Language

Chile is a country with a diverse climate, extreme natural phenomena, and excellent wines. Many people dream of visiting it, but before you plan a vacation on the west coast of South America, you should do some research and learn as much as you can about this part of the world.

 

In today’s article, we have prepared a handful of tips that will be useful to anyone who would like to go to Chile. What languages do its inhabitants speak? Which month is the best time to plan a trip? And what is worth seeing in Chile? Find it out for yourself!

 

Republic of Chile – essential information

The Republic of Chile is a country located on the coast of South America on the Pacific Ocean. It shares land borders with Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. Chile also controls about 3,000 islands, including Juan Fernández, Easter Island, Sala y Gómez, San Ambrosio, and San Félix. The capital of Chile is Santiago. The area of Chile is 756,950 km², and the population is estimated at just over 18 million. Chile’s currency is the Chilean peso. The dominant religion is Roman Catholicism, followed by Protestantism and other branches of Christianity. Chile is a republic with a president elected by universal suffrage for a four-year term as head of state.

 

The geography of Chile

Chile occupies a narrow strip of land of 4.3 thousand kilometres along the southwestern coast of South America – 468 kilometres east to west at its widest point, and at its narrowest, only 90 kilometres east to west! This makes Chile the country with the longest shape of any country in the world.

 

The Republic of Chile is a mountainous country, with the Andes Mountains located on the eastern border across the entire territory from north to south. The highest peak is Ojos del Salado with a height of 6880 m. The longest river flowing through Chile is the Loa River, which is 440 kilometers long.

 

The climate of Chile

Due to its unique location, Chile has a very diverse climate. In the north of Chile, the climate is tropical arid to very dry, which in summer means heat during the day and high temperatures at night. Precipitation in the region is no more than 100 mm per year, and in the driest parts of the Atacama Desert, the last rain was noticed about 400 years ago.

 

Slightly to the south, the climate becomes subtropical, similar to the Mediterranean climate. Precipitation is much higher, and it rains and snows all year round in the mountains. The subtropical climate then transitions to temperate, with the occasional influence of air masses formed in the Antarctic Region.

 

The southernmost part of Chile is located in the subpolar climate zone, which is characterized by cold winters and cool summers, and due to the proximity of the West Winds Current, there is also often strong wind.

 

In most of the country, there are four seasons: summer (December to February), autumn (March to May), winter (June to August), and spring (September to November).

 

Languages of Chile

Although the vast majority of Chilean citizens speak Spanish, some communities still use other languages. Here’s everything you need to know about languages in Chile.

 

Chilean Spanish

Spanish is the national language of Chile and the native language of approximately 14 million people living in the country. The dialect of Spanish in Chile is similar to Andalusian Spanish, and it also contains a lot of chilenismos, i.e. phrases and expressions used only in Chile. An additional difficulty for foreigners coming to Chile is that Chileans speak very fast and often drop the final syllables.

 

Useful phrases in Spanish

Are you planning on going to Chile? Then you will undoubtedly need some basic Spanish words and phrases to help you feel more confident while exploring the country.

 Indigenous languages of Chile

Under a 1993 law, the indigenous languages of Chile are officially recognized for use and conservation, and may be used by the communities, for example as names in the Civil Registry, in media promotion, and in artistic expression. Below we describe the indigenous languages of Chile, both spoken and extinct.

 Mapudungun language

It is the language of the Mapuche ethnic group, inhabiting mainly the central part of Chile and western Argentina. Mapudungun belongs to the Araucan language family. It is estimated that there are around 260,000 native speakers. It had a major influence on the vocabulary of Chilean Spanish.

 Aymara language

This language belongs to the Aymara language family and is spoken by the Aymara people that live mainly in the Andes on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is estimated that Aymara is the native language of about 2.3 million people, of which about 20,000 live in Chile.

