Martes trece = Friday the 13th

I am reading a young adult fiction book en Español, and I ran across the sentence, "me sale con un martes trece." Come to find out, in Spanish cultures, this is considered to be their day of bad luck like our Friday the 13th would be. Eh, in any culture superstition is for the superstitious.

But the sentence above makes little sense out of context. I think in the story, the characters were trying to figure out a schedule or when to do something, and the only day available was a Tuesday the 13th. So in context the translation would be something like, "Let's see, which day can I do it. Hmm, I'm busy on Monday and Wednesday. That leaves me with Tuesday the 13th." Martes TRECE. dundundun.

Breve escala

I visited the Destinos website today, and all of the sudden (de repente), I find that they've improved it! They've added closed captioning, and the video quality is wildly improved. I clicked on the video where Raquel goes to Argentina (the first Argentine video), and came across the phrase "breve escala". The term was used when describing Raquel's flight from Spain to Argentina. So, I put the phrase in the translator at Spanishdict.com to find out what it means. Only I typed it, "breva escala" which means "fig scale". What? Why are they talking about fig scale? Did Raquel eat a bad meal on the plane or something? Then it dawned on me. Check the spelling. So, "Breve escala" with an "e" on the end of "Brev" means "short stop". Like, a brief layover on a flight! What a difference a letter can make.

Ganar

I was thinking about how to translate the sentence, "Too much ambiguity makes me want to quit my studies." Google translate is very helpful, but not in this case. Translators are often wrong, especially with the grammar, which is why I love the Spanishdict website because I can ask questions there.

The sentence translated on Goggle as "demasiada ambiguidad me dan ganas de dejar mis estudios." This seemed weird. The word dan is a form of dar- to give. It also seemed like google gave me a form of ganar- to win. However, "ganas" here is a plural feminine verb meaning desire or inclination. So I asked on Spanishdict. The correct translation would be, "Demasiada ambiguidad me da ganas de dejar mis estudios." Which translates as, "Too much ambiguity gives me the desire to quit my studies." And I would use the da instead of dan because ambiguity is singular. OK then.

Gana = desire, wish
Ganas de = desires to, inclinations to
"me dan ganas de llorar" -> I feel like crying

Comfort with ambiguity

I'm reading a facebook discussion page for teachers of foreign languages using the TPRS method.  One comment read, "comfort with ambiguity is a very important life skill."  Qué verdad.  But too much ambiguity makes me want to quit my studies.