{"id":154,"date":"2013-10-26T14:12:40","date_gmt":"2013-10-26T12:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=154"},"modified":"2014-03-28T10:36:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T08:36:12","slug":"espere-ctrl-alt-supr-only-as-a-last-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=154","title":{"rendered":"Espere \u2026 Ctrl-Alt-Supr only as a last resort"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living in a new country is daunting. Living in a new country with expat language skills can be terrifying. Insanity soon prevails, from opening a bank account (8 separate signed pages needed) to signing on at the local police station (a requirement of any extranjero<\/i> whether criminal or not).* It may take a while, but \u201cDon\u2019t worry, be happy\u201d is the best policy.\u00a0In Spanish, no te preocupes<\/a><\/i>. Chill.<\/p>\n

\"behappy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When it comes to computers, however, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, be happy\u201d and \u201cno te preocupes<\/em><\/i>\u201d don\u2019t cut it. To err is human, to completely foul things up \u2026 takes a computer. To err again is more human, to completely and utterly snafu everything takes a computer with another operating language.<\/p>\n

Try translating Windows commands from Spanish to English. A Nightmare on Elm Street<\/i>. Figuring out why your mobile phone suddenly won\u2019t access the internet. Rosemary\u2019s Baby.<\/i> Finding the best Wi-Fi (Wee-Fee) hot spot in the house. The Exorcist<\/i>, The Shining<\/i>, Omen<\/i>, Parts I, II, and III. When it comes to computers, practice does not make perfect.<\/p>\n

The first Spanish computerese I mastered was descargar<\/i> and cargar<\/i> or download and load. I had to \u2013 necessity being the mother of invention and all \u2013 and have been descargaring everything under the sun. Even our television routinely descargars<\/i> under the guise of the latest update. Contrase\u00f1a<\/i> (or clave<\/i>) is also essential if one wants to sign on to anything with a password. But most vexing is the @ sign, a third-level function located on the 2\/\u201d key, accessed by pressing Alt Gr + 2<\/strong>. Not to mention accents. I thought French keyboards were hard. Spanish is another level.<\/p>\n

Cookies are also a pain. Not the galleta<\/i> kind, the pain-in-the-culo<\/i> kind, as in a web page recognizing an IP address as Spanish, and then automatically assuming you speak business Spanish. As such, when I use the web, my IP recognizing cookie machine sets me up to open a BBVA account, watch TVE, learn English (curso official de ingl\u00e9s a distancia<\/i>), or descubre nuestra bodegas<\/i>. I don\u2019t want to do any of that even in English. Yo no acepto<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The Huffington Post<\/i>** also puts me directly into its Spanish front page because of cookies (not to mention the extremely large pop-up Spanish banner ads). Expat content is essential away from home and HP is free, although their page-3, right side is fast becoming tiresome (World\u2019s Sexiest Actress, Porn stars want condoms, Actor of the Month opens up about sexuality, \u2026). But, I can get a direct translation from the profile headers and see the appropriate internationalization (so-called I18n<\/i>). While not a perfect match, it helps.<\/p>\n

Word is a little more straightforward: Inicio<\/i> — Home (or Start), Insertar<\/i> — Insert or can easily be related to the English equivalent: Dise\u00f1o de p\u00e1gina<\/i> — Page Layout, Vista<\/i> — View. The submenus are also easy: Alinear<\/i> — Align, Girar<\/i> — Rotate, Recortar<\/i> — Crop, etc.***<\/p>\n

\"Computersi18n<\/a><\/p>\n

My favourite is Vaciar la Papelera de reciclaje<\/i> (Empty the Recycle Bin) and Restaurar todos los elementos<\/i> (Restore all items) \u2013 just in case I completely screwed up.<\/p>\n

If all else fails, there\u2019s always Ctrl-Alt-Supr<\/i> (Ctrl-Alt-Del). Supr is short for suprimir<\/i>, literally remove. And if all else fails fails, there\u2019s always a good book.<\/p>\n

\n
Spanish learning aids and resources ASIDE<\/strong>: Coffee Break Spanish<\/span><\/a><\/strong> is an excellent resource for improving Spanish with lots of free audio exercises (210 and counting over four years). Where is Asturias<\/span><\/a><\/strong> is an excellent website and facebook page about life in the north of Spain. Check out Terri Mitchell\u2019s country house Fancornio Rural<\/span><\/a><\/strong> for interesting courses and pastoral accommodation. Blue Sky Caf\u00e9<\/span><\/a><\/strong> has a Tandem Language Exchange, where English and Spanish are traded in comfy caf\u00e9 confines. And if you\u2019ve ever wondered if multilingualism is good for your health, check out Bilinguals Have Higher Level Of Mental Flexibility<\/span><\/a><\/strong> in The Huffington Post<\/i>, Sept 12, 2013.<\/span><\/h5>\n
* I still have the government-issue tissue the local government admin lady gave me to wipe my finger after I had been inked. It seems bureaucracy is<\/i> the norm in Spain. Some even blame the fall of the Spanish empire on a preoccupation for detail and losing site of the forest for the trees (and thus the colonies).<\/h5>\n
** The Huffington Post<\/i> is slowly taking over the world with on-line editions in Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Maghreb (North-west Africa), the U.K., and the U.S. Good for language learners, not so good for diverse, pluralistic thinking.<\/h5>\n
*** Some general rules for a particular class of words: plastic — plastico<\/i>, reservation — reservaci\u00f3n<\/i>, participate — participar<\/i>, competitor — competidor.<\/i><\/h5>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Living in a new country is daunting. Living in a new country with expat language skills can be terrifying. Insanity soon prevails, from opening a bank account (8 separate signed pages needed) to signing on at the local police station … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[7,4],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain","tag-funny","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}