 Chilean Quechua language

The Quechua language, the language of the Quechua people, is spoken in many countries of South America, and the number of its native speakers is up to 11 million. Chilean Quechua is identical to or very similar to South Bolivian Quechua. It is estimated that about 8.2 thousand native speakers of this language live in Chile.

 Rapa Nui language

Rapa Nui is a language that belongs to the eastern branch of the Polynesian language family of Austronesian languages. It is spoken by a total of about 5,000 people, most of whom live on Easter Island.

 Kavesqar language

An isolated language spoken by the Alacaluf Indians. There are currently only twelve speakers of the language, ten of whom live in Puerto Edén.

 Yagan language

An isolated language of the Yagans who used to live in southern Tierra del Fuego. The last native speaker of Yagan died in 2022.

Tehuelche language

It belongs to the Chon language family. It was the native language of the Tehuelche people of Patagonia. Considered an extinct language since 2019.

 Cacan language

It is the language spoken by the Diaguita and Kalchakí people of northern Argentina and Chile. Unfortunately, we have very limited information about it, but it is estimated that it has been extinct since the end of the 17th or the begging of the 18th century.

Kunza language

An isolated language spoken by the Atacameños people in northern Chile. The last user of the language was documented in 1949.

 Other languages in Chile

In addition to Spanish and indigenous languages, in Chile we can also hear other languages spoken by members of immigrant communities. The largest of them is the community of people of German descent, a community estimated to be between 150,000 and 250,000 people, of which about 20,000 are speakers of the German language.

 Chilean Sign Language

A type of sign language used in Chile by deaf people. According to data provided by the World Federation of the Deaf, approximately 293,000 hearing-impaired people are living in Chile, of which 66,500 are completely deaf. There is no precise information on the number of users of Chilean Sign Language, but it is estimated that it may be about 21,000 people.

 English in Chile

Many people going on a trip to any country in the world assume in advance that English would be enough to communicate with its inhabitants. This is not always true, and Chile is one such case. According to statistics from a few years ago, we can only communicate in English with about 10% of Chileans. This means that we have a much better chance of getting things done if we know the basic Spanish vocabulary. Knowing English, on the other hand, is highly appreciated by Chilean employers, so if you are looking for a job in Chile, being an English speaker is going to work to your advantage.

Chile – useful information for travellers

Chile, compared to neighbouring countries, is distinguished by a low crime rate. However, all people travelling in the country should be careful in places such as metro stations, bus stations, popular cafés, and all places popular with tourists in major urban centres such as Santiago, Antofagasta, Viña del Mar, and Valparaiso.

Chile is a country prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, floods, and volcanic eruptions. The Chilean Ministry of the Interior and Public Security regularly updates information on the threats occurring in each region and their intensity on its official website.

 Entry requirements

No visa is required for a trip to Chile for up to 90 days. A passport or a temporary passport with a minimum validity of six months is sufficient to enter the country. You cannot cross the border with only an ID card. Stays longer than 90 days require a visa. Appropriate visas are issued by the Department for Foreigners and Migration.

 Healthcare in Chile

Chile does not require any certificate of vaccination from visitors, but it is recommended to get vaccinated against typhoid fever, diphtheria with tetanus, rabies, and hepatitis A and B before your trip. Hantavirus infection is also common in Chile, and to prevent it travellers are recommended to frequently air their rooms, store food in airtight containers and ensure cleanliness, especially kitchen countertops and floors.

 Healthcare services are quite expensive in Chile, except in the case of an immediate life-threatening situation. Prices usually range from around 80-100$ for a doctor’s visit to as much as 400$ per day for staying in a hospital. Because of that, tourists are advised to make sure they have travel insurance.

 Tourist attractions in Chile

Chile offers an extraordinary range of diverse attractions, among which everyone will find something for themselves. The vast majority of travellers will start their adventure in Chile from its capital, Santiago, because that is where the international airport is located. To be able to admire the city’s architecture, you should visit the Plaza de Armas and the Barrio París-Londres.

