There was this interview. It was with the philologist who is responsible for linguistic use at the IB3 broadcaster. At the conclusion of the interview she says of the Balearic language that it doesn't exist. To speak of a Balearic language is provocative, just as it is when one refers to the Catalan of Mallorca. It is the philological way, but she doesn't like it because, for centuries, we have called it Mallorquín.
In Mallorca, it can appear, there are more philologists than you can shake a dictionary at. These "students" of languages, be they actual students, professors or hobbyists, proliferate to an extent that is hard to comprehend for those of us brought up without an obsession with arguing over languages and their historical significance. Philologist was a word, a profession if you like, that I was well aware of before coming to Mallorca, but never had it occurred to me that there would be a place where the philologist seems as common as the town hall official, and as equally bloody-minded in all likelihood.
And the town halls have their own quasi-philologists, the councillors who are charged with the responsibility for what, through literal translation, is linguistic normalisation but which is better translated as standardisation. Either noun will do, as the whole term is a euphemism for Catalan. Or is it?
The philologist of the interview, Mariantònia Lladó, has a contentious responsibility at IB3. Anything to do with language has the potential to be contentious - which is one reason why there are so many philologists knocking around - and at IB3 it has been just this. It has all had to do with an issue that will, for the great majority of you, seem impenetrable and arcane, but that is because you will not be obsessed with the detail of language, one that is so micro-scrutinised that there are arguments which haggle over the use of the word "the". At IB3, "the" became a politico-philological battle. The Partido Popular, which ruled the broadcaster through its government vice-president Antonio Gomez and then José Manuel Ruiz, who failed so spectacularly in becoming mayor of Calvia, insisted that the Mallorquín "the" should be used and not the Catalan "the". Mariantònia, elsewhere in the interview, reveals her "the" preference, lamenting the fact that, except out in the villages of Mallorca, the "new generations" use the literary "the", i.e. the Catalan one.
For the Bauzá PP, so desirous of distancing itself from anything marked with the stamp of Catalonia, the intervention over "the" at IB3 went to the heart of its linguistic politics, and the very notion of there being a linguistic politics can strike many as being somewhat absurd. But that's because they are not bound up in the ceaseless polemic that can appear to define all politics of Mallorca.
The PP line, and that of Mariantònia (and I hope I'm not misrepresenting her), is to promote the languages of the islands at the expense of Catalan. Yet this can appear to be - in political terms - contradictory. The PP disassociates itself from notions of nationalism - those which are not Spanish nationalist - but it advocates a distinct language, Mallorquín. And what, as far as nationalism is concerned, is more nationalist than a language? But then, it isn't contradictory if it is accepted that there are minority languages/dialects within the framework of the grand nationalism of Spain and it also isn't contradictory if this acceptance is one to cock a snook at the pretensions of Catalan nationalism which involve a geographically broader area than just Catalonia - the mythical Catalan Lands.
Inherent to this line is an argument that the languages of the islands, and each island lays claim to having one, are the products of some form of separate development. Well, quite clearly there has been. When there are 250 plus kilometres of sea that divorce Mallorca from the Catalan heartland as well as a history of Arabic language and Vulgar Latin (and it is this which is the root of the "the" argument), there was bound to have been linguistic modification. But the mother tongue is Catalan (and/or variants that themselves influenced and created Catalan). To refer to the "Catalan of Mallorca" is, however, says Mariantònia, provocative. And in this, for many Mallorcans in my experience, she is right. Mallorcans speak Mallorquín and not Catalan, albeit there are obvious, very strong similarities.
So, one comes back to this business of linguistic normalisation, sometimes determined at town halls by councillors who proudly speak their Mallorquín (and nothing else) but within an ideological framework of Catalan nationalism and with responsibility for the normalisation of Catalan. And ditto the schools, where the argument is over the promotion of Catalan, not of Mallorquín.
Still, this all helps to allow philology to flourish and for there to be never-ending arguments, and the fact is that they will never end.
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 09, 2015
Thursday, August 08, 2013
Rigidity Of Language: Spain's Royal Academy
1713 was the year when modern Spain came into existence. While it can be fatuous to ignore previous history and assign special status to a given year or a given event as a starting-point, there is some justification for elevating 1713 to such a status and for suggesting that everything since can be attributed to what happened in that year - the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht which brought an end to the War of the Spanish Succession.
It is true to say that the war did continue. The following year was when Barcelona finally fell and removed the last resistance to King Philip V and the Bourbon dynasty that remains to this day, but 1713 marked an historical line in the sand, to one side of which was the impulse towards creating a centralised and unified Spain, suppressing and indeed abolishing the Crown of Aragon and establishing Castellano as the sole language of government and the rules and laws of Castile as the rules and laws of this one Spain.
The language thing is rarely far from the surface in today's Spain, and 1713 was significant for a specific development that truly established Castellano. This was the founding of the Real Academia Española, the Royal Spanish Academy, the arbiter and regulator of matters pertaining to the use of Spanish.
The academy came into being in August of that year, the brainchild of the Marquis of Vilena. It might have been thought that Philip, naturally drawn to anything with a centralising, unifying and Castilian style, would have been sufficiently impressed to have given the academy his immediate blessing. He did bless it, fourteen months later, but there had been initial opposition to the academy in Castilian circles that stemmed from an impression of the founders as being less than wholly supportive of the Church.
