Milk comes from cows. Te Tinka?

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If I were to write a book about living overseas, which i won't because enough people have done it well and many more have done it poorly, I think disabusing people of their grotesque misconceptions would be a priority. Living in a foreign country is not the same as
visiting. Rather, it is the 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' to feel like a complete idiot almost every waking moment. Sure, there are
plenty of 'unique' cultural experiences, but 'unique' cultural experience is often vacation brochure talk for 'look, say, do, feel, or be stupid'.

This bit of reflection was inspired by the headline of yesterday's newspaper. Near as I can figure, it said, "Univ. of Chile Drinks the Milk from the Foot of a Cow". The picture that accompanied this enlightening headline was a footballer (that means soccer player to those of us in the US) dressed in a blue jersey being mobbed by teammates. The picture didn't help, so I brought it up with my conversation partner Jon. Jon is not only one of the nicest most laid back human beings I have ever met, but his brother is apparently a D-1 goalie attracting international attention. Surely Jon could unravel the mysterious relationship between cow milk and football. Jon informed me that in rural places people drink milk from the teats of cows. This explanation was accompanied by a very helpful tugging pantomime. Perhaps gringos were so divorced from the real world that they had somehow forgotten where milk came from. Admittedly, I'm no merry milk maid. but I follow the whole milk, cows, teats, relationship. Furthermore, I am fairly certain that the cow's foot does not factor into the equation very prominently. Nevertheless, there seems to me to be something of a gulf between the cow-milk-teat-foot relationship and the apparent success of the University of Chile football team. Jon confidently laid the matter to rest by adding that this stirring victory was accomplished on the other team's home field. Eureka! Despite the facts, i have to say that I am as mystified today as I was yesterday. Tonight I will see what kind of explanation I get from my other conversation partner. She is a clinical psychologist so I am expecting great things. With Jon I had to eventually feign comprehension so he could give up on the milking pantomime and we could move on to other baffling things.

Though I never did unravel the cow metaphor, I did (or more likely, someone told me) come up with a plausible explanation for the oft used 'te tinka?', which means 'what do you think?' I suspect 'tinka' is derived from the English word 'think'. The /th/ is hell for Spanish speakers so it often gets cut to /t/: tink. Furthermore, Spanglish being Spanglish in Spanish speaking countries as well as English speaking ones means that you add an /a/ to the end of a word to magically transform it from English to Spanish: 'tinka'. Add a direct
object pronoun (te) and you get 'te tinka'. Fantastic! Clearly, now you too drink milk for the foot of a cow.

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Comments

[Boston]

Mas cervezas Amigo
What is clear is that your Spanish skills drink milk from the foot of a cow. :) Expect nothing but positive support from the ex-pat community.

[james st. james]

¿te tinca.....
....comprarte el diccionario titulado "How to Survive in the Chilean Jungle 2"? (¿do you feel like buying the dictionary titled "How to Survive in the Chilean Jungle 2?). if you're intrested in the chilean language, i really recommend the aforementioned book, written by John Brennan and Alvaro Taboada (published by Comunicaciones Noreste Ltda., 2003). it's a green cover little book that's a lot of fun and explains the ins and outs of chilean slang and idioms. you should be able to find it at any larger downtown book store (like those on paseo Huérfanos). here's how the dictionary defines "tincar": 1) to like or be attracted to someone or something, ex. "¿Tú crees que yo le tinco a Alvaro? (do you think alvaro's attracted [or into] to me?); 2)to have a "hunch"--an intuition--about a person or the outcome of a future event, ex. "Mejor que no arrendemos esta casa, me tinca que va a estar llena de goteras en invierno (we'd better not rent that house, i have a hunch it's going to be full of leaks in winter); 3). to want or desire something, ex. "¿Te tinca ir al teatro? (do you feel like going to the theatre?). as far as the soccer cow expression, no idea. maybe if you write it out in spanish some loyal reader of your blog may be able to explain it. by the way, i really like your prior description of the protester-police dance. that's totally what it is in chile. you've hit the nail on the head!

[matias]

Mmmm, you got it wrong
good theory, but the verb "tincar" comes from quechua, the inca language (tinka'y), and it means "to have a feeling". Nice try though.

[Hank]

me tinka
I am going to make an effort at explaining an idiom from a country I have never visited. As an American, I see it as my god-given right. Anyhoo, I believe the traditional metaphor that would be used (milk=generic benefit + teat=effort of individual) has been modified to reflect the circumstances (milk=victory + teat=foot of footballer). In other words, they are reaping the benefits of his footwork. Que piensas?

[Parisoff]

My two cents
"Universidad de Chile bebe la leche del pie de la vaca"--The U of Chile won at the other team's field, hence they drank the milk from the source (at the foot of the cow, rather than having bought it from the store). These are absurd discussions...