 While in Chile, you shouldn’t miss out on the Atacama Desert region, where the famous Death Valley (Valle de la Muerte) and the Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) are located. In addition, it is worth going to lake Laguna Altiplânicas or Laguna Cejar and visiting the Salar de Atacama salt flat. While exploring this part of Chile, you can find accommodation in the charming town of San Pedro de Atacama.

 Enthusiasts of active recreation are also eager to go to the Torres del Paine National Park, located in the south of Chile. Hiking will lead you to two viewpoints, Mirador Britanico and Mirador Base de Las Torres, from which you can observe the massifs of the Torres del Paine mountains. In the national park, there is also the Gray Glacier, which can be observed from the boat during a lake cruise. The most persistent daredevils can also decide to go hiking on the glacier!

 Of course, you can’t forget Easter Island, one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world, which has fascinated and attracted travellers from all over the world for years. Everyone is surely familiar with its biggest attraction: as many as 900 monolithic Moai statues, the largest of which is almost 10 meters high and weighs 82 tons!

 https://skrivanek.pl/en/chile-language/

 

Foreign language

 How would someone learn a foreign language in High Middle Ages?

 enviado hace 6 años por Perdoski

 Specifically interested in the Crusades (Northern and the ones for Jerusalem) and how crusaders interacted with the local populace.

 Basically the same way you’d learn a language now - at school, reading texts in another language, studying with tutors, and immersion in another culture. Opportunities were limited though, and you’d probably have to be a priest or another member of the church, so your interest in other languages would be mostly religious in nature. But in places where more than one language/culture existed, it was much more likely that more people would know two or more languages.

Studying different languages goes all the way back to the late antique/early medieval period, but mostly for religious purposes and only on a limited scale - so for example, Jerome learned Hebrew and Greek in order to translate the Bible into Latin. Early medieval monasteries also attempted to keep up the study of Hebrew and Greek. Greek began to be studied again under the Carolingians when there was a bit more contact with the Byzantine Empire, and then much later in the 14th and 15th centuries when Greek scholars moved west after the fall of Constantinople.

 For Arabic, the place to be was Spain. As early as the tenth century, people went to Spain to study. One notable example was Gerbert of Aurillac, who later became Pope Sylvester II. He studied in both Christian and Muslim areas of Spain, and he may have even introduced Arabic numerals to Europe

In the 12th century the centre of Muslim and Christian education in Spain was Toledo, and there was a translation school there translating Arabic texts into Latin. They mostly dealt with mathematical and scientific stuff, but they also made the first Latin translations of the Qur’an. Similarly there was a school of translators in medieval Sicily, which had even more languages than Spain - Greek, Latin, Arabic, and vernacular Sicilian and French.

 I don’t know much about the Baltic and the Northern Crusades, but I can go into a little more detail about how different languages were taught/used in the crusader states in the Holy Land. There was a famous incident on the First Crusade where a crusader named Herluin acted as an interpreter between the Turks and the other crusaders at Antioch. How did that guy know Turkish? We don’t know, but there were apparently multilingual people early on.

In the crusader states, plenty of languages were spoken there long before the crusaders arrived. The crusaders observed that people spoke or read Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian, Georgian, Coptic, Aramaic, and then they added at least French and Italian to the list. Most people probably didn’t learn numerous languages since each community mostly kept to itself, but some crusaders did attempt to learn Arabic at least. An example of Reginald of Sidon, who negotiated with Saladin for the surrender of Sidon in 1187 - the story goes that he told his troops to surrender in Arabic, so Saladin would understand him, but then told them in French to keep fighting. But in another case, Reynald of Chatillon, who was captured and executed by Saladin in 1187, needed an interpreter to communicate. Reynald had actually been in prison for almost 20 years before that, and in all that time he never bothered to learn any other language.

