Some questions about Uruguay.

[theosakansun]

Setting: Montevideo, Uruguay in modern day, and I was wondering if someone could help me answer some questions. I've got questions concerning the Spanish and Portuguese language, the culture or Uruguay and homosexuality in Uruguay

Comments

[riot_of_flowers]

Hmm, I'm unaware about poverty in Uruguay, unemployment and english but I have asked a few uruguayan friends to come and help you ;) , but concerning homosexuality the one who allows you to adopt is my country, Argentina, as far as I know they accept the union but not the marriage and you need to be married.

Even with the law there are areas that are not gay friendly, capitals are mostly gay friendly.

We fairly understand spain's spanish and portuguese, we have a common root and Uruguay has a past with Brazil, it is known that they do get them right, at least on the listening and comprehension area. The problem with other countries' spanish might be the slang, it tends to vary a lot between countries. Just an example: "cola" for spanish means "penis" but for most of south america it just means "butt".

The best of lucks!

[theosakansun]

Thank you so much!! Especially for sending your friends here ;) I've looked for people from Uruguay on a couple of websites (here, Tumblr, Twitter etc) but haven't found any. :| So again, thank you so much!!

So, like you wouldn't have a problem speaking to someone who speaks Portuguese? That's interesting :D

I now, in hindsight, realize that I probably should have picked another country but Uruguay. When I've googled stuff, I've found tons regarding other countries such as Chile and Argentina but next to nothing concerning Uruguay. It's rather frustrating, actually.

[riot_of_flowers]

You are welcome, I'm pretty sure they will like to help you (I have a friend who makes lots and lots of researches of latinamerican countries and their history) ;)

Not at all, there are some things we might not understand but they can pretty much understand spanish as we can understand portuguese by context and common words. When it comes to speaking it, well, Portuñol was born because of that and then there's the argentinean variant that consists in adding "inho" at the end of any word you can think of but it can be understood.

Well, Uruguay has a lot to offer and it has common traits with Argentina at some extents but with certain differences and a lot to offer, they are considered the Switzerland of South America because hey are rather calm and frequently act as referees in certain issues (mostly the ones that involve Argentina and Brasil and their constant economic related fights) so they are a nice setting too, worry not ;).

Again, good luck, and if I find something, I will send it over to you ;)

*hugs*

[theosakansun]

Oh thank you for helping me with these language related questions. My Spanish goes as far as counting to ten and some common words, but that's about it :P

Really? I didn't know Uruguay was such a calm country! I live in Sweden, and last time Sweden was involved in a war was back in the beginning of the 19th century i.e. my country is also pretty peaceful and now that's something I can relate to :D

[zulenha]

I don't know much about Uruguay, except for the fact that in some areas (the ones closer to Brazil, probably) they speak a sort of Portuñol... and I think they can understand our language better than people from other countries, because of the historical closeness? I'm not sure Dx

I've noticed it's much rarer for Spanish-speakers to know Portuguese than the other way around, though. I know Brazilians can understand Spanish if they make a bit of effort, since our schools usually teach it as a second language, along with English. /not very helpful, sorry

[theosakansun]

Nooo, don't worry, you have indeed been very helpful :D I haven't up until now realized that the differences between Spanish and Portuguese are that many and so big, so thank you for clarifying it ^^

Thank you so much!

[flidgetjerome]

My dad's Anglo-Uruguayan and there's actually quite a lot of them, enough that they have their own school though as it's a private school it may not be what you need for your character. Still, he could have also picked-up the language from an Anglo-Uruguayan relative, especially one of the older ones. My grandmother's family never spoke anything but English at home despite having been there for three generations by that point.

[theosakansun]

Thanks for the heads up! I knew there were a lot of people in Uruguay of Scottish heritage, but I never knew about this.

I'm definitely gonna go check that link out!

hiya!

[galatea_dnegro]

I'm not uruguayian but i've got half of my blood and family in there, so I lived quite a lot in that beautiful country

Re: hiya!

[theosakansun]

Oh my god. O.O I'm sitting here like staring at the screen and just going omg.

I spent two hours googling these things and really trying to find these things out, and read everything I found, and still, from reading your reply, I've learnt more about Uruguay than through google :D I'm like eternally grateful now; this will really help my story!

Thanks for taking the time to explain the differences between rural ares and cities! This is really insightful and has helped me a lot :D

Re: hiya!

[galatea_dnegro]

JAJAJAJA LOL well i hope you can do it fine with this.

You're welcome!

[serpent_849]

yeah the languages are similar and it's easier to go from portuguese to spanish. my spanish(-speaking) friends find portuguese confusing... i started portuguese first and i find spanish messy compared to it XD
it's not just about studying spanish as a second language... (i think in portugal english is more important now?) for example, my portuguese friends on twitter follow spanish stuff a lot and don't seem to have major problems understanding. and i watch a lot of portuguese football online and in the after-match interviews they don't even bother interpreting if a spanish-speaking footballer is being interviewed :D they must assume everyone will understand just fine.
also as for language variants, it depends hugely on what you're used to. many of my friends love argentina and they find south american spanish easier to understand while i'm more used to the european one; same with european/brazilian portuguese.