I posted recently about the importance of punctuation in writing, lest Grandpa should unfortunately be eaten at the writer’s expense. As I found out during one particularly awkward moment in Spain, the placement of commas is also extremely important in speech. With the addition ...Read More

Remember when we talked about severe (and hilarious) mistranslations? Well, here’s a short article documenting some of the worst blunders cross-culturally. Some of my favorites: -a sign in a Japanese hotel: “You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid” -a laundromat in Rome: ...Read More

Once I got into a steady rhythm of speaking Spanish everyday in Granada, sometimes my English would come out muddled. Since Spanish has a much smaller vocabulary than English, many times the words that stuck in its lexicon happen to be cognates of English’s ...Read More

In Granada, and in Spanish-speaking places in general, they have lots of “rías.” There’s the panadería, the bread shop. The frutería, the fruit shop. The carnicería, the meat shop. The ferretería, the hardware shop. The peluquería, the barber shop. But the most famous neighborhood ...Read More

It’s high time we talked about some pragmatics on this linguistics blog!! Pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to the meaning of language, a.k.a. the interesting side of things, a world away from spelling and grammar. The pragmatics of language varies greatly ...Read More

Spain’s got a more relaxed take on what counts as sexual harassment. Catcalls are as common as cigarette smoke there (which one is more unpleasant?), and sometimes wearing heels out is more uncomfortable due to the ensuing comments than the physical pain. (I’ve even ...Read More

Many times in Granada I would sit by myself and read or people-watch in my favorite plaza. It was always full of Granadino families, the kids racing around while their parents shared a beer. Most times I sat close enough to the bar tables ...Read More