Monday 27 October 2008

Letter four.

Dear Mr. Izzard,

I love languages. If I am ever lucky enough to stumble across a genie in a bottle and allowed to make one wish, my wish would be to be able to speak every language in the world fluently. I mean, how cool would that be? You could go anywhere on the planet, and be able to talk to anyone you meet. You could learn so much about people and cultures, and avoid so many misunderstandings. I bet I could get a pretty cool job somewhere in the UN or something, solving all the worlds' problems. Not sure I would want to, but the possibility would probably be there.

Anyway, the language I am trying to learn now is Spanish. I love Spain; the food, the relaxed atmosphere, the people, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Salvador Dalí, and obviously the language. Now, when I say I am trying to learn Spanish, it is not like I am doing a course or anything (yet), but I have a Nintendo DS with a game called My Spanish Coach, which is actually quite good, and I have signed up online for Spanish Word of the Day, by dictionary.com. So I learn grammar and how to build sentences and stuff with my DS, and a vocabulary with Spanish Word of the Day.

Now, I am not sure if you are familiar with dictionary.com and Word of the Day, but it is quite simple; you get a word, the translation of the word and a few sentences where they show you how the word is used. Usually the sentences are quite useful; you can see yourself in a situation where you would need to say that exact thing. I know you have spoken a bit about this in one of your shows, so you probably know what I mean.

So the word yesterday was 'pues', meaning 'well'. One of the sentences was:
¿Así que va a llamar a la policía si no nos vamos? Pues, le aseguro que la policía no nos va a encontrar cuando llegue.
Which translates to:
So you're going to call the police if we don't go, are you? Well, I can tell you, the police won't find us here by the time they arrive.

So picture this; you are in Madrid in a bar, you have just ordered a beer and some tapas, you are totally enjoying the atmosphere and being cool, hanging out with the Madrilenas. Then all of a sudden you fall out with someone, maybe you step on someone's foot, maybe you spill someone's drink, say something bad about their mother or Real Madrid, anything crazy like that, a fight breaks out, and the bouncers rush over to break it up, and tell you they will call the police unless you remove yourself from the premises immediately. And you know what to reply! '¿Así que va a llamar a la policía si no nos vamos? Pues, le aseguro que la policía no nos va a encontrar cuando llegue.'
Pretty useful if you ask me...

Until next time. All the best.

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