Do you want to know how to say gold-digger in Spanish? Recently, I made a post on our Learning Spanish Like Crazy Facebook Fan Page and I want to share it with you because it illustrates an interesting point.
How To Say Gold Digger In Spanish
Recently, I posted a pic of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West with the words “Mujer Interesada.” I then wrote “Today’s Spanish phrase of the day is ‘mujer interesada’ which means gold-digger.”
Someone responded to the post and asked wouldn’t “gold-digger” mean “buscadora de oro” and is “mujer interesada” a term that is only used in Colombia?
I then responded and wrote that “I have never heard the term ‘buscadora de oro’ used to refer to a woman who just wants a man for his money.
Before I made this post, I was also wondering if ‘mujer interesada’ is only a term that is used in Colombia.
So I did a little research and found an online forum post from a Mexican learning English who asked how would an American say ‘mujer interesada.’ The Americans responded ‘gold-digger.’ So apparently Mexicans also use the term ‘mujer interesada.'”
I then added, “Besides the English word ‘interested’ the Spanish word ‘interesado’ also means the English word ‘self-interested’ So the term ‘mujer interesada’ literally means a ‘self-interested woman’ — which is really what a gold-digger is.”
By the way, I did not post the pic to suggest that Kim Kardashian is, in fact, a “mujer interesada” or a gold-digger. I just thought it would be humorous to post a pic of her with Kanye West as an example of “una mujer interesada.
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But the point that I want to illustrate is that Spanish and English are two completely different languages — with their own sayings and expressions. Sometimes you can literally translate an English expression to Spanish and find an equivalent expression in Spanish — and sometimes you cannot.
For example, the English expression “to play with fire” literally, means “jugar con fuego” in Spanish. And “jugar con fuego” happens to be a Spanish expression. On the other hand, “to beat a dead horse,” literally means “pegar un caballo muerto” in Spanish.
But in Spanish, the equivalent expression of “to beat a dead horse” is not “pegar un caballo muerto.” The equivalent expression of “to beat a dead horse” is “arar en el mar” — which literally means “to plow in the sea.”
So my advice is to approach learning Spanish in the same way that a child approaches learning a language. That is, without any preconceived notions about the language. Just keep an open mind and avoid the common mistake of trying to learning Spanish as if the Spanish language was created with English speakers in mind.
