language & communication – Page 12 – don't confuse the narrator

o me miserum

At school, my favourite subject was Latin. If the Classics teacher hadn’t got pregnant I’d have gone on to study Greek, too, and I suspect my life would have been quite different. Instead, over the years I’ve dabbled in maths, economics, English, Spanish, IT, poetry…

Not having a proper classical education has been one of my few regrets, so when I saw this on a poster at the university campus recently I thought perhaps I was going to have a chance to redress the situation:

idiomatic

I’m not sure if this counts as a hairy situation:

bee and clematis tangutica seed head (old man's beard)

It’s clearly not the cat’s whiskers. But it might be the bee’s knees.

iberianismos

As I understand it, air traffic control operations are conducted either in English or in the local language, making good English a required skill for international pilots. It always worries me, then, when a pilot’s accent is so strong that his announcements are incomprehensible.
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it’s unique

A couple of days ago, I travelled on an Iberia flight for the first time in years. It was a little more up-market than the discount airlines I’ve flown with recently and even in tourist class those who bought snacks from the trolley were provided with individual place mats for the fold-down tables.

When I declined to give mine up as rubbish, I suppose the steward thought I wanted a souvenir. In fact I wanted to add it to my collection of bad advertising and extraneous apostrophes.

Coke ad text: Enjoy it's unique taste, hydration is already included

I can’t believe that Coca Cola and Iberia can’t afford to pay a proof reader, so maybe I’ll send off my CV on spec as they appear to have a vacancy.

hugs and kisses

Despite Spain’s hot temperatures and the stereotyped passion of the Spanish people, I don’t suppose Spanish is any more eligible to be called the language of love than any other language. It does, however, seem to have a certain facility with affection that is difficult, if not impossible, in English.

The screenshot below is taken from a recent story on the BBC website about the Bárcenas scandal.

By extracting the phrase “a hug” from Rajoy’s text message to Bárcenas and using it as a subheading, the editor has managed to reduce a major political scandal to the level of a farce – or maybe the Teletubbies.
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