Tengo el weblog absolutamente abandonado!!!
Pero ya sabeis, la falta de noticias... es buenas noticias!!!! Llevo tiempo intentando escribir algo, pero siempre pasa algo. Un balonazo desde la piscina a mi terraza requiriendo mi presencia, un SMS de un drinking partner convocandome en algun garito, una mudanza que se interpone en tu camino, un paseo por la ria para fumar cachimbas, en fin, que entre el curro y la vida social, no he sacado nada de tiempo para escribir.
Esta noche viene Lillian, asi que la que viene tampoco escribire nada. Pero despues seguro que tendre muchas cosas que contar.
Una de mis companeras y vecinas tambien tiene un blog. Esta en ingles, asi que si lo tienes en el olvido y te interesa saber lo que dice, diccionario, o llamada a un colega que sepa, o lo que sea. Habla de las clases de espanol que ofrezco gratis a mis companeros de edificio, una vez por semana. La verdad es que es unas risas.
Este es su weblog, y este es el articulo que pirateo.
http://dittyindubai.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Learning Spanish in the Middle East?
Tis true I can barley speak a lick of Arabic. My lick being Inshallah, meaning God willing. Everyone begins and ends phrases with Inshallah.
Person A : Do you think theyll have coffee at the meeting?
Person B : Inshallah. Are you going to make it happy hour tonight?
Person A : Inshallah. Do you think they will have a ladies night special?
Person B : Inshallah. If they dont well just take a cab to a different bar
where they have ladies night, inshallah.
You get the point. Needless to say, this phrase comes in handy, but all other Arabic words almost seem irrelevant. That sounds horribly disrespectful and I do not mean it to ..simply, most people here do not speak Arabic. There are tongues from India, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the US ..ALL OVER THE WORLD. In general, Arabic is heard, but rarely understood.
This paired with the more important factor, Castro, is why I have decided not to learn Arabic, but Spanish instead. So what, you ask, is Castro? Castro is :
An anomaly
Not a motor oil
A proud Spaniard from the Basque Country
Easily the funniest guy I know
Best friends with everyone (plumber, landlord, sheik, cab driver, principle doesnt matter, he knows and loves them all)
A Spanish teacher here at DAA but posing as an IT teacher for reasons I will not reveal.
Convinced that beer and wine are not alcoholic beverages. I, too, have chosen to adopt this philosophy. After all, Castro es muy intelligente tambien.
My polar opposite (at least when it comes to likes and dislikes)
A great friend, neighbor, car pooler, and drinking buddy
My new tutor in Spanish.
So every Monday (that is Wednesday for all you folks back home) a few of us convene on Castros apartment to learn us some Spanish. One by one we stagger in, some of us bringing Nutella and chocolate, others bearing hummus and pita, and all of us inevitably bringing a beverage of choice. Our class consists of :
Dale (but we call him Whale which in Spanish is Ballena .so we now call him Ballena.) 5th grade teacher, my floor mate, prankster, forever a 10 yr old boy.
Teresa my rock star buddy, speaks French like a champ, can dance like nobodys business, throws a mean party but being that she never took Spanish, homegirl no comprende Espanol.
Cai P.E. teacher and proud Welshman, also a virgin to Spanish, but takes it all very seriously (I think only to impress Teresa but what do I know?)
Tom 50ish Science teacher I have mentioned before. He is quite good at Spanish actually, probably doesnt need lessons but our classes are so fun so he comes anyways.
Brado a.k.a. King Benito Camellas. Thinks that his ability to say tu madre means he is fluent in Spanish but he isnt.
Me clearly a Spanish master...enough said.
So generally class begins with various insults being exchanged between Castro, Brad, and myself. Someone will remind me that Tennessee lost their first game to which I respond by insulting their mom. Brad will inevitably start talking about what random gadget was invented in Minnesota to which Castro, Teresa and I will either ignore or pretend we care so much that he goes on for 10 minutes. All the while, Dale will be text messaging us funny quips and Tomas will be telling dirty jokes. It is the best introduction to a lesson a person could ask for. At some point, Castro will say in his very Spanish accent, REPETA POR FAVOR ..and the lesson begins.
We have learned the basics :
What is your name? Como te llamas?
Where are you from ? De donde eres?
What is your telephone number? Cual es la numero de telefono?
Mucho gusoto. Please to meet you.
Me gusta la musica I like music.
Then there are the accessory phrases:
Mucho busto. Nice boobs. (dont know if I will
actually use this one but it is one
phrase closer to fluency, right?)
Embarcharros Bunch of drunks
Vivas con tu madre? Do you live with your mom?
You get the point.
So, the lesson goes on, interrupted occasionally to relay a funny school story or to hear Benito talk about the number of factorials that can be found in the square root of Pi if divided by the number of letters in the word Minnesota, until we complete the necessary vocabulario y frases. Really our Spanish tutorial ends when our sides hurt from laughing too hard, our beverages run dry, and/or we realize that we are unprepared to teach in less than 8 hours. After saying our proper goodbyes (Adioses, Hasta Luegos, Hasta Mananas, etc ) and exchanging mucho besos we part .each scrambling back to our designated Golden Sands II floor to enjoy a good nights sleep. After a class like that, sleep is just frosting on the cake.
So, in case you were wondering ..I sleep well on Monday nights.
----------------------------
Otro fenomeno que vive en el edificio, Tom, es un aficionado de la fotografia. En este link podeis ver algunas de Dubai, y en alguna salgo yo.
http://cards.webshots.com/invite/pickup/105626229SQnR/album/441925088LBjmlE
Click on "No thanks, just show me the photos" y listo.