Though there was now an academy, modelled after those in Italy and France, something was lacking. There was no dictionary, and so Vilena embarked on the process of producing the first and definitive guide to the Spanish language.
It was to be many years before it appeared. It did, after all, amount to over 4,000 pages once it was finally produced, so it wasn't a task that could have been undertaken rapidly. These 4,000 pages with 42,000 words were spread over six volumes, the "Dictionary of Authorities" being completed in 1739 and a more user-friendly, slimmer, one-volume tome - the concise dictionary - being published in 1780.
The academy, despite having a clear role in defining Castilian-Spanish culture, has traditionally tried to place itself above politics, but politics have intervened, and it isn't difficult to guess when these interventions might have taken place: under that good old Absolutist, Ferdinand VII, and under both dictators, Primo de Rivera and Franco, the latter demanding the expulsion of members considered to be less than fascistic politically correct.
The twenty-third edition of the dictionary is due to be published and it, as with previous editions, will doubtless generate controversy. Criticism of the dictionary has focused on its conservative nature and on its, well, Spanishness to the exclusion of international Spanish usage. But the academy is a conservative body, one that strives to maintain the purity of the Spanish language, a principle it espoused in 1713. It offers a different take on language to that which rules English or rather, which doesn't rule English; there is no equivalent organisation that regulates English.
If Spanish has its academy and its dictionary, what of the language that the events of 1713 conspired to undermine? Since then Catalan has gone through periods of proscription, renaissance, more proscription and the second renaissance following Franco's death. But the problem with Catalan, and so therefore unlike Castellano, is that there is no one Catalan.
The Institute for Catalan Studies' philology section was founded in 1911. Its first president was the Mallorcan, Antoni Maria Alcover. The institute worked on a dictionary and in 1932 the General Dictionary of the Catalan Language was published. It was presented as a standard for all the Catalan-speaking regions, including Valencia, but Valencia has its own academy of language, albeit that it wasn't created until 1998. In the Balearics, the university arbitrates and has established variants which are taken as standard in the islands but which differ to the standard laid down by the institute.
There again, this does perhaps reflect an inherent flexibility in language, which is really as it should be and how it is with English, but isn't with Castellano, the rigidity and conservatism of rules for which can, one feels, be taken as a metaphor for Spain as a nation.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It is true to say that the war did continue. The following year was when Barcelona finally fell and removed the last resistance to King Philip V and the Bourbon dynasty that remains to this day, but 1713 marked an historical line in the sand, to one side of which was the impulse towards creating a centralised and unified Spain, suppressing and indeed abolishing the Crown of Aragon and establishing Castellano as the sole language of government and the rules and laws of Castile as the rules and laws of this one Spain.
The language thing is rarely far from the surface in today's Spain, and 1713 was significant for a specific development that truly established Castellano. This was the founding of the Real Academia Española, the Royal Spanish Academy, the arbiter and regulator of matters pertaining to the use of Spanish.
The academy came into being in August of that year, the brainchild of the Marquis of Vilena. It might have been thought that Philip, naturally drawn to anything with a centralising, unifying and Castilian style, would have been sufficiently impressed to have given the academy his immediate blessing. He did bless it, fourteen months later, but there had been initial opposition to the academy in Castilian circles that stemmed from an impression of the founders as being less than wholly supportive of the Church.
Though there was now an academy, modelled after those in Italy and France, something was lacking. There was no dictionary, and so Vilena embarked on the process of producing the first and definitive guide to the Spanish language.
It was to be many years before it appeared. It did, after all, amount to over 4,000 pages once it was finally produced, so it wasn't a task that could have been undertaken rapidly. These 4,000 pages with 42,000 words were spread over six volumes, the "Dictionary of Authorities" being completed in 1739 and a more user-friendly, slimmer, one-volume tome - the concise dictionary - being published in 1780.
The academy, despite having a clear role in defining Castilian-Spanish culture, has traditionally tried to place itself above politics, but politics have intervened, and it isn't difficult to guess when these interventions might have taken place: under that good old Absolutist, Ferdinand VII, and under both dictators, Primo de Rivera and Franco, the latter demanding the expulsion of members considered to be less than fascistic politically correct.
The twenty-third edition of the dictionary is due to be published and it, as with previous editions, will doubtless generate controversy. Criticism of the dictionary has focused on its conservative nature and on its, well, Spanishness to the exclusion of international Spanish usage. But the academy is a conservative body, one that strives to maintain the purity of the Spanish language, a principle it espoused in 1713. It offers a different take on language to that which rules English or rather, which doesn't rule English; there is no equivalent organisation that regulates English.
If Spanish has its academy and its dictionary, what of the language that the events of 1713 conspired to undermine? Since then Catalan has gone through periods of proscription, renaissance, more proscription and the second renaissance following Franco's death. But the problem with Catalan, and so therefore unlike Castellano, is that there is no one Catalan.
The Institute for Catalan Studies' philology section was founded in 1911. Its first president was the Mallorcan, Antoni Maria Alcover. The institute worked on a dictionary and in 1932 the General Dictionary of the Catalan Language was published. It was presented as a standard for all the Catalan-speaking regions, including Valencia, but Valencia has its own academy of language, albeit that it wasn't created until 1998. In the Balearics, the university arbitrates and has established variants which are taken as standard in the islands but which differ to the standard laid down by the institute.
