I’ve been back in the UK for the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School; hence the lack of updates here.
Early in the week there was a conversation over breakfast about “txt-speke” and emoticons. Personally, I loathe emoticons, Continue reading “international language?”
Category: language & communication
veranos de la villa
I’m not that surprised by names like Burt Bacharach and Jerry Lee Lewis: I sort of expect those guys to go on for ever. But George Benson, Kool and the Gang, Jeff Beck, James Taylor…
In August, I’ll be attending the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick. There’s a ‘Retro Revival’ disco planned for the Tuesday night, and I’m pretty sure the music will overlap with what’s on in Madrid this summer.
Incidentally, for the Spanish readers among you, this ‘noticia’ about the Veranos logo might be amusing. (If your Spanish isn’t quite up to scratch, remember: don’t believe everything you read on the web.)
weighty matters
I saw this sign in a designer shop escaparate in Madrid and wonder whether it sounds as odd in Spanish as it does to an English speaker. I guess ‘puff’ is an imported word and they just think it means some kind of small stool.
For me ‘puff’ should be associated with something as delicate and formless as smoke or clouds.
Definitely not with a solid lump of marble.
a lizard’s tale
I was out on the verandah talking on the phone when I saw a tiny lizard. “Ooh, ¡qué lindo!, ¡un lagartijo pequeñísimo!” I exclaimed, or something equally inane.
The friend I was speaking to was quick to reply, “But clearly not that small, or you wouldn’t know that it was male!”
He was, of course, making fun of my Spanish and the fact that I’d got the gender wrong.
Continue reading “a lizard’s tale”
a flask of wine
A couple of people have suggested I should write a post about wine. Well, perhaps not about wine – I’m no expert and am happy with the vino honesto and no muy peleón that I can get in the local supermarket for 0.99€ a bottle – but about the language that is used to talk about it, particularly on wine labels.
I think it might have been Miles Kington (there’s an archive of his Independent column here) who said that if you were at a loss for words at a wine tasting, just look around the room and describe one of the other people present: big nose, full-bodied, fruity…
Continue reading “a flask of wine”
don't confuse the narrator 