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Travel Spain Google Group
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Travel Spain provides all the information you need for travel in Spain (and Portugal). Hotel recommendations, itineraries, and expert advice for both the first time tourist and experienced traveller. For more information you can read the FAQ at :- http://www.gomadrid.com/travelspain-faq.html
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Re: Questions
I want to add that Latin America is huge, and for instance, the
Mexican accent is completly different to Argentine accent (by the way,
we love Argentine accent). Anyway. Finally, I agree with Roger about
it was either a misunderstanding or an isolated case.
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Re: Questions
Well of course. it's the informal forms which have all but disappeared
in English - thee, thou, which together with 'ye' have all been
replaced by 'you', and preserved in ordinary speech only by the Bible
and Shakespeare. The exceptions are regional, especially Scotland and
the North of England, where 'ye', 'thee' and 'tha', a form of 'thou'
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Re: Questions
Hi Roger (et al), enjoying this dialog. I found your reference to “…
the best Spanish is spoken in Valladolid” most interesting. This last
April we were touring the Rioja wine region and stumbled across San
Millán de la Cogolla ([link]
%C3%A1n_de_la_Cogolla). San Millán (declared a world heritage site)
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
Ah, OK, the old tu vs usted dilemma.
To be honest, there are so many exceptions to the situations described in
the textbooks, that it's almost easier to just play it by ear. In my
opinion, the best rule of thumb is the age one: if you use tu for anybody
under 30 and usted for anybody over 50, then you won't go far wrong. You'll
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
Thanks to Roger and Tim. I'm overwhelmed at the responses.
Since this worked out well beyond my expectations, my thought
was to just sit back, relax, and read the comments (they're all
very interesting). Alas, I was asked a couple of questions that I
should answer, so I'll just pick and choose and respond.
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
I love reading this "conversation". I first visited Spain in 1983. I lived there from 85-88, and since moving back to the US, I've spent part of my year in Spain every year except 2 of them (96 and 98) but some years visited 2x. ( I married a Spaniard).
Being both a Spanish learner and teacher, my first thought is that maybe the person in question misunderstood the helpfulness of the interaction. MANY people go to Spain to learn "castellano", even latin americans. Because of this, many nativos in areas that have large numbers of tourists and foreign students have fallen into the habit of "helping" (ie. correcting) people they come in contact with. My SIL worked in a pastry shop near the center of Salamanca and would tell me about the interactions she had. She always tried to be helpful and respectful while "adjusting" their spanish.
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
Talking about mistakes....
I'm afraid I spelt a word incorrectly not once, but three times! I'm now
living in Portugal and my nascent Portuguese was taking over when I wrote
"coneci", which can only be Portuñol (neither correct Portuguese nor
correct Spanish, but a mixture of both)
The first person past tense of the verb conocer is of course *conocí*!
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
Hi Tim,
Thanks, what a great contribution to what is becoming an incredibly
interesting thread, and thanks to Jim also for starting things off -
hopefully others will also join in.
I really enjoyed reading your post, Tim, but I will have to take issue with
a number of points you make, hoping you'll take this in the spirit intended
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Re: [travelspain] Camino de Santiago....
Sorry I can't help with this one. I have family members that have done the Camino de Cabrera ([link] but not Santiago.
Karen
______________________________ __
To: travelspain@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 12:17 PM
My companion is interested in doing the entire Camino de Santiago walk.....Where is the place to contact for this.....that is reliable, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced. What does the group suggest....especially those who have done the walk (or part of it)?......Wonder if Karen or Mac or some of the old-timers or Roger have done the walk....my best to all of you....
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Re: [travelspain] Questions
Jim,
.
I lived in Spain in 1985-86 and later in 1988, and have gone back a few times.
In my experience, Spain is the old world, and you'll find a certain amount of snobbery anywhere in Europe that assumes that the older culture is better. The average person in Spain will not correct your Spanish in an arrogant way, but it happens frequently enough to notice. I remember meeting many people who would talk about Spanish from Spain being the "best" Spanish spoken; they would seem to congratulate themselves for their open-mindedness when they would point out, for example, that in Latin America, the "best" Spanish is spoken in Colombia (I have no idea why they always said it was Colombia). The average Spaniard had, when I was there, regressive opinions about the "value" of cultures and language, uninformed by modern anthropological or linguistic concepts (linguists nowadays contantly reaffirm that it's ridiculous to say that one dialect or another is "better" than some other).
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