Madrid - Teatro Real

I was regrettably running late for the Opera and I would now need to wait until intermission to claim my seat. In the meantime though I was escorted to the 5^th floor of the Madrid Teatro Real where I could catch a sneak view. As I settled in and looked around I realized I wasn’t the only one who was late. To my surprise we were all women (I speculate age range between 30s to 70s), impeccably dressed for the occasion and alone at the opera.

Without the benefits of the centre stage Spanish subtitles, I listened to I Puritani in Italian intently and enjoyed it all the same even though I had no idea what they were saying.

Eventually I made it to my assigned seat and in the final act, Elvira asks Arturo “Do you love me?” In our modern world a simple yes or no answer would suffice but in the realm of the opera Arturo replies with passion and believable conviction:

Italian: Viene, vieni fra queste braccia, amor, delizia e vita, vieni: non mi sarai rapita finche ti stringo al cor. Ad ogni istante ansante ti chiamo e te sol bramo.Ah! vieni, vein, tel ripeto t’amo, ah, t’amo d’immenso amore!

Spanish: Ven, ven a mis brazos, amor, delicia y vida, ven: nadie te va a apartar de mi mientras te estreche contra mi Corazon. A cada instante anhelante te llamo, y te deseo solo a ti. Ah, ven, ven, te lo repito, te amo, ah, te amo con un inmenso amor!

English: Come, come to my arms, my love, my delight, my life, come: No one will take you from me as long as I embrace you against my heart. I call for you eagerly every instant and desire only you. Ah, come, come, I repeat that I love you; I love you with infinite love.

I can’t speak for the other ladies but this is one of the reasons I go to the Opera.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Madrid - How did I get here?!

After my decadent and glorious one year sabbatical, I decided to pick up a gig and so my two suitcases, polo gear and I headed to headquarters to report for duty where I would be given my 1^st assignment J

...MADRID! I was no stranger to the place since I had studied in Spain for a year and had visited numerous times. Coming up to my three month anniversary here though I must say that the place has grown on me unexpectedly.

With base in Barrio Salamanca, I love my morning runs through ‘El Retiro’ Madrid’s version of New York’s Central park or London’s Hyde Park and the familiarity of being on a first name basis with the local newspaper vendor. Every morning it’s the usual “Buenos dias Miguel Angel, un El Pais y Un Expansion por favor”. Then it’s a quick stop to my local café for a fresh squeezed ‘zumo de naranja’. I get the usual stares from the locals who are lighting up their morning cigarettes accompanied by a ‘café con leche’ and the breakfast ritual of baguette with fresh smashed tomatoes and olive oil. With Gabana, Fortuny and Dejate Besar Madrid’s classic nightlife institutions, the fabulous shopping streets of Calle Velazquez, Serano, Ortega & Gasset, a conveniently located low key metro station Nunez & Balboa, MCNY manicure & pedicure heaven, top notch restaurants such as ‘Pan de Lujo’, Le Garage, Tsunami, ‘El Mercado de Diego y Leon’ for fresh produce, and “comfort essentials” such as the international chains Starbucks and Le Pain Quotidien but also some national chain goodies such as Lateral and VIPS all within a short walk from my doorstep and Voila I’m in Heaven!

Weekends I venture to the seedier parts of town such as ‘La Latina’, ‘Chueca’, and ‘Gran Via’. Enjoying places like ‘Juana la Loca’ for creative tapas and a cozy atmosphere, Bar Cock in Calle Reina for an eclectic crowd and delicious cocktails, Korgui for curious Japanese and Mexican fusion and the endless hidden boutiques in the narrow pedestrian streets of Chueca.

More importantly though I can get my dose of art here. First class institutions such as EL Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Reina Sofia, MAPFRE Foundacion and art installations at Elvira Gonzalez and Alvaro Alcazar.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Learning Portuguese

I have been learning Brazilian Portuguese off and on for the past year. Now that I have arrived in Sao Paulo the focus on learning has become much more urgent and intense. Very few people speak English here, which is great as it forces me to use my most basic Portuguese to try and communicate. I am currently looking for a Portuguese teacher but in the meantime am left to my own devices to learn.

