BBC Get by in...

Learning Spanish was just another in my long, long list of good intentions that end up trapped somewhere between decision and commencement, like throwing out the old magazines and university essays at the bottom of my wardrobe or finally getting around to buying a digital camera of my own. Then I went to Barcelona and discovered to my horror that the only phrase I could remember was dos cervezas, por favor (the shame, the shame). Cue one trip to a bookshop and a month of afternoons spent intermittently crouched over the play and rewind buttons on a tape recorder. I chose the BBC's Get By In Spanish on typically spurious grounds - a decade old edition was on ...

Bonjour, Bom Dia, Buenos Dias, Buongiorno, Kalimera, Guten Tag, Dobre Rano... A question - Why do we always think the French rude? I can tell you absolutely that they are not, except for Paris waiters, but then they're rude to everyone; it's a requirement of the job! Could it be anything to do with the expectation that everyone else can (should?) speak English? Ok, maybe English is the World's most widely spoken language but should that be an excuse to relieve us of learning any other languages ourselves? A can speak French reasonably well, the benefit of having astute parents, who arranged for me to have an exchange with a French ...