There again, this does perhaps reflect an inherent flexibility in language, which is really as it should be and how it is with English, but isn't with Castellano, the rigidity and conservatism of rules for which can, one feels, be taken as a metaphor for Spain as a nation.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Managing Reputations: Trip Advisor review responses
A survey by Trip Advisor might not seem the most objective of devices to discover how highly travellers rate the use of Trip Advisor in making travel decisions, but a finding that 93% of travellers who said that review sites, such as Trip Advisor, influence their plans does not strike me as being the least bit unobjective. It's fully believable.
Trip Advisor, for all it gets some bad press, knows it has to be as reliable as possible. It has an online reputation to keep, after all. And online reputation is what Trip Advisor is all about. The same survey that the website has carried out indicates that a doubling of the number of opinions that an establishment receives can lead, in the case of hotels, to a 3% increase in bookings. However this conclusion is arrived at, you can be sure that the increase would not occur if there were a doubling in the number of opinions and they were all bad.
Monitoring online reputation has now become, or should have become, a must-do management procedure, not just for hotels. Most businesses know that this reputation should be monitored, and many do monitor what is said, but precious few seem to do anything about what is said. Monitoring, as in taking a look, is the least of what this monitoring should entail. Far more important is the response and ultimately the action.
I have conducted an unscientific survey of Trip Advisor, one to see how many businesses do actually respond to reviews. The results are far from encouraging. I chose hotels in Puerto Alcúdia, of which there are 47 ranked on Trip Advisor. From these 47 I selected ten from different parts of the ranking. Of the ten, only one hotel - an Iberostar - had made any response to a review. Another, Bellevue, used to give responses; I know because I was once with the assistant director of the complex when he was looking at reviews and replying. This was in 2009 though. Maybe the hotel has just given up. When a quarter of the reviews for your hotel (770 out of 2894) are rated as "terrible", then it must be very disheartening.
I looked at reviews for another resort, Magalluf. Of half a dozen from the 33 hotels listed, the interaction with reviewers seemed stronger. Two Sol hotels (Meliá) had replied and so had Mallorca Rocks. Eventually. A two month gap between a review being posted and a response being given isn't how this is supposed to work, but better late than never. Of other businesses I looked at, hardly any bothered to reply and when there was a reply, it was irregular and often the same stock answer. One business in Mallorca, and it may be the only one, that does this properly, is No Frills Excursions. It replies to every review and often in great detail.
Why do so few hotels, especially hotels, fail to respond? Do they not care? Some may not, but I don't think this is the reason. They don't respond because they don't create the necessary resources and because they fear making a mistake. While hotels have staff who can speak English well, writing English (or any language) is a different matter. An accidental slip can be worse than not replying at all.
Social media like Trip Advisor are making hotels' lives more difficult if these hotels are dealing with customers from a variety of countries and so with a variety of languages. I have some sympathy for them. But this doesn't mean that they should fudge the issue.
A way of resourcing this online reputation management is to contract it out. Possibly, but how wise is this? The person who responds should ideally be embedded in the hotel (or the hotel group), have perfect written skills, have ready access in order to get information and, as importantly, be in a position to do something about a complaint. All businesses, be they hotels, bars, attractions, whatever, should have reputation managers. These could be owners or directors, but someone should take responsibility and not just for complaints. Even glowing reviews need responding to, otherwise it can appear as if customers are being taken for granted.
Trip Advisor has changed the rules of the customer management game. It is one played out on the internet. One that can bring great benefits but one that can also cause great harm. 93% of travellers are influenced by review sites. That's a hell of a lot of travellers and a hell of a lot who can be turned off by reports of a holiday from hell and of a hotel from hell that fails to acknowledge the problem.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Trip Advisor, for all it gets some bad press, knows it has to be as reliable as possible. It has an online reputation to keep, after all. And online reputation is what Trip Advisor is all about. The same survey that the website has carried out indicates that a doubling of the number of opinions that an establishment receives can lead, in the case of hotels, to a 3% increase in bookings. However this conclusion is arrived at, you can be sure that the increase would not occur if there were a doubling in the number of opinions and they were all bad.
Monitoring online reputation has now become, or should have become, a must-do management procedure, not just for hotels. Most businesses know that this reputation should be monitored, and many do monitor what is said, but precious few seem to do anything about what is said. Monitoring, as in taking a look, is the least of what this monitoring should entail. Far more important is the response and ultimately the action.
I have conducted an unscientific survey of Trip Advisor, one to see how many businesses do actually respond to reviews. The results are far from encouraging. I chose hotels in Puerto Alcúdia, of which there are 47 ranked on Trip Advisor. From these 47 I selected ten from different parts of the ranking. Of the ten, only one hotel - an Iberostar - had made any response to a review. Another, Bellevue, used to give responses; I know because I was once with the assistant director of the complex when he was looking at reviews and replying. This was in 2009 though. Maybe the hotel has just given up. When a quarter of the reviews for your hotel (770 out of 2894) are rated as "terrible", then it must be very disheartening.
I looked at reviews for another resort, Magalluf. Of half a dozen from the 33 hotels listed, the interaction with reviewers seemed stronger. Two Sol hotels (Meliá) had replied and so had Mallorca Rocks. Eventually. A two month gap between a review being posted and a response being given isn't how this is supposed to work, but better late than never. Of other businesses I looked at, hardly any bothered to reply and when there was a reply, it was irregular and often the same stock answer. One business in Mallorca, and it may be the only one, that does this properly, is No Frills Excursions. It replies to every review and often in great detail.
