Of the hundreds of words that are quite difficult to translate from one language to another, the English word “mean” ranks up there in my opinion. A month ago my colleague (and yes, using this word is more than a stretch in this case), expounding upon some of his difficulties teaching (I think he just sucks, but, those dwelling in wheat thin houses shouldn’t throw cans of easy-cheese) reflected that the word ‘mean’ was going to give me some trouble if I tried to teach it during my ‘personality words’ unit. Well, I think the word is often used in English, and often used to imply countless things, so I scoffed at the fool and continued what I was doing.

I am not about to retract my statement about the other teacher, but I will acknowledge that the word is not as easy to teach as I thought. You see, the word ‘malo’ in Spanish has multiple meanings as well, but it does not really cover the same thing. The same can be said for about five other words in Spanish (those of you looking for one of those words in English that other language speakers proudly tout as untranslatable, certain ‘feeling’ words for example, look further), none of which really cover this definition.

Anyhoo, I will digress from the digression and return to the point. Shortly. But before that, consider the lexis level or vocabulary level of the typical college student. High? Consider again. My own is quite low compared to many people, my sisters for example probably have broader and richer vocabularies than I do, but even mine is an Everest among Appalachians compared to the average college student. Now change countries. I know, well, let’s be generous and say 500 words in Spanish. My vocabulary is quite low and I certainly won’t win any contests down here, but I still assume most people to know much more than I do. I mean, this is their language, not mine, I am just a gringo in for my accent and knowledge of the language.

So this morning as I am writing on the white board 4 words which I think are roughly equivalent of the English word ‘mean.’ two hands shoot up from the group of students.
-Weel (will in Spanish) do you mean ‘travieso’? (this one means, basically, ‘bad-boy’ or ¨delinquent,¨ again, basically not exactly, mainly because if I extend this definition any more by the time you get to the end of this sentence you will have forgotten what I was originally writing about)
-where?
-next to ‘mean.’
Here I had written the word ‘avieso’, which admittedly came directly from my little dictionary (so my original premise is a lie because until this day I did not know the word avieso either). So I assumed that once again I copied the word wrong or something, so I went to look it up. No, on the page next to ‘mean’ is the word ‘avieso’. I related this to the class. They responded by telling me my dictionary was wrong. Well now, that is possible, but doubtful, so I decided to look up ‘avieso’ in the Spanish section. Sure enough it means ‘perverse’ or ‘evil-minded,’ not the best translation for ‘mean’ but one I am certainly willing to accept.

None of my students had even heard of this word. There are lots of words I may not know the definition of, but have heard before or seen once or twice. These kids? Zero. Ok, not a big deal, surely all my prof friends knew the word. Nope. 2 in 5 is about the ratio, with at least one of those three negatives denying its existence. Too funny. Or not, depending on whether stories about vocabulary excite you. Either way I find it interesting because there are many words that I have come across down here that I cannot find in my dictionary. Thus, I presumed that my dictionary really only has basic words. Imagine my surprise, and secret joy, when I was able to teach my Spanish speakers a word in Spanish. I know: perverse, evil-minded; hey, you can even call me mean. Yes, I wrote this whole story just so I could work that stupid little broma (joke).

If you had not noticed, I have time on my hands. ‘Witness the power of a fully-operational Death Star.’