Over the weekend, Hurricane Irene killed 40 people and caused billions worth of in damage up and down the East Coast. There's nothing positive in that. Irene was no dud of a storm at all, and flood waters continue to wreak havoc in many areas.
The mucho brilliant thing that came of the whole ordeal is the fake Twitter account, @ElBloombito. It pokes fun at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his valiant, yet sometimes bumbling attempts speaking Spanish during press conferences on the hurricane.
"El Bloombito" shared warnings like, "Mucho agua flood warning ahora until el tomorrow. Cuidado! Neccesita los water wings!" and "Nueva Yorkos! Remain in la casa para mucho rain y lighningo y thundera! El Bang Bang!"
When a reporter asked our favorite billionaire mayor about the new Twitter feed, Bloomberg joked about it — en espagñol.
The real Bloombito has been throwing out the Spanglish at press conferences for the past few years as a way to both inform and woo Latino voters.
The woman behind the tweets, Rachel Figueroa-Levin, joins as a guest tonight to discuss her contribution to hurricane coverage. Tune in por favor esta noche at 8pm ET.
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I don't find this funny or fair. Give credit where credit is due. The guy is trying. It's not right to make fun of him because he is trying. People need to grow up.
I think this makes Bloomberg endearing to Spanish speakers and it's funny!
I'm disappointed that this show would highlight a woman "poking fun" at a mayor trying to communicate with a minority population during an emergency situation. Although his pronunciation was a little off, Bloomberg's words carried a decent message. Ms. Figueroa-Levin doesn't deserve 15 minutes of fame for this, in my opinion.
p.s. The caption ¿Qué dijo? during the story was incorrect...no accent over the "o"...I teach second graders that know that...
As a Spanish teacher, this is great fun!
One negative:There is no accent mark on dijo.
The way it appears on your show Que dijó is incorrect. There should be an accent on Qué. The accent on dijo would cause the word to be pronounced di JO.
It is pronounced DI jo and follows the normal rules to pronunciation, thus no accent is needed. Even many native speakers do not understand the placement of accents. Thanks for the laugh.
we think the story is fun because the mayor & his staff are laughing, too. it is great that he's reaching out and the interview made that clear. as for moving the accent mark... that was a subtle joke (maybe too subtle?) cribbing off the mayor's tendency to put the accent on the wrong syllable when speaking. =)
After 4 years of Spanish, I still struggle with it. I know its hard to learn and having someone laugh at you because your trying to be respectful to someone else is immature and doesn't deserve 5 min. of fame. The guy should be given credit for trying. When I was growing up we encouraged one another when we learning a new language not laugh at each other. This is just plain wrong. Of course the mayor is laughing, you backed him in the corner. It's either he go along with or get angry. I think he likes his job way too much to get angry. This is not right and its immature. I expected more from NBC and Lawrence who I really like, but this just wrong. Poking fun at someone struggling to learn a second language especially a mayor.