Spanish people and their English

The following topic is usually discussed by native English speakers, however, I would like to share my own opinion on this.

It is true that the English language in the past centuries has spread to all parts of the world very quickly so that it has become one of the most important languages in our world. Especially in Europe and economically strong Asian countries like India, China or Japan the English language has become a regular feature in their education. Nevertheless, it is often said that countries like Spain or Italy do not have a good education due to the English language, which makes me coming back to my mentioned topic: “Do Spanish people hardly speak English? If so, why?”

First of all, I want to admit that I can only refer to my experiences I have made with Spanish people in Spain while living there and in Poland by talking to the Erasmus students. Now, I cannot generalize my opinion but my experience was:

1. Spanish people do hardly speak English and in comparison to students from other countries their English is worse.

2. To my mind, one of the greatest problems due to this issue is that Spaniards dub everything so that they rarely come into contact with the English language.

3. Another experience I have made is that Spaniards hardly ever leave their country. A lot of Spanish students I have met rarely leave their village much less their region or country. On the other hand, they do not need any English in Spain because everything is translated or dubbed except the tourist industry, which again is very popular especially in the south of Spain.

4. Last but not least I would like to point out that, although English is taught in Spanish schools, it is not uncommon to find it being taught by teachers who cannot really speak English. Not only in schools but also at the university the teacher’s English skills are poor even though they may know the grammar rules.

To sum it up, it may be true that Spanish people hardly speak English but do they have to? English has become a world language and it is important to have a global language to communicate with all people around the world but by teaching it one also introduces the English/American culture. And isn’t it more valuable to maintain one’s own culture? There is a lot more behind this topic to talk about. Finally I would like to mention the artificial language “Esperanto” created by scientists, which ought to be easy to learn without including any one group’s culture. Maybe this is going to be the next revolution or maybe it was just a nice idea?!

Last weekend I took advantage of the additional holiday (“Święto Państwowe”) on Friday so that I could spend some more time with my family.

Due to the upcoming marriage of my brother almost everything is in a mess at home. Normally I should already have been accustomed to these circumstances with regard to the marriage of my sister a few years ago. However, it is very exciting to see how many things one has to take into account when getting married. Obviously every marriage is unique because my brother’s problems are totally different from those that my sister had.

Anyway, I tried to help to organize a few things but with every move I made my brother felt uncomfortable so that I decided to study for my upcoming exams – which finally resulted impossible in this mess. But what in the first place seemed to be a totally wasted weekend finally resulted at least as a little help for my own marriage one day, which definitely will be a lot more organized than those of my siblings.

What I have learned from that organization can be put into one simple word: endless.

Cordoba and its weaknesses

Hi there!

In my first post I described my Erasmus experience in Cordoba. Now I want to tell you something more about this city, but this time something more about its weaknesses that some tourist can notice immediately.

In the first place, there is to mention the public transport. Although Córdoba is a quite big city with its population of 312 thousand inhabitants, there are neither trams nor metros. The only public transport the city is offering their inhabitants are buses, which never arrive on time. To most of the places, which are worth seeing, you simply have to walk. With regard to the flying opportunities in Córdoba you neither find an airport, which makes it more difficult for the tourists to visit the city.

Talking about the public transport one has to add that Córdoba neither offers discounts for young people  not even for students. That is the reason why one always needs to take into account the high costs of the expensive national trains and coaches when coming from other big cities.

Due to the tourism in Córdoba its greatest weakness to my mind is the missing access to the sea or the ocean like it has Malaga or Cádiz. Lots of foreigners go to Spain to take advantage of the brilliant weather at the beach, which, unfortunately, they cannot find in Córdoba. Furthermore, there is also missing a viewpoint or a lookout tower to enjoy the panorama of the city.

Apart from that, tourists who don’t speak Spanish probably are going to have problems to communicate due to the fact that there are only a few people in this region of Spain who speak English.

English sayings

Learning the English language with its grammar one might already have enough difficulties. Anyway, one also crosses with frequency common English sayings that don’t seem to make much sense and cause confusion. Therefore, I’d like to list some English sayings I found in the Internet and explain their meaning so that you are prepared for the next time when you come across one of the following sayings.

“When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane”. Sometimes in life you may feel absolutely exhausted by all the things you have to go through at once. Nevertheless, it may not be your bad luck but more the wrong things you choose to do that have brought you into this situation. In this case the saying would fit perfectly.