Why do so few hotels, especially hotels, fail to respond? Do they not care? Some may not, but I don't think this is the reason. They don't respond because they don't create the necessary resources and because they fear making a mistake. While hotels have staff who can speak English well, writing English (or any language) is a different matter. An accidental slip can be worse than not replying at all.
Social media like Trip Advisor are making hotels' lives more difficult if these hotels are dealing with customers from a variety of countries and so with a variety of languages. I have some sympathy for them. But this doesn't mean that they should fudge the issue.
A way of resourcing this online reputation management is to contract it out. Possibly, but how wise is this? The person who responds should ideally be embedded in the hotel (or the hotel group), have perfect written skills, have ready access in order to get information and, as importantly, be in a position to do something about a complaint. All businesses, be they hotels, bars, attractions, whatever, should have reputation managers. These could be owners or directors, but someone should take responsibility and not just for complaints. Even glowing reviews need responding to, otherwise it can appear as if customers are being taken for granted.
Trip Advisor has changed the rules of the customer management game. It is one played out on the internet. One that can bring great benefits but one that can also cause great harm. 93% of travellers are influenced by review sites. That's a hell of a lot of travellers and a hell of a lot who can be turned off by reports of a holiday from hell and of a hotel from hell that fails to acknowledge the problem.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Quixotic Spanish
Alex Rawlings can speak eleven languages. He is 20 years old and winner of a competition set by the Collins dictionary publishers to find the most multi-lingual student in the UK. Such proficiency in languages might suggest that Alex is a precocious swot who should get out more, but going by the video that the BBC has presented of him on its website, Alex appears a personable and well-rounded young man who just so happens to be blessed with a skill for learning languages.
It helps to have grown up in a bi-lingual family, his mother is half Greek, but this only explains how he came to acquire two languages, and bi-lingual families are hardly that unusual. There has also been some family mobility, such as to the Netherlands, which can help to explain his acquisition of Dutch and Afrikaans, but what about all the others - German, Hebrew, Russian, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan?
In the BBC video*, Alex makes a highly pertinent point about languages and their personalities. It is pertinent in revealing that, far from being a grammar bore slavishly repeating exercises in the linguistic sweatshop of a language laboratory, he discovers joy and fascination in the ways that languages reflect cultures and societies. It is also pertinent in suggesting that, rather than a mechanistic and essentially rule-based approach to language learning, this learning should be more contextual. Alex himself, when speaking Spanish, says that he finds that lyrics of a song are more memorable than words written in a list.
Each to their own in a sense, as not everyone has the same learning style, but context and personality are important. To give one example, I don't know how well Alan Hutton's acquisition of Spanish is progressing, but I would guess that it is influenced by the context of Real Mallorca and the personality of the training ground and dressing room. I feel sure he knows by now the Spanish for threatened with relegation.
Alex's reference to languages and their personalities is intriguing. Of those he can speak, there is a huge difference. He describes Dutch, for example, as being rather formal. He could say the same for German. Both languages are reflections of their cultures and societies, even if these are cultures and societies less of the present and more of the past. What can be abrupt and direct in German can be attributed to national traits of efficiency and pragmatism and perhaps also to heavy historical doses of militarism.
Spanish, while it has a formality in its sets of grammatical rules (which are therefore no different to any other language), is stylistically far less formal. Miquel Ferrà i Martorell, in his historical perspective column in the "Bulletin" on Sunday, made a most telling point about Spanish "quixotism", one that he described as having been negative. This quixotism had come to characterise Spanish life from the time of Cervantes; the term's origins lie with "Don Quixote" and it means lofty and romantic ideals or highly chivalrous action.
Alex describes Spanish as "lively". I tend to think of it more as "comedy". Like Italian, Spanish is a comedy language. There is something inherently not serious about it. Spanish is a language of flourish, of late-mediaeval to eighteenth century nobility and chivalry, a language of courtiers. It is flowery, romantic and redolent of Cervantes and quixotism. Further definitions of quixotism can embrace naïveté, lack of practicality, the non-attainability of ideals. Is it too much to suggest, therefore, that in the personality of the Spanish language there is a clue to an overarching national characteristic? One that is inherently impractical. The contrast with the reserved or direct Dutch and Germans and their highly practical characteristics is great.
Then there is Catalan. Alex didn't compare Spanish and Catalan, but he did compare Dutch and Afrikaans, describing the latter as more poetic and expressive. It is probably fair to say that Spanish is more expressive and poetic than Catalan, though there is plenty of Catalan poetry which would suggest that the two languages are equally expressive. The distinction between the two can't be made along the same lines as that between Dutch and Afrikaans. For a kick off, there is geographical proximity, but this very proximity is what raises the conundrum as to why the differences between Spanish and Catalan are as they are. While there are similarities, there are very distinct personalities. Catalan does not have the twirls of Spanish flourish. It is more earthy, more grounded. It does not have the Spanish quixotism and it, unlike Afrikaans, which developed out of Dutch, had its own genesis.
Languages have personalities, and so therefore do nations or would-be nations.
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17107435
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It helps to have grown up in a bi-lingual family, his mother is half Greek, but this only explains how he came to acquire two languages, and bi-lingual families are hardly that unusual. There has also been some family mobility, such as to the Netherlands, which can help to explain his acquisition of Dutch and Afrikaans, but what about all the others - German, Hebrew, Russian, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan?
