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Why is Chile so long?

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com

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Re: Why is Chile so long?

#271

Post by flobosg »

duckmysick wrote: post #233
jhbadger wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but that's like saying a British person wouldn't be confused by the phrase "the trunk of my car" said by an American even if they would would say "the boot of my car" themselves. The fact still remains than "trunk" is US dialect and "boot" is British, and that the dialects are different.

Shouldn't that comparison be weighted by how frequent the words are? For example words in the top 100 usage would count for more than the top 1000 and the top 10000. It would be a much different story if British English and American English had different words for "a car". Which, by the way, happens in Spanish dialects ("el coche" vs "el carro").

In Chile:

* auto: car

* coche: stroller or carriage (depending on context)

* carro: cart or carriage (see above)

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#272

Post by nox101 »

aeyes wrote: post #121
throw4847285 wrote: post #25

When I went to Chile I was about to undertake a cross-country move across the US. Everybody I spoke to in Santiago couldn't imagine a country where you can drive a massive distance like that and move from one major metropolis to another. At the time, I thought they were just reflecting on the fact that Chile is a country where 40% of all people live in one metro area, so there isn't another huge metro area to move to…

The Concepción metro area is 1 million people, Valparaíso/Viña as well. Chileans love to point out that there isn't much outside of Santiago but it's not really true.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#273

Post by graeme »

nox101 wrote: post #272
aeyes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Concepción metro area is 1 million people, Valparaíso/Viña as well. Chileans love to point out that there isn't much outside of Santiago but it's not really true.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

There are only 26 areas in the world which are 15-30 million. They have about 550 million people, or about 7% of the world's population.

1 million is fairly large, especially in the context of Chile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#274

Post by silisili »

goda90 wrote: post #259
cryptonector wrote: post #146

That map of Spanish dialect difficulty... I can confirm.

I'm a native English speaker. I learned Spanish pretty fluently in Chile, interacting with native Spanish speakers from several countries, and my personal experience doesn't entirely match the map. Chilean and Argentine are definitely harder. I don't think I've met a Venezuelan or Panamanian to compare. Colombian was the clearest, most comprehensible accent of any I encountered. Easier than Mexican and Peruvian that…

I'd assume there to be regional variations like most countries, right? Hard to blanket one way or another.

For example, my wife learned English later in life and can understand neutral/midwestern American fine, but has tons of trouble with southern and northeastern regional accents.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#275

Post by anthk »

idontwantthis wrote: post #171
bwanab wrote: post #135

That is a really nice bit of information communication. Hat's off! I feel like I learned a lot and that always makes me happy. One quibble. At the end it mentions why Mexico's west was of interest to the Spanish, but neglects possibly the most important part - it was where the Spanish galleons from the Philippines first landed after the grueling trip across the Pacific as detailed beautifully in Neal Stephenson's "Ba…

And the real history in 1493 by Charles C. Mann. Samurai were documented as guards on galleons brought to Mexico. It needs to be a movie.

Look up Coria del Rio in Spain, too. A lot of people have the "Japón" surname. "Japón" it's Spanish for Japan.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#276

Post by alephnerd »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #262
LAC-Tech wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be more widely understood, it's better to sound more like the King of England than whatever your local variety is. I tone down my (English language) accent when speaking to foreigners all the time. The point is to be understood. I'm toning it down right now in this message. I want to be clear to a wider audience, not folksy. So is Spain really telling other people the way they speak is "wrong", or is t…

No, it has nothing to do with accent (phonetic). It's entirely language. They have a long history of "forbidding" words that are "real or not real spanish". And by the way, counterintuitively, languages have NOT evolved to be better understood, but on the contrary, to "separate" or create cohesion in smaller groups.

Eg. "La red" vs "Internet" back in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Guess which word took precedence?

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#277

Post by p3rls »

I don't know but a Peruvian once told me that when God created South America he gave the Peruvians the titties from lake Titicaca and Bolivia got the shit left over.

I never quite figured out what it meant.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#278

Post by anthk »

duckmysick wrote: post #233
jhbadger wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but that's like saying a British person wouldn't be confused by the phrase "the trunk of my car" said by an American even if they would would say "the boot of my car" themselves. The fact still remains than "trunk" is US dialect and "boot" is British, and that the dialects are different.

Shouldn't that comparison be weighted by how frequent the words are? For example words in the top 100 usage would count for more than the top 1000 and the top 10000. It would be a much different story if British English and American English had different words for "a car". Which, by the way, happens in Spanish dialects ("el coche" vs "el carro").

Spain:

Automóvil: Formal word for car.

Coche: Car. If used with 'de caballos' (of horses), well, carriage.

Carro: Carriage, or trolley.

Re: Why is Chile so long?

#280

Post by SkyPuncher »

nox101 wrote: post #272
aeyes wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Concepción metro area is 1 million people, Valparaíso/Viña as well. Chileans love to point out that there isn't much outside of Santiago but it's not really true.

is 1 million people a lot? I lived most of my life in metro areas of 15-30 million. when I finally ventured out and saw so many famous places at 1.5 million or less and how I could drive in and then back out of their downtowns in just a few blocks I was kind of shocked on how small most places are

In my book, 1M people is when a city starts to become a “proper” city. It’ll host major events, invest in public transit (beyond bus), have extensive infrastructure, have extremely thorough airport service, likely have many walkable neighborhoods, and generally feel like a city.

Under 1M and the city center tends to be very small with most people driving from the suburbs.

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