
The Mexican art of double entendre - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180527-the-mexican-art-of-double-entendre
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DoreenMichele
What she describes at the start is really common when you speak a new
language. Some examples I know of:

An immigrant invited his entire church to have dinner at his home so they
could "all be in a family way together," not realizing this is a euphemism for
pregnancy.

In both German and French, _douche_ means _shower._ In English, it is a word
used for cleaning female genitals, often with some medicinal purpose. I have
known a German woman who couldn't understand how a _vinegar and water douche_
was supposed to help with her vaginal yeast infection. She also wanted the
doctor to explain how you get your shower to put out a mix of vinegar and
water.

A tiny little French teacher of mine did a year of study in Paris. At some big
dinner as everyone passed around one course after another, she reached a point
where she was too full to eat another bite. She translated "I'm full" into
French (Je sui pleine) and all conversation at the table came to a dead halt
as this is a very vulgar expression for pregnancy along the lines of "I'm
knocked up." Then they realized it was a weird Americanism and moved on.

~~~
curiousgal
English is particularly infamous for such situations. Most notably, 'butt
dial' and 'booty call' being literal synonymous in terms of individual words.

~~~
DoreenMichele
My (German immigrant) mother wanted to redecorate her dining room and bought
_feminine napkins_ because those sounded really pretty and like exactly the
sort of thing she would want on her dining table to pretty it up for when she
had company.

Yeah, no. She had a rude awakening when she got it home and opened the
package.

~~~
JasonFruit
As a child, I remember asking my mother not to buy feminine napkins, because I
didn't want to wipe my mouth with flowery ones anymore.

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mark212
An entire essay and, aside from the opening but about chili, not a single
example of this “art form.” It’s like having an essay about Picasso without
even one picture

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drsim
I have read a few articles recently on BBC.com where I've felt, well, puzzled
over which site I'm on.

It seems they are using more freelance writers and writing more of this kind
of content (dare I say content marketing). Googling this writer shows she's
done a lot elsewhere.

The type of writing in this article is lacking. It feels like trying to reach
a word count, lacks depth and more importantly the local flavour of reporting
there is in, for example, the excellent 'From our own correspondent' series.

~~~
drsim
Ooo... I think we have a BBC bot. The submitter 'MiriamWeiner' only submits
from BBC.com and does so about once a day. Never comments.

Very irregular pattern for a human, although perhaps not for a happy license-
fee payer.

~~~
ASalazarMX
People have many usage patterns. I prefer commenting rather than submitting,
some people just lurk, others might submit without commenting. It wouldn't
surprise me if there were people who just lurks and upvotes because downvoting
requires participation.

~~~
DmenshunlAnlsis
I lurked for four years before I finally wanted to submit something and
bothered to make an account, then I started to really enjoy it. Patterns are
not only varied, but changeable. I wouldn’t assume that someone was a bot
either, maybe submitting one article a day is their way of giving back to a
community they appreciate.

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always_good
I'd be hard-pressed to remember an adult in the States giggling over whether
someone liked cucumber or not.

But, having the same experiences as the author, it's a pretty common sight
here in Mexico. The old woman taking my order at the taco stand asking if I
like chilis and then trying to stifle her giggling.

~~~
ap3
Te gusta el chile ?

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innocentoldguy
I think this is common in all languages. I was in Japan during New Years in
2000. A comedian named Shimura Ken was hosting a show and used the phrase
“seiki wo mataide” during his introduction, which means to cross over into the
new millennium. It also means to step over a sex organ. He emphasized the
sexual meaning by making an arching motion over his crotch with his hands.
Everyone in the audience laughed.

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booleandilemma
Pretty much describes the humor I encountered in high school. Everything was a
penis.

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tremendo
I'm sure one can find similar examples in any or many language(s). Albures are
indeed very common in México, and something quite rare here in the U.S. in my
experience.

They're usually a way to have a little silly fun at someone's expense, of
course, in front of an audience of at least one. For example one time two
other friends form México and I were listening to an american friend tell us
about all the fabulous mexican dishes that he had tried and liked very much.
He sure knew his antojitos. So one of us asked him, "so, you like tostadas?"
-yes, "tortas?" -yes, "enchiladas?" -Oh Yes, "de hoyo!?" -LOVE THEM! …
everyone bursts out laughing. He just blushed and asked "I've been had right?"
\- Yawp.

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JasonFruit
I'm not seeing anything specially Mexican about this, before or after reading
the article. I'm also amused with "The Mexican Art of [French phrase]".

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denzil_correa
This reminds me of the iPhone7 launch where the slogan ("This is 7") which was
translated to "This is penis" in Cantonese.

[https://qz.com/777628/the-slogan-for-apples-aapl-new-
iphone-...](https://qz.com/777628/the-slogan-for-apples-aapl-new-
iphone-7-translates-into-this-is-penis-in-hong-kong/)

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gcb0
still no clue what it means to like mexican chilly in the joke context

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mytdi
In Mexico pepper = 'chile' (in some other Latin American countries it's
'ají'). 'Chile' is also slang for penis. So if in Mexico they ask you if you
like Mexican 'chile', there can be two different interpretations of the
question.

~~~
ASalazarMX
Months ago, our current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced the capture
of a corrupt governor that was on the run. When the governor was at large,
people complained that he let him escape because they're from the same party.
When the governor was captured, people complained that he was captured because
elections were nearing.

Peña Nieto said to his detractors: "no hay chile que les embone" (there's no
dick that fits you). Typical Mexican humor, juvenile but very concise.

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orastor
How is that not the same for all languages?

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cambalache
it is, lame article.Same for all spanish speaking countries. Double entendre
is universal, like jokes, rhymes, limerick-like compositions, etc.

~~~
pvaldes
It depends on the context. Nobody tries to make jokes in all situations or
with anybody. Tourism, salesperson and holidays have much more of that
probably, but in other contexts or places is not so common, or not common at
all. If you try to slip jokes about penises all the time in a conversation you
will quickly be tagged as an idiot.

There are a lot of different ways of understand or express humour in spanish
speaking countries. This is for example a very good example of "retranca".
Really glorious if you understand spanish, and much more clever that it seems
at first sight.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufigznlMrbw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufigznlMrbw)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rGecaVVlyU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rGecaVVlyU)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufigznlMrbw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufigznlMrbw)

