# lazy - the students are too lazy



## hbrolly01

Los estudiantes de esta Residencia tiene mas oportunidades en relacion con sus professores: A veces tienen los visitantes famosas que dan las lecturas a los estudiantes.No es justo! Por otra lado aqui no tenemos esta oportunidad de asisitir a estos tipos de clases! Por lo tanto existen caracteristicos similares de ambos universitarios. Es importante notar la frase divertida que utiliza, Jose "tener a la vista maleta para el momento" que es la verdad para muchas estudiantes porque nadie quiere colgar o plancharsu ropa.Los estudiantes son demasiado lazy???


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## Mei

Hola,

¿Quieres saber el significado de lazy?

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=laZY

Mei


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## gato2

hbrolly01 said:
			
		

> Los estudiantes de esta Residencia tiene mas oportunidades en relacion con sus profesores: A veces tienen a visitantes famosos que dan conferencias a los estudiantes.No es justo! Por otra lado aqui no tenemos esta oportunidad de asisitir a estos tipos de clase! Por lo tanto existen características similares en ambos universitarios. Es importante notar la divertida frase que utiliza, José "tener a la vista la maleta para el momento" que es cierto para muchos estudiantes porque nadie quiere colgar o plancharse la ropa.Los estudiantes son demasiado perezosos???


 
Aqui tienes una correcion pero seria interesante que otros diesen su interpretacion porque lo de la maleta no lo acabo de entender


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## cuchuflete

Hola Hbrolly01,

There is a sticky message at the top of the menu:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=20801

This will show you about a dozen ways to write accents.

Your essay has at least one repeated error: agreement in gender of nouns and adjectives.  Also, you have mixed plural nouns with singular verbs.  Spelling needs attention throughout.


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## chucknorris

i think i have heard people use the word flaca as a synonim for lazy in mexico? Is this correct?


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## Luchadorconan

I've been teaching Spanish for about ten years. The textbook defines lazy as perezoso, but I've talked to a couple of Mexican Spanish speakers that have never heard of the word. This seems strange. For example, Mexican Spanish speakers know what a piscina is even if they prefer alberca. Any thoughts?


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## Soledad Medina

The word 'perezoso' is widely used among Spanish speakers.  You can use it with confidence to translate the word 'lazy'.   
Some other alternatives for 'lazy' are: holgazán, haragán o vago but I prefer 'perezoso'.


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## Circunflejo

Luchadorconan said:


> Any thoughts?


Maybe, if you ask them about the set phrase _ni tardo ni perezoso_, they'll recall it.

Of course, wait for the Mexicans of the forum because they are who can tell you the most relevant info.


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## Soledad Medina

As a last resource, you can forget about translating 'lazy' as 'perezoso'.  There are other options as, for instance, 'holgazán'.


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## dalv

Perezoso is the correct word, but to be honest I hardly hear (if ever) any of my friends and family say it.  The most I hear is "flojo" very informal and even more informal or colloquial in some regions "guevon" I'm not even sure if that's spelled correctly


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## Soledad Medina

Dalv, your options are acceptable if you're talking with family and close friends, but I don't think they would be appropriate in a document.


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## borgonyon

Si perdonan mi falta de «alcurnia», lo que la gente dice mayormente es: *huevón*.


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## dalv

Soledad Medina said:


> Dalv, your options are acceptable if you're talking with family and close friends, but I don't think they would be appropriate in a document.


Very true that's why I said is *very *informal and luchador is just asking for any thoughts. Like I said perezoso is the correct word and even though the people I know don't use it, they still know what it means. I don't know what part of Mexico these people are from (the ones luchador asked) that's why offered the other two options I have heard even though they are not formal.


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## dalv

borgonyon said:


> Si perdonan mi falta de «alcurnia», lo que la gente dice mayormente es: *huevón*.


So that's how its spelled! thank you borgonyon


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## MonsieurGonzalito

La pereza no es lo mismo que la holgazanería.


