You’re Unfriended, Amigo!

Or perhaps enemigo would be more appropriate!

I’m not an expert in Spanish by any means. But recently I found myself watching a brief clip from Toy Story 3 (I can’t for the life of me remember the context, but it was a YouTube video of some sorts). The clip was from when Buzz Lightyear’s accidentally had his voice (and personality: I have seen Toy Story 3) changed to Spanish. From this very brief clip, and memory of watching the film, I recognised that he was saying Are you a friend or an enemy!? Which was very interesting. Continue reading →

Canteen

Writing about the word magazine yesterday made me think of another word with a similar range of meanings: canteen. Continue reading →

Euskal Herria

Hello there!

Yes, I’ve been away for a little while again. Between Saturday and Thursday, I was on a well-earned holiday to the Basque Country.

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Hello Europe!

This evening I was at my parents’ house, watching a little TV after Sunday dinner. I don’t really watch much TV anymore, at least not in the conventional broadcast sense, apart from Sunday afternoons at home. Gaelic football matches are the usual background noise to Sunday-afternoon dinner, but we had it a bit later today, so I found myself watching an interesting nature programme.

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Que Sera Sera

… whatever will be, will be.

You might know the song. And you might know the language the title is in. Or you might think you might know…

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Why are they Called Romance Languages?

You’ve probably noticed that I talk a lot about Romance languages here. These are languages largely derived from Latin. Currently there are five main Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian.

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For Crying Out Loud!

Usually, when people cry, they cry out loud. But of course you can cry silently, can’t you? That hasn’t always been the case though.

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