English – Portuguese / Portuguese – Ingles Dictionary

Grammar Book

Verb Book

JAM FLASHCARDS

STICKIES AROUND OUR APARTMENT

Pimsleur

Brazilian Podclass

Music

A great blog is http://eyesonportuguese.wordpress.com

Watching TV, in particular Globo novelas (shows dubbed in Portuguese or with Portuguese subtitles)

Children comic books

But the best way to learn is to communicate! Every day I set myself a task where I have to communicate with taxi drivers, information counters, waiters, check out assistants etc. This week I've managed to send a letter at the post office, book flights to Curitiba and deposit some money at a bank!

Obviously this list is not exhausted but would appreciate any other ideas that have worked for others learning a language.

Also, I am looking for a Portuguese teacher in Pinheiros, Sao Paulo. Please contact me if you are a teacher or if you are interested in doing a language exchange.

Spaglishtalian

My friend and "Jefe de Publicidad" for Esquire Magazine Spain, Cristiano Badoch and I have discovered “Spanglishtalian”. It is essentially, the fusion between Spanish, English and Italian. Cristiano is Italian but his mother was partially raised in Venezuela. This compiled with a few years in the UK and current residence in Spain, Cristiano manages English, Spanish and of course Italian.

And so our conversations start in Spanish (we make a conscious effort) regress to English and then ultimately Italian. Keeping in mind that my Italian is limited to one semester in University, you can see where this is going! We try to stick to one language, notably Spanish, but any personal questions from Cristiano and I revert to my comfort zone of English. He starts in Spanish, hears my reply in English and unconsciously switches to English too. And of course any personal or envelope pushing questions from me and he reverts to Italian. Hola Guapo! Dove Siete? Still looking for Bob Dylan? 

JAM FLASHCARDS

Porto-Inglês Language Exchange

London is a difficult place to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger. I can understand how difficult it is for a student who has just moved over to learn English to find native English speakers to practice with! We met in a pub in Holborn and would speak in Engilsh for one hour and Portuguese for the second hour. It was a great way to meet people from such a variety of backgrounds and to practice my (very basic) Portuguese.

I’ve made some good friends through these evenings who I would’ve never met otherwise. Brazilians who had just moved to London to learn English, English who were traveling to Brazil, people who just wanted to meet other people. I liked that I could take an assignment with me to have it checked over by a native speaker, or just have a casual chat with a new friend.

The evenings take place at Penderel’s Oak pub in Holborn at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings and it is free! Sign up to their meeting group here for updates each week.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

Miami Ghosts

During a recent stop in Miami, I had the chance to spend some quality time with my lovely friend and song writer/singer Juliet Dibenedetto, whom I’ve known since I was 14! We met up in a local dive bar/restaurant in Coconut Grove and we found ourselves talking to the charming bartender who began to tell us about the ghosts in the place. Yes, indeed he proceeded to tell us about the ghosts, whom he had managed to befriend by leaving them glasses of rum every night. Apparently, there had been a murder on site. A woman was having an affair and her husband had intended to kill her lover but in the midst of their argument he shot his wife instead. Distraught he then killed himself. Its said the couple’s spirits still reside there and they make their presence known by turning lights and music off and on, flushing the toilets and breaking glasses. As he was telling me this story mostly in English with a dash of Spanish and the occasional "Spanglish", I wondered if the ghosts were listening in on our conversation. But more importantly I began to ask myself if they could understand us. As a ghost perk do you get unlimited linguistics abilities? :)

Enjoy the SNEAK (sssh) Juliet Sample.... Copyright Juliet Dibenedetto. All rights reserved.

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The Delicate Business of Translating

Fabulous friend, founder of Amazing Women Rock and life coach Susan Macaulay, had been contacted by a feminist organization in Mexico. In an effort to collaborate across the Atlantic, she asked if I would translate some content they wanted to share on her Amazing Women Rock website from Spanish to English. I immediately agreed as I had never done anything like it before and really how difficult could it be?

That’s what I thought until I found myself staring at my computer screen trying to figure out if the author meant to use the word “predio” for property, estate, building or farm. The definition is ALL of these. Since unfortunately, I was translating a story about a 17 year student which had been brutally murdered and “predio” was being used to describe the location of the crime scene, it was certainly an important detail. This was my first stumble but there was more. I came across more complex details which when translated verbatim to English would have sounded ridiculous or totally inappropriate. And that’s when I found myself just retelling the story in English in my own words. The key here being in my own words manipulating, deleting and adding. Keeping to the story as much as possible just in English . . . in my own words English :)

And so I leave you to wonder, the next time you pick up a book by Brazilian author (Portuguese speaking) Paulo Coelho in English or any other language (67 languages to be exact) how much of it is it really his words and not those of his translator?