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## gengo

Luchadorconan said:


> The textbook defines lazy as perezoso, but I've talked to a couple of Mexican Spanish speakers that have never heard of the word. This seems strange. ... Any thoughts?



My thought is that this says more about those two people than about knowledge in Mexico of the word perezoso.  While actual usage may vary, I can't imagine a Mexican with any sort of education not knowing the word perezoso.  In addition to huevón and flojo, I have heard Mexicans here and in Mexico use perezoso, although it's possible that that is because people tend to speak to me using more standard language, rather than hardcore slang, because I don't speak like a native.  But not using a word frequently is a far cry from never having heard of it.


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## Circunflejo

borgonyon said:


> *huevón*.





dalv said:


> So that's how its spelled! thank you borgonyon


The spelling güevón is also valid.


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## Richard Dick

"Huevón" familiar y vulgar.


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## fenixpollo

Luchadorconan said:


> I've talked to a couple of Mexican Spanish speakers that have never heard of the word


What age were they? What was their education level? Where did they grow up? While *flojo* is the most common word for lazy, and *huevón*/*güevón* is a vulgar option, most Mexicans would know *perezoso* as a formal option.


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## Alejandro ZD

fenixpollo said:


> What age were they? What was their education level? Where did they grow up? While *flojo* is the most common word for lazy, and *huevón*/*güevón* is a vulgar option, most Mexicans would know *perezoso* as a formal option.


I second this answer. 
Perezoso should be known by most Mexicans and spanish speakers as it is taken from the animal itslef which is very lazy. .


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## Luchadorconan

fenixpollo said:


> What age were they? What was their education level? Where did they grow up? While *flojo* is the most common word for lazy, and *huevón*/*güevón* is a vulgar option, most Mexicans would know *perezoso* as a formal option.


One person was an adult working as a para that grew up in Mexico, but has lived in the U.S for many years, and the other was a high school heritage speaker. They were trying to help one of my students and were baffled by the word. What was I teaching my students?!


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## Circunflejo

Luchadorconan said:


> What was I teaching my students?!


Spanish, as you can see from the answers you got. Be sure that your students are (very) unlikely to find Spanish speakers unaware of the meaning of _perezoso_.


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## divina

_¿Ocioso? _


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## User With No Name

Circunflejo said:


> Be sure that your students are (very) unlikely to find Spanish speakers unaware of the meaning of _perezoso_.


I wouldn't go quite that far. In my experience, Mexicans do strongly prefer "flojo" (or "huevón") to "perezoso." And while no doubt the vast majority of Mexicans would understand "perezoso" with no problem, I think a fair number of people with limited education and exposure to other varieties of the language, and especially heritage speakers, who may have had little or no exposure to the language outside the home setting, might not.


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## michelmontescuba

"Heritage speakers". God, I love this forum! 😅


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## User With No Name

michelmontescuba said:


> "Heritage speakers". God, I love this forum! 😅


It's a common term in the language-teaching field. Heritage speakers are people who grow up speaking one language (in this case, Spanish) at home but live in a place where another language (English) is spoken, and whose education was in the latter language. Obviously, they are in a very different situation linguistically than an actual native speaker or a beginning student of the language.


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## michelmontescuba

User With No Name said:


> It's a common term in the language-teaching field. Heritage speakers are people who grow up speaking one language (in this case, Spanish) at home but live in a place where another language (English) is spoken, and whose education was in the latter language. Obviously, they are in a very different situation linguistically than an actual native speaker or a beginning student of the language.


Yes, and I'm glad I learnt this, 'cause I just love the term. Thank you.


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## gengo

User With No Name said:


> ...I think a fair number of people with limited education and exposure to other varieties of the language, and especially heritage speakers, who may have had little or no exposure to the language outside the home setting, might not.



Good point.  Americans who grow up speaking a language other than English at home often are lacking in vocabulary in that language that a person who grew up in another country would have as a matter of course.  They typically don't read books in their first language (only reading English), and that is where our wider vocabulary really comes into play.

