For a few months now we have been baffled why certain search dictionary terms are on top of our site's Search traffic.
For several weeks now, 1957 in Spanish (mil novecientos cincuenta y siete) has been on top and we can't figure out why. Obviously, one reason is the fact that our Spanish dictionary entry for "in 1957" has a top position in a Google Search.
However, it does not explain WHY people are looking for this term in a Spanish translation. It's a puzzle!
La Torre de Madrid
In Gamesforlanguage's Spanish 1 course, our traveler David learns that the Torre de Madrid (Picture by Carlos Delgaso; CC-BY-SA) was completed in 1957.
Even now it's still one of the tallest buildings in Madrid. At the time, it actually was the largest concrete building in the world. According to this Wiki entry, the tower also appeared in numerous Spanish movies released in the 1960s, as well as in the 1984 movie The Hit.
As we can't imagine that OUR users are the ones searching for the translation, we can only speculate that people are looking for other events that happened in 1957. A quick Google search for “events in Spanish speaking countries in 1957” surfaces these possibilities:
Seve Ballesteros and Gloria Estefan
Disregarding the first two entries - the 1957 movie “The Pride and the Passion” and the Wiki event listing of 1957 - here are the ones that follow:
Both the late Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros and Gloria Estefan, a well-known singer of the band Miami Sound Machine, were born in 1957. A possible, but not very probable explanation for why people are searching for 1957 in Spanish.
Diego Rivera and The Treaty of Rome
Maybe the life of the famous Mexican painter and muralist Diego Rivera (1886-1957) who appears as the next Google entry, has art students look up the year for a term paper. Or, political science students are researching the Treaty of Rome, which gave birth to the European Union and was signed in 1957. In either case, it seems more likely that the translation of the year is required for a speech or an oral report, and students are checking on the pronunciation.
Asian Flu
Britannica.com reports that “the 1957 Asian flu was the second major influenza pandemic to occur in the 20th century; it followed the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 (also know as the Spanish flu) and preceded the Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968."
Maybe the recent Ebola scare has people looking up such events, as they need to talk about them in training and explanations. That would explain why the Search Traffic for the Spanish translation and pronunciation of 1957 has been increasing since the beginning of October.
Other Reasons?
Many other events happened in 1957 - including the launch of the Russian Sputnik - and one or more of them are causing people to look up the Spanish translation for 1957.
What do you think? We are inviting you readers to share your thoughts: Just maybe, one of you has searched or is searching for 1957 in Spanish. We'd love to have you help solve this puzzle!
Write us your suggestions at Contact or enter your comments below.
Sabía (I knew) - that Scotland recently voted to stay part of Great Britain. It should have given Madrid some confidence that letting the democratic process play out may in fact be the right idea.
In an earlier post we had excerpted a portion of our friend Jordi's e-mail in which he traced the political conflict back to 1714.
Here is Part 2, in which he describes his view of the ongoing language struggle. "There is no problem with the level of the Spanish/Castilian language in Catalonia. All the statistics show that the current Catalan educational system - which is in fact bilingual - provides the students with a higher knowledge of both languages - Catalan and Castilian - than the monolingual Spanish system.
The knowledge of Castilian in Catalonia is above the average in Spain and even higher than in many parts of Castilia itself. There is not a single person in Catalonia that knows only Catalan and not Castilian. However, for many residents of Catalonia, the opposite situation is true.
What the people that ask for 'more Spanish' really want is 'less Catalan' in Catalonia, asserting 'the right' to be ignorant of the language of the country they are living in. In fact, they deny the existence of Catalonia as a country.
On the other hand, it is worth knowing is that, for the period of 2013-2014 only five (yes, 5) families asked for an education in 'Spanish only' - in a population of about 7.5 million people. For the current period of 2014-2015, there is not a single family yet asking for 'Spanish only' education.
This, in spite of the fact that Mr. Wert, the Minister of Education in Madrid, has decreed that the Catalan Government will pay for 'Spanish only' education of students that ask for it.
In the Valencian County, thousands of families have been asking the Government for new schools where the functional language would be Catalan, which is their mother tongue.
The response of Minister Wert has been to close many of the Catalan schools and to increase the number of schools in 'only Castilian.' There have been many demonstrations against that decision but the policies of education don’t change.
