Photo: Bč°©rbara Paz Rebolledo Bustamante
1. Drink definitely not water.
If you’re caught standard water, Chileans will become very concerned and ask if you’re feeling okay. They’ll even warn you that “agua te hace mal” (water forces you to sick). In truth, the regular city water in Chile is okay for drinking, but locals judgemental for soda, wine, and liquors for instance pisco, chicha, and pipeño.
They’re especially pleased with their Cabernet Sauvignon and will often cite Chilean folk singer Tito Fernandez’s song: “Me gusta el vino porque el vino es bueno. Y cuando el agua brota, pura y cristalina, de la Madre Tierra, más me gusta el vino.”
Translation: “I favor wine because liquid is good. In case the stream, pure and clear, gushing from Nature, I like wine all the more.”
2. Don’t make any sudden noises or movements.
Burping audibly can be a faux pas at par with farting. Should you burp audibly in public, you’ll be either teased or glared at and looked at as maleducado (impolite). It’s also considered bad form to stretch or yawn openly in public areas, and many even suggest retiring towards the bathroom for such unsavory bodily processes.
That said, seems like for being forgiven among friends or family. One night while sitting on the once (tea time) table with my two little host sisters, I felt a burp approaching. The atmosphere bubble entered my esophagus and, in slow motion, inched its higher because wanting to deal with the repercussions. I allowed myself to burp audibly and immediately feigned embarrassment, “Dios mio, I’m sorry!” As they definitely both chuckled a lttle bit, my host sister was very sweet and understanding. “It’s okay, it’s natural,” she reassured me, “It’s nothing bad within this house. Perform it.” And that which burp, I became part of a Chilean family…which everybody knows is best type of family there is certainly.
3. Forget Spanish; learn Chilean.
Contrary towards the information you gathered in the CIA World Factbook, the state language of Chile just isn\’t Spanish; it’s Chilean! Chilean is really a variant of Spanish combining modismos (slang), garabatos (profanities), and the rare random word derived from the indigenous Mapuche language. As a way to speak just like a Chilean it\’s essential to talk quickly, drop consonants, and simply pronounce one half of each word. Chileans also punctuate each word or sentence with “po” — a filler word without the need of meaning — and “cachai?” which suggests roughly “y’know?”
4. Subsist solely on sandwiches and sausages (alongside bread and avocados).
When you think of Latin American cuisine, maybe you think of ceviche, empanadas, and carne asada. While all these everything\’s readily available in Chile, Chileans have an overwhelming preference for sandwiches and hot dogs (called completos). Chileans also eat an unprecedented degree of avocados (palta) and bread in numerous forms (marraquetas, hallullas, pan de molde, pan amasado) trying to incorporate corn (choclo) into any dish they could.
5. Kiss everybody.
In Chile, you mostly begin and end interactions with others that has a kiss on the right cheek. (It is between two women or from your woman as well as a man. Men greet each other during the emotionally deadened way we’re familiar with in america alone, essentially by yelling, “Yo homo!” at each other as they simply slap hands.)
The whole kissing thing adds a level of confusion, tension, and excitement to numerous social interactions. Whenever i go to the teachers’ lounge each and every morning, shall we be held expected to kiss everyone? Apparently, yes, I\’m. Having said that i only desire to kiss my guys! And then there are other moments once you get lucky, like when you’re leaving a bar and your male friends choose to greet the handsome busboy on the way out. Meaning a handshake for him or her, however, you, you lucky girl, you can go for a cheek kiss!
6. Marry your middle-school sweetheart.
Chile is, in mind, a Catholic country, plus the culture here is significantly depending on mating for all his life. Even among young couples in middle as well as school, the overarching objective of relationships is apparently to stay together forever. Entering a high-school classroom or walking using a park is actually boarding Noah’s Ark — everyone’s paired off.
7. Enter a vehicle with strangers.
Colectivos absolutely are a really convenient, economical technique to get around song of town, and they’re fun when you arrive at practice your Spanish with locals. Also, the drivers are invariably honest. In just one of my first colectivo rides from a home office to figure, I have been on your own in a car besides the driver. He stopped Ten minutes from my destination, returned my money, and said, “You may walk at this point, right? Need to go to the bathroom.”
8. Clog a rest room.
Signs posted in public bathrooms over the country will ask someone to throw tissue paper while in the garbage bin as an alternative to inside the toilet. You’ll usually follow the flyer’s plea, but, as with true Chilean, you’ll occasionally try to throw caution towards wind and throw your paper within the toilet. You’ll inevitably clog straight down, we must warn you that googling “the right way to fix a Chilean toilet” yields no useful results.
If this takes place to you personally in the friend’s house rather than inside of a public restroom, either you neglected and leave it for the upcoming bathroom user to handle (which is often how you would got into the circumstance initially), in addition hold the courage to seek help, all the while insisting that “that it was simply a primary.”\0
