Uy, ¿y ese juicio? – No, hoy me dio por asear la casa. When you notice your friend who’s typically a lazybones knocking himself out and being responsible, use this word to highlight your incredulousness. How’s it going? What’s going on? – Just working hard over here. ¿Qué más? ¿Qué hace? – No, por acá juicioso en el trabajo. So, you didn’t end up going to the party? – No, I stayed home to babysit my little brothers.

❺sí que al fin no fuiste a la fiesta? – No, me quedé en casa cuidando a mis hermanos. How’s it going? What have you been up to lately? Staying out of trouble? – Oh, you know. Sí, claro, muy juiciosa con mis estudios. ¿Qué más? ❼ómo te ha ido? ¿Juiciosa? – Ah, pues, bien, gracias a Dios. It’s also frequently used in a less straightforward way to ask if someone’s been working hard recently or been a “good boy” or “good girl,” i.e., staying out of trouble. As you can imagine, it’s often used to tell children to be good or to describe someone’s work ethic. In Colombia, however, juicioso is used to mean hardworking, well-behaved, and responsible. Now, the dictionary will tell you that juicioso means judicious. Later that night, I turned to the dictionary for guidance. The meaningless syllables mercilessly ricocheted on my brain only to indicate that I had nothing. An uncle, Orlando, jovial as ever, greeted me by saying something to the effect of, ¿Qué más, mi niña? ¿Juiciosa? It was my first weekend in Colombia, and I was at the house of some relatives of the family I was living with. One of those words that hammered in the depressing verdict that maybe I wasn’t such a Spanish hotshot after all. Today’s word marked one of those crushing moments when reality began to sink in. My inflated self-confidence took a dramatic nosedive.

This meant two things: 1) I could barely speak in a way that came even close to sounding natural, and 2) My ability to understand native speakers was even more abysmal. The fact was I was seriously deficient in actual interaction with native speakers. Oh sure, there were words I didn’t know, but I was certain that all my years of learning Spanish in school would be enough to confer me high intermediate or even low advanced status. When I came to Colombia in 2009, I arrived feeling that I had a pretty solid grip on Spanish. If it’s any consolation, today I submitted a column that’s 100% new–no rehash. I know, I know–enough with the reduxes! Long-time readers are getting lots of déjà vu lately, and even the fun of saying déjà vu with a sexy French accent isn’t making up for the flurry of retreads. I’m sorry.

Guy ecker y margarita rosa de francisco