It was Christmas Eve and I was sitting in my Spanish boyfriend’s living room. His father entered the room, gave me a wide grin and jovially slapped the back of my chair. “So,” he began with a thick, rural Spanish accent. “Are you going to the rooster’s mass at midnight?”
Rooster’s mass?
This wasn’t the first time that I had replied with a blank look. I’ve given the same look on countless occasions. One afternoon his wife asked me with a sweet smile if I wanted a knock on the head with spinach and chickpeas for dinner. That’s when I discovered that coscorrón can also mean fried bread. For this reason I decided that my New Year’s resolution would be to learn Spanish colloquial terms. Others I know want to start learning a language from scratch. Is it a good idea however to take on a language as a New Year’s resolution considering the short duration of such promises? Maybe not. I still haven’t fulfilled my last resolution which was to do 20 sit-ups a day. But considering how rapidly the world is internationalising and a second language is steadily growing into a prerequisite for most jobs, perhaps it would be a smart move to stick to this particular resolution. At least the next time I’m with a Spaniard and they say to me “it’s dark and it smells of cheese” I won’t reply with a raised eyebrow.