Spanglish
2006

For the first three years of our relationship, Pura and I spoke Spanish to each other. After moving to the USA, we managed over time to switch to speaking English to each other. After having children and moving back to Spain, we continued to speak English, so the kids could hear it. Now the kids talk to each other in both languages. Pura's English is now better than my Spanish. In fact, my English has suffered too. My brain is not really capable of compartmentalizing the languages, and I end up talking lazily -- using both languages in my sentences, depending on what's easier. The kids do it too. The other day, Teo complained that "Adrian pissed on me" (pisar meaning "step on"). Often he says "Adrian's molesting me" (molestar meaning "bother").
Adrian says "...so I took the graper and graped the flower to the stem." (grapadora is a stapler)

A few thoughts about the difference between the two languages:

Why does realizado mean "self-actualized", while actualizado means "realized"?

Why is Algeria Argelia? And why is crocodile cocodrilo? Which language made the typo?

As with all languages, Spanish does some borrowing from other languages, especially new words like "internet", and words that sound more polite if you use someone else's language (the English language likes to use French for that). Some of the peculiar English adaptations are:

water (pronounced 'batter') is the common name for toilet, perhaps short for 'water closet'. It's important to hide that object in a fancy-sounding foreign word ('toilet' in English coming from French).

brackets is the word used in Spain for teeth braces. If they use a foreign word, why use the word "brackets"?
sexy shop is a sex shop
In other sports, the Spanish chose to take futbol from the English -- British English that is, as opposed to futbol Americano, which doesn't really touch the feet too often -- though they stuck with Spanish for balonmano, which has nothing to do with what we call handball. Lately I've been playing padel, which is not at all like the paddleball I played in high school gym class.

Spain has a fascination with the English 'ing' ending. Their attitude is, just throw on the 'ing' and voila! it's English! So they add it to 'foot' and get 'footing', which means jogging. Two of the soccer teams are 'Racing' and 'Sporting'. In 2007, one of the vogue words is 'zapping' (or 'zaping') (changing the channel). Adding 'ing' is such a good joke that the Barcelona City Hall decided to call their public bike program 'bicing'. The new Barcelona airlines is called 'vueling'.

Pura explained to me years ago that her name refers to the purification of Jesus, that is, his circumcision. (Speaking of which, given the title of this website, I'm going to go ahead and discuss another expat circumstance: Dad and his boys are different. Circumcision stood at 85% in the USA when I was born. It's still at 57% now, while in Spain, it's rare.) In Madrid, my landlord's name was Visitacion (reminds me of ET) while my dentist's name was Iluminada. My favorites of these religious-event Spanish names are Dolores (Lola) and Angustia.

Spanish words that the English language could use, and their very rough translations:

hortera: tacky person
guarro: dirty person (in mind or body)
maruja: housewife type
macarro: heavy metal type
cotilla: gossipmonger
gafe: person who brings bad luck
pijo: preppy
pendon (disoreja'o): playboy/partyer
paleto, cateto: hick
gamberro: vandal type
pringado: the person who gets stuck doing the things no one else wants to do
petardo: noisy person

Is there really no word for "commute" in Spanish? Nor is there a word for "nostril": only "agujero de la nariz". Nor "wedgie".

[Added 2010]
Rule 1: Spanish slang must have the "ch" sound:

chacha: maid
chachi: fun
chacho: kinda like "wow" or "you're kidding" (literally: short for muchacho)
Chechu: short for Santiago
chichi: pussy
chicha: meat
Chichos: band from the 80's
chocha: senile
chocho: same as chichi
chucha: a hug
chuche: candy
chuchi: dear, honey
chucho: dog
chuchu: train noise

Note that "ch" is no longer a letter. As of 2010, the Spanish Language Police banished it from the alphabet, along with "ll". Yeah, rather stupid to call those letters.

Ann, maybe you could use this for your Spanish classes:

"Ready, set, go!" in Spanish is preparado, listo, ya!

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" in Spanish is:
Pito pito, colorito,
¿Dónde vas tu tan bonito?
A la era verdadera,
pin, pan, fuera.

Or the second verse, if one doesn't like the initial result:
Una mosca puñetera,
se cayó a la carretera,
pin, pan, fuera.

A joke:
En que se diferencia una calculadora y una toalla?
Con uno, se calcula y con el otro, seca el culo.

Some Spanish tongue twisters (trabalenguas) at www.educar.org

And palindromes (palindromas):
Reconocer
Dábale arroz a la zorra el abad.
La ruta nos aportó otro paso natural.

The Spanish version of "ambidextrous" or "facetious" where all five vowels are used is "murcielago".