Charades en Español

I don’t know if any of you have ever played Charades in a language that you only barely understand, but that’s what happened to me on Saturday.

Rosy and I went to a birthday party for one of Rosy’s best friends. Eventually, after everyone had finished eating the finger foods and had a bit to drink, the birthday girl brought out a couple of games – Spanish versions of Guesstures and Scene It. There was discussion for quite a while before it was decided to play neither, and, instead play a different game. Since all the discussion was in rapid discussion, it took me until the game started to figure out it that it was Charades, and that all of the things to guess were movies.

I generally enjoy a good game of Charades. And, the last time I played it was at an office party at Christmas time, with all of the topics being taken from AFI’s 100 years… 100 movies list. I must say, modestly, that I did pretty good. One highlight was when one person picked a movie, said I’ve never even heard of this movie, started out acting by gesturing that there’s 3 words, and me immediately shouting out “His Girl Friday,” and being correct, much to the shock of everyone, and all sorts of conspiracy theories being spewed. The other highlight was when I pulled a movie title, then asked whether I would have to get people to guess the whole title or not, or if part of it was okay. I was told that I would have to do the whole title. So, I started out by gesturing that there’s 13 words, and proceeded to act out Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a time limit at this game….

I figured that it would be pretty simple to just watch, and maybe pick up a few more words, or at least laugh at people trying to get other people to guess what they are charading. I mean, I wouldn’t have to try and act out Spanish-titled movies to Spanish-speakers, would I? Wrong.

The teams were men against women, and there were double the women then there were men – though I didn’t think that would make a difference. It did though. At one point, I was asked to get up and partake. I politely declined – how could I possible act out something that I don’t understand to people who are saying things I don’t understand? They asked again – I declined. Eventually, it turned into chants of “Ryan! Ryan! Ryan!”

Ummmm… I guess I had to be a good sport and try it out…

I went to the bowl, picked a piece of paper and hoped for something like “Spider Man.” Nope. It was 7 words long, in Spanish, and I had no idea what it was. Reading it slowly, I was able to understand 6 of the words, but not the last one. I showed Rosy, and she understood it, but was having trouble explaining it. Then, once I translated the words I did know, I realized that it was the terrible movie that Rosy and I had watched 2 days earlier – El día q’la tierra se detuvo. In English, that’s The Day the Earth Stood Still.

So, now that I had everything that I needed – except an idea of how to make this work in Spanish – I took a deep breath, and started. Thankfully, I was able to get “tierra” quick – patted the floor, then shaped a globe with my hand. Ahhh, this is easy, I thought, and moved on to “dia.” I tried a bunch of stuff, however, not knowing what the other people were shouting at me, it was a little difficult to know whether they were close or not.

At one point, one of the guessers said something about “Keanu,” so I pointed and nodded, but that didn’t work. He was racking his brain trying to remember the name of it, while I kept pointing. Nope. Then, I had the brainstorm of acting out the 7th word, so I stood still – and, apparently somebody shouted it out ’cause everyone started screaming, and chanting my name again.

Victory! I conquered Charades in another language!

Then, after an extremely poor performance on one of the men’s turns, it was decided that all the men would have to do a shot of Tequila. I’m still not really sure whether it was because of just that one turn, or because we were generally sucking on most of our turns.

Eventually the next turn, it was decided that I would go up again. I again tried to decline, but I wasn’t as insistent as before, especially after one of the guys said, in English, “We need your help!” So, I got up, picked a piece of paper out of the bowl, and unrolled it. Esta cuerpo no es mio. In English, this translates as “This Body is not Mine.” I had, and still have, no idea whether this is an English movie, or only in Spanish.

“No” was super easy, but I had problems with “Cuerpo” and “Mio.” Again, it’s difficult to know whether people are guessing something close to what your saying so that you could possible guide them or slightly change what you’re doing. Eventually, time ran out, and I went to sit back down, dejectedly, in English.

I was hoping that this would be their lesson, and they wouldn’t call on me again, but, no, they did. This time I got El Guarda Espaldas, which is The Bodyguard. However, note that “espaldas” is not “cuerpo,” which means “body.” And, I actually had no idea what “espaldas” actually meant in English. Fortunately, someone has recently acted out “guardiana,” so, I just did what he did and acted out that it was a shorter word, and when they got “Guarda,” they got the rest of the movie immediately.

After another shot of Tequila due to our bad performance, I was called up again. At this point, we had run out of titles on paper, and the women asked me if I knew the movie Million Dollar Baby, and I said that I did. And they said, “Well, the title in Spanish is …. Golpes del destino.” And, I thought, “That has nothing to do with ‘Million’ or ‘Dollar’ or ‘Baby.’” They told me that it translated back into English as “Hits of Destiny.”

So, I thought I’d give it my best shot.

All I did was start punching like a boxer, and, thankfully, someone saved my pain by getting it right!

Four attempts and three correct! Not too bad, considering that I know about 4 words in Spanish…