Some heritage speakers are insecure about their skills in both languages, because it's not unusual for them to be a bit short of 100% in both, but I always tell them, "Look, monolingual Americans might know a bit more English than you do, but if you consider your total knowledge, combining both your languages, your knowledge is far greater than that of any monolingual."

Luchadorconan, you can teach your students words such as perezoso, so that their vocabulary expands in both of their languages.


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## michelmontescuba

Gengo, me alegra mucho que hayas clarificado ese punto, pues yo siempre tuve la impresión de que las personas nacidas en USA, de familias hispanas no hablaban perfecto ninguno de los dos idiomas. Ya veo que no solo era una impresión.


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## Circunflejo

User With No Name said:


> while no doubt the vast majority of Mexicans would understand "perezoso" with no problem


That's basically what my comment meant but extended to all the Spanish speaking world. Did I go too far by saying (very) unlikely? Maybe, but the vast majority of native Spanish speakers should know the meaning of perezoso.


gengo said:


> Luchadorconan, you can teach your students words such as perezoso, so that their vocabulary expands in both of their languages.


I would go further. You must make it. Otherwise, you would be undervaluing Spanish and spreading ignorance.


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## michelmontescuba

Amén


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## Richard Dick

"Perezoso" es bastante formal.


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## Luchadorconan

Thanks for all your comments.  I too love these forums! Truly invaluable information for teachers.
On a separate note, I'm pretty sure I didn't write the current title of the thread. I don't know if it's an improvement.


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## OtroLencho

Circunflejo said:


> The spelling güevón is also valid.


By whose criteria?  I have seen it (as I've seen "güey" for "buey"), but it seems... well, substandard.


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## fenixpollo

OtroLencho said:


> By whose criteria?  I have seen it (as I've seen "güey" for "buey"), but it seems... well, substandard.


It's in the WR dictionary and the Collins dictionary (güevón), as is its root word (güevo). Nonstandard or informal, perhaps, but certainly not substandard.


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## User With No Name

fenixpollo said:


> It's in the WR dictionary and the Collins dictionary (güevón), as is its root word (güevo). Nonstandard or informal, perhaps, but certainly not substandard.


One thing I've never been sure about.

Is huevón/güevón vulgar (in the English sense, as in offensive), probably from huevos="balls," or is it just very informal (maybe like a big egg, that just sits around and doesn't do much)?

Sorry if this is topic drift, but we are discussing how to express a common word in both languages.


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## michelmontescuba

User With No Name said:


> One thing I've never been sure about.
> 
> Is huevón/güevón vulgar (in the English sense, as in offensive), probably from huevos="balls," or is it just very informal (maybe like a big egg, that just sits around and doesn't do much)?
> 
> Sorry if this is topic drift, but we are discussing how to express a common word in both languages.


Como yo lo interpreto (huevón) viene de tener los huevos (balls, testicles) grandes. Si tengo los huevos grandes entonces soy muy macho, si soy muy macho entonces soy el jefe, si soy el jefe entonces no tengo que hacer nada porque los demás lo hacen por mí, si no hago nada entonces soy un vago, si soy un vago entonces soy un HUEVÓN. Creo que por ahí puede haberse derivado el término, pero no me creas a mí que soy cubano y en Cuba no se usa el término, mejor espera por la opinión de un mexicano. Probablemente todo lo que te haya dicho sea un gran disparate. Luego puedes reírte de mí si quieres. 😅


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## Richard Dick

Se dice "huevón" a una persona porque le pesan los huevos y no lo dejan caminar, hacer algo. Al menos en México.
También se le puede decir a la mujer, aunque no tenga huevos, (huevona).


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## michelmontescuba

Que fácil hubiera sido quedarme callado 😂


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## forever_learner

User With No Name said:


> One thing I've never been sure about.
> 
> Is huevón/güevón vulgar (in the English sense, as in offensive), probably from huevos="balls," or is it just very informal (maybe like a big egg, that just sits around and doesn't do much)?
> 
> Sorry if this is topic drift, but we are discussing how to express a common word in both languages.