In the BBC video*, Alex makes a highly pertinent point about languages and their personalities. It is pertinent in revealing that, far from being a grammar bore slavishly repeating exercises in the linguistic sweatshop of a language laboratory, he discovers joy and fascination in the ways that languages reflect cultures and societies. It is also pertinent in suggesting that, rather than a mechanistic and essentially rule-based approach to language learning, this learning should be more contextual. Alex himself, when speaking Spanish, says that he finds that lyrics of a song are more memorable than words written in a list.
Each to their own in a sense, as not everyone has the same learning style, but context and personality are important. To give one example, I don't know how well Alan Hutton's acquisition of Spanish is progressing, but I would guess that it is influenced by the context of Real Mallorca and the personality of the training ground and dressing room. I feel sure he knows by now the Spanish for threatened with relegation.
Alex's reference to languages and their personalities is intriguing. Of those he can speak, there is a huge difference. He describes Dutch, for example, as being rather formal. He could say the same for German. Both languages are reflections of their cultures and societies, even if these are cultures and societies less of the present and more of the past. What can be abrupt and direct in German can be attributed to national traits of efficiency and pragmatism and perhaps also to heavy historical doses of militarism.
Spanish, while it has a formality in its sets of grammatical rules (which are therefore no different to any other language), is stylistically far less formal. Miquel Ferrà i Martorell, in his historical perspective column in the "Bulletin" on Sunday, made a most telling point about Spanish "quixotism", one that he described as having been negative. This quixotism had come to characterise Spanish life from the time of Cervantes; the term's origins lie with "Don Quixote" and it means lofty and romantic ideals or highly chivalrous action.
Alex describes Spanish as "lively". I tend to think of it more as "comedy". Like Italian, Spanish is a comedy language. There is something inherently not serious about it. Spanish is a language of flourish, of late-mediaeval to eighteenth century nobility and chivalry, a language of courtiers. It is flowery, romantic and redolent of Cervantes and quixotism. Further definitions of quixotism can embrace naïveté, lack of practicality, the non-attainability of ideals. Is it too much to suggest, therefore, that in the personality of the Spanish language there is a clue to an overarching national characteristic? One that is inherently impractical. The contrast with the reserved or direct Dutch and Germans and their highly practical characteristics is great.
Then there is Catalan. Alex didn't compare Spanish and Catalan, but he did compare Dutch and Afrikaans, describing the latter as more poetic and expressive. It is probably fair to say that Spanish is more expressive and poetic than Catalan, though there is plenty of Catalan poetry which would suggest that the two languages are equally expressive. The distinction between the two can't be made along the same lines as that between Dutch and Afrikaans. For a kick off, there is geographical proximity, but this very proximity is what raises the conundrum as to why the differences between Spanish and Catalan are as they are. While there are similarities, there are very distinct personalities. Catalan does not have the twirls of Spanish flourish. It is more earthy, more grounded. It does not have the Spanish quixotism and it, unlike Afrikaans, which developed out of Dutch, had its own genesis.
Languages have personalities, and so therefore do nations or would-be nations.
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17107435
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Labelled With ...
The news that a local man has been arrested on suspicion of acts of a sexual nature against women on Playa de Muro beach is to be welcomed; it's also not before time. The person in question, it is alleged, has been pursuing his past-time, if one can call it that, for three years. I would suggest that he may not be the only one, or at least he has not been the only one to conduct himself in a rather strange manner on the beach.
The approaches to women all occurred in "isolated" parts of the beach. This refers to the rustic beach, as opposed to the beach backed by hotels. It is a wonderful part of the beach because of its quietness. I guess that's its attraction for those who don't have sunbathing and swimming in mind. Go there with any regularity, and one becomes accustomed to clocking the same few individuals who habitually walk along the beach and also nip in and out of the dunes. It's one thing to perhaps go and hide behind a dune to take a leak or to position yourself behind a dune as shelter from the wind; otherwise, why would you nip in and out? Voyeurism is one reason - the rustic beach attracts nude sunbathers as well as those who don't go kit off - other, might one say, more active impulses are another.
This summer there seems to have been an increase in helicopter activity. One afternoon, a 'copter was hovering for ages above the beach. One can but only assume it was in connection with the attacks on women. While these attacks have not been of a very serious nature, they have obviously been alarming. That the police have now apprehended one of the "beachwalkers", perhaps the handful of others might be deterred from their weird hobby.
LABELLED WITH CATALAN
The United Colombia Association. Bet this is a group you will all be intimately familiar with. Colombia Pictures perhaps, Colombia Records, the Colombia football team, and be careful if you're a defender and are responsible for a World Cup defeat. Bang, bang. The United Colombia Association? Nope, I'd never heard of them either. Could have been the name of a band for all I knew, until, that is, there was a news item which has it that the UCA (let's call them that) is to introduce a local campaign that boycotts the purchase of products that are labelled only in Catalan. Moreover, UCA reckons the Unió Mallorquina party is xenophobic. What was I saying the other day? Well actually what I said the other day was that, the occasional rant against the foreign infidel notwithstanding, the UM is pretty moderate. UCA clearly disagrees. And it wants us to stop buying all those Catalan-only-labelled products because we won't understand what's in them. Maybe so for Colombians. For us mere Brits, it makes no difference. Don't understand whatever language it is, unless it's English; and even then there's probably a problem. Personally, I like the practice of Basque-based supermarket chain Eroski of including four languages on their own brands, one of which is Basque. What sort of a language is that!? Here are a few Basque words from a shower-gel bottle - "horiexek", "zumurrik", "bizigarriak", "ongizatezko". Brilliant. My sort of language. Utterly impenetrable and unlike anything else. Catalan? Phar, too much like others; too damn understandable. Label everything in Basque I say. Goats' bollocks in brine. Could be for all we would know. But they would be delicious, or maybe not. And anyway, where are all these Catalan-only-labelled products? Even if there were huge numbers of them, of which I am unaware, this is not the issue. No, the issue is to buy Basque, and Basque alone. That way no one will have a clue.