In the Balearic Islands, where there is the same system of immersion in Catalan as in Catalonia, a new law allows schools to hold only 30% of the classes in Catalan. There has been a long strike of about two months, in which more than the 90% of teachers, and children with their families, participated. Eventually the teachers decided to return to work but not abide by that rule.
So, as a matter of conclusion, I would say that there is no 'language problem' in Catalonia, but only policies for the 'cultural genocide' of Catalonia that Spain tries to implement."
Those are strong words by Jordi, born out of frustration with the often heavy-handed educational policies decreed by Madrid, but not isolated ones. We recently met a Spanish college professor who has lived in the US for many years, but is following the events in Spain with great interest. Growing up in the northwest of Spain with a Basque father and a mother from Catalonia, she knows the language issues well.
She told us that her nieces and nephews in Catalonia are all participating in the many demonstrations for a referendum. And while they all support the independence of Catalonia from Spain they also are quite pessimistic about the outcome of a vote - assuming that Spain's Supreme Court would even allow such a referendum to proceed in the first place.
Since then, we've been following the recent developments in Catalonia with interest. (Left, view from Antonio Gaudí's Parc Güell)
Jordi, our friend in Barcelona, has continued to educate us about the historical background of Catalonia's differences with "Spain." And I certainly did not know - no sabía - that this struggle, has its 300-year anniversary this year.
Here is an excerpt from one of Jordi's recent emails: "When 'Spain' was founded by joining Catalonia and Castilia, each of the kingdoms kept its own laws, its economical and social systems, political structures, internal hierarchy, and its traditions.
All this was destroyed in 1714, when King Felipe V of Castilia invaded Catalonia and eliminated all the political, economical, and cultural systems of Catalonia. The language was part of this process, and Castilian, proclaimed as 'the Spanish', was imposed as the only language accepted, even in the private sphere.
For the last three centuries, Catalonia has tried repeatedly to recover the institutions of a free country but has been violently attacked by 'Spain' each time. The 'Catalan Republic', for instance, has been proclaimed five times. The last one, in 1934, ended when the dictator Francisco Franco invaded Catalonia, with the help of Hitler's and Mussolini's armies.
Since 1714, we Catalans have never been asked by the Spanish whether or not we wanted to be part of Spain. After the Franco period and 40 years of dictatorship, the new winds of democracy gave Catalonia some hope for change but, sadly, after more than 30 year of transition between dictatorship and democracy, the real democracy is still not here.
Besides, not only have the 'autonomy' and recovery of the Catalan institutions not gone ahead, but Madrid’s government is implementing a new plan of extinction of the Catalan culture, subtle but persistent."
If you google the Economist article "How to Make a Country for Everybody," you'll find some excellent information about the Catalan language and how other countries are dealing with language issues.
The article's final comment makes a lot of sense: "The cheapest solution is merely an attitudinal one: all Spaniards should treat Galician, Basque and Catalan not as regional languages. They are languages of Spain, full stop. Treating them as such, and not as a bother, would go a long way."
In Part 2 we'll let Jordi explain his view of the Catalan/Castilian language struggles and how the current language policies play out in Catalonia and Spain.
During our month-long stay in Barcelona and travels though Spain in 2012, we became keenly aware of the brewing conflict between Spain and Catalonia.
This was a conflict we did not understand that well initially.
Is Bilingualism the Answer?
Our previous post, In Barcelona Speaking “Spanish” Is Not Enough..., only touched the tip of the “language iceberg.” We were surprised at the time in Barcelona how many people appeared to be truly bilingual.
A recent Reuters article: "Catalan language revival fuels backlash in Spain"reminded us of the language issues we had learned about during our stay. The article points to bilingualism as a potential solution, but disagreements remain. With the monarchy's fallen popularity, even the new King Felipe VI, who speaks Catalan, is not given much of a chance to heal the divisions.
More Than a Language Conflict
Our friend in Barcelona, Fabian, recently updated us on the events since our visit: huge demonstrations; a human chain of about 2 million people from southern France to València in 2013; even bigger demonstrations planned for September 2014 and the planned referendum for independence of Catalonia on November 9.
Fabian also sent us a link to an in-depth and quite balanced review of the situation, written by an English journalist, Gary Gibson: Spain's Secret Conflict, which includes interviews with many players. It is now obvious to us that, while language is an important issue, it is clearly more than that: cultural, historical, economical, emotional, political, and many other aspects are mixed into the disagreement.
