For example, when I lived in the West Indies, someone would say to me, “I’m going to pass by your house tonight”. My usual response was, “that’s nice”. Then, to my surprise, that person would not “pass by” my house, but rather drop in for a visit. Eventually I came to understand that “pass by” really meant “drop in”.

A more ubiquitous example of West Indian English versus American English appeared whenever I asked a local to do something for me. Their response was inevitably, “no problem Mon”. I interpreted that to mean that they had agreed to accede to my request—in fact what they meant was that it would be no problem for them because they were going to do exactly what they wanted regardless of my request.

The same thing has happened here, except that it can be an order of magnitude worse because we have to factor in the added variables of translation complicated by English/Spanish cognates.

For example, in the United States, an architect makes the plans for building which is built by someone else—usually a general contractor. Here, in Uruguay, the architect (arquitecto) is both designer and almost always the general contractor.

There is an even wider gap between the American perception of a notary and the Uruguayan perception of the same office. Anybody with a clean police record, and IQ of 85 or above, and the ability to take an online course of a few hours can become a notary in the US.

Here, a notary (escribano) is an important professional who is key to the completion of many essential legal and commercial transactions. A civil law notary is in some ways similar to a British solicitor, in that he deals primarily with paperwork—but he also takes the place of a title insurance company, a stock transfer agent, a car title transfer agent, and probably dozens of other things with which I have not yet been confronted. Having access to a good escribano is probably more important than having a good attorney.

Another word that causes a lot of problems is the Spanish word for “to intend (to do something)”, which is “pretender”—which unfortunately Uruguayos often anglicize into “pretend”, when they really mean “intend”.

This reminds me of some differences between British and American English. In the US when you “table” a subject, you defer its consideration—in the UK, you do just the opposite; bring it up for immediate consideration.

To make things really interesting here, most of the Uruguayos who speak English have been taught British English, so you can really have some funny conversations without trying too hard.

Fortunately, almost everyone here is good natured and not quick to take offense—that proves we are neither in France nor Argentina…

But, no matter how hard we try, we can never fairly represent Uruguay the way native born Uruguayos can. Because it is their story that needs to be told, and not ours, we at UruguayLiving.com have decided to publish UruguayDailyNews.com as a means for Uruguay’s authentic voices to be heard to the world, or at least the English-speaking portions thereof.

UruguayDailyNews.com is primarily a digest of the news as reported by the major newspapers and broadcast media here in Uruguay.

The stories that we cover are selected by Uruguayos, not by us. The overwhelming majority of the articles will be taken from these local news sources, to which links will be provided whenever possible.

We make sure that you know whence those reports originated—and also the point of view of the original reporter, if possible.

Front page news will be reported daily, Monday through Friday—extraordinary events will be covered even on the weekends. Less pressing business, cultural, artistic, sports and other community news will be covered at least once weekly. Monday they will focus on the visit to Uruguay of President Bush this weekend.

We, the medio-Uruguayos (half-Uruguayans), help things along by editing the English translations and also by writing editorials occasionally. We also may try to explain some of the things reported in order to make them more understandable to our worldwide Anglophone audience.

And you can participate!

UruguayDailyNews.com is in blog format so there will be a place for your questions or comments—after they have been reviewed to avoid spam, commercials, or other over-the-top behavior.

THIS IS JUST A START!!! New features are planned for coming months. With your support it will grown and become a permanent part of the media here.

Welcome to UruguayDailyNews.com!

¡Bienvenidos a UruguayDailyNews.com!

Publisher: R David Finzer
Deputy Publisher: Santiago Galli
Editor-in-Chief: Christopher T. Kohl
Managing Editor: Andres Garín
News Editor: Pablo Cadenas
Kibitzer-at-Large: Theodore L. Raiter

We also had a scare this morning when one of our group had to go to the hospital because of seizures.  Again, I am happy to report that he is home and doing well.  Tomorrow one of our depots BiPAs (bilingual personal assistants) will accompany them to help organize insurance to do with future problems.  This is good news as well, because this is the start of one more UruguayLiving program.

As you encounter English language businesses, professionals and services, WITH WHOM YOU HAVE HAD A GOOD EXPERIENCE, please let us know so that we can contact them and add them to the directory.

Please email me at southron@uruguayliving.com with as much information as you have on them, so that Jimbo, our local office manager can contact them and arrange for them to be added to the directory.