Incidentally, there is also a Basque word "usain", which means ... Sorry, I've no idea, but it is of course the name of the Jamaican Olympic sprint champion. Don't know why I bother mentioning this. Just thought you might be interested. Or possibly not.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - John Martyn (and one-time missus, Beverley). Today's title - the missing word starts with "l" and has four letters, as if you didn't know. Who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The approaches to women all occurred in "isolated" parts of the beach. This refers to the rustic beach, as opposed to the beach backed by hotels. It is a wonderful part of the beach because of its quietness. I guess that's its attraction for those who don't have sunbathing and swimming in mind. Go there with any regularity, and one becomes accustomed to clocking the same few individuals who habitually walk along the beach and also nip in and out of the dunes. It's one thing to perhaps go and hide behind a dune to take a leak or to position yourself behind a dune as shelter from the wind; otherwise, why would you nip in and out? Voyeurism is one reason - the rustic beach attracts nude sunbathers as well as those who don't go kit off - other, might one say, more active impulses are another.
This summer there seems to have been an increase in helicopter activity. One afternoon, a 'copter was hovering for ages above the beach. One can but only assume it was in connection with the attacks on women. While these attacks have not been of a very serious nature, they have obviously been alarming. That the police have now apprehended one of the "beachwalkers", perhaps the handful of others might be deterred from their weird hobby.
LABELLED WITH CATALAN
The United Colombia Association. Bet this is a group you will all be intimately familiar with. Colombia Pictures perhaps, Colombia Records, the Colombia football team, and be careful if you're a defender and are responsible for a World Cup defeat. Bang, bang. The United Colombia Association? Nope, I'd never heard of them either. Could have been the name of a band for all I knew, until, that is, there was a news item which has it that the UCA (let's call them that) is to introduce a local campaign that boycotts the purchase of products that are labelled only in Catalan. Moreover, UCA reckons the Unió Mallorquina party is xenophobic. What was I saying the other day? Well actually what I said the other day was that, the occasional rant against the foreign infidel notwithstanding, the UM is pretty moderate. UCA clearly disagrees. And it wants us to stop buying all those Catalan-only-labelled products because we won't understand what's in them. Maybe so for Colombians. For us mere Brits, it makes no difference. Don't understand whatever language it is, unless it's English; and even then there's probably a problem. Personally, I like the practice of Basque-based supermarket chain Eroski of including four languages on their own brands, one of which is Basque. What sort of a language is that!? Here are a few Basque words from a shower-gel bottle - "horiexek", "zumurrik", "bizigarriak", "ongizatezko". Brilliant. My sort of language. Utterly impenetrable and unlike anything else. Catalan? Phar, too much like others; too damn understandable. Label everything in Basque I say. Goats' bollocks in brine. Could be for all we would know. But they would be delicious, or maybe not. And anyway, where are all these Catalan-only-labelled products? Even if there were huge numbers of them, of which I am unaware, this is not the issue. No, the issue is to buy Basque, and Basque alone. That way no one will have a clue.
Incidentally, there is also a Basque word "usain", which means ... Sorry, I've no idea, but it is of course the name of the Jamaican Olympic sprint champion. Don't know why I bother mentioning this. Just thought you might be interested. Or possibly not.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - John Martyn (and one-time missus, Beverley). Today's title - the missing word starts with "l" and has four letters, as if you didn't know. Who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, September 12, 2008
We All Fall Down
The collapse of the XL Leisure Group pretty much says all that we need to know. If the UK's third largest tour operator is forced into administration, then it is confirmation of the dire state of the general economy - credit crunch, rising fuel prices, inability to re-finance. There are doubtless some holidaymakers stranded in Mallorca as a consequence, and others who may have no holiday or refund, if they booked direct. This news comes on the back of the troubles at two Mallorca-based airlines. Spanair's travails have been well-publicised. Futura is facing its own collapse and also some questions as to the motives of the Highbury Investment Group. A further company, another UK tour operator, Seguro, has been a victim of Futura entering administration, as the airline was the carrier for the bulk of Seguro's customers. Unfortunately, there is probably more of all this to come, and it was rather predictable. If anything, it may well push those looking to book next year into the hands of companies who would appear to be totally stable - TUI and Thomas Cook most obviously.
MORE ABOUT CATALAN
The promotion of Catalan. It's not the first time we've been here, and it won't be the last. This week, the Balearic Government rejoined the consortium of the Ramón Llull Institute. As reported in "Ultima Hora", the previous administration of Jaume Matas (Partido Popular) had left the consortium because of a "lack of political will"; it's reckoned that the real reason was the promotion of the Catalan language. The current president, Francesc Antich, called the return to the fold an "historic day" for the Catalan language and culture. The institute does indeed exist to promote the Catalan language.
