Blog
LOST FOR WORDS
“Is that an iPhone?” A student asked me after giving a class. When I didn’t know the answer she was shocked! Then when I told her I wasn’t a mobile phone person her shock turned to confusion. I told her that when I was her age there weren’t any mobile phones or computers, iPads or internet. Confusion turned to horror! “What did you do?” she asked. I told her that for most of the time we just talked, for hours and hours. Horror back to confusion. She was lost for words.
DUBBING
As a British child growing up in Spain in the 70’s and 80’s watching American and British films and series, dubbing was the norm. We simply didn’t know any better. When I went to university in Barcelona in the first half of the 90’s I discovered a whole new world in this respect: films in VO.
PLACE NAMES
“What’s in a name. That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet”. Shakespeare uses this line in Romeo and Juliet to argue that names are irrelevant. Well, I hate to disagree with the Bard of Avon, but names can tell us a great deal, especially when it comes to place names.
TEATIME
Over the years I’ve been asked many times by Spanish friends, teachers and students alike if it’s true that the British like to stop what we’re doing around 5pm for a cup of tea and a chat, what they understand to be ‘teatime’.
APPLES AND PEARS
“Apples and pears = stairs.” That was the first time I’d heard about Cockney rhyming slang years ago in Portsmouth, England, while getting a tour from my now dearly departed friend, Alex.
IRISH AND GALICIAN CULTURE
I’m from Ireland and it’s been said on more than one occasion that there are quite a few similarities between Galicia and Ireland
YOU MUST BE KIDDING!
In some of our talks for students, we talk about the different words that we have for baby animals. This is to contrast them with the use of diminutives in Spanish, which often substitute the ‘baby’ word, so that, for example, cachorros de perro y de gato become perritos y gatitos…
