"Colombianadas"

By Laura Gonzalez (undergraduate FIGRI student)

On February 25^th I was reading a magazine and I found an article, which I think describes us Colombians very well. The article is called “manual to distinguish a Colombian abroad” written by Maria Jimena Duzan (revista semana online).

The author begins by saying that Colombians are the only ones that, when they want to buy something, say “Me Regala” which means to get the product for free. According to Maria Jimena Duzan, if you go to Spain for example and ask the waiter: “Me regala…” he will probably answer that you have to pay for it.

Another fact is that Colombians usually clap when the plane lands; this is the best way, according to the author, to know if there are any Colombians on the plane. This might be because Colombians love to clap; they do it even when it is not necessary.

I know many of you who have family or friends abroad have suffered from the famous “Encargo”. Colombians do not have any problems about asking you to take for them whatever whim they have, and they are usually things which are difficult to carry like Obleas with Arequipe, Bocadillo, Coffee Delight or sometimes even bigger things like decorative items for their houses.

Finally, something I think should not be this way is that when Colombians travel abroad they do everything they do not do inside Colombia. They do not throw trash in the streets, they respect the lights, and in general they are well behaved and obey the other country’s laws and traditions. So I do not understand why it is possible to do all of this outside Colombia instead of doing it within Colombia and taking care of our country.

You have probably noticed how Colombians tend to name everything in English; that is why you can find someone called Usnavy or Onedollar and restaurants with a terribly misspelled English name. This may be because many Colombians wish to be North Americans or from any other place but Colombia; basically in Colombia there is a lack of patriotism.

To conclude, we Colombians are full of weird and funny features; if you stop and take time to think about it, you will notice how special we are.