“To bite off more than one can chew”. This saying with its metaphorical character can be easily understood. It means that one might agree to do a lot of things without finally being able to accomplish them. During my studies I’ve noticed that this quote perfectly fits…

The last saying I want to present you today, which many of you probably encounter from day-to-day, is:

“Beat around the bush”. Most of the people have already made this experience but as non-native speaker the saying may not sound familiar to them. When a person beats around the bush, the person fails or avoids confronting a subject directly because the subject is related to something unpleasant.

Fun facts about famous cities

By travelling around cities and reading about their characteristics, most famous places or other sights that are worth seeing, I also came across some very ridiculous facts.

New York, Rome, London, Paris or Brussels – a lot of holidaymakers know these cities like the back of their hands. Whether it’s the Buckingham Palace in London, the taste of the famous Belgian chocolate or just the fact that New York is also called the “Big Apple”, there is nothing new about these information. Time to discover something new! 

Every city has its secrets! Therefore I’d like to list a few fun facts for you: 

Starting with the City of Love – Paris: It’s the only place in the world where you’ll find the “M” of McDonald’s written in white instead of yellow colour. The city council insisted on this change because they found the yellow colour tasteless.

Next interesting fact about the city of Oslo: Who believed it? Oslo remains the world’s costliest city for holidaymakers beating London, Paris, Zurich and other cities in the ranking. A night out in the city, including one night at a four-star hotel, a short taxi ride and cocktails and dinner for two, was found to cost 2135 Złoty.

Another fun fact about the city of Bangkok: Being the capital of Thailand it also is certified as the longest place name in the world:

"Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”.

What it means is “The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (unlike Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn”. 

The city with the last fun fact for today – New York: With the length of 10,000km its road network is the longest in the world. Not only the average running time but also the running time for commuter seems record-breaking: almost two hours daily!

The significance of music in my life

The today’s blog is about one of my passions I have not mentioned yet. In addition, there is an uncountable number of people listening to it at home, at work or in their cars every day of the week so that it seems to be something usual. However, I would count “music” to one of my great passions.

To my mind music represents a lot more than just some sounds entering someone’s ears and causing some vibrations. Especially during the last week I have noticed the importance of music in our lives. It is music that evokes feelings of great joy or great depression as well. Rarely people think about what the lyrics of a song wants us to tell but doing so you will soon realize that it is about a lot more. I often find songs fitting perfectly with my current situation or mood. Sometimes it helps me to reflect better about the things that happened and other times it feels like a great support that makes you focus on other and more important things in your live making you feel happier.

Furthermore, music can also be seen as a kind of identification in our society and on the other hand you can easily travel with your imagination to a marvelous place you have visited just by listening to a certain track. Last week I made use of it by listening to some tracks I have listened to during my stay in Cordoba. I began to feel the sun shining on my skin and taking all the worries from me for a moment. These moments are like magic and I can just recommend to each and everybody to also make use of these magical moments. ♫♫♫

Magic show :)

Recently I went to a magic show with my family. It was a Christmas present from my older sister, who heard about the magician or rather the illusionist.

At the beginning, I was very skeptical whether it was a great or a worthless present because frankly speaking: Who believes in magic? Nevertheless, I was curious and went with my whole family to the event.

The night of the magic show: The lights turn off, mysterious music starts to play and you hear footsteps on the stage. Then, silence… suddenly the magician was lit by bright spotlights and the show began.

Starting with some “simple” tricks like pulling a scarf through the microphone stand or turning a 50 Złoty note into a 100 Złoty note, the show became more and more interesting. Indeed, it were not only the tricks we got to see but also the words and the way of thinking that still makes me think about this evening. The illusionist, a globetrotter who spends his holidays every year in another place getting to know the foreign people and become part of their culture, seemed to have perfect abilities of reading people. Above all, it was India or rather its people who impressed him doing some new magic tricks and keep on focusing on different aspects in life or what would be more striking: focusing on the same aspects in life but with a different perspective. Therefore, it is necessary to break out of your comfort zone, e.g. going extremely slow to work and start realizing things you have never realized before. Afterwards you will notice how less you perceive by following your routine. Furthermore, this is just one of the first steps to achieve the abilities of perception like the magician, however, that is not what most of the people are aiming for.

Anyway, since then I started to reflect more about all the impressions, which I am exposed to in my every day life. Moreover, I absolutely recommend going to a magic show if you have never gone before and be the “witness of the impossible” yourself.