So, as you've probably guessed, I'm back in Spain. I came back to a complete and utter montón (mountain) of work. So I am a bit stressed. I also have the Galician exam this afternoon, and to say I will not pass is an understatement. Not that I need to pass, because I'm doing too many credits anyway, but the point is that it's a waste of my time even sitting in the exam.
Anyhoo. I am also doing far much teaching of English. And I've realised that English is a stupid language. My other point that I need to ramble on about is how the attitude of English people RE foreign languages STINKS. We know this already, due to the lack of translators and interpreters who have English as their mother tongue which means that foreign shampoo bottles are being translated to English by Spanish people (which is clearly not ideal and goes against the grain entirely). But the latest example manifested itself when Steph and I were flying back to Spain. The company we fly with (for legal reasons I won't say their name, but we'll call them DifficultJet) is an English company, but as they insist on flying to Bilbao (which is the back end of beyond in Spanish terms) their flights mainly have Spanish people on. However, NONE of the air-hostesses speak Spanish, and they just assume that by talking in ridiculously complicated English (albeit slow English), Spanish people will understand.
One poor woman didn't understand that if she didn't fit her handbag into her hand luggage, she'd have to pay £40 to book it into the hold. It was CLEAR she didn't really understand, but there was no acknowledgement that she didn't speak English because we think everyone speaks our language.
My other beef with Difficult Jet is that the safety announcements do happen in both English and Spanish, but the actions only happen to the English announcements. And, moreover, the actions happen before the words have been said. As an amateur choreographer, this annoys the heck out of me. Actions should slightly lag behind, otherwise the recording is saying 'fasten your belt like this' and it's already been done ten minutes ago!
Anyway. Rant over.
New rant: my bed is still uncomfortable.
Hasta luego blogueros, have a better week than mine! x
Ah ze old English cliché. If they don't understand then clearly and loudly repeating myself is sure to work...
ReplyDeleteFor the bed, buy a second (cheap) duvet pop it under the first one (or over which is probably easier) and sleep on the one underneath = poor man's topper. Though it the second duvet costs you more than 5 euros, it's probably not worthy it at this point lol.
Zoe x