Guaranteed scorchio and sunshine and blue skies, sultry evenings and the scent of jasmine and a glass or three of fine chilled white wine for under €3 a bottle, there’s nothing quite like a Spanish summer. She says, after coming back from a 12-day stint of English drizzle and cloud and occasional burst of sun. [...]
I’ve been in Spain as long as The Simpsons have been on air (1989). And for me, despite their utter American-ness, they remain utterly Spanish. The first time I heard the ‘real’ Homer’s voice I was horrified. Lisa and Marge sound amazingly similar in both languages, but somehow Homer is cuter in castellano, Moe even [...]
No matter how well you speak Spanish there will always be certain words and phrases in the middle of a conversation that will leave you totally flummoxed. ‘Escotbreetay’? What’s on earth is that? And should you need to ask for said ‘escotbreetay’ without Spanglifying – or Andaluzifying – your pronunciation, you haven’t got a chance. [...]
‘Con Canon, tu puedes’ works almost as ‘You can with Canon’, the ‘con’ and the ‘Canon’ resonating in a similar way to ‘can’ and ‘Canon’. Not all advertising slogans translate so well, though, and on occasion the marketing whizzes have screwed up big time. You would not, perhaps, expect a Spanish drinks manufacturer in the 1950s [...]
Two of the first fillers you ever pick up in Spanish are más o menos (more or less) and así-así (so-so), phrases that you hear over and over again in everyday exchanges. Half the time you don’t even hear them: you see them. “How was the exam?” Hold out your arm and rotate your wrist [...]
