Carne

[laepelba]

When I was in Uruguay this summer, I stayed with a friend who is a high school English teacher. Her English is exceptional - better even than mine most of the time.

At one point, we were eating some "asado" (a style of preparing meat, usually done with a variety of meats...) She asked me if I wanted more meat. I was full, so I said "no". Then she asked me if I want some chicken. I was totally confused.

As we talked about it, we realized it was a mutual misunderstanding. I always thought that "carne" (in Spanish) meant any kind of "meat" (meaning anything that was ever living and breathing, including beef, foul, seafood, lamb, pork, etc.) SHE always thought that "meat" (in English) meant what I would just call "red meat" (essentially beef).

It was an interesting conversation, and I have had that thought verified by other Latin American friends: "carne" means "red meat" and there are other specific names for other kinds of meat: "pollo", "marisco", etc.

Today I was listening to a Spanish-learning podcast. This podcast is done by some Scottish English-speakers who are using Spain-Spanish. They were talking about foods that you can order at a restaurant, and they said that "carne" means "meat" ... and they went on to say that if you want to be specific, you can say "carne rojo" for "red meat". Really?

So my question is: is "carne rojo" something specific to Spain? Or is it used in Latin America, too? If so, isn't that redundant, if "carne" really only refers to beef anyway?

THANKS!!