“Janguear” is how you say “to hang out” in Spanish.

Estamos jangueando en la esquina.
We are hanging out on the corner.

Me gusta janguear en esa discoteca.
I like to hang-out in that club.

I don’t expect you to ever use the verb “janguear” — I just thought that it was an interesting word to know.

And I also find it interesting how Spanish-speakers in the States will take a Spanish word and combine it with an English word and make a new word or a “Spanglish” word.

By the way, in preparing this email I asked one of the LSLC instructors from Mexico if she knew the meaning of “janguear” and she said that she never heard the word before.

And as I expected, when I asked some friends here in Medellín, Colombia if they understood the meaning of “janguear,” they also said that they have never heard the word before.

You should also know that if you are planning a trip to “la República Dominicana” don’t expect anyone there to understand the verb “janguear” — despite the fact that I just told you that I have heard my Dominican friends in Nueva York use the word.

I suspect that my Dominican friends in Nueva York learned the word from Puerto Rican Spanish speakers in New York City.

On the other hand, if you are planning a trip to Puerto Rico I can assure you that the “gente” (people) of Puerto Rico will know and may even use the verb “janguear.”

Let me rephrase that . . .

I can assure you that the “adolescentes” (young people) or “jovencitos” (young people) of Puerto Rico will know and may even use the verb “janguear.”

Why do I say that?

Here in Medellín, Colombia, reggaeton music is very popular. And the singers or rappers of reggaeton music are usually Puerto Rican — as opposed to Nuyorican (New York City born Puerto Rican) — and in several of the reggaeton songs I have heard the recording artists use the word “janguear.”

Keep in mind that since Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory — as opposed to an independent Caribbean/Latin American country, such as Cuba or “la República Dominicana” the language there is going to be heavily influenced by English. And Spanglish words are going to be a lot more common.

Despite the popularity of reggaetón music in Medellín, Colombia, my “amigos” here said that they are not familiar with the word “janguear.”

I did not find the word “janguear” in the online dictionary for the Real Academia Espanola at http://www.rae.es/ But I did find “janguear” in the online dictionary at UrbanDictionary.com. And this is what the Urban Dictionary had to say about the word “janguear”:

“To ‘hang out.’ This is really the English expression ‘hang out,’ but Nuyoricans have given it a spanish pronunciation, thereby creating a new Puerto Rican slang word.”

The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), generally abbreviated as RAE, is the official royal institution responsible for overseeing the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one other Spanish-speaking nations.