We hope that Fabian's ominous statement - “Sadly the Spanish government has the bad habit of bombing Catalonia now and then. We will see!” - is just reflecting historic events, and that democratic processes can avoid violence. Examples exist: in 1905, Sweden agreed to a peaceful dissolution of its union with Norway; and German speaking South-Tyrol is now a multicultural success story after years of conflict.
Calling a waiter or waitress to your table can often be done by gestures such as raising your hand or – if you want to pay – by scribbling with one finger into the other hand.
And such gestures are quite international and work in most foreign countries as well. It is useful, however, to also know how to call a waiter or waitress in the local language. We therefore teach these expressions in our four language courses (French, German, Italian, and Spanish).
The German Way
When we started developing our German course, I thought of using the form of address I had heard when growing up in Germany: "Herr Ober" (actually an abbreviation for “Oberkellner” or headwaiter).
However, our native speaker reminded me that you don't use this term any longer - except maybe in very upscale restaurants. I was aware that you no longer call a waitress to your table with "Fräulein".
So we settled on "Entschuldigung!" (Excuse me.), which seems to be used in most of the German speaking countries for calling a waiter or waitress. Then, if you want to pay, you would say, “Bitte zahlen!” or more politely: “Ich möchte bitte zahlen! (I would like to pay, please.) In more upscale restaurants where you do have an “Ober,” you might say “Die Rechnung, bitte!” (The check, please.)
With this German Quick Game you can practice: "Bitte, ich möchte zahlen!"
The French Way
During a recent visit to Paris, we occasionally heard people asking for the waiter by calling “Garçon.” More often, though, we heard “Monsieur” or “Madame” when someone called a waiter or waitress to the table.
We're told that nowadays you'll hear the term “garçon” more likely from older customers, who may also add it to the usual call for the check: “L'addition, s'il vous plaît.”
In Italy, it is still quite common to call for the waiter simply with “Cameriere!” but we have also heard “Per favore!” (Please), as a way of getting the attention of the server. And, to call the waiter because you want to pay, you would say: “Il conto, per favore” (The check, please). A waitress would be called “cameriera,” but in Italy you'll find more male than female waiters.
In Spain, we heard “¡Camarero!” quite often, but as in Italy, people also just use “¡Por favor!” (please) to call the waiter to their table. When you're ready to pay, both of the following do very nicely: “Me gustaría pagar, por favor” (I'd like to pay”) or “La cuenta, por favor” (The check, please). A waitress would be called “camarera,” and, as in Italy, male waiters seem to be in the majority in Spain.
You can practice “Me gustaría pagar, por favor” with our Spanish Quick Game.
We invite any comments and observations regarding regional differences or customs for calling a waiter or waitress in German-, French-, Italian-, and Spanish-speaking countries.
Recently a post reminded me how important it is to maintain and improve my foreign languages.
Native Language vs. Languages Learned Years Ago
My native language is German, but I've been living in the US for many years. Without reading German newspapers almost daily, I would not stay current with the changes in the German language.
And, while I rarely have to look up any words and I'm not afraid of forgetting my German (I still speak it at home every day), I know that keeping up my French is more of a challenge.
I learned French as a young man when I lived in (French-speaking) Switzerland. I now read it quite regularly online, have conversations, and e-mail with French speaking friends and family members.
But with French, I am more aware of the need to constantly maintain it. If I don't have an opportunity to speak it in a while, I find that it takes me some time to recall vocabulary and to get comfortable again with my pronunciation and sentence structures.
New Language Improvements
Having started to learn Italian and Spanish only a few years ago, I am still working on improving both my proficiency and fluency. I can read both languages quite well now and my fluency is improving.
However, I am very aware of the fact that my vocabulary has to increase. I regularly play our own Italian 1 and Spanish 1 games and have recently started to use Lingohut to help me grow my vocabulary, especially in Spanish.
(I loved to practice with the browser extension Lingua.ly, not only get the translation of words I don't know, but also to practice & recall those words later. However, Lingua.ly had to close its doors and disappeared.)
We're planning to do a more detailed review of Lingohut later, when we have gained more experience with it. But for now, I'll just enjoy maintaining and improving "old" and "new" languages! Postscript: In March 2017, Ulrike did a review of Lingohut Portuguese.
Let's have a quick look at the Spanish expression: Que tengas ... (May you have ...) It's a set phrase and it's used frequently in daily conversation.
