A linguistic question: Do you know the Spanish word, “postureo”? ( II )
In one of those programs, they presented the word “postureo”.“Posturear” is basically boasting about knowledge (or anything else) that you actually don't have. I can't find a synonym in Castilian, but the Spanish expression “presumir de algo que no tienes” has a similar meaning. I was searching for the meaning on a few forums, but there's no real consensus about it. The clearest definition I could find is: “Postureo”, to do something not because you like it, but because you want to be able to say you've done it.
I think there exists in Spain an obvious tendency to “postureo” because many people don’t want to recognize anything as commonplace as “I don’t know”. “No sé”. This is “postureo”, too. I suffered because of this myself when I asked somebody for directions: the person who I asked didn't know how to get to where I wanted to go, but as he didn’t want to recognize it, he chose to send me to the wrong place instead. Since then I usually ask two different people to make sure I finally reach my destination. You would not believe how many times I get different answers.
On the radio program that I mentioned, a reporter went to the exit of a massive concert, where he asked the audience about the performance of a particular musician. Normally, people don’t remember such performances, but they spoke about the musician. Everyone seemed to know him, they had all heard his music, one even explained, very convincingly by the way, about his career and his successes etc. The odd thing is that the musician did not exist, in fact it was a technical partner from the radio station.
Yes, I know, it's a radio program and the answers are skewed, but the fact is these answers were given.
This left me puzzled at first, then I found it funny, but finally, everything just seemed pathetic.
How is this where you live?. Is there a lot of “postureo”, too?.
Mendi 22 / 09 / 2014
Well done again Mendi! I think it's the same wherever you go to a certain extent. People just want to seem more knowledgeable and interesting than they actually are. Although I've never heard of anyone deliberately giving wrong directions before, that's pretty shocking. If I'm ever in Spain I better remember to ask more than one person for directions, just in case they're posturear!
Es interesante lo que escribes, si voy a España otra vez,tendré cuidado al preguntar una dirección...
Acá se dice "Si no lo sabe,lo inventa".
Es parecido,¿verdad?