HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE CHILEAN JUNGLE

by John Brennan - Alvaro Taboada
An english lexicon of chilean slang & spanish sayings

Help!!! That pretty much sums up how I felt my first few months in Chile. Quickly realizing that the Spanish spoken [there] is far different to that which I was accustomed to in Mexico and Guatemala, I decided to buy a notebook and write down the new words I heard...

Me and my little book were constantly laughed at, but at least life was becoming much easier as I began to cachar el mote...And it was obvious that I was not alone in the "jungle" as the vacant expressions of so many foreigners attested to. So one day it occurred to me: why not write a book of chilenismos (Chilean slang) and some of the more traditional Spanish expressions that are heard here?

Chilean Spanish is not typical Spanish. It is a idiomatic language...[from] Chile's history of immigration and close knit immigrant communities and thus the frequency of words and expressions from other languages (primarily Italian, Yugoslavian, German and English). Added to this is the notable increase of Spanglish, as English schools have spread throughout Chile and as music, movies and technology from the United States has flooded the market."

John Brennan
July 30, 1996
Santiago, Chile
Excerpt taken from the Prologue