
- Mm-hmm.
- [Nonnie] you know.
- Mm-hmm.
Okay, now I'm gonna call my dad to see what he thinks.
I wanted to ask you if you know any like Mexican slang
or just slang in general.
- [Dad] Just slang from like neighborhood and border style.
You use a lot of English and Spanish,
so instead of saying truck,
we say troque.
You know what I mean? - Mm-hmm.
- [Dad] There's another word for matches,
but you say metchas,
but even though that's wrong,
it just becomes a part of our thing.
- So it's more like Spanglish.
- [Dad] Yeah, that's Spanglish.
- A lot of the things that I grew up with
with like you and Nonnie is like Spanglish slang words.
- Yeah.
- Versus like straight-up slang from Mexico.
- [Dad] But the ones from Mexico, they're different.
- I feel like Mexican-American
is an entirely own different thing
than being Mexican from Mexico.
- [Dad] It is, it is.
- Gonna find some Mexicans.
Are you Mexican?
Si.
Where are you from? - Guadalajara, Jalisco.
- Will you teach me some slang from Mexico?
Simón.
- Are you Mexican? - I am.
- [Maya] Would you wanna teach me some slang from Mexico?
Como… me pichas esto porfa?
- [Maya] I don't know her.
- Bienvenidos al crash course de Andrea y Fernando…
…Donde te vamos a enseñar
Mexican slang.
Appropriate and inappropriate
because I think you need to know both of them
to be able to have a successful life.
- Me siento muy excited.
I mean emocionada.
- Not in frame. - Oh.
- The first slang word is just “güey.”
because it can be used in a bunch of different ways.
(Maya laughs)
“Qué onda”
- But how am I saying it?
- Like a friend, you don't wanna say it rudely.
- If you wanna get a little more raunchy,
“Qué pedo.”
My mom doesn't personally, she doesn't
love that one, but I use it all the time.
“Que pedo” means what fart,
but in reality, “que pedo”
is like what's up, and pedo
could also be used as issue.
“Cual es el pedo,” what's the issue?
- Simón is like an affirmative,
like yeah.
- This is pretty inappropriate, but I love it.
So, you definitely don't wanna say that at work.
- [Andrea] It's very Mexican, though.
- And mames come from the word
Mamar, which is sucking.
- [Maya] Oh, Jesus.
- When somebody does something really silly or stupid,
No mames!
- [Maya] I'm afraid to say these now.
- A derivative. - No.
- They're not very-- - Especially if you talk
to people around here, they don't mind.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- Like, in Mexico, like, we're pretty good
about saying inappropriate shit,
but like, it'd be normalized.
- [Andrea] Yes.
- [Maya] “Aguas!” I know
is like be careful.
- Watch out. - Watch out.
Thank you so much for helping me.
- [Fernando] Good luck.
- All right, I'm about to use this Mexican slang
I just learned.
Who knows?
(gasps) Aguas!
(laughs) (bell dings)
Qué onda güey?
- Sorry, what?
(laughs) (bell dings)
- Hey, what's going on in your life?
- I just adopted a cat.
Qué padre!
Yeah.
(laughs) (bell dings)
Qué pedo güey?
(bell dings)
Qué padre!
- Do people say that? - In Mexico.
- I think it's sort of dated.
No mames güey!
(laughs) (bell dings)
Qué onda güey!
- You sound like a Disney character when you say it.
Say it with like.
(coughs) Que onda güey?
You'll get there.
You're like Simba right now.
You just gotta find your roar.
(jazzy music)
Qué chido!
(spits) No pues wow!
(coughs)
- Oh my God, Maya are you choking?
Simón
(coughing)
Hijole!
- Here's my conclusion from this.
I grew up in a very Mexican-American household,
which means that Spanglish was the main language.
Therefore, sometimes I would get
a little down on myself for not
automatically knowing straight up
Mexican slang from Mexico.
But this challenge was great because
it got me out of my comfort zone,
I learned a lot, and now I can take this
Mexican slang back to my Mexican-American family
and teach them, which is very valuable.