 “Had we been given the chance to walk through the bustling markets and streets of thirteenth-century Acre, we would have been struck by the great variety of languages used. Other than French, which was the dominant language spoken in the city, these would have included Provençal, various Italian and German dialects, English, Arabic and Greek…the composite character of the Latin East’s population and its mosaic-like structure resulted in a plurilingual situation in which different linguistic communities shared a given territory with only a small number of people serving as intermediaries.” (Jonathan Rubin, Intellectual Activity and Intercultural Exchanges in Frankish Acre (Cambridge University Press, 2018), pg. 62)

 The network of intermediaries was already pretty ancient when the crusaders arrived. The had a Latin word for an interpreter, “interpres”, but they also borrowed an Arabic word that they pronounced “dragoman”.

 “This title is a corruption of the Arabic tarjuman - or interpreter…From the first, the Frankish lords would have needed interpreters to transmit their commands to their Arab villagers; and there already existed an established officer, the mutarjim...” (Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Some lesser officials in Latin Syria”, The English Historical Review 87 (1972), pg. 15)

 So it usually wasn’t necessary for crusaders or anyone else to learn other languages, since there were already so many interpreters who could speak for them.

In the 13th century and afterwards there was a more concerted effort to learn Arabic and other languages, both in Europe and the crusader states. This was mostly by the new monastic order, the Dominicans, who wanted to learn languages in order to preach to non-Christians. They were more like modern missionaries, learning languages to preach and translate the Bible, etc. So they would learn Arabic, for example, to argue about doctrine with Muslim scholars, but they also acted as diplomats and ambassadors to people further away, like the Mongols, so they were learning central Asian languages as well.

 So learning languages was largely a church initiative, for diplomatic and missionary purposes, unless you were in a part of the medieval European world where many cultures were living together, like Spain, Sicily, or the crusader states, where there would probably be a small class of interpreters and maybe some schools working on translating literature.

 Some further reading:

 Charles Burnett, Arabic into Latin: The Translators and Their Intellectual and Social Context (Farnham, 2009).

 Albrecht Classen, Multilingualism in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (De Gruyter, 2016)

 Laura Morreale and Nicholas Paul, The French of Outremer: Communities and Communications in the Crusading Mediterranean (Fordham University Press, 2018)

 

  Link

 https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cmskws/how_would_someone_learn_a_foreign_language_in/

8

Types of Cyberaddiction, Phobias, etc. Related to Technology and the Internet

 Types of Cyberaddiction, Phobias, etc. Related to Technology and the Internet

Much of the technology and internet terminology is internationally used in English.

Below, I will explain the types of cyberaddiction, phobias, etc.

 • Cybersex Addiction: related to online conversations of a sexual nature

• Online Pornography Addiction: consumption of pornography available on the internet

• Online Gaming Addiction: the problem is online gaming; if it is paid, it is related to gambling disorder

• Online Auction Addiction: excessive participation in online auctions

• Chat Addiction: excessive use of one or more types of chat; it is related to cybersex

• Social Media Addiction: excessive use of social media. Spending too much time participating in social media to seek popularity or searching through other people's profiles

• Blogging Addiction: excessive use of blogs. Generally, the person seeks to appear on more and more blogs and, in turn, promote themselves.

 • Online shopping addiction: excessive purchases are made via the internet.

 http://tecnoadiccion.es/tipos-de-adiccion-a-las-tecnologias/

Cultural Heritage Day

 It is celebrated in Chile on the last Sunday of May. Usually, national monuments and institutions across the country are open for visits and guided tours. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s celebrations had to find a different way of reaching the public.

“Día del Patrimonio Cultural en Casa” (National Cultural Heritage Day at Home) focussed on bringing people in touch with cultural heritage through sharing digital content of all kinds. 

IFLA’s Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Centre at the National Library of Chile reported that the National library offered an online programme on the theme Chilean Memory and National Digital Library.

