JLFS

Have you ever seen a likeness, coz I am getting quite worried, it could be a condition that could come on with old age, or having the flu jab........... it is very worrying for us men....

Madridboy

So a pajita is not a small paja then?

JLFS

No comment.............

lynnxa

deserves karma - but I can't, need to spread

lynnxa

surely eggs are a more realistic size


a guy would have to have a pretty magnificent if you were asking for turnips & he thought you were talking about his................................

JLFS

hi Lynn,

I think you should talk to Rachelk, I think you might have misunderstood EXACTLY what I meant.

Have a woman to woman chat and she will put you straight.

top of the morning to ya...

lynnxa

thank you - we have

I told you I couldn't swear in spanish

JLFS

So now you know the difference between turnips and eggs........



Both very important in their own way. No good having one without the other, though.

lynnxa

oh I don't know

Youcancallmeal

Hope this helps anyone who is an absolute beginner.

My wife and I spent 3 years on and off looking in Italy for somewhere to retire to. In the area we were looking you had to speak some Italian to make yourself properly understood.

We bought the Michel Thomas CDs and I made very good progress. My wife (learned French and Latin at school) also had 1 lesson a week for a year with an Italian teacher. We also watched DVDs eg , Sense and Sensibility and Il Gattopardo (the Leopard). She made fantastic progress and read Sense and Sensibility in Italian and I assume she understood it!

Granted she is very good at languages, her English is better than mine!

It was our experience that no matter how well prepared we thought we were before a visit, it took us a couple of days to tune our ears in the Italians. However, after a week, we were ok. If we did not understand we said so and they would repeat slowly or find some other way to phrase it. The point is we were communicating.

So we are now thinking of moving to Spain now. And guess what. We have got the Michele Thomas Spanish CDs now.

I would recommend giving them a go as a way of getting a good start. Also buy some CDs with Spanish audio and English subtitles. We bought costume drama because the enunciation is good. Don't bother with (American) films with cars exploding and people effing and blinding, I doubt the vocab.will come in very useful!

Hope this helps.

You can call me Al.

steviedeluxe

The most common story is of a young lady going shopping and forgetting the gender of chicken in Spanish (and I'm not talking about gallinas either!)

Makingthemove

Thanks for all the replies, and the very encouraging responses. I have the Michel Thomas CDs to supplement my lessons, and I do think they are really useful - I finally understood the placement of the direct object after just the introduction CD.

To make us all feel better, I thought I would tell you about a slip-up made by our regular Spanish bar-man.... He now works in Galicia and is one of the very few English-speaking staff there, however his English is mainly 'bar-English' learnt from working in Tenerife. My OH loves albondigas, and was disappointed to learn that they were not available one night in our regular bar. The next night we walked in to be greeted by our English-speaking waiter "Tonight, I have balls of meat for you."

Call me immature, but I couldn't stop laughing for about two hours, until I had drunk enough to tell him what he had said. He didn't quite follow, but the waitress spent the next few nights calling him "cojones de carne"!!!

So it is not just us Brits!

jimenato

"Penis?" said Angel our lovely bar owner to my wife as he placed a small saucer of cacahuetes on the bar.

lynnxa

cricketman

I've been told than when foreigners try and roll the r on "pero" or "perro" they make it sound like "pedo" (fart)