Chile One - Text
Male, born Santiago, Chile, 1977. Attended bi-lingual school from age 4. Strong encouragement in English studies from his parents, wealthy business people. Subject well traveled throughout South and Central America as well as in the United States. Subject has lived in Florida, New Mexico and Lawrence, KS where this recording was made by Paul Meier in 1999. Fluent English with a mild Spanish accent.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
I was born in Santiago, Chile which is a very beautiful place, but full of cars and smog. Doesn’ matter. I started (uh) learning English when I was four, in s-- sort of bilingual school, I was there. So, that was easier for me, an’ my mother knew some too, so she tried an’ tried an’-- to teach me, but I just learned the-- I said the, y’know, theory. (Uh) I’ve been in the States for a while, which is interesting. Been in New Mexico, which is really beautiful. An’ Florida, which is really empty, but, doesn’ matter. An’ I’ve been to Mexico, which is great place, an’ those sort of surrounding countries, like Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador. (Uh) ’ve been also in (uh) South America, in Colombia an’ Ecuador, of course in my own country, Argentina too. I’m studying French right now. I’m actually having a minor in French. I wanna go an’ study at France, one moment, one (uh) point or another in time, but (uh) I don’t know. Santiago, Santiago, Santiago is (uh) built in a valley, so all of the pollution an’ smog that comes out of the cars s-- stays there, and it’s like a big pond of mud. It’s really disgusting. People cry. Kids die, all the time. Bu’… besides that it’s a great place, I mean, what a party. A lot of partying, bu’… I don’ even have memories from when I was a kid. I remember things like (uh) falling from a big (uh) plane game that was set up in the park, an’ destroying all my teeth, an’ stuff like that, when I was really a kid, bu’… those sort of weird huh-huh things that sound like you have in your brained, bu’… I don’t even remember much. Definitely I would say that my parents have a high standard of living. That-- i’ was not easy though. We went through a lot of stuff. But now they’re pretty well set up an’ they can enjoy the money that they have earned through the years, I would say. Now they’re well set up. I mean, if it wouldn’t be that way, I wouldn’t be here, which proba’ly I would have never had the chance the first place to study in (um)….
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JACQUELINE BAKER, ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR TRANSCRIPTIONS, July 24, 2008