Some examples of their online programming included:

• Virtual tour of the documents and images in the National Library’s collection.
• A “Journey through Chile” with a selection of images, manuscripts, books, magazines and other materials from the Territorial Libraries of the National Digital Library.
• A special issue of the monthly bulletin of the National Digital Library, titled Chilean Memory and Chile for Children
• An online lecture series on “Books and traditional knowledge”, featuring discussions on the books “Chilean Wine Heritage” and “Canto a lo Poeta: Pedagogical notebook of intangible cultural heritage”, which discusses traditional musical expression of the countryside of Chile. 

You can find more information on the National Library of Chile’s Programmes here: Día del Patrimonio Cultural en Casa. 

The PAC Centre director also noted that there were many initiatives inviting people to share their personal archives and documents from home.

For example, Gabriela Mistral Regional Library, Chile’s largest regional library, organised a joint project with the Regional Coordination of Public Libraries and the National Council of Monuments, “My memories with books: Reading trajectories in the Coquimbo Region”. This call to share photographs of family memories with books is meant to record how one’s relationship with literature from childhood accompanies them throughout life. 

Engagement exceeded expectation. The Chilean National Service of Cultural Heritage reports over 1,900 online activities total, and several million visitors both to the event’s website and interacting on social media with the hashtag #DíadelPatrimonioEnCasa. Also of note, many of these activities included inclusion and accessibility tools.

“Día del Patrimonio Cultural en Casa” is an example of successfully engaging audiences with cultural heritage sites, institutions and collections through virtual means. Many of the weekend’s event also show the importance of digitised collections, and the profound potential they have for increased engagement with cultural heritage.

https://www.ifla.org/news/national-library-of-chile-celebrates-dia-del-patrimonio-cultural-at-home/

Chile's history

 1535 - Indigenous Araucanian people successfully resist first Spanish invasion of Chile.

1541 - Pedro de Valdivia begins Spanish conquest and founds Santiago.

1553 - Araucanians capture and kill Valdivia.

1810 - Junta in Santiago proclaims autonomy for Chile following the overthrow of the king of Spain by Napoleon.

1814 - Spain regains control of Chile.

1817 - Spanish defeated by Army of the Andes led by Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O'Higgins at the battles of Chacabuco and Maipu.

1818 - Chile becomes independent with O'Higgins as supreme leader.

1823-30 - O'Higgins forced to resign; civil war between liberal federalists and conservative centralists ends with conservative victory.

1851-61 - President Manuel Montt liberalises constitution and reduces privileges of landowners and church.

1879-84 - Chile increases its territory by one third after it defeats Peru and Bolivia in the War of the Pacific.

Late 19th Century - Pacification of Araucanians paves way for European immigration; large-scale mining of nitrate and copper begins.

1891 - Civil war between president and congress ends in congressional victory, with president reduced to figurehead.

1925 - New constitution increases presidential powers and separates church and state.

1927 - General Carlos Ibanez del Campo seizes power and establishes dictatorship.

1938-46 - Communists, Socialists and Radicals form Popular Front coalition and introduce economic policies based on US New Deal.

1970 - Salvador Allende becomes world's first democratically elected Marxist president and embarks on an extensive programme of nationalisation and radical social reform.

1973 - Chief of Staff General Augusto Pinochet ousts Allende in coup and proceeds to establish a brutal dictatorship.

1988 - Gen Pinochet loses a referendum on whether he should remain in power.

1989-90 - Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin wins presidential election; Gen Pinochet steps down in 1990 as head of state but remains army head.

1994-95 - Eduardo Frei succeeds Aylwin as president and begins to reduce the military's influence.

1998 - Gen Pinochet retires from the army and is made life senator. He is arrested in the UK at the request of Spain on murder charges.

2000 - UK Home Secretary Jack Straw decides Gen Pinochet is not fit to be extradited. Pinochet returns to Chile.