Llull is someone I have spoken about before. He is not only one of the most famous of Mallorcans in history, he is also one of the most interesting characters of all European history of the Middle Ages. He is rightly celebrated, and he is rightly associated with the promotion of Catalan - up to a point. That Llull was a highly significant mover in the development of the language is beyond dispute. He wrote in Catalan, and indeed his novel "Blanquerna", written in Catalan, is often referred to as the first European novel. This all said, Llull, I fear, might be looking down on this latest political manoeuvre in promoting Catalan with some disquiet.
A polymath, considered to have been an early influence on later computation and logic theories, Llull was also a multi-linguist who pressed for the creation of teaching in languages other than Catalan at major European universities. He was a far from one-dimensional person; his outlook went well beyond the confines of his island or his "country" (Aragon, of which Mallorca was a part).
Figures from history are invoked for all manner of reasons and co-opted by all manner of movements. Llull is very much one of these. His Catalan credentials are unimpeachable, but, intellectually and for reasons of religious convergence, he was not wedded to Catalan alone. It is for this reason that I express some misgiving. Iconic he was and is, but as a figurehead for an exclusiveness of his native tongue, I am not so sure that he would approve.
But don't let us, as I have been accused of, seek some anti-Catalan agenda. Let me say this: I find Catalan an intriguing language. It is more satisfying than Castilian as it possesses a sort of coarse refinement. It is rough-edge language, rooted in the relative obscurity of Occitan. It has little of the flair, grandeur and drama of Castilian. It is far less rounded; literally, in the instances where it dispenses with an "o" that would be found in Castilian. It has the feel of the underground, a sense of subversion. No wonder Franco sought to proscribe it.
It is said that the Catalan-speaking areas, especially that of Catalonia around Barcelona, have a more liberal tradition in various ways, be it art or thinking: more liberal, that is, than other parts of Spain. Defence of the language is understandable; it is understandable at emotional, cultural and intellectual levels. Yet this liberal tradition seems to run counter to a mono-linguistic dialectic, one in which the name of Ramón Llull is taken. Against his better judgement quite probably.
SEPTEMBER STORMS
It's started. With uncanny regularity, the middle of September heralds a change in weather. It is the time of the "gota fría" (cold drop). There is thunder about and brooding clouds and a distinct fall in temperature. 12 September - on at least two occasions before I can remember this being the date when the weather went pear-shaped. And what is today? The island has been put on a state of yellow alert, with the threat of major "inundations." Well, I guess we needed the rain.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Ace of Base (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jFtzVa80A). Today's title - "we all fall down like ...?" Superb song.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
MORE ABOUT CATALAN
The promotion of Catalan. It's not the first time we've been here, and it won't be the last. This week, the Balearic Government rejoined the consortium of the Ramón Llull Institute. As reported in "Ultima Hora", the previous administration of Jaume Matas (Partido Popular) had left the consortium because of a "lack of political will"; it's reckoned that the real reason was the promotion of the Catalan language. The current president, Francesc Antich, called the return to the fold an "historic day" for the Catalan language and culture. The institute does indeed exist to promote the Catalan language.
Llull is someone I have spoken about before. He is not only one of the most famous of Mallorcans in history, he is also one of the most interesting characters of all European history of the Middle Ages. He is rightly celebrated, and he is rightly associated with the promotion of Catalan - up to a point. That Llull was a highly significant mover in the development of the language is beyond dispute. He wrote in Catalan, and indeed his novel "Blanquerna", written in Catalan, is often referred to as the first European novel. This all said, Llull, I fear, might be looking down on this latest political manoeuvre in promoting Catalan with some disquiet.
A polymath, considered to have been an early influence on later computation and logic theories, Llull was also a multi-linguist who pressed for the creation of teaching in languages other than Catalan at major European universities. He was a far from one-dimensional person; his outlook went well beyond the confines of his island or his "country" (Aragon, of which Mallorca was a part).
Figures from history are invoked for all manner of reasons and co-opted by all manner of movements. Llull is very much one of these. His Catalan credentials are unimpeachable, but, intellectually and for reasons of religious convergence, he was not wedded to Catalan alone. It is for this reason that I express some misgiving. Iconic he was and is, but as a figurehead for an exclusiveness of his native tongue, I am not so sure that he would approve.
But don't let us, as I have been accused of, seek some anti-Catalan agenda. Let me say this: I find Catalan an intriguing language. It is more satisfying than Castilian as it possesses a sort of coarse refinement. It is rough-edge language, rooted in the relative obscurity of Occitan. It has little of the flair, grandeur and drama of Castilian. It is far less rounded; literally, in the instances where it dispenses with an "o" that would be found in Castilian. It has the feel of the underground, a sense of subversion. No wonder Franco sought to proscribe it.
It is said that the Catalan-speaking areas, especially that of Catalonia around Barcelona, have a more liberal tradition in various ways, be it art or thinking: more liberal, that is, than other parts of Spain. Defence of the language is understandable; it is understandable at emotional, cultural and intellectual levels. Yet this liberal tradition seems to run counter to a mono-linguistic dialectic, one in which the name of Ramón Llull is taken. Against his better judgement quite probably.