¡Ja ja! ¡Sabia pregunta! Te sugiero que por el sur no la uses (sería la primera forma), a menos que quieras terminar "a las manos".


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## Circunflejo

OtroLencho said:


> By whose criteria?


RAE. It's on its dictionary.


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## Luchadorconan

Circunflejo said:


> That's basically what my comment meant but extended to all the Spanish speaking world. Did I go too far by saying (very) unlikely? Maybe, but the vast majority of native Spanish speakers should know the meaning of perezoso.
> 
> I would go further. You must make it. Otherwise, you would be undervaluing Spanish and spreading ignorance.



I think you meant _You must do it_, but I understood.


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## OtroLencho

Circunflejo said:


> RAE. It's on its dictionary.


"Güevón"?  I must be looking in the wrong place.  With a regular lookup it tells me:

"Aviso: La palabra *güevón* no está en el Diccionario. La entrada que se muestra a continuación podría estar relacionada:
huevón, na (huevón) "


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## Circunflejo

Luchadorconan said:


> I think you meant _You must do it_





OtroLencho said:


> "Güevón"? I must be looking in the wrong place.


My fault. It isn't on the dictionary of the RAE but on the Diccionario de Americanismos of the ASALE; being the RAE one of the members of the ASALE.


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## Richard Dick

Sin embargo, huevón por valiente u osado no agota la fortaleza del término en mexicano porque el genio de las mexicanadas es vulgar pero no ilógico:  de huevón (testículos grandes) deviene que pesan, y de cargarlos se deduce un cierto aletargamiento existencial. Es decir, alguien con huevos grandes o con muchos huevos tiene que ser, por necesidad, lento y, a razón de las raras maneras con que la vulgaridad se rejunta, de lento se sigue perezoso, vago, haragán.
Mexicanismos – Mauricio Tenorio |  	  Huevón/Hueva/a Huevo


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## Mr.Dent

It is also possible that the word _perezoso _was just not used where they grew up.
I have had 2 Mexican sisters tell me that a _jerga _was a _trapo para limpiar el piso_ and had no idea that _jerga also_ meant slang.
When I was in Puerto Vallarta a Mexican told me that the word for the tool I was using was _araña _and was unfamiliar with the word _rastrillo. _


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## gengo

Richard Dick said:


> Sin embargo, huevón por valiente u osado no agota la fortaleza del término en mexicano porque el genio de las mexicanadas es vulgar pero no ilógico:  de huevón (testículos grandes) deviene que pesan, y de cargarlos se deduce un cierto aletargamiento existencial. Es decir, alguien con huevos grandes o con muchos huevos tiene que ser, por necesidad, lento y, a razón de las raras maneras con que la vulgaridad se rejunta, de lento se sigue perezoso, vago, haragán.



That makes sense, until we come to the feminine form huevona.  It has always struck me as odd to use this word for a lazy woman, because of its etymology.  Yes, I understand that language isn't always logical (especially English), but still.


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## Ballenero

Luchadorconan said:


> I've been teaching Spanish for about ten years. The textbook defines lazy as perezoso, but I've talked to a couple of Mexican Spanish speakers that have never heard of the word. This seems strange. For example, Mexican Spanish speakers know what a piscina is even if they prefer alberca. Any thoughts?


I can't believe they didn't know this word since it came from "Pereza".
This is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Since there is no "Hueveza", How would they say laziness in Spanish?

Now this is the question, Are you sure you pronounce it correctly? I'm thinking it isn't an easy word to an ENS.


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## OtroLencho

Ballenero said:


> Since there is no "Hueveza", How would they say laziness in Spanish?



"Flojera".


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## gengo

Ballenero said:


> Now this is the question, Are you sure you pronounce it correctly? I'm thinking it isn't an easy word to an ENS.



On this side of the Atlantic, it is easy for NESs to pronounce, because we have no ceceo.


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## Circunflejo

gengo said:


> On this side of the Atlantic, it is easy for NESs to pronounce, because we have no ceceo.


