Kiwi Spanish

I can't blame Kiwi's for not knowing how to pronounce Spanish. Americans are surrounded by Spanish words, Spanish speakers and most of us learned basic Spanish in school. (Hey, I can't speak Maori or pronounce it, so we're in the same boat!!) But it is still super funny to us to hear they way some people here pronounce words.

We heard a guy say "cojones" the other day, and pronounced the "j". So I thought it would be nice of me to put up a little lesson for any Kiwi readers out there! =)

Spanish Lesson:
J's are usually an "H" sound.
LL are always a "Y" sound.

tortillas = tore-tee-yahs
jalapenos = ha-la-pain-yo's.
cojonoes = cah-ho-nays
quesadilla- kay-sah-dee-yah

And let's learn some French while we're at it:
filet = fih-ley (not fill-it)... just like the French word ballet is bah-lay, not bah-let

I've been thinking about taking an intro to Maori course... maybe someday I'll be able to pronounce all the Maori words and be able to read some of the signs around town!