Chile Two - Text
The subject is a white Hispanic female(of German ancestry), born and raised in Santiago, the capital city(pop. 5,000,000). She was educated in a private German school where she began to study English in the seventh grade. She holds an undergraduate degree in German and is trilingual. She left Chile as a young adult, worked in Berlin for six years, and has been living in the U.S. for ten years. Of particular note in her speech is the lack of voiced consonants- 'z' is sounded as 's', 'v' is sounded as 'f', and for 'zh' you will hear 'sh' as in "meashured" for measured. You will hear a dentalized voiced 'th' sound, variable pronunciations of the short 'a' vowel, a relatively pure 'o' vowel, and the substitution of the long 'e' vowel for the short 'i' vowel as in "senteemental" for sentimental. This often happens in Latin based words that sound much the same in Spanish as they do in English.
In the sample, she discusses Chilean education, the Christmas celebration, and regional foods. Recorded by Daydrie Hague and edited by Paul Meier. Running time: 04:30.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I was born and raised in Chile. Chile’s a long country located in South America. Santiago is located in the valley between the Andes Mountains and the Costa Mountains. (Um) Chile has about 13 million people, of them, five million live in Santiago. (Um) I went to a private school, a German private school. (Um) The first five years, in that school, you learn every subject in German, except for Spanish, of course. (Um) After that, everything is in Spanish except for German. We wore uniforms, usually it was a blue jacket an’ a white blouse, an’ blue socks wi-with (um)-- with black shoes. Ev’rybody, actually, in Chile, has to wear uniforms. The only thing that differs is a little insignia that says (um) what school you’re from. Tests are usually not the multiple-choice, so you really have to know what-- what you’re doing. I mean, you really have to study, unlike here, where I see m-- my children not studying. I mean, we really, t(h)ruly had to study. We went to school from eight to twelve. Most of the schools were from eight to twelve. In high school, maybe, it would be from eight to one, but for that you had to-- you had (um) a lot of homework in the afternoon; a lot of homework. (Um) We-- we had to learn at least two-- two languages besides Spanish. That meant-- in my school there was German an’ English. English-- I-- I-- We started English in seventh grade, an’ (um)-- Well, Spanish an’ German were from Kindergarten, an’ English from seventh grade to the end of high school. We usually celebrate Christmas on the 24th, maybe because it is (um) the-- the-- the different seasons we have. In Chile we celebrate Christmas in-- in the summertime, an’ here, it’s winter. (Um) We usually re-- I mean, we usually eat aroun’ nine p.m. an’ then open the presents around eleven p.m. I mean, when you’re littler you open them a little earlier. An’ usually also, the Christmas tree is not done until that day. It’s usually hidden until-- I mean-- until after dinner, where you see it for the first time. It’s usually decora-- I mean, well, no… My house, it was usually decorated with-- with (um)-- with real candles, with real red candles. In other houses it’s done with lights, just like here. We have a j-- in our house it was a German tradition to do that. Okay, about food; we-- Chileans don’ eat that much junk food. [Laughter] (Uh) We have several traditional dishes. One-- one is empanada; it’s kind of like a turnover filled with meat, or with cheese, an’ then it’s fried. The one with cheese is fried, an’ the other one is ba-- The one with meat is baked. We have another one, called humitas that’s (um) similar to tamales-- to the Mexican tamales. A little m-- with mo-- more moisture. We use a lot of corn in our dishes. We do not have-- I mean, our food is not as-- spicy like in Mexic-- it’s very similar to the United States. The only thing is that we use more corn than-- than the Americans do. (Um) Our tradition-- I mean they’re very similar to the United States, actually. We’re not that very different. We’re just-- I consider Chileans a little more f-- open, friendlier. They like to get together-- I mean, at any time to-- for a drink, no-- I mean, for a drink, for a dinner, for after dinner, for dessert, after lunch. We jus’-- we-- we get together for any reason….
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, July 24, 2008