Tijuana is famous for drug cartels, prostitution and kidnappings… and there I was teaching English in a maquiladora, right in the thick of the city.

Maquiladoras are the other side of Tijuana. They are assembly factories and Tijuana has over 1000 of them.

In my days teaching in the maquiladoras, I met a lot of good, honest, salt of the earth, hard working people.

They assemble all sorts of goods mostly for US markets. One of them where I worked even made among other things toilets for recreational vehicles.

Sounds like a small niche but they had more than 100 workers.

Big place the USA, lotta RVs.

So there I was chatting with my students before class and Carlos the accountant comes out with…

“La comida es fatal.”

I’ve heard of Montezuma’s Revenge, but fatalities?

I don’t think I’ll go to that restaurant.

Of course Spanish speakers like English speakers are prone to exaggeration.

Just like I used to say to my mom, “I’m starving”, Spanish-speaking kids say me muero de hambre. (Literally, I am dying of hunger, but it’s just like saying in English, I am starving.)

The food Carlos ate in the restaurant wasn’t really fatal. It was just awful.

In fact just about anytime you hear or see the word fatal in Spanish you can translate it as awful. Especially if it sounds exaggerated.

Me siento fatal.
I feel awful.

Lo pasamos fatal.
We had an awful time. (Literally, we spent it fatal)

The above phrase varies depending on whether you are in Latin America or Spain. I wrote an article about it on this page:

http://www.synergyspanishsystems.com/blog/first-class-spanish-in-spain-or-latin-america/

Me inglés es fatal.
My English is awful.

Me encuentro fatal
Literally, I find myself fatal, but another way to say, I feel awful.

By the way, if you’re speaking con amigos and you say fatal like English they won’t understand you.

If you DO NOT want a pronunciación del Español fatal but instead you want to pronunciarlo bien press play on the video below.

It’s the first lesson from your free course “Speak Spanish and Be Understood” and fatal is one of the featured words.

Click here to for the complete Shortcut to Spanish Video Course.