JAM English Flash Cards: Fruit & Vegetables

Chinglish

We have started our around-the-world journey to live in Brazil… first stop: Hong Kong. A melting pot of people with differing languages, cultures, colours and religion - sandwiched into tiny apartments, busy restaurants, glass covered offices - means that effective communication is very important. Cantonese, Mandarin and English are the most abundant of the dozens of languages and dialects spoken here.

English…or Chinglish… is one of my favourite past times here. As you walk around this city you can’t miss advertising hoardings, signs, notices and shop names that can make you laugh outright or are completely inappropriate or just plain wrong! I’ll collect some examples to post here by the end of our stay in Hong Kong. Check out some other examples here.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

World Citizen At 2.5 years old

During my stay at El Venado, a family run estancia in Argentina owned by professional polo player Federico Cendoya, I also met ‘Juli’ as we affectionately call him in Spanish or rather Jules-Henri in Flemish and French. At almost 3 years of age Juli can be considered a world citizen thanks to his jetsetter Yummy Mummy Stefanie Verduyn. Their home base is in Belgium but they spend 2 to 3 months a year at El Venado enjoying the estancia, horse riding and playing polo. Additionally, Stefanie travels frequently in search of fashionable accessories and shoes for her chain of boutiques in Belgium. Consequently, Juli has already traveled to Argentina, Morocco, Italy and France.

While JAM’s motto is ‘Never Too Late to Learn’, we concur that it is definitely never too early! From the time that Juli was in his mother’s belly, he listened to Language CDs. Growing up in Belgium, he is exposed to Dutch at home. As a baby, he also had a friend ‘Nelly’ who spoke to him in Russian and read to him Russian Fairy Tales. Most recently, he has started French lessons once a week. During his holidays at El Venado, he is exposed to Spanish and English and consequently, now back in his homeland only speaks to the dog in Spanish :) Having spent time with Juli at El Venado, it was amazing to see how quickly he picked up new Spanish and English vocabulary. His mother Stefanie prioritizes her child’s education and saids “I try to expose Juli as much as I can to other languages and cultures”.

Juli is pictured above in traditional 'Gaucho' attire.

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JAM English Flashcards; Fruit & Vegetables

English Immersion Program

I have spent the last 6 weeks playing polo @ ‘El Venado’ a beautiful 2,500 acre family run estancia owned by professional polo player Federico Cendoya located just two hours outside Buenos Aires on the fertile grasslands of the Argentine Pampas.

During my stay at El Venado I met some very interesting and lovely people. Among them was Antonia Monckton. Antonia grew up on her family farm in England constantly surrounded by visiting guests who were there to learn English and immerse themselves in English culture. Her mother Mary Chapman ran a ‘Total English Immersion Program’ from their lovely home in the English countryside.

Mary Chapman was a primary school teacher and through a friend came into contact with the coach of the Spain Riding Team. The riding team had come to England to train and the coach was having difficulties communicating as he spoke no Spanish and the team members spoke very little English. Antonia’s mother was asked if she would teach the ridding team specifically ridding English vocabulary i.e saddle, stirrups, bridal, canter, gallop, trot etc to facilitate communication between the students and the coach during the riding lessons. She truly enjoyed the experience and decided to carry on thus creating an English Immersion Program. Besides learning the English Language, the guests also had the opportunity to learn English manners and culture. I asked Antonia a few questions about what it was like to grow up in a full house filled with visiting guests:

“It was very interesting to meet so many different people. They were all from different walks of life, backgrounds and culture. They were totally immersed within the family environment. We shared all meals, coffee and teatime with the guests. Breakfast was at 8AM followed by lessons from 9 to 10:30AM. Then the guests had a coffee break with the whole family (Antonia has two older brothers). Then they went back to lessons with Antonia’s mother between 11 to 12:30PM followed by lunch with the whole family. Then it was back to lessons between 2 to 3:30PM followed by an English Tea break. Lessons would resume again until 5:30PM. The guests then had free time to enjoy the farm and many would enjoy horse riding or walks around the property. The guests and the entire family would gather for supper at 8pm.