Un abrazo, y a ver si pronto escribo mas.
Take care!
Castrol.
Esta noche viene Lillian, asi que la que viene tampoco escribire nada. Pero despues seguro que tendre muchas cosas que contar.
Una de mis companeras y vecinas tambien tiene un blog. Esta en ingles, asi que si lo tienes en el olvido y te interesa saber lo que dice, diccionario, o llamada a un colega que sepa, o lo que sea. Habla de las clases de espanol que ofrezco gratis a mis companeros de edificio, una vez por semana. La verdad es que es unas risas.
Este es su weblog, y este es el articulo que pirateo.
http://dittyindubai.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Learning Spanish in the Middle East?
Tis true I can barley speak a lick of Arabic. My lick being Inshallah, meaning God willing. Everyone begins and ends phrases with Inshallah.
Person A : Do you think theyll have coffee at the meeting?
Person B : Inshallah. Are you going to make it happy hour tonight?
Person A : Inshallah. Do you think they will have a ladies night special?
Person B : Inshallah. If they dont well just take a cab to a different bar
where they have ladies night, inshallah.
You get the point. Needless to say, this phrase comes in handy, but all other Arabic words almost seem irrelevant. That sounds horribly disrespectful and I do not mean it to ..simply, most people here do not speak Arabic. There are tongues from India, Pakistan, Korea, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the US ..ALL OVER THE WORLD. In general, Arabic is heard, but rarely understood.
This paired with the more important factor, Castro, is why I have decided not to learn Arabic, but Spanish instead. So what, you ask, is Castro? Castro is :
An anomaly
Not a motor oil
A proud Spaniard from the Basque Country
Easily the funniest guy I know
Best friends with everyone (plumber, landlord, sheik, cab driver, principle doesnt matter, he knows and loves them all)
A Spanish teacher here at DAA but posing as an IT teacher for reasons I will not reveal.
Convinced that beer and wine are not alcoholic beverages. I, too, have chosen to adopt this philosophy. After all, Castro es muy intelligente tambien.
My polar opposite (at least when it comes to likes and dislikes)
A great friend, neighbor, car pooler, and drinking buddy
My new tutor in Spanish.
So every Monday (that is Wednesday for all you folks back home) a few of us convene on Castros apartment to learn us some Spanish. One by one we stagger in, some of us bringing Nutella and chocolate, others bearing hummus and pita, and all of us inevitably bringing a beverage of choice. Our class consists of :
Dale (but we call him Whale which in Spanish is Ballena .so we now call him Ballena.) 5th grade teacher, my floor mate, prankster, forever a 10 yr old boy.
Teresa my rock star buddy, speaks French like a champ, can dance like nobodys business, throws a mean party but being that she never took Spanish, homegirl no comprende Espanol.
Cai P.E. teacher and proud Welshman, also a virgin to Spanish, but takes it all very seriously (I think only to impress Teresa but what do I know?)
Tom 50ish Science teacher I have mentioned before. He is quite good at Spanish actually, probably doesnt need lessons but our classes are so fun so he comes anyways.
Brado a.k.a. King Benito Camellas. Thinks that his ability to say tu madre means he is fluent in Spanish but he isnt.
Me clearly a Spanish master...enough said.
So generally class begins with various insults being exchanged between Castro, Brad, and myself. Someone will remind me that Tennessee lost their first game to which I respond by insulting their mom. Brad will inevitably start talking about what random gadget was invented in Minnesota to which Castro, Teresa and I will either ignore or pretend we care so much that he goes on for 10 minutes. All the while, Dale will be text messaging us funny quips and Tomas will be telling dirty jokes. It is the best introduction to a lesson a person could ask for. At some point, Castro will say in his very Spanish accent, REPETA POR FAVOR ..and the lesson begins.
We have learned the basics :
What is your name? Como te llamas?
Where are you from ? De donde eres?
What is your telephone number? Cual es la numero de telefono?
Mucho gusoto. Please to meet you.
Me gusta la musica I like music.
Then there are the accessory phrases:
Mucho busto. Nice boobs. (dont know if I will
actually use this one but it is one
phrase closer to fluency, right?)
Embarcharros Bunch of drunks
Vivas con tu madre? Do you live with your mom?
You get the point.
So, the lesson goes on, interrupted occasionally to relay a funny school story or to hear Benito talk about the number of factorials that can be found in the square root of Pi if divided by the number of letters in the word Minnesota, until we complete the necessary vocabulario y frases. Really our Spanish tutorial ends when our sides hurt from laughing too hard, our beverages run dry, and/or we realize that we are unprepared to teach in less than 8 hours. After saying our proper goodbyes (Adioses, Hasta Luegos, Hasta Mananas, etc ) and exchanging mucho besos we part .each scrambling back to our designated Golden Sands II floor to enjoy a good nights sleep. After a class like that, sleep is just frosting on the cake.
So, in case you were wondering ..I sleep well on Monday nights.
----------------------------
Otro fenomeno que vive en el edificio, Tom, es un aficionado de la fotografia. En este link podeis ver algunas de Dubai, y en alguna salgo yo.
http://cards.webshots.com/invite/pickup/105626229SQnR/album/441925088LBjmlE
Click on "No thanks, just show me the photos" y listo.
Un abrazo, y a ver si pronto escribo mas.
Take care!
Castrol.
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