Una Palabra Sola Episode 22, el arreglo
It’s not about the conversations that will happen, nor is it all about the mistakes any of us have made… all you need is this present moment. Put your mind on straight, and find your language skills improving.
Song recommendation: Se Vive Mejor por Antonio José y Juan Magán.
arreglo: (n) repair, cleanliness, an agreement, musical arrangement
Synonyms: reparación, reforma, remedio, ajuste (repair, reform, fix, adjustment); coordinación, orden (organization, order); acuerdo, trato, pacto, alianza (agreement, pact, alliance); adaptación (adaptation, dramatization)
Antonyms: desarreglo, (disorder, mess), rotura (break, tear)
From the Latin regŭla (barra de medir, regla, norma) and regulare (dirigir, reglar, normativizar)
For reflection:
Do you feel like there’s enough transition time? How can you add more?
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Where’s your center? Is there room for an arreglito?
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Is arreglo showing up in your life physically, mentally, or emotionally?
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TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Hola y bienvenidos, hello and welcome to Una Palabra Sola, where we get to learn Spanish one word at a time. I'm your host, Megan Miller, founder and teacher at Aprovechar Language Solutions. Empezamos and let's dive in. Hola, hola, otra vez. Welcome back to Una Palabra Sola, a place where we get to learn Spanish one word a la vez, one word at a time. Y ahora ya es la hora de arreglar cosas. This is a sentence that I find myself saying a lot. It's one of those magical things where there's a lot more explanation in English than Spanish for this magical verb, arreglar. Today we're actually going to be talking about the noun from this verb. El sustantivo, the noun is el arreglo, so let's just go ahead and dive right in.
El arrelglo is a noun. It is a sustantivo. It is el arreglo because it ends in O, so it is masculine. And arreglar, arreglo, it means a lot of different things. So, the first thing that it really means is kind of like repair, el arreglo. It also means cleanliness. It can mean an agreement. It also can mean a musical arrangement. And you can hear me probably too much because I trill too much, uh, but it is A R R E G L O so, arreglo.
For example, por ejemplo, el arreglo de carro me cuesta dos mil dólares. The repair, the car repair cost me two thousand dollars. Mil is thousand, for all of you non-numerical Spanish speakers. Me cuesta dos mil dólares. It cost me two thousand dollars. You can also say, por ejemplo, llegó el arreglo que esperamos, meaning we came to an agreement that we all were wishing for, hoping for, waiting for. Llegó el arreglo.
2:30
Another word taken from my personal history. Mi bisabuelo era compositor, y los músicos no les gustaban sus arreglos. So, fun fact, my great-grandfather was a composer. He composed classical music, and a lot of his musicians did not like his arrangements, his musical arrangements, sus arreglos.
Etymology, this is a fun one. I had to go to etimologiadechile.net for this. This comes from regulare, from Latin, which is like dirigir, reglar, normativizar, which is to direct, to kind of rule, reglar. It's where like la regla, the rule comes from, or to normalize. Even before then, this came from the word, also in Latin, regula. And this was a barra de medir, or like a measuring stick, or una regla, or una norma. So this was like your measuring stick, or your norm, or your rule, kind of where that goes.
Sinónimos, synonyms, there are just as many synonyms as there are possibilities for the definition of this word. You can have la reparación, la reforma, el remedio, el ajuste. And this is kind of the repair. Reforma is like a political fix, or it can just be a fix. Remedio, this is like your solution, your remedy. Ajuste, this is your kind of adjustment. I'm a short person, so I think about every time I buy pants, there needs to be some reparación, some ajuste. I need to go arreglar mis pantalones because they are not meant for my hobbit-sized legs. You also have la coordinación, el orden, and this is like the coordination, the order of things. So el arreglo is like putting things in order. If you, like me, are also currently thinking about that gif from the otter where he is trying to stack cups and he gets very frustrated because his cups are not stacking in order.
First of all, if you don't know what I'm talking about, definitely worth a watch. It is a gif. It is a couple seconds, but it is fun. And second of all, that is kind of that coordinación, orden, right? You want to poner en orden. You want to put in order some of your things. You want to arreglar those things.
5:20
Otro sinónimos, you can have un acuerdo, un trato, un pacto, una alianza. So, un acuerdo is like an agreement, same with a trato. It kind of looks more like a treaty, but that is an agreement. A pact, un pacto, or an alliance, una alianza. And, por los músicos, for any of those musical arrangements, you can also have una adaptación.