In English, when you say to someone: "Have a good day!" you're not ordering them to have a good day, you are expressing a wish: "I hope you have ...." or "May you have ..."
When you wish someone a good day, etc. in Spanish, you are saying something similar: "¡Que tengas un buen día!" (familiar) and "¡Que tenga un buen día!" (formal) both mean "[May you] have a good day!"
The verb form that is used in such wishes that start with "Que tengas ..." is the subjunctive mood.
Look at the difference in the following Spanish expressions: •Tienes un buen día. - You are having a good day. (a statement) • ¡Que tengas un buen día! - Have a good day! (a wish)
Note: The combination "que+subjunctive" implies "may ..." or "I hope that ..."
A few other common wishes in Spanish:
• ¡Que tengas una buena estancia! - Have a good stay! • ¡Que tengas suerte! - Good luck! (May you have luck!) • ¡Que tengas buen viaje! - Have a good trip! • ¡Que te mejores! - Get well soon! (May you get better!) • ¡Que (te) vaya bien! - Good luck (to you)! / I hope it goes well (for you)! • ¡Que aproveche! - Enjoy your meal! (Spain)
Getting the feel for the context in which the subjunctive is used (rather than learning a bunch of rules) is a good way to start learning this verb form. ¡Que te vaya bien!
After you've initiated a conversation (see Part 1), you'll want to have a few topics up your sleeve to sustain it and, finally, to close your conversation in a gracious way.
(2) SUSTAINING A CONVERSATION
Know some basic information about the city and have a few phrases ready so you can introduce the topics that interest you:
Know also a few interesting historical facts about the country. This means that you should learn how to say dates. Remember that in Spanish, dates follow this format: day, month, year.
"Las olimpiadas de Barcelona se inauguraron el 25 de julio de 1992." (The Barcelona Olympics opened on July 25th 1992.)
Obviously, the old stand-by, if you did not understand:
"¡Eso ha sido un poco rápido de más!" (That was a little too fast!)
"¡Podría repetir eso por favor!" (Could you, please, repeat that!)
(3) CLOSING A CONVERSATION
It's always important to find a way to close a conversation gracefully. Spaniards are a little more formal about getting ready to go than Americans. Have a few exit lines ready!
a) Signaling the end:
-"Muchas gracias por las recomendqaciones." (Thank you for the tips.)
-"Ha sido un placer hablar con usted." (It was nice to talk with you.)
-"¡Vaya, que tarde es! Todavía tengo que ..." (Darn, look how late it is! I still have to ...)
-"He quedado con unos amigos." (I'm meeting some friends.)
b) When you're leaving:
-"Por desgracia me tengo que ir ahora." (Unfortunatley, I have to go now.)
-"Lo dicho: muchas gracias/he estado muy bien." (Again: many thanks/it was really nice.)
-"¡Que pasen una buen tarde/noche!" (Have a nice afternoon/evening!)
-"¡Adiós!" (Goodbye!)
Practicing some of these conversational phrases and expressions ahead of time will be quite helpful and impress your Spanish speaking contact. While such phrases will obviously not be sufficient for an intensive discussion, they will boost you confidence in speaking. The next step will be to add a few more topics and strategies to your conversational skills.
When in a Spanish speaking country, you certainly want the skills to deal with daily, practical situations: ordering in a restaurant, asking directions, greeting friends or strangers, introducing others, purchasing, paying a check, checking into a hotel, etc.
But you'll also want to be able to engage in conversations with locals or with a Spanish speaker you happen to meet anywhere. To do this, you must swallow your anxiety about speaking up and find ways to start, sustain, and eventually end a conversation.
Conversing with strangers can feel a little awkward in any language. A blog post that caught my eye:12 Ways To Make Talking To Strangers Less Awkwardhas some good tips on braving such a challenge. Of course, these tips also work for talking with strangers in a foreign language.
We've adapted them here for conversations with Spanish speakers. A good antidote to "conversation anxiety" is to practice some useful expressions ahead of time. You can start with the list below.
(1) WHEN INITIATING A CONVERSATION
Act confident and comfortable, this will put the other person at ease too. Be sure that you know how to address a stranger correctly to be appropriately polite. Best to use a neutral greeting such as:
“Buenos días,” “Buenas tardes,” “Buenas noches” (Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening) or have a couple of polite phrases ready, such as:
"Perdone ..." (Excuse me …)
"Por favor ..." (Please [can you tell me] ...)
