JODER!! It´s pronounced "hoe-dare". It means "fuck" in Spanish. You hear it like every 5 minutes. Students (adults and kids) say it in class. I hear people saying it on the street. I was walking down to the metro the other day when this old man dropped a coin on the ground. As he bent over to pick it up I hear him saying, "Hoeeeeee-dare". I started laughing. But, it wasn´t until yesterday until I realized how much I appreciate all this. Considering I have a tendency towards the profanity, I feel right at home. My roommate´s girlfriend is Spanish and we were talking about swears the other day. There are versions of swears for the kids, in her words "classy", so they don´t say the real swear. I imagine it´s like saying "fudge" back home. Now I knew what all those little brats I taught meant were they were saying "jolin" and things like that. If I ever see them again...

I am currently teaching this family that is preparing to move to NYC in June. The husband already lives there and I am teaching his wife and their 3 kids. Really nice family. Well, yesterday, they were filming a video to send to the future school that the kids will attend (he owns some media company, so there is equipment like that all over their house). They were speaking in English and a camera man is walking around all day during our 3.5 hour lesson (and yes, trust me, it seems as long as it is). The 11 year old son comes up to me and here is our conversation:

Mikal - "What is ´shit´?" (pronounced "sheet")
Me - "A word you shouldn´t say."

The mom is standing right there, but her English is the worst of all of them. She didn´t really know what he was asking.

Mikal - "Why not?" (he keeps asking)

I look at the cameraman who, from his muted laughs, obviously knows some English.

Me - "Mierda".

It gets a laugh from both and she looks disapprovingly at her son. Remember, the camera is rolling...

Mikal - "What is ´assholes´?" (only he pronouced it ´assholeas´, think sports announcer saying ´ole´ after a team scores a goal)

I started laughing. His pronunciation made it sound so funny. So, like any good teacher, the first thing I did was correct his pronunciation! It is pronounced A-S-S-H-O-L-E. Then I realized I couldn´t translate it to him because I didn´t know the word. I decided to draw a picture...just kidding.

Me - "There are some traditions that we have in America that I don´t think you have here in Spain."
Mikal - "Like what?"

I washed his mouth out with soap and made him sit in the corner for 30 minutes to, as my mom would say, "think about what you´ve done!"