Chopos and other Dominicanisms

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chola1978

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I have been pushing for us adults in this forum to stop usign the terms chopos, domyorks and many other terms that are offensive to some of us.. can the mod help with this also..or am i in the minority that thinks this way..
Ps great job so far.. please help me out if possible.
Heck even if intended as and adive.. for those that are new ..the term chopos should nto be introduce as they might belive its oeky to call someone a chopo.
 
May 31, 2005
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I have been pushing for us adults in this forum to stop usign the terms chopos, domyorks and many other terms that are offensive to some of us.. can the mod help with this also..or am i in the minority that thinks this way..
Ps great job so far.. please help me out if possible.
Heck even if intended as and adive.. for those that are new ..the term chopos should nto be introduce as they might belive its oeky to call someone a chopo.

You are not the only one. I agree with you. I am Dominican and I grew up believing that calling someone a chopo is a bad thing. Some people think they get Dominican culture so well and then there are things like this that they don't get.
 

Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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When the chopa/chopo word first started to appear on the board, one gringa member started referring to her maid as 'my chopa' and had to be informed by a Dominican member that this was very offensive.

'Chopo' is different: correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard it off the board to mean a very tacky person of either gender.

I absolutely agree that foreigners in any country need to be very careful when using local slang and swear words because they rarely get the subtleties and can easily end up putting their foot in it.
 

jrhartley

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Its one of my pet peeves.....europeans and americans dropping in the occassional spanish word when posting- novia/novio is particularly annoying to me, why just drop in one word when one is posting in English
 

Chirimoya

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A recent example was a poster who was talking about 'culos', when in the DR it means something a little more specific :)
'Nalgas' is the correct word.
 
Mar 2, 2008
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"Its one of my pet peeves.....europeans and americans dropping in the occassional spanish word when posting- novia/novio is particularly annoying to me, why just drop in one word when one is posting in English"
jrhartley

jr, come on now, while the "one-word" interjection of Spanish might be irritating, and perhaps even unnecessary at times, there are occasions when no other word fits the bill as a descriptor. While novio/novia might not meet that criteria, those words have a much different connotation than girlfriend/boyfriend, don't you think?

By the way, something even more annoying than the interjection of a Spanish word from time to time is being snubbed at Rocky's, wouldn't you agree?
 

jrhartley

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:eek: errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr lo siento lol , now I annoyed myself, ive met people before and they usually seem underwhelmed lol
 

bachata

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"Chopo" in the DR = white trash or neger in the US.

JJ
 

suarezn

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"Chopo" in the DR = white trash or neger in the US.

JJ

Nope...Perfect example of why people shouldn't try to use slang words from a different language without truly knowing the connotations / implications of such words.
 
Mar 2, 2008
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"Nope...Perfect example of why people shouldn't try to use slang words from a different language without truly knowing the connotations / implications of such words."
suarezn

I don't disagree with you, but I think it's only fair to give your definition of term if you don't like the one that was offered. Simply saying it's incorrect doesn't really help anyone to understand its meaning.
 

suarezn

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"Nope...Perfect example of why people shouldn't try to use slang words from a different language without truly knowing the connotations / implications of such words."
suarezn

I don't disagree with you, but I think it's only fair to give your definition of term if you don't like the one that was offered. Simply saying it's incorrect doesn't really help anyone to understand its meaning.

Bachata may know what chopo means in The DR (maybe), but it is not even close to the "n" word in The US. First off it is spelled nigger not neger and this word has connotations and a history that stems back from the time of slavery of African Americans. White trash (In The US) may be closer to the significance some people here want to give the word Chopo.

For instance, I've lived in The US long enough and have a background diverse enough to understand the meaning of some of these words, yet I don't go around calling people white trash or the "n" word (even though I do have a ghetto pass), because it's rude. Same thing applies in The DR. Furthermore language is a living / changing thing...what can be an offensive word today or in this part of the country may be a totally cool word tomorrow or in a different part of the country.

Anyhow if we all stayed away from these words then you wouldn't have to worry whether you offended someone or not.
 
Mar 2, 2008
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I understand what you're saying, and I se the difference.

The "n" word has a lot of hateful intent attached to it, and it is a word I would never use, at any time. So I think that is much different than "chopo", which might be used in a humorous context at times, or in the diminutive, "chopito".
 

AlterEgo

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Anyhow if we all stayed away from these words then you wouldn't have to worry whether you offended someone or not.

AMEN!

Spanish is my second language, and it was slow in coming because my husband didn't encourage me to learn it 35 yrs ago when we met. Why? He was afraid I would say a wrong word and insult someone. He was particularly concerned I would use tu instead of 'usted' to the wrong person. Never mind call someone a chopo or chopa, or one of the other lovely words I've heard these past decades. For example, some Americans use the curse 'son of a bitch' rather casually - them's fighting words in DR. His family usually refers to their maid as 'la muchacha', never la chopa. That's not to say they don't use the word, but it's usually within the family - for example, explaining to a brother why they won't go to a specific place/bar/etc "because it's full of chopas".
 

jrhartley

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how can you differentiate between tu and usted if the s isnt pronounced (apart from the obvious of using tu and usted as well lol)
 

MikeFisher

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if we are not allowed to use the common and by public understandable words to describe specific people we are talking about, how should we communicate?
trash is trash and should be named exactly trash, if the local word for such is chopo(a word i never used and did not hear in my dominican surroundings in 14 years, so on that word i am not referring to own experience, i am talking in general) so i would name them chopos, if somebody is IMO a asshole i darn sure will name him exactly that.
the same with the positive words.
if someone is my friend i just call him my friend.
no more and no less.

Mike
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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I for one have not heard the word chopo/chopa used here in my almost 4 years in Santiago/Moca but would not have a problem limiting the use of some words as the system already revents the use of some offensive words in English.
 

Chirimoya

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jrhartley probably means that when the pronoun is dropped, which is normal in Spanish, you can't tell the difference between the informal and polite form of address because of the widespread practice of dropping the s:

e.g. '(t?) sabes' and '(usted) sabe' are both commonly pronounced as 'sabe'.
 
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