Did you hear about the latest uproar in Colombia? No? Why am I not surprised? It has to do with a disappearance, but not the kind that you’re used to hearing about. Instead of a person this time, it’s just one little letter: an l. But what a kerfuffle that l has caused! Más perdida que el hijo de “Limber”, más perdida que la mamá de Tarzán, más perdida que un moco en una oreja . . . yes, I’d say that l is irrecoverably, unretrievably lost and with him a whole South American country’s pride, at least for a day or two.
The World Games are being hosted in Cali, Colombia right now, and it turns out that the gold, silver, and bronze medals all say The Word Games instead of The World Games. Whoops. I guess there’s no use in pointing fingers at this stage in the game, but it’s too fun not to snicker. I think this error garrafal is hilarious, and it was especially funny to me to read it reported in El Tiempo of all places. Now that is el burro hablando de orejas (the pot calling the kettle black) if I ever heard it. Look for yourself; El Tiempo has an abysmal track record when it comes to spelling, even at the exact moments when they have the gall to come down on others’ mistakes.
¡Qué oso! Yep, that pretty much sums it up. And this from a country where they make such a fuss about the “It’s Colombia, Not Columbia” campaign.
Here are a few online reactions that I find funny.
A few events we could expect to see at the Word Games
From Twitter:
-Yo creo que en los Word Games ganaría alguito, pero me iría muy mal en los de Excel y PowerPoint.
I think that in the Word Games I’d win a few points, but it would go horribly for me in the Excel and PowerPoint Games.
-Cada vez que entregan una medalla de los Word Games, un corrector de estilo muere de hambre en algún lugar del mundo.
Each time they hand out a Word Games medal, a proofreader dies of hunger somewhere in the world.
-¿Cómo te fue en los Word Games? Los resultados los van a mandar en PDF.
How’d you do at the Word Games? They’re sending the results in a PDF.
-Lo que pasó con la persona que fabricó las medallas de los Word Games es que el inglés lo entiende pero no lo escribe.
The thing is that the person who made the medals for the Word Games understands English but can’t write it. (Sure sure, everybody claims to “understand” English. Mostly. Enough.)
-Nivel de inglés
-Muy bajo
-Traduzca mundo
-Word
-Utilícelo en una frase
-Word Games
-Contratado
-English level
-Very low
-Translate mundo
-Word
-Use it in a sentence
-Word Games
-You’re hired
Ni que fuera tan difícil escribir “world” . . .
What can I say, I get a big kick out of silly and utterly senseless spelling mistakes like this one. I’ve also just watched way too many Open English commercials on Youtube, so now I’ll go do something productive with my evening. Peace out, word.
