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Amazing Alcalá

November 22, 2011 by 8 Comments

 

 

I have to confess a secret, so secret I barely know it myself.

I love Alcalá.

Alcalá is like that dull, serious, stamp-collecting  boy you meet at university, the one that never gets drunk and seems indifferent to you, even though you have your share of admirers. You think he´s a bit of a weed and he irritates you in a way you can´t put your finger on.  He´s not bad-looking, but lacks sex-appeal.  You think you can´t stand him.

Then one day at the Refectory there´s no place to eat except opposite him.  You notice his good manners, his short, clean fingernails and how he makes formal, intelligent and completely impersonal conversation.

You choke on your spaghetti bolognese.

You´re in love with him.

Alcalá´s a little like that for me.  First up, dull and dowdy. When you study Spanish In Depth you can´t avoid hearing about the city.  Well, you could, but in my day they wouldn´t give you your degree without it.  You had to read the literary superstars, Cervantes, Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina, the first of whom was born in Alcalá and the other three students at its university.

I never suspected for one moment that I´d end up living in Alcalá de Henares (perhaps more on that later). I wanted a Glasgow, a Madrid, a Los Angeles in my life.

But I got Alcalá.

And I realised that these writers did not shy away from the city´s raucous and informal motto of putas, curas y militares, (whores, clergy and soldiers).  My Spanish wasn´t up to grasping this notion as a student, but it is now. Alcalá, like any Spanish city, has its brothels, now inhabited by immigrant women. The city is also chock ablock with churches and convents and its barracks were the site of conflict during the Civil War.  But that´s not all there is to the town.

Because Alcalá is safe, quiet, cultural – with its own film festival – and modern, even though it has a very pretty historic centre with a small town pueblo feel. This is surprising, since it´s one of the largest towns along the River Henares Corridor towards Madrid, twenty-five minutes away by car. We´re always happy to get back from the exhausting Metropolis to peaceful Alkie.

The city is also multicultural with well-integrated, resident immigrant populations that are beginning to leave their mark on the city.  There are Romanian and Polish festivities every year and you can sample these kinds of cuisine in shops and restaurants.  Hundreds of American students attend the University every year – though these are short-stay foreigners. The expat community is pretty much inexistent, but I live in hope ….

Alcalá is great for shopping too with good transport networks to make getting around pretty easy. The people are welcoming and friendly and the availability of quality nightspots is growing.  There´s plenty of sporting facilities and well-kept park areas and an absolutely wonderful Archaeological Museum that runs hands-on events for children. The new Parador breaks with the historic Casco Viejo look and is chic, minimalist and contemporary.

Frankly, Alcalá is a very nice place to live.  There´s much, much more, too, but I´ve gushed enough about this World Heritage Site for one day.

My secret´s out.

I love Alcalá!

P.S. And then, of course, there´s the storks!

 

 

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Big Bang

November 8, 2011 by 6 Comments

I suppose I should comment on it.

It!

Last night, ayer noche, the big, political, pre-election Debate, Rubalcaba vs Rajoy!

I mean, I can´t  let all that lovely “r” alliteration go to waste, can I?

So we had the outgoing thingummy (PSOE, Rubalcaba, “socialism”) and the incoming whatsit, (PP, Rajoy, “conservatism”), all in all, democracy in action – to the tune of various thousands of euros in TV set setting up and paint painting for the Historic Meeting.

And it looks as though on the forthcoming, 20-N Election Day (anniversary of the death of Franco, no less) we´re electing Rajoy, the former property registrar and pulpo gallego, with a tentacle in every tapa of the national ink-fest, to power.

What´s he gonna do?

He no sabe or no say.

What´s Rubalcaba gonna do?

He no do mucho when had oportunidad.

I took an hour away from a mini-marathon of the hilarious “Big Bang Theory” sitcom to watch the Debate.  Funnily, although the nation was said to be watching, my usually noisy next door neighbours weren´t.

Their TV was off.

In fact, everything was off next door;  no sound, no voices, no doors opening and banging shut.  How strange, after ten years of the two, now teenage kids, the screeching wife, the bellowing hubby, the flamenco sessions, the African Grey parrot, Charlie, the adorable barking doggies called Bonnie and Clare (don´t ask).

Well, it wasn´t really that strange at all, as four million, nine hundred and ninety nine other unemployed folk/families can attest.  My neighbours were thrilled when they moved from expensive, cramped accommodation in Madrid to a spacious flat in nice, little Alcala.  They worked hard, but they´ve had to sell everything, including their TV, off.

Because on the 17th of this month, evicted, they´ll  hand the keys of their flat in to the bank and walk away.

To what?

Neither Rubalcaba nor Rajoy had any theories on how to bring comfort to my neighbours last night.

We all know it.  It´s undebatable.

Spain is about to suffer a really, really big bang.

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Con arreglo al …..cocidito madrileño

November 6, 2011 by 18 Comments

Yes, I´m afraid the title of this post is Real Academia Española level Spanish.   I hope to get to its meaning by the end of this post.

I just got the following message from Malassie, aged 12.  It´s from the school AMPA, or PTA.  After the initial, the accompanying and the unnecessary blah blah, it goes like this:

“…os convocamos a la Asamblea General Ordinaria de esta Asociación que se celebrará el próximo día 9 de noviembre de 2011 (miércoles), a las 18:00 horas, en segunda convocatoria, en la Biblioteca del Instituto, supuesto que no se darán las condiciones para celebrarla en primera convocatoria, que por esta misma queda convocada a las 17:30 horas del mismo día y en el mismo lugar, con arreglo al siguiente…”

What follows is the ORDEN DEL DÍA or list of issues to be dealt with at the meeting.

