Journal Entries
Welcome to a new language (part II)
Posted Jul 17, 2000
Learning Spanish is a funny thing, still. Now and again, I keep making discoveries of words with smiliar orthography but way different meaning.
Beware of how strong you pronounce the r in the word "pero". If you put to much weight on the r, it'll sound like "perro".
Oh, where's the diff?
Pero means but, whereas perro stands for dog...
Another, a little deliciously more delicate example is, when you try to extend some gentle word to, let's say, a nice person (ok, ...girl 
). You want to say "I'll for always be at you service", and, slip of the tongue, you use the plural of service. What you just said means:
"I'll always be at your bathroom".
This would be a little ....eeerrremm..... quick, wouldn't it?!
I'll watch out for more
Discuss this Journal entry [4]
Latest reply: Jul 17, 2000
how to end a week...
Posted Jun 17, 2000
...or how to accidentally get borracho:
Usually, the work of the week is done on fridays, let's say 5 p.m., and your leaving
your working place for home.
It happens, like it did to me last night, that people meet before they leave.
A brasilian fellow at my department invited everybody to a Caipirinha party. (He is very lucky at the moment, because his wife visits him in the middle of his 5 months stay abroad)
However, some chaps like me were hanging out until the last drop of Caipirinha (and what ever followed from hidden places in the other fellows' desks...). So we, the hanging out people, just didn't want to stop on half the way to the hangover.
And this is the advantage of bars in Spain: they're open until... ? a.m.
We went for a decent tour through an Irish Pub and several Tapas Bars ending up at a small pit of a bar with a music box and dancing folks.
And all of them I'll meet again on Monday at work, smiling I assume!
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jun 17, 2000
Wedding gift
Posted Jun 5, 2000
Who else suffered from this feeling or has been to this situation?
Or better: who overcame this?
Overcame what?
Your brother marries. What gift do you have?
Err, ...he read all the five books of the trilogy, etc...
And it should of course be a present for both.
Any ideas apart from CDs, pots, dishes, etc?
Towels might be it...!
Thankfully,
Siggi
Discuss this Journal entry [2]
Latest reply: Jun 5, 2000
Welcome to a language
Posted Jun 2, 2000
Well, I've been living in Zaragoza, Spain, for some weeks now and I must, no, am happy to admit, it's like having a ball!
My last spanish class was 10 years ago, back in high school. So, apart from this tremendous first brief contact of three semesters, having arrived here, I had to do an intensive course.
There was this placement test I took part in. I must add, as an engineer, I've learned how to pass exams. So, on the other day I've found myself in "grupo no.2", with una profesora that welcomed us to the "grupo mas alto" saying we surely have had the knowledge of about six to eight years of spanish.
Now that the course is over, I've received a sheet of paper, telling that I can speak spanish in the highest level that non-spanish chicos like me can achieve - I hardly believe it for myself!
However, entering a new language, you find yourself in a situation when, right away after you finished a phrase people expell a thundering laughter.
It might happen when you are about to say business-like things, such as "...to buy this company...". But what you've just said sounds "comprar esta compresa". (empresa would be the right word, compresa is used by women at some days each month...)
So you discover, it must be a good thing to learn to distinguish in your brain-stored dictionary similar sounding words. What about, let's say, ...erem,... sporty (deportivo) and funny (divertido), and you go and build and speak out a sentence with a sports team that fits in both adjectives obviously, like Atlético Madrid here recently.
Sure you'll earn lot of admiration quick and soon, when you keep on stepping in as many traps in your new language as you can find!
To be continued...
Discuss this Journal entry [10]
Latest reply: Jun 2, 2000
Welcome to a language
Posted Jun 2, 2000
Well, I've been living in Zaragoza, Spain, for some weeks now and I must, no, am happy to admit, it's like having a ball!
My last spanish class was 10 years ago, back in high school. So, apart from this tremendous first brief contact of three semesters, having arrived here, I had to do an intensive course.
There was this placement test I took part in. I must add, as an engineer, I've learned how to pass exams. So, on the other day I've found myself in "grupo no.2", with una profesora that welcomed us to the "grupo mas alto" saying we surely have had the knowledge of about six to eight years of spanish.
Now that the course is over, I've received a sheet of paper, telling that I can speak spanish in the highest level that non-spanish chicos like me can achieve - I hardly believe it for myself!
However, entering a new language, you find yourself in a situation when, right away after you finished a phrase people expell a thundering laughter.
It might happen when you are about to say business-like things, such as "...to buy this company...". But what you've just said sounds "comprar esta compresa". (empresa would be the right word, compresa is used by women at some days each month...)
So you discover, it must be a good thing to learn to distinguish in your brain-stored dictionary similar sounding words. What about, let's say, ...erem,... sporty (deportivo) and funny (divertido), and you go and build and speak out a sentence with a sports team that fits in both adjectives obviously, like Atlético Madrid here recently.
Sure you'll earn lot of admiration quick and soon, when you keep on stepping in as many traps in your new language as you can find!
To be continued...
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jun 2, 2000
Siggi
Researcher U133126
Write an Entry
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."