SEPTEMBER STORMS
It's started. With uncanny regularity, the middle of September heralds a change in weather. It is the time of the "gota fría" (cold drop). There is thunder about and brooding clouds and a distinct fall in temperature. 12 September - on at least two occasions before I can remember this being the date when the weather went pear-shaped. And what is today? The island has been put on a state of yellow alert, with the threat of major "inundations." Well, I guess we needed the rain.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Ace of Base (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96jFtzVa80A). Today's title - "we all fall down like ...?" Superb song.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, March 03, 2008
Never Can Say
I was having a chat with someone today about language. It's a familiar chat. New people come to the island, open bar, don't know lingo, feel a bit of a prat etc. Common, very common. Some will just say, "oh, there's no way I'll ever learn this" and just give up. Some, genuinely, don't have the time, and time is an issue. Some get on ok.
A point about language learning is that it is more difficult the older you get. It's a case of unlearning if you like, because what you know in your own language is basically hard-wired and you think using that hard wire. Another side is that there needs to be a structural form of learning, which is grammar and syntax. Grammar, Spanish grammar, appears more formal than English, but the main problem is that many British people have never really learned their own grammar, or rather they lack the wherewithal to explain their own grammar. This is not the case in other countries where grammar teaching is more central to education.
So then folks say, "oh no, I can't be doing with all this grammar". Seems boring. Personally I don't think so, but that's just me. Avoiding this structured approach, people pick up (they hope) tidbits of Spanish without necessarily knowing the structural roots. I think I've mentioned this before. Something like "¿cómo estás?". It's a basic form of greeting, but it needs some explanation to point out that "estás" is the familiar you form of one of the verbs "to be".
Anyway, maybe there is some help at hand. From "The Times" recently was an article about the use of mind mapping to learn a language. Without delving too deeply into the psychology of this, the basic idea is that one uses colours and pictures to create an association with words. There is a traffic-light system, green denoting the words that are the same or nearly the same as in English. In Spanish there are quite a lot. Words that end "ción" are often just like English - "información", for example. The pronunciation is different, but the word is basically the same. What's horrible in Spanish? "Horrible". Possible - "posible", just drops an "s". But both sound quite different.
Mind mapping was developed by a Brit called Tony Buzan. To be brutally honest, I am a bit sceptical. Like a nearish neighbour of mind mapping in terms of "new age" quasi-science psychology - neuro-linguistic programming - it has its doubters. Part of the reason for this though is that there are any number of charlatans running around claiming its benefits like the old time medicine shows. The writer in "The Times" reckons that, after eight weeks of her CD-based course, she was speaking Italian with a reasonable grasp. I can see how mind mapping would help with vocabulary, but I have only her word for saying that it also helped develop syntax and grammar. I don't know how that would work.
The thing is though that, after eight weeks of two one-hour per week personal Spanish lessons, I was speaking Spanish with a reasonable grasp. I didn't have to bother with colouring pens and drawing pictures. I knew how to use the main tenses, vocabulary was quite good, I could formulate sentences. Each to their own, but if the mind mapping seems a good one for you, then Collins publish the book and CDs under the name "Language Revolution" (Spanish version). At twenty quid, maybe worth giving it a go.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Smiths. Today's title - last word's missing, it was The Jackson Five but the best version was by which beast of soul from the '70s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
A point about language learning is that it is more difficult the older you get. It's a case of unlearning if you like, because what you know in your own language is basically hard-wired and you think using that hard wire. Another side is that there needs to be a structural form of learning, which is grammar and syntax. Grammar, Spanish grammar, appears more formal than English, but the main problem is that many British people have never really learned their own grammar, or rather they lack the wherewithal to explain their own grammar. This is not the case in other countries where grammar teaching is more central to education.
So then folks say, "oh no, I can't be doing with all this grammar". Seems boring. Personally I don't think so, but that's just me. Avoiding this structured approach, people pick up (they hope) tidbits of Spanish without necessarily knowing the structural roots. I think I've mentioned this before. Something like "¿cómo estás?". It's a basic form of greeting, but it needs some explanation to point out that "estás" is the familiar you form of one of the verbs "to be".
Anyway, maybe there is some help at hand. From "The Times" recently was an article about the use of mind mapping to learn a language. Without delving too deeply into the psychology of this, the basic idea is that one uses colours and pictures to create an association with words. There is a traffic-light system, green denoting the words that are the same or nearly the same as in English. In Spanish there are quite a lot. Words that end "ción" are often just like English - "información", for example. The pronunciation is different, but the word is basically the same. What's horrible in Spanish? "Horrible". Possible - "posible", just drops an "s". But both sound quite different.
Mind mapping was developed by a Brit called Tony Buzan. To be brutally honest, I am a bit sceptical. Like a nearish neighbour of mind mapping in terms of "new age" quasi-science psychology - neuro-linguistic programming - it has its doubters. Part of the reason for this though is that there are any number of charlatans running around claiming its benefits like the old time medicine shows. The writer in "The Times" reckons that, after eight weeks of her CD-based course, she was speaking Italian with a reasonable grasp. I can see how mind mapping would help with vocabulary, but I have only her word for saying that it also helped develop syntax and grammar. I don't know how that would work.
The thing is though that, after eight weeks of two one-hour per week personal Spanish lessons, I was speaking Spanish with a reasonable grasp. I didn't have to bother with colouring pens and drawing pictures. I knew how to use the main tenses, vocabulary was quite good, I could formulate sentences. Each to their own, but if the mind mapping seems a good one for you, then Collins publish the book and CDs under the name "Language Revolution" (Spanish version). At twenty quid, maybe worth giving it a go.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Smiths. Today's title - last word's missing, it was The Jackson Five but the best version was by which beast of soul from the '70s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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