psytractor

Not sure what this is going to be more a comment on: Spanish chauvinism or the Spanish language. A co-worker recently returned with his jaw at his ankles from a meeting conducted in Spanish (not odd since this is Spain). There had been a group of men and one woman in the meeting. The woman was by no means a junior staff member, she was a manager and should, one would have thought, have had a lot to contribute to the meeting. As it was she did indeed have a lot to contribute, but whenever she opened her mouth some of the men would cut her off, spitting things like Callete, coño! (which directly translated is Shutup, c___!) at her. At one point a guy stopped her when she started to say something by saying Shutup! Let me finish what I was saying…. He did not have anything to say though and in fact had not been saying anything at all beforehand either. Unbelievable. Now the c-word is thrown around far more often in Spanish (and in Finnish too, for example) than it is in English, but can you imagine someone even dropping a Shut up you bitch! in an English-speaking meeting? I am constantly amazed by this place!