What does vaya tela mean?

ExpressionColoquial

blimey — that's rough

It covers almost anything striking, good or bad, though it is nearly always bad. Said with sympathy it is commiseration; with a different face it is indignation: vaya tela con el vecino. It commits you to nothing, and part of its usefulness is exactly that.

¿Tres horas esperando? Vaya tela.

Sympathy, indignation, or both at once.

¡Vale! for iOS

Hear it the way Spain actually says it

In the app, expressions are taught inside real conversations from Spain: read cold, explained line by line, then read again. It’s the Spanish textbooks leave out.

Unit 02

¡Cuánto tiempo!

«hace un siglo que no sé nada de ti»

The ¡Vale! app: a conversation from Spain, read with its recording