Fine.

What´s it mean?  What time to I need to be there, half five or six?

Six, surely, with all the underlining and bold text.

No.

According to my husband, who enjoys, not only the condition of Spanishness but of Court Translator, the meeting´s at five thirty.

So what´s all this segunda and primera convocatoria stuff?

If everybody shows up at half five the meeting goes ahead. If not enough folk show up at half five, the meeting waits till six.  So we should all try and show up at half five.

And maybe have to wait till six till everybody´s there.

So maybe I´ll give myself another half an hour to lie moribund on the sofa after my big, mid-day meal then mosey on down for six.

After all, as they´ve kindly informed us, the second convocatoria (or time – why don´t they just call it that?), which is the new time of the meeting, has been superceded by the first convocatoria, which was the initial time of the meeting, now not contemplated since some folk might turn up late and therefore we must ….

No wait, hubby informs me that the meeting was ALWAYS going to be at five thirty, but you can show up till six.

After six, you´re LATE!

So, do you get in or not?

There´s a song called Cocidito madrileño in which a very great fuss is made of a basic and typical Madrid “delicacy” of the same name.  It´s a poor folks´stew, made up of very simple and uncomplicated ingredients such as chickpeas, cabbage and an arreglo of ham bones, boiling beef and sausages.  Anybody can cook it, but they make a big song and dance about it.

Malassie´s school meeting is of a similar nature. It´s a PTA meeting in a Secondary School of a small provincial town to discuss a couple of issues pertaining to the activities planned for this coming year. But they turn it into Masterchef.

Here, the arreglo to be added to the basic meeting ingredients is the reading and approval, SI PROCEDE (if approval is given) of the minutes of the previous Assembly, the presentation and approval of the Management Board of the Association, Economic information, information on planned activities and questions.

And “due to the importance of the issues to be dealt with, we´re counting on your presence in this Assembly.”

I´ll be there, at half five probably.

And I don´t know what my post title means.

My head is completely boiled by Madrid.

 

I just found this great explanation of the whole idiotic subject, in Spanish.

 http://administracionpublica.com/en-segunda-convocatoria/

 

 

 

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El nite grite

November 1, 2011 by 10 Comments

The nitty gritty.

For many people who come to live in Spain, the Spanish language (one spoken by some 400 million people worldwide) is a quixotic foe who vanquishes them at every turn.

How can this be? 

 

When I took Spanish at school it was supposed to be an “easy” language.  It was also regarded as a “Catholic” language, (capital C) encapsulating the conservative morality of Franco´s Spain.

I later learned that Spanish was seen as a “poor” language, spoken by people from backward countries.  Since then it´s become a “cool” language in the wake of Latin American left-wing solidarity and a “sexy” language thanks to Latino music by J.Lo. and Ricky Martin.

Now, finally, it´s not only a “European” language, but a “global” one. The only languages that can compete with it in terms of speakers are English and Chinese.  Forget French, German, Italian. 

From Madrid to Mexico to Miami, Spanish is the language of now.

So taking the time to learn it can only be good for you!

And time is all it takes, because Spanish IS a relatively easy language, particularly if you live in Spain. Its alphabet is similar to our own and it´s a phonetic language, which means that it´s written exactly how it sounds (unlike English, which is horrendous in this sense).

You can´t learn it in a week, though…..

There are three ways of learning any language.

1. Total immersion.  AKA “I´ve been captured by pirates and I need to speak Somali to get fed.”

2. El roce (rubbing shoulders).  AKA “I´m hopeless with languages but my gorgeous wife´s Turkish and we go there four times a year. My kids speak Turkish and we run a Turkish travel agency, so I gabble the language though I´ve never taken a class”. 

3. Classes. This is the way to go. Not as dangerous as 1. and not as much fun as 2. but more effective than both combined.

Why?

Great competence in any language is very difficult. If, like so many of us, you grew up monolingual, your brain´s been having a long linguistic siesta.  It needs a really good shake to get it moving again. Classes will do that.

Every language has a structure, a boney skeleton, on which to hang all the shapely bits.  As Captain Jack Sparrow says of the Pirate Code of Parlay, this structure´s not terribly binding, “more like guidelines, really”. Classes will give you these guidelines.

Languages are generally economic  – why use twenty words when five will do? – and largely based on common, rational sense.  What that little squiggle´s for and why a huge long sentence in English can be reduced to a grunt in Spanish will be appreciated in a class. 

So, if you feel vanquished by Spanish, it´s because:

-  you´re not taking regular classes and are relying on a mix of methods one and two

- you´re expecting the learning of a foreign language to be like school; enough to pass an exam

 But when you move to Spain and really want to be able to express yourself well and be able to keep up with Spanish speakers, take a class based on a communicative approach covering the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking. Each skill reinforces the other so don´t say you “just” want to learn to speak. If you want to learn to speak, do all four.

For YEARS!

See, it’s not that hard after all, is it? 

And if it’s any consolation, the Spaniards are going mad en masse trying to learn your language, English!

PS.  Nite grite isn´t in the Collins – or any – dictionary!  But my husband´s name is, as lexicographer. What was that I said about el roce?

 

 

 

 

 

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