Formal "Usted" - Importantly, you should use the formal "usted" (the polite form of "you") as a starter with older persons, or in formal situations. If by any chance you’re being addressed with the formal “usted”, then you should use “usted” as well. That means, of course, that you also have to learn to distinguish between the appropriate Spanish verb endings. Listen HERE to a Spanish conversation where students talk about using the familiar "tú."
Spanish "How are you?" - By the way, in Spanish, it's fine to use "How are you?" (¿Cómo estás?/¿Cómo está?) as part of a greeting, even if you don’t know the person very well. Spaniards regard such a question as a token of genuine interest. Just make sure you use the appropriate formal/informal verb endings.
"Asking for directions" - Learn to ask for directions or for information; this may very well lead to a longer exchange. Start with a neutral greeting (see above) and follow up with a question, such as:
"¿Sabe dónde/cuándo ...?" (Do you know where/when ...?)
The "here and now" - Comment about the here and now. For example when you're at a café, a restaurant, a museum, in a shop, at a market, etc. Talk about what's around you, what you see; you can even mention the weather.
"¿Un cortado? ¿Qué es eso?" (A "cortado"? What is that?)
"¡Ese es un edificio realmente precioso!" (That's really a beautiful building!)
"¡Hoy hace un tiempo genial!" (Great weather today!)
Starting a conversation with someone in a foreign language may feel a little risky, but it's definitely something you can learn to do. Practicing some of these ice-breaker phrases and expressions ahead of time will be helpful. In our next blog post (see Part 2), we'll guide you on how to sustain and how to close a casual conversation with a Spanish speaker.
Very likely you've heard “La Paloma” sung in your native language. It's a very popular song.
In this YouTube video of “La Paloma”, Victoria de los Angeles, one of the great voices of the 20th century, sings the original Spanish lyrics, and the video shows the English translation. (There is also a wonderful Spanish version by Nana Mouskouri here, but without the text, you could listen to later!)
Did you know?
“La Paloma (meaning “the dove”) was composed and written by the Basque /Spanish composer Sebastián Iradier (later Yradier) after he visited Cuba in 1861. (You can read in this Wikipedia entry that the motif of “La Paloma” dates back to an episode that occurred in 492 BC!)
And the many different versions in many of the world's languages and performed by many famous singers are a testimony to its popular appeal across cultures and centuries.
The Original Lyrics
The original Spanish lyrics of the first verse are below. (Note that you will find other Spanish versions as well.)
Cuando salí de la Habana,
¡Válgame dios!
Nadie me ha visto salir
Si no fuí yo.
Y una linda Guachinanga
Allá voy yo,
Que se vino trás de mi,
Que si señor.
Si a tu ventana llega
Una paloma,
Trátala con cariño
Que es mi persona.
Cuéntala tus amores,
Bien de mi vida,
Corónala de flores
Que es cosa mía
Ay chinita que sí ,
ay que darme tu amor
Ay que vente conmigo,
Chinita, a donde vivo yo.
Typical Spanish Constructs
Some of the lyrics of the original version may be difficult for a beginner, but, with the translation provided in the video, you'll be able to decipher the meaning quite easily.
You'll also notice a number of typical Spanish constructions, e.g. valgame, trátala, cuéntala, corónala, darme, in which the object is added to the end of the verb. (You can also start paying attention to the spelling of words like "si" [if] and "sí" [yes])
By watching the YouTube video with its translation several times you can start memorizing the Spanish lyrics and their English meaning. Not only will the song sound even more beautiful now that you understand it, you'll remember the object constructs next time you see them in other contexts.
And when you hear other versions in Spanish (or in other languages) you may also recognize the changes in the lyrics.
Postscript:
(1) We also have posts about French, German, and Italian songs that are fun to listen to – and, when memorized, can remind you of some key aspects of the respective language.
(3) We recently discovered a Spanish language site which uses Spanish songs a their lyrics as part of their program. You won't find "La Paloma" but many contemporary songs on Language Zen. Also read our "Language Zen" - Learning Spanish - A Review
For a few months now we have been baffled why certain search dictionary terms are on top of our site's Search traffic. 
During our month-long stay in Barcelona and travels though Spain in 2012, we became keenly aware of the brewing conflict between Spain and Catalonia. 