Como antonimos, as antonyms, there aren't many, because really, there is one antonym to rule them all, and that is el desarreglo. So, yep, you heard me right. It is the same as our noun, arreglo, with des, d e s, in front of it, and that means a disorder, a mess, a muck about; however you would want to describe un desarreglo. Or you can also have una rotura, which is like a break or a tear. I guess the opposite of any kind of musical adaptation is just silence.
Como palabras semejantes, similar words, related words. Arreglar, I have mentioned this verb too many times already, and that means to fix, repair, to freshen up. Otras palabras semejantes o relacionadas, you have la persona quien arregla, right, so you have the person who repairs or repairer, and that is un arreglador or una arregladora. You can also have el participio, the participle, meaning está arreglado. It is fixed. It is repaired. It is made up. It is ready, essentially. Like, por ejemplo, when I go get my pants hemmed, then they can be están arreglados. Right? Están listos para llevar[se]. They are ready to be worn for my short-ass legs. They are fixed, they're repaired, they're made up.
7:40
And this word, quite honestly, came to my attention, it came to my mind, because quite honestly, blame it on all of the Victorian novels I read as a kid. From that sentence, you can get a lot of context about my childhood, but this word of arreglo, it inherently allows for the time to fix things, to freshen up, to just kind of tidy up. Like, yeah, you can clean, limpiar, but arreglar is like tidying up. It's putting things in their places. It's making it so that you have a tidy desk, or a tidy house, or a tidy financial life. Whatever, however you want to use el arreglo. And how this ties into the childhood novels I used to read, is that I really like the idea, and I tried to do it as a kid a lot, of freshening up. You know, of course, this made sense in Victorian times, right, because you're traveling by carriage or horseback, or you're walking. Traveling was a very dusty, dirty thing.
We don't have that now. We go in the car, and then we come out of the car. And we're just going and going and going, right? Sometimes you might go and stop in the drive thru and get dinner and eat in the car, and we're just going, going, going. We're no longer really taking the time to just kind of put things in order, put our thoughts in order, get ready for that next phase of whatever we're traveling to or traveling from. Working from home, for example, there is really no commute. There's no real decompression time. I used to decompress by shouting in traffic, and now I just decompress by playing Solitaire until the sun goes down. None of those are very helpful, but it goes back to that kind of need of freshening up, of transitioning. We're so busy on going, and we're so focused on going, going, going, that we forget to take our time. This kind of general repair, cleanliness, taking care of yourself, taking care of your material belongings, taking care of your thoughts, taking care, checking in with your feelings, like, raise a hand if you've ever had a feeling and you're like, nope, I do not want to feel that right now. I'm going to stuff that down.
And then later, when you're transitioning from one thing to the next, maybe that feeling is just like, Hello again! And you're like, no, I'm going to stuff that down. That feeling is going to come out eventually.
Alright, so el arreglo, for me, is just taking the time to kind of do some of these transitions as you go from early morning to late morning to noon to the afternoon slump to late afternoon, I guess, evening, dinnertime, like, whatever you like to do or tend to do during those times of the day.
11:00
How much are you really transitioning? How much are you really allowing yourself to transition? So, el arreglo is kind of reestablishing the equilibrium, and it just reminds me of a meme I saw on the internet that was like, I like to do things until it's overwhelming, and then I like to go back to my routine. Like, I like my routine until I get bored, and then I like to do new things, and then it's overwhelming, and then I like my routine again. And it's that same cyclical motion. It's not that equal parts of change or routine. It's that equilibrium. It's balance.
In yoga, we do a lot of tree pose and just overall kind of balancing poses. Those balancing poses, those are very key to finding that equilibrium. And you, once you kind of think about it, then your reticular activating system and your brain will start to prime your brain and you can see it everywhere because brain science is fun. But this is where, por ejemplo, it's spring, currently spring. I've been spring cleaning. It's a little late this year, but I am quitando el polvo and las arañas. I'm just getting rid of all of the dust and the spiders. And ya es la hora para arreglar, para el arreglo, for me, right? It's just finding out where you are, where you want to go, and just kind of tidying up and taking care of yourself during that time.
Because quite honestly, life isn't about the sprint of changing or being fixated on a single thing. Like, I don't think it is this constant striving for happiness or fixing things. We're so obsessed with controlling every single part that it's bloody impossible. It's, it's not about, you know, going on a weekend retreat and totally changing your mindset, even, although if that is what you want to do, go for it. But to me, life, realistic life, poor life, I guess, is more about this marathon of small changes. It's not this 100-yard meter dash for being fixated or controlling a single thing. It's this marathon of small changes that you can do throughout your hour, throughout your day, throughout your week, throughout your month. And then pretty soon, you have that arreglo for your year.
