{"id":75,"date":"2013-09-21T14:21:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T12:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=75"},"modified":"2014-03-28T10:28:30","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T08:28:30","slug":"some-gijon-tiendas-where-english-meets-spanish-at-the-doorstep-and-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"Where English meets Spanish: Las tiendas and on the telly"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the language learner, I think that the order is eye, mouth, and then ear, that is, we learn first to read a word, say it, and finally hear it (and hopefully understand it), firstly on its own (which is rare in spoken language) and then in a sentence. Hearing is the hardest, and marks the learner as one who is beginning to understand.<\/p>\n

So, to start the eye on the journey, I have taken some pictures of stores (tiendas<\/em>)<\/strong> in Gij\u00f3n that have English or part English names, to see how much English has crept into everyday life here and to help again with the general vocabulario<\/em>. Rest assured that the Spanish needn\u2019t worry as much as the French to protect their language, given that Spanish is the second language of the world behind Chinese*, and certainly not as much the French in Canada (les Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois), whose Orwellian sounding Bill 101** outlaws English-only signs to help keep the loup<\/em> at the door.<\/p>\n

\"Trendy\"<\/a>\"Twin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Animals\"<\/a>\"VisonLab\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"CalzadosBoston\"<\/a>\"OpenCor\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Outlet\"<\/a>\"BlueSkyCafe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure why Trendy couldn\u2019t have been called (De) Moda or what Twin has to do with zapatos<\/em>, but it could mean shoes for infants and kids (infantiles y juveniles<\/em>) or that all shoes come in pairs (parejas<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Note that you will find the word REBAJAS on many shop windows in Spain meaning \u2018reductions\u2019 or \u2018rebate,\u2019 essentially SALE. In Asturias, you will also see REBAXES, the Asturiano equivalent. Alas, I don\u2019t know why Animales wouldn\u2019t do for a vet clinic (paw or pata<\/em> included) but obviously Laboratorio de Vision is a mouthful.<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t know what Boston has to do with calzados<\/em> (shoes, boots, sandals, anything that goes on the feet), what OpenCor means (although it is Open every day), though Outlet gets right to the heart of selling. I guess Concesionario just doesn\u2019t have the same draw.<\/p>\n

Blue Sky Caf\u00e9<\/b> (cielo<\/em> azul<\/i>) is a caf\u00e9 bar in the centre of town where coming soon (starting October 11 from 9:15 to 11:30 pm) is the weekly Blue Sky Quiz<\/b>. Check out the Blue Sky Caf\u00e9 facebook page<\/a> for details. Calling all quizzers. Be ready.<\/p>\n

Our television channel 3 is also called Tienda, which as far as I can tell is a 24\/7 anuncio<\/em> for PestReject<\/strong> (promoci\u00f3n v\u00e1lida hasta 31 de marza 2014<\/em>) and The XHose<\/strong> (Ocupa poco espacio, Muy manejable, y F\u00e1cil de guardar<\/em>). When you\u2019re learning a language sometimes los anuncios<\/em> are better than las pel\u00edculas<\/em>. At least, they speak slowly, clearly, and repeat themselves over and over (and over). M\u00e1s r\u00e1pido, operadores est\u00e1n esperando<\/em>. But, fortunately, most shows have subt\u00edtulos<\/em>, allowing the eye to learn first what the ear then tries best to catch up to.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, beware the DESDE<\/em> on the real tiendas; you know, that famous UP TO lettering so small that it can\u2019t be read even with the best of laboratorios de vision<\/em>. Caveat emptor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

* Language rankings. Check out David Brown\u2019s\u00a0\u201cTop 100 Languages by Population<\/a>\u201d for a full list plus sources. Note, French is thirteenth with 72 million speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Rank<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Language<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Speakers<\/b><\/p>\n

(millions)<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n
1<\/h5>\n<\/td>\n
Chinese (Mandarin)<\/td>\n\n

885<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Spanish<\/td>\n\n

332<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

3<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

English<\/td>\n\n

322<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

4<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Bengali<\/td>\n\n

189<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Hindi<\/td>\n\n

182<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

6<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Portuguese<\/td>\n\n

170<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Russian<\/td>\n\n

170<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Japanese<\/td>\n\n

125<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

German<\/td>\n\n

98<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Chinese (Wu)<\/td>\n\n

77<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

** Quebec\u2019s Bill 101
\n\u201cBill 101 paved way for peace<\/a>,\u201d Hubert Bauch, Montreal Gazette<\/em>, Aug 25, 2007
\n\u201cHow Bill 101 saved Canada<\/a>,\u201d Tasha Kheiriddin, The National Post<\/em>, Feb 7, 2011<\/p>\n

Grammar ASIDE (Abbreviations and acronyms)<\/strong> In Spanish, plural abbreviations are doubled. Hence, the United States is EEUU (or EE. UU.) for Estados Unidos. The United Kingdom (singular), however, is RU (or R.U.) for Reino Unido. Some common national acronyms are RENFE<\/strong> (Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Espa\u00f1oles) and FEVE<\/strong> (Ferrocarriles Espa\u00f1oles de V\u00eda Estrecha), the two public train systems or ferrocarriles<\/em> (literally ironways). Note that RENFE is the European wide-gauge standard used mostly throughout Spain now, whereas FEVE is the narrow gauge still found in the north.<\/span><\/h5>\n
EM is Empresa Municipal and SA is Sociedad An\u00f3nima, which is a type of company (SL is a limited company), and is used for city companies. For example, EMA<\/strong> is Empresa Municipal Agua. In Gijon, EMTUSA<\/strong> is Empresa Municipal de Transportes Urbanos de Gij\u00f3n, the city bus system (which one can call to get the time of the next bus) and EMULSA<\/strong> is Empresa Municipal de Servicios de Medio Ambiente Urbano, the city recycling (which is community based, with large brown, yellow, blue, and green bins every kilometre or so for household recycling). I\u2019m not sure what the L is for; maybe limpiar<\/em> (to clean). Note, latas<\/em> is cans and briks<\/em> is short for Tetra Brik or Tetra Pak, the iconic rectangular drink container package.<\/span><\/h5>\n

\"EMULSA\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the language learner, I think that the order is eye, mouth, and then ear, that is, we learn first to read a word, say it, and finally hear it (and hopefully understand it), firstly on its own (which is … 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":[7,9,4],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spain","tag-funny","tag-gijon","tag-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","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=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnkwhite.ie\/caracolas\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}