The guests were from different backgrounds from complete beginners to advance level and many were top management or executives sent on the program by their companies. My mother used scenario and role-playing to facilitate the lessons and would also video tape the students to improve their business English. It was interesting to see the general pattern of all the students. Initially they were very excited and by the 2^nd week they would start to get frustrated. Then shortly there after “it clicks” and you really started to see a huge improvement."

Pictured above is Antonia Monckton playing polo @ El Venado, Argentina

FROM VENEZUELA TO NORWAY

I migrated from Venezuela to the USA when I was a kid.  My mother had been having a long distance seven-year romance with a Cuban American and we moved to Miami, Florida in 1984 when the couple finally decided to wed.   Back then there were few Venezuelans living outside of Venezuela and I found myself explaining to most people that it was a country in South America next door to Colombia J The political scene, placing Venezuela in the media, in recent years has however changed all of that.   Today, besides Venezuela’s petroleum and politics being shipped out for export so is the country’s most precious resource, its engineers, many with over 20+ yrs of experience in the Petroleum industry.  They are leaving in search of political and financial stability and Norway with a stable economy and booming petroleum industry provides just the haven.  The only caveat is well the cold winters and the language barrier. 

Even as a young kid the cultural and language transition, I know from personal experience, can be painful so I sympathize with my cousins who recently moved to Norway.  Hender Alejandro Nava, 16 and Paola Nava, 18 have been attending to their studies in Norwegian and the English language (both languages being foreign to them). Their older sister Patricia Nava, who is due to graduate this November with a Chemical Engineering degree from Zulia University in Venezuela has a head start being fluent in English, but will ultimately face the same challenge as the rest of her family should she follow in her father’s footsteps and pursue a career in Norway. 

I interviewed Paola Nava in English and was impressed by how quickly she has captured the English Language.  When I asked her what has been the greatest challenge in trasitioning to Norway from Venezuela she said:  

"The people and the language.  In Venezuela, I did not have contact with other cultures but in Norway my classmates are from all over the world, France, China, Ethiopia, Germany etc.  The Norwegian language has been more difficult to understand than English because it's unlike anything I have ever heard."

When I asked Paola what she enjoyed the most about Norway she replied: 

"The security.  I can walk anywhere without the fear of being kidnapped or harmed."

During the 1960s large reserves of petroleum and natural gas were discovered in Norway.  Today, Norway ranks as the wealthiest country in the world, with the largest capital reserve per capita of any nation.  Norway is the world’s seventh largest oil exporter and the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product).  

Norwegian (norsk) is a North Germanic language and the official language of Norway.

Pictured above from Left to right is Hender Alejandro Nava, Paola Nava, Lourdes Nava and Hender Nava. 

Check out BBC interview (fall 2008) on the subject of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's current president.

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JAM.HOW FOR EVERYONE

Language Lovers & Survivors

1. Learn: a new word a day on the go 
2. Quiz yourself:  memory recall
3. Take with you while you wait...doctor's office, airport, bank, post office, bus stop, tube stop...
4. Take JAM with you everywhere, even to private places ...we'll leave it to your imagination :)
5. Leave laptop & instead take some JAM on holiday
6. Play with friends (memory and snap with 2 JAM packs)  

The creativity with jam is endless.  Share it & Spread it!

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit & Vegetables

 

JAM.HOW FOR KIDS

Yummy Mummy & Delicious Daddy 

1. Quiz your 18+ month toddler.  Why limit their vocabulary to just Apples & Bananas?
2. Have more than one adorable little one?...get them to quiz each other

3. Two packs and you have memory snap game

4. Decorate your child's bedroom with JAM 
5. Put JAM in their lunchbox for some break time educational entertainment

6. English is not their native language?...perfect! children have the greatest potential to absorb & retain new language skills!
7. Gift JAM to their adorable little friends.  Their Yummy Mummy & Delicious Daddy will toast you!

The creativity with jam is endless.  Share it & Spread it!

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit & Vegetables

Pictured above is Charlotte 'strawberry jam baby', a member of the JAM BABY CLUB