I guess @Ballenero wasn't thinking about ceceo but about seseo.


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## gengo

Circunflejo said:


> I guess @Ballenero wasn't thinking about ceceo but about seseo.



I would expect a Spanish teacher to be able to sesear a Z without any trouble.  Ballenero was questioning whether the OP (a teacher) was pronouncing perezoso correctly.


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## Circunflejo

gengo said:


> Ballenero was questioning whether the OP (a teacher) was pronouncing perezoso correctly.


Yes, I understood that part. With ceceo, it would be perezozo. With seseo, it would be peresoso. I guess @Ballenero meant the later but, of course, I might be wrong. The correct one would be perezoso.


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## gengo

Circunflejo said:


> Yes, I understood that part. With ceceo, it would be perezozo. With seseo, it would be peresoso. I guess @Ballenero meant the later but, of course, I might be wrong. The correct one would be perezoso.



But over here, perezoso = peresoso, in terms of pronunciation.  That is, there is no TH sound, so it is very easy for a NES to pronounce, assuming a basic knowledge of Spanish orthography, which a teacher should have.


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## Circunflejo

gengo said:


> But over here, perezoso = peresoso, in terms of pronunciation.


Yes, I know but be aware that Ballenero is on the other side of the Atlantic. Anyway, let's wait for his answer.


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## User With No Name

gengo said:


> It is very easy for a NES to pronounce



Plus, it's consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel.... It's words with diphthongs and consonant clusters that tend to give English speakers problems.

I reiterate the fact that in my experience, "perezoso" is just not a very common word in everyday Mexican Spanish. Most people would know it, certainly, but if someone has limited education or exposure to the language, the fact that they might not know it does not strike me as at all far fetched.


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## Ballenero

Circunflejo said:


> I guess @Ballenero wasn't thinking about ceceo but about seseo.


And the single 'r'.



OtroLencho said:


> "Flojera".


Flojera as one of the Seven Deadly Sins?
I will try to find the movie Seven in the mexican version.


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## Dymn

Well it looks like there's a difference between how the word is used in Spain and how it's used in Mexico. In Spain it's not slang but it's not formal either, you can perfectly use it in daily speech. I don't think the seven deadly sins are a big part of one's life. Is _sloth_ a common word in English? Or _gula _and _lujuria_ in European Spanish? I can perfectly imagine a European Spanish heritage speaker in the USA not knowing one of those two words.

I don't know if insisting so much is worth it.


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## OtroLencho

Ballenero said:


> Flojera as one of the Seven Deadly Sins?


I have no clue what those are in _any_ language.


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## Luchadorconan

gengo said:


> I would expect a Spanish teacher to be able to sesear a Z without any trouble.  Ballenero was questioning whether the OP (a teacher) was pronouncing perezoso correctly.


They saw the word in print. I wasn’t present. They were trying to help a student with homework I had assigned. The para mentioned to me later that she wasn’t familiar with the word.


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## Dymn

What is para?


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## Guayete05

¿Paramédico? Supooongo...


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## User With No Name

Dymn said:


> What is para?


Probably better to wait for the original poster, but I think it's "paraprofessional" or something along those lines. A teacher's aide, basically. Someone who helps the teacher, but probably doesn't have a college degree and thus isn't qualified to be a teacher themselves.


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## manxo

Debe ser lo que aquí llamamos un lector, una persona nativa del idioma que se enseña cuya función es, en esencia, promover que los alumnos hablen y entiendan la lengua extranjera. Habitualmente, no es un titulado.


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## Guayete05

Sí, aquí también lo llamaríamos un "auxiliar de conversación". Pero a ver qué nos dice "luchadorconan" sobre qué puede ser "para".


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## Luchadorconan

User With No Name said:


> Probably better to wait for the original poster, but I think it's "paraprofessional" or something along those lines. A teacher's aide, basically. Someone who helps the teacher, but probably doesn't have a college degree and thus isn't qualified to be a teacher themselves.


¡Eso es!


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