Saludos to everyone! (from Spain)

[milit4nt]

Hi everyone!

I'm a Spanish comrade from Valencia. I've recently discovered this discusion board and I decided to join. It's great see comrades from all over the worlds discussing about politics and sharing their experiences from their home countries.

I haven't seen many spaniards around here... I hope more will join in the future. We have some difficulties with the english language. Although english is taught in most spanish public schools, the truth is that the only people that get to learn a nice level of english are those who can pay themselves personal teachers or visit english-speaking countries in the summer

I'll try to visit the board and write some messages regularly and I will encourage the spanish comrades to do the same.

See ya around here...

"Arriba Lenin, abajo el burgués, la revolución ha de vencer!"

PS: By the way, if there any other spanish comrades around here...  please let me know so I don't feel so lonely here :p

[Daymare17]

I'm sure the reasons you mentioned are the main causes why the Spanish population does not know English well, but I think a supplementary factor is "language protectionism". Many years ago when i was in Spain, i was listening to a Elvis Presley song on the radio, and then i suddenly realized he was dubbed in Spanish! :D In the Scandinavian countries almost everyone knows English well, simply because our governments haven't taken the effort to "protect" our languages in the same way as France, Spain, Germany etc.. As a result English is all around us every day. Instead of dubbing, foreign movies and TV series have subtitles. One result has been that the language is gradually turning into English from within. You can hear it in everyday speech and read it in newspapers - people are use English sentence structure that would have been impossible 10 years ago.

Anyway, rant over. Nice to see you. My MSN is daymare17@hotmail.com if youd like to chat.

Comradely,
Rune

[milit4nt]

Buenas daymare17!

Yes, definately, the reason why still nowadays most spaniards don't speak a fluent english is because that is still a privilege left for the few that can afford it.

About "language protectionism"... I remember I had the opposite feeling towards Norway when I visited Oslo some years ago. I remember watching the norweigen (or however u spell it, please excuse my english) TV channels and most of the shows were in english. So, yeah, no wonder your english is much better, u are listening to it all the time!!

I guess since Spanish is a language spoken by hundreds of million people (in Spain and Latin America), the english speaking capitalists find it profitable to translate their products to our laguage so they can sell their products to such a big market. So probably that's why english is not so present in our daily lives as it is in many other european countries.

Perhaps to "protect" most scandinavian languages is not as profitable.... In the end, material conditions determine many sociological aspects of life...

See ya,

Salud!

PS: Wow! This is more difficult than I thought! I'm gonna have to practice my english much more if I want to have english discussions on politics. I hope I can improve it with some more reading and practice...

[P.O.U.M]

Although english is taught in most spanish public schools, the truth is that the only people that get to learn a nice level of english are those who can pay themselves personal teachers or visit english-speaking countries in the summer

Same with American public schools. Spanish is offered but you will not really learn the language. Two years of Spanish for me and all I basically know is "No" and "De donde esta el bano." Of course Ive been told the latter was grammaticaly incorrect or something.

[Morag]

See I'm in Canada, and although we're officially bilingual (French/English) one must go to Quebec for a while before becoming fluent. It doesn't work to stay in English-speaking areas, or to go to France (different dialect). I had nine years of french in school, two in University, and although I'm considered "fluent" in the US, here in Canada I'm just a pathetic anglo. *s* C'est la vie...

<-- edit: Maggie Thatcher seemed a good idea this morning when I had a hang-over, but know that I can see straight, she pisses me off...

[milit4nt]

Originally posted by P.O.U.M
Same with American public schools. Spanish is offered but you will not really learn the language. Two years of Spanish for me and all I basically know is "No" and "De donde esta el bano." Of course Ive been told the latter was grammaticaly incorrect or something.

 Not too bad for two years of spanish lessons...
Hahaha

[milit4nt]

Originally posted by P.O.U.M
Same with American public schools. Spanish is offered but you will not really learn the language. Two years of Spanish for me and all I basically know is "No" and "De donde esta el bano." Of course Ive been told the latter was grammaticaly incorrect or something.

 Not too bad for two years of spanish lessons...
Hahaha

[P.O.U.M]

<-- edit: Maggie Thatcher seemed a good idea this morning when I had a hang-over, but know that I can see straight, she pisses me off...

Ive found out that drinking and talking online, though very entertaining, can be disaster the next morning. As in your Mag Thatcher pic.

I was wondering about that myself

[GoingRed4U]

milit4nt

good to see more like minded peope joining this forum, I just joined myself.
Its good to see more posters. I like this forum because it seems to be more down to earth then other forums.

[proletarianrevo]

Excellent to see some newcomers around here!
Obviously the boards need thoose, in order to keep going, and in my oppinion we should keep extending the participation to get much more comrades in here. Some of the debates here have been really good, clearing very fundamental questions and inspiring new comrades to get on with the studiying of Marxism, and also to get involved in the real activy in the real world. After all it must not be forgot that the internet, while a precious source indeed, isnot and cannot be a substitute for the daily activitys of a living tendency that seeks to organise the most advanced workers and youth and intervene in the real struggles taking place.

Seeing that comrades are discussing the linguistical differences and obstacles, I woud lilke to add that the problem also is one of the quality of the theachers. Many teachers, at least in Denmark are very bad educated themselves - and only know how education was to be applied twenty years ago - without making updated classes. Also, it appears to me that there is a completely over-focus on the grammatical-side of the language, instead of actually learning how to speak! What do all of you think about linguistical teaching in secondary school?

[klynn44]

Originally posted by Daymare17
I'm sure the reasons you mentioned are the main causes why the Spanish population does not know English well, but I think a supplementary factor is "language protectionism". Many years ago when i was in Spain, i was listening to a Elvis Presley song on the radio, and then i suddenly realized he was dubbed in Spanish! :D In the Scandinavian countries almost everyone knows English well, simply because our governments haven't taken the effort to "protect" our languages in the same way as France, Spain, Germany etc.. As a result English is all around us every day. Instead of dubbing, foreign movies and TV series have subtitles. One result has been that the language is gradually turning into English from within. You can hear it in everyday speech and read it in newspapers - people are use English sentence structure that would have been impossible 10 years ago.

Anyway, rant over. Nice to see you. My MSN is daymare17@hotmail.com if youd like to chat.

Comradely,
Rune

Very true, Rune.
In the Amsterdam airport, English ran rampant, whereas it was harder to find in the Madrid airport.
When I stayed with a family in Spain, nothing on television had subtitles- many popular American shows were dubbed.

Katherine

[Volkov]

Originally posted by P.O.U.M
Same with American public schools. Spanish is offered but you will not really learn the language. Two years of Spanish for me and all I basically know is "No" and "De donde esta el bano." Of course Ive been told the latter was grammaticaly incorrect or something.

That is so true over here in the USA, especially considering that I never learned very much German after taking it for three years in high school.  Had the education been of good quality, I would think that one could become fluent in German in that amount of time.  It would be nice to know more languages and reach out to comrades (don't we have an Austrian organization affiliated with us?  "Der Funke" or something like that?).

Welcome to the boards, milit4nt!:)