One regional difference in English and Spanish

 

The hubris of people when it comes to language has always astounded me. Still does. And when I hear someone say "I speak English/Spanish perfectly" (quite often, I fear), I regret my inability to say anything remotely similar. But I digress. Last night I had a dream, a crazy, confusing dream. I traveled from country to country (in dreams everything is possible) and learned new words. In Buenos Aires someone told me to walk on "la vereda" because it was safer. Zoom, I was in Mexico City, where someone shouted at me to stick to the "banqueta", for the same reason. Somehow, I found myself in Medellín, where an old lady advised me to step onto the "andén" to avoid traffic. Zoom, back again in Madrid, where I knew that if I value my life I must walk on "la acera." I woke up sweating profusely, had a glass of water and went back to sleep, only to find myself traveling again; this time to New York, where a man from "New Yoik" shouted at me: Hey, Mac, get on the "sidewalk." Zoom. crazy dream," I was in London, and again I was told to step onto the "pavement" which prompted me to fly to Australia, and once again I heard a new term "for a paved walk on the side of the street": "a footpath." 

My dreams, nightmares, are now crowded with words, idioms, turns of phrase, accents, which float around and do not give a moment´s respite. In the morning I had to go back to my laptop, to try to find an English equivalent of the Spanish "cortar por lo sano."