Quite honestly, every change needs a little arreglo. When you switch jobs, or you switch gyms, or you switch your daily routine. Humans thrive on novelty. Not too much. I will leave that up to you to decide how much novelty you want. We need the Goldilocks of novelty. The just right part of novelty for, I don't know, ultimate happiness, or just really for el arreglo. And nothing shows this more than Mother Nature. She is getting it done. If you've ever gone out after the rain. (Also very good book by Alex Elle, After the Rain.) But if you have gone outside after rain, after a storm, we got some tornados here, maybe some huracanes, some hurricanes, like we're all just trying to find our adjustment.
14:40
Mother Nature is just also with us trying to find this adjustment, or equilibrium, or arreglo, our center point. Going back to yoga, one of my favorite things to do, and I used to do this horseback riding, is finding your seat. And yes, if you just put your hands on your butt, you found your seat. But it's really about when you're sitting, you kind of move forward, you move back, you move to the side, and then you figure out what feels right for that day, for that moment, for that practice. And that is el arreglo. Maybe that arreglo is physical, where you can have this physical arrangement. Where's my center? Where's my seat? Maybe that is more mental of, wow, that was an intense day at work. Let me transition by listening to classical music or a TED Talk or nothing at all. Sometimes it's nice just to ride in a little bit of silence. Maybe that arreglo is mental or emotional. You know, like, well, I thought I had this under control. Guess it's about time to go to therapy.
Whatever that arreglo is, it's important to find that center and to allow yourself that time of transition, whether that transition is just within your day, you're going from work, picking up the kids, going to soccer practice, and you're putting on all of these different hats or playing these different roles without really checking in. So maybe that arreglo is just checking in and being cognizant of it.
Maybe that arreglo is just being cognizant that you've been struggling with this one thing, and it's okay to struggle. It's even better to struggle with a little bit of support, but it's okay to struggle. We're so obsessed with fixing our problems, or finding solutions, or synergizing. Sometimes we just need to sit with the struggle. We need to sit with the shit for a moment. And maybe that's what your arreglo is. Or maybe that arreglo is taking a moment before you go for that run or start that yoga practice or do your aerobics class and just be like, okay, well, where's my center? Can I have that? Can I find that?
The thing about arreglo too is that you can also have un arreglito, which sounds like a mistake, and I also just kind of made that up, but it probably works, and that's with the diminutive -ito suffix in Spanish. And that's just like a little itty-bitty fix, a little itty-bitty repair, a little itty bitty, I don't know, musical composition, if you would like, or flower arrangement. But whatever that is. Yes, it can be un acuerdo, trato, pacto, alianza, if you're working with somebody else. If you're looking at arreglo, like what we usually think of with the verb arreglar, to fix or repair or freshen up, like this arreglito, this can also work. And it's not about this big monumental thing.
18:21
Arreglo is not meant for that. Arreglo is just those little one-off changes, those little pieces of habit stacking in, in your life. It's the play, it's the time, it's the transition, it's the freshening up. I know I've talked about yoga a lot. Honestly, I haven't practiced as much as what it seems like I am with how much I'm talking about it. When we think about a balancing pose like tree, it's going to be a little wobbly. If you give me someone who has yet to fall out of tree pose, I will give you someone who lies on a regular basis. We all fall out of tree pose. It's going to be a little wobbly. Our toes are like, oh god, what, what are we doing? You're leaning on me here. What I found though with balance is that it's easier to balance when your mind is on straight. When you're not jumping 20 steps ahead and thinking about the future, when you're not going 20 steps behind and ruminating on the past, when your mind is on straight, meaning it is focused in the present. And this is where meditation, yoga, any of those present-focused exercises can really be helpful, especially with language learning. Because it's not about the conversations that might happen, or the talks that will happen in the future. It's not about the trips that you will take. And, quite honestly, no one gives a shit about the mistakes that you made, or the mistakes that I made, or the mistakes that anyone made in the past.
All you need is this present moment. When your mind is on straight, meaning it is focused in the present. Breathing in, breathing out. Words come out, words are taken in. That's how we recycle. That is where language is more potent. The magic of language is more potent. And it's easier to balance, it's easier to manage these inputs and outputs when your mind is on straight, when it's focused in the present.
20:35
So, to make sure that your mind is on straight in español, be sure to check out my monthly program, Deseo, at DeseoSpanishProgram.info. to seguir con tus arreglos lingüísticos. Y también check out show notes, transcript, or request a word at Aprovechar.me. Until next time, un abrazo fuerte.
Gracias otra vez, and thank you so much for coming along with me on this ride to Una Palabra Sola. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional worksheets and materials. If you have a word that you would like me to review, please feel free to let me know at aprovecharlanguagesolutions.com. Hasta la próxima vez, until next time.