Chris and Spanish

From CWCki
Revision as of 14:18, 1 September 2010 by SeventhBase (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
File:Ano de freshman.png
"Freshman anus" — a prime example of Chris's mastery of the Spanish language. Presumably, he meant to write "año de freshman"; "freshman year".

Spanish is an Indo-European language spoken by over 350,000,000 people worldwide, one of whom is Christian Weston Chandler. Chris often uses Spanish in his videos and comics, as it is one of the few things that he actually learned at Manchester High School (however poorly). He often refers to himself by his Spanish name, Ricardo.

However, Chris's sub-par knowledge of Spanish does not seem to deter him from racism against Hispanics, creating a stereotypical babysitter in his comics and a highly stereotypical sombrero-wearing Pokémon called Espanolic, who "confuses its enemies with its language." Of note is that Chris has apparently learned the Castilian dialect of Spanish as is common in the Northwest Coast, unlike the Cuban that is taught in Florida or the Mexican that is taught in the southmost states, as noted by his use of European terms like ascensor for "elevator" (UK: "lift") instead of elevador, as well as his pronouncing "W" as doble V instead of doble U.

Why Spanish speakers hate Chris

File:Axe en español.jpg
An improved version of the infamous Axe ad, made by a real Spanish speaker.

As demonstrated in the picture above, Chris's grasp of Spanish is just slightly weaker than his grasp over the English language. The best sources of this are his address to our hero and the description to his hotel. He even makes note of his Spanish on his resume. Chris is so sure of his mastery of Spanish that he feels himself entitled to mix the language to create Noviophobia, which has its own whole set of problems.

Other reasons are as follows:

  • His irritating American accent
    • Pronouncing the word para as if it were the English prefix (e.g. "parachute"), making it sound like pera or "pear"
    • Pronouncing other words as if they were English (impostor)
  • His tendency to add Ñ's to where they are unnecessary (bueño), and omit them where they are needed (ano)
  • Stressing the wrong syllable (hácer)


Ricardo Weston Chandler

Ricardo Weston Chandler is Chris's Spanish alter-ego. Presumably named in honor of Ricky Ricardo, star of I Love Lucy, one of Chris's favorite TV shows. Presumably, this is a "Spanish name" Chris chose for Spanish class (a general practice in language classes where students will take a name in the language they're learning in order to "get into" the culture and language). Of course, while most people forget about this when they've left the course (or in some cases, even the teachers abandon the practice shortly into the course), Chris has adopted "Ricardo" as his actual Spanish name and uses it for his Spanish-related endeavors.

He is oblivious to the fact that in most European languages, people do not change their name when using a different language, but instead use the language's native form of the name, or transliterate it to fit the language's orthography. While Christian is actually a rather common name in Hispanic countries, if it were translated, his full name would be "Cristóbal Cristian Weston Velero" (alternatively, his middle name could be rendered "Huestón", as Spanish uses the W only on loanwords). Of course it must be noted that Ricardo's linguistic skills have brought us gems such as noviophobia (from the Spanish novio, "boyfriend"). It should also be noted that Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese version of the name "Richard", which is sometimes shortened to "Dick".

Works in which CWC uses Spanish

See also

Chris and...

Body: DrugsFashionGenderHealthNutritionSex

Psyche: CopingManipulationMental healthcareNostalgiaReality

Personality: AngerEgoHypocrisyKindnessNegligencePersonalityRemorseStress

Expression: ArtCensorshipEnglishLanguageMusicOratorySpanishWriting

Society: ContestsDeathThe LawPoliticsPornographyRaceReadingReligionSexualitySocializationSports

Business: Brand loyaltyBusinessCopyrightMoneyNegotiationWork

Technology: CamerasElectronicsThe InternetScienceTelevisionVideo Games