Observing the growing number of people, in addition to politicians, who—judging by the absolute certainty with which they speak—seem to possess the truth and never make mistakes, I thought of writing this note. In it, I include some of the many errors that the rest of us make completely unintentionally, as well as commonly accepted assumptions we tend to forget.
Approximately 1 in 10 men and 1 in 200 women have difficulty distinguishing colors—this is known as color blindness. A color-blind person usually cannot tell some colors apart, but in extreme cases may not see any color at all. Many years ago, while still in high school, the math teacher asked a question and I raised my hand; when he pointed to me and I gave my answer, he asked, “Are you sure about that?” to which I replied, “As sure as the chalkboard is black.” My classmates burst out laughing—on that day I learned that my color blindness included dark green and black.
On another occasion, I attended a lecture in which the speaker used paper discs of light shades (brown, beige, orange, lemon, yellow…) that she placed over different groups of terms with common characteristics. As a color-blind person who cannot distinguish those colors well, I missed most of what she was saying. Afterward, when I had a chance to speak with her privately, I suggested that she write the first letter of each color on the discs. When she asked, “Why would I do that?” I explained it would help color-blind audience members like me. The speaker apologized and thanked me, assuring me she wouldn’t make that mistake again. If you look around, you’ll often notice that colors are used to differentiate things, but the color’s initial is almost never included—something that would make understanding easier for those of us with this deficiency.
At times, when trying to emphasize the importance of taking context and/or assumptions into account—which are often implicit when we speak—I’ve asked people, “What’s 3 + 3?” Usually, I have to clarify that I’m not joking before they respond “6.” When I tell them that, for example, it could also be 11 or 110, most people look surprised until I remind them that there are different numeral systems, and by default we use base 10. But in the binary system that computers use, the sum would be 110, while in base 5 it would be 11. If someone asks whether other numeral systems have been used, I remind them that the Sumerians used base 60, which we retained for hours, minutes, and seconds; the Mayans used base 20, and so on. Today, only Madagascar and Mauritania still use non-decimal currencies.
For a while, when traveling by plane, I thought people were joking when they saw the curved flight path displayed on the map—often projected during transatlantic flights—and commented, “The pilot must be new or had a few drinks, because he’s not flying straight.” Eventually, after speaking with a doctor sitting next to me who made the same mistake, I realized those comments were less humorous than they were the result of thinking only in Euclidean geometry—“the shortest distance between two points is a straight line”—instead of thinking in spherical geometry, where the lines connecting points are not straight but arcs of meridians. I’ll add that there are various basic mathematical concepts which, because they aren’t included in the elementary curricula traditionally taught, are unknown to many educated people. If there’s any reader interested, I’ll mention that I’ve written about some of those concepts on this blog, thinking of any grandparent who might want to help their grandchildren. [i][ii][iii]
If the Reader Thinks These Mistakes Happen Because They Involve Math Concepts…
Let me say that, when I first arrived in the U.S., I made the mistake several times of writing the date in day/month/year format—as is done in Spanish, French, German, and most of the world—instead of using the U.S. format of month/day/year. So, for example, 10/3 would be interpreted as October 3rd rather than March 10th.
Don’t try to use the metric system in the U.S., Liberia, or Myanmar, as these are currently the only countries that don’t use it. It’s interesting to mention that this has led to problems—for example, any vehicle built in the U.S. can’t be sold abroad, since due to the measurement differences, not even a screw would be interchangeable. Because of this, many American companies have had to build factories in other countries and use metric measurements in order to sell their products internationally. This mistake has cost billions and resulted in countless lost jobs. For those educated in the Spanish-speaking world, let me clarify in the U.S., a “billion” means a thousand million, not a million million.
Geographical differences can also cause unexpected misunderstandings if we’re not careful. For instance, if you call a friend in Chile during July, don’t ask if they’re at the beach—that’s the coldest month of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. And it could very well happen that if you’re in Madrid, your friend might call you at 10 p.m. their time, which would be 3 a.m. for you, just to get back at you and “remind” you of something.
