Looking at the area of English being more succinct, I’m reminded of the recorded announcement I used to hear on the London Underground. As the train approached a station whose platform was slightly curved, creating a gap between the carriages and the platform, “Mind the gap!” was repeatedly boomed out of the speakers from the moment the train entered the station until it came to a halt. Some years later, I was on Metro Madrid and was about to get off the train when I heard, “¡Atención! ¡Próxima estación en curva! Al salir, tengan cuidado de no introducir el pie entre coche y andén.” Now, that’s a mouthful! I mean, by the time the announcement had finished, the train had already pulled away from the platform, the passengers were on their way up the main escalator and the poor unfortunates who didn’t mind the gap had probably been dragged half-way to the next station! D’oh!

Twenty years ago I knew a group of Basque au pairs in Manchester. They could never understand why the native English speakers always said “silla” when they said goodbye.
I could never understand why they talked about their aunts and uncles all the time. Everything was tio and tia .
When I arrived in the Basque Country in 1992 I initially thought that the expression ¡Que morro! was racist and that when someone said ¡Alucina! they were offering me drugs.
For those of our students doing our m-learning course, you have a great opportunity to avoid these errors with our ‘False Friends’ exercises.
Silla next week!

Since I now have a cat, I know that a cat carrier here is a “transporting.”

A transporting? I thought that was an Irvine Welsh novel. Oh, wait, that was Trainspotting! D’oh!

When I was child and I had not idea about English and I wanted sing a song in English (for example, the famous sing of Grease) I invented the sing and sing the song: all the wanna you want, you the only one, uh, uh, uh, but with the fonetic characters, like all children

Haha, Dave, now we know what your wife says when she’s annoyed with you!

Good reflexions Dave,
I want to make some suggestions on your musings.
Speaking about a word’s gender; I think the English people have the same problems on this question as the Dutch speakers. In your languages you don’t use gender for the things. I think in French and Italian (Romanic languages) they use gender like the Spanish language does. Using no gender for the things is an easy way to speak, sure. But what about your phrasal verbs?
Another question : I’m a Spanish speaker but sometimes I don’t understand my compatriot’s use of the language. For instance I don’t understand the use of “donutsâ€? in singular, or the translation of film tittles, or a lot of grammatically wrong expressions used by people in Spain. Sometimes I imagine myself as a foreign Spanish language student, who has learnt orthodox Spanish and I think it may be impossible to understand the majority of Spanish speakers.

Hi,
I think that learning English language wouldn’t be very easy for Spanish people, because the origin of both languages is not the same. Maybe, it would be easier to learn French or Italian language. But we are living with a lot of words in English around, and we grow with the name of the Hollywood’s actors, and the name of the Burger King’s food, and the new technological words (Internet, Personal Computer, etc). For childrens, it is easy to know the word in English (the gramatical order is other problem).
When a language is very extended around the world it is necessary to learn it, and English could be more difficult to learn (image the Chinese). We can give thanks for this.
It is very important to learn a language when you are a child, and if you are only three or four years old it is better. In my case, I have studied French in school with twelve years old, and for my French is easier that English (and I don’t speak French since 1992).
We use a lot of words in English when we have the equivalent in Spanish. It is not good for our language, but English people use also words in Spanish. It is a problem of the contact of cultures.
We must practice a lot in order to have a good level in English. I think that learn other languages is a very good idea, and it can be also a very good way to earn life.
Grettings.
Conchi Calvo

Why do football/soccer players call their manager/coach the “Mister” and not the “Señor”?

It’s wonderful how far a language is for another, and not only between English to Spanish, but inside the same language. There are many differences in English speakers from England, Texas or Australia, and the same with the Spanish speakers from Madrid, Mexico or Caracas.
If you’ve grown inside a same language influence you improve the vocabulary and expressions using common language with local or regional meanings. But when you are in a new language area you try to use a basic form of the language to at least communicate.

Hi everyone.
As far as the article mentioned, both language are completely different,it doesn´t really matter that some words are similar as tha last sentence said. English fonetic is nothing to do with Spanish,while in spanish lenguage our five vowels have just five sounds, rather than english that the number of sounds are bigger than the vowels.
It is true that english is an economic language where some words do not really need to be with an article(go to bed, go to University, etc) and verbs have an standar structure(will, going to,the”s” for the 3ºperson,ed for the past, etc). Another important point is that English is a very polite lenguage where nearly all the sentences start or finish with(please,thanks, would, may, etc) rather than spanish which is more popular.
Nowadays too much people from all over the world know about two lenguage and share some words,especially in USA and South America,there is another “new”lenguage which has appeared from both which is called Spanglish which is a mixture from both and has been created for the emigrants from South America who live in US and they have had to learn a lenguage to survive there.
Greetings

The last comment reminds me a website where I read some examples of actual Spanglish. My favourite was “Voy a vacunar la carpeta”.... does it need a translation?
Yes, it should be “I’m going to vacuum the carpet”!!!
Other one was the verb “beibisitear”... and many more… Fantastic!
Elena

Hi Dave!
Your Weekly Letter makes me hungry! I love donuts, however I try not to eat it very often.
I am not sure about what you have said about bumping into friends in the street. I do not know if in San Sebastián there is common to say “hasta luego”. If I bump into somebody, I isay “hello, how are you”, or “hello, what are you doing here” or something like that, but I would never say “Adiós”. I say “Adiós” or “hasta luego” when I am really saying Goodbye because I am leaving, going to other place. Anyway, next time I go to San Sebastián, if I meet a friend I will say “¡hasta luego!”. I hope he/she won’t get angry with me!
I have always thought that “parking” meant “park car” until I ask you! It is very common here in Spain to use English words or expressions, but unfortunately not always properly. I try to avoid doing that…
¡Hasta luego!
:-)
Claudia

Goodbye! :-)
Thanks for all the great comments!
I agree that learning languages is very difficult, especially if you want to sound like a native. However, if you manage to communicate, that’s the main thing – I keep saying “un botella” and I always get a bottle, so it doesn’t matter too much! (On the other hand, I do like to get things correct, so it does irritate me sometimes when I make mistakes like that…)
For me Spanish pronunciation is relatively easy (apart from the “rr” sound, which is impossible…), but I can imagine how hard English pronunciation is for a Spanish native. Practice makes perfect though!
I’m off to have a doughnut – or should that be d’oh-nut?

Oh! Sound like a native! This is very difficult. I have always wanted sounding like an English, but I know that this is impossible! If I can make myself understood, so I am satisfied! I am used to sounding like a foreigner: in Brazil I used to be “a espanhola”, in Madrid I’m “la catalana” or “la brasileña” and finally, in Barcelona, I’m “la madrileña”), but in Brazil people used to think that I were Brazilian…
Anyway, I’ll try to resist eating a donut or do’oh or however it is called!
Have a good evening!!
Claudia