2000 onwards - Chilean courts strip Pinochet of his immunity from prosecution several times but attempts to make him stand trial for alleged human rights offences fail, with judges usually citing concerns over the general's health.

2005 - Senate approves changes to the Pinochet-era constitution, including one which restores the president's right to dismiss military commanders.

2006 - Michelle Bachelet becomes Chile's first woman president. Chile and China sign a free-trade deal, Beijing's first in South America. Pinochet dies.

2008 - Peru files a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in a bid to settle a long-standing dispute over maritime territory with Chile.

2010 - Hundreds die as an 8.8 magnitude quake strikes central Chile, the biggest to hit the country in 50 years.

2013 - Bolivia files a lawsuit against Chile at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to reclaim access to the Pacific it lost in the 19th Century War of the Pacific. Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru agree to scrap most tariffs on trade between them.

2020 - Chileans decide to rewrite the Pinochet-era constitution in a referendum.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19357497

El Loa and Calama

 The main city of this destination is El Loa, in Calama. 

The city possesses great facilities to welcome tourists from Chile and other countries. 

One of the attractions is the Chuquicamata Mine, the biggest copper mine in the world. 

Also, you can find natural wonders such as valleys, mountains, lagoons, Carcote and Ascotan Salars, geysers and the aquatic fauna that includes flamingos, parinos huallotos, taguas, wild ducks and huaycos. 

The journey allows the visitors to see the atacameñan culture (in the highlands and precordillera), with native population that offers agricultural products and handmade crafts. 

The religious ceremonies like “limpia canales”, “enfloramiento de animales” and the “carnavales” are some of the cultural activities celebrated during a year. Amongst the Catholic ceremonies, the most important one is the Fiesta of the Ayquina Virgin. The favorable weather conditions allow the visitors to go outside most of the day and to enjoy the prehispanic architecture –made by the aymaras and atacameños- in Ayquina, Caspana, Chiu Chiu, Lasana, Ollague Y Toconce, as well as practicing sports and all sorts of outdoor activities.

https://www.visitchile.com/en/el-loa-calama/#scroll-description

Mining and heritage

Calama, January 17, 2025.- Local visitors, visitors from other parts of the country and abroad will once again be able to visit the camp and facilities of Codelco's century-old Chuquicamata Division with the return of its traditional tour, which was suspended after the pandemic.

 

Visits will resume on Mondays and Thursdays starting January 20, with free admission. The tour includes the historic center of the camp, which housed inhabitants from 1915 to 2007; and within the industrial area, the Pala Mundial, one of the great testimonies of mid-20th century technology; and then the Mirador Mina Rajo, from where visitors will have a privileged view of the mining operation that today coexists with the underground mine.

 

The Division's General Manager, René Galleguillos Pallauta, highlighted that "Chuquicamata is part of the history of mining and today, together with its camp, it is part of the heritage that we must preserve and disseminate. That is why we wanted to bring back this tour that not only talks about history, but also about Codelco's contribution to Chile and the new mining that we are developing in our Corporation. Likewise, we have been working together with the authorities and technical organizations to improve our camp so that it can properly receive visitors."

 

Focus on education

 

Although the tour open to the general public was suspended, Chuquicamata and the northern operations continued their visit programs aimed at local education and training. In this regard, the director of Communications and Public Affairs of the Northern Operations, Cristian Varas, emphasized that “this year we will continue with the school and university visit programs, a process that was not interrupted and that we will maintain as part of the training activities for the students who come to learn about the rich history and innovations that we are promoting in our different operations.”

 

Given the high interest in visiting Chuquicamata, registrations must be made via email at visitas@codelco.cl , as places are limited. On the day of the visit, people are recommended to wear the required clothing, which includes long sleeves, long pants, and closed shoes.

 

One point to note is that the quotas are only delivered to the email address mentioned and https://www.codelco.com/en/mineria-y-patrimonio-vuelve-el-tour-a-chuquicamata are free of charge