Let’s always remember that cultural, social, historical, technological, and even geographical factors influence language—making it dynamic, evolving and adapting to the people who speak it in different countries. Even though we know this happens, when we travel to a country that shares our native language, the number of differences we encounter is still surprising. Below, I’ll mention some illustrative examples.
When I had just gotten married and moved to Puerto Rico, I began teaching at PUCPR. I had been warned not to use the word bicho or bichito, which in Spain is commonly used to refer to any little animal or insect, but in Puerto Rico refers to the penis. I think it was during my first class that a mosquito landed on my arm and I brushed it away, saying, “There are so many bichitos today!” My students chuckled quietly, so I said, “Sooner or later I was going to slip up—let’s move on to what really matters.” Shortly after that, I learned that darse un palo means to have a drink, that coches are called carros, and they have gomas not ruedas, that cerillas are fósforos, and that ahorita is an unspecified amount of time… among many other differences.
My wife (may she rest in peace) remembered two stories from her personal experience. When she was a student in Urbana at UIUC, one day she was looking for the bus stop and saw another Latina student whom she had heard speaking Spanish. She asked her, “Are you waiting for the guagua?” to which the girl, who was a bit chubby, replied, “No, I’m just this fat.” That’s how she learned that in some Latin American countries, guagua means baby, whereas in Puerto Rico it means bus. The second story was from her first day in Madrid, when she went to have breakfast at a café in Callao and asked the waiter for a « jugo de china,» which in Puerto Rico is orange juice. Luckily, the waiter was friendly and, after thinking for a moment, replied, “We have juice from places closer by, but if you insist, I’ll go to China and get it for you.” She realized he didn’t understand what she meant and clarified her request.
Many pages could be written about these differences, but I’ll just mention a few additional expressions that should be avoided in certain countries—and I’ll leave it to you to look up the reasons why:
i. Don’t say “I’d love to eat papaya” in Cuba, and don’t be offended if you hear “dar papaya” in Colombia.
ii. “Paloma” is a common female name in Spain. But if your wife is named Paloma, think twice before traveling to Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, or Guatemala.
iii. A Chilean might be thrilled to win la poya, but I wouldn’t refer to sports betting that way in Spain.
iv. In Spain, it’s very common to eat a bollo (bread roll), and in Colombia bollo refers to an attractive girl—but in Cuba or the Dominican Republic, it’s a word best not said in public.
v. In Argentina, don’t coja anything in public—better to tómelo or agárrelo.
One final comment for those visiting a country where the vernacular language isn’t their own: for reasons not worth going into, when I came to the U.S. to do my PhD, I hadn’t studied English. Based on my personal experience, I recall that the less educated the person I was speaking with, the louder they would speak—repeating the same thing when they saw I didn’t understand. They would often look at me as if to say, “This guy’s an idiot.” In contrast, more educated people would quickly realize they were using a word or expression I didn’t understand and would change their phrasing to help me grasp what they were saying.
The truth is, it’s easy to assume that the words we’ve always used to express certain ideas should be universally understood—but as we’ve seen, that’s not necessarily the case. What can we learn from these errors? First and foremost, it’s important to recognize that we all make mistakes. And certainly, when traveling to other countries, we must be open to the possibility that not only the way things are done may be different—but also the way people express themselves. So, if you notice people looking at you with surprise after you say something, clarify what you meant. And if you hear something that doesn’t make sense to you, ask for clarification. Having traveled throughout many Latin American countries giving lectures, I’ve made mistakes in several of them—and never have I been made to feel bad. Most people—especially those from warmer regions like the Caribbean—are particularly kind and welcoming, and usually everything ends in smiles or laughter.
I hope you’ve been entertained. Feel free to add in the comments any other unintentional mistakes you know of, or any corrections to what I’ve mentioned. And if instead you’d rather ruin the rest of your day—just turn on the political news.
[i] M-I Math: The Size of Numbers or Powers of Small Numbers
[ii] https://reaquesada.com/iii-sobre-el-infinito/
[iii] https://reaquesada.com/ M-IV Math: How to Maximize Our Chances of Success When Taking a Test
