The Fast and the Furious? The Slow and the Curious

Chilenos speak really fast.
In fact, they are famous for their unintelligibility.
Infamous.

I have been trying to translate what I hear into my linguistic code, English.
Obviously, some errors are bound to occur.
Key information will surely plummet through the cracks - no, let's be serious - canyons -between Spanish speaker and English speaker.

I think I am following along just fine during lecture, conversation, what have you, then BOOM! I have no idea what we are talking about. I think I can pick out a few words, but they seem out of place, and I don't know how we got to this point in the conversation.

Por ejemplo, in Survey of Latin American Literature, I think we are talking about theory, aesthetics, reception, blah, blah, blah, then out of the blue, I hear something about el sexo. Unmistakable, right? My attention perks. Sex, eh? I stop doodling in the margins, stop nodding off, but the professor has moved on, and whatever she was talking about, however interesting it was, has long faded into the rest of the PowerPoint written in all capital letters.

Por otro ejemplo, today in a local college bar, four amigas and I were having a few beers after classes. Five chilenos rolled up to our table, ready to chat our ears off. Too bad none of us are fluent. We tried talking to them in pairs, two on one, but their Spanish was so garbled, so fast, two brains struggled to translate.

Did they ask us where we lived or what we liked?
Do they like our earrings or do they want to order another beer?
Do they want to know where we are from?
Where are we from?

A muddled mess, words and beer spilled all over the table, all over our laps.
We eventually had to communicate through hip-hop and liqour lingo.

50-cent!
Vodka!
Snoop Doggy Dog!
Rum!

These were the words we had in common.

If only my Literature professor shared the same vernacular...