Galidonia

Trilingualism at Work in Portugal

2010-07-26T06:57:00.000-07:00

Having just returned from a few days in Oporto, it was interesting to see how a Portuguese city seems to be leaving its Galician counterparts behind in terms of trilingualism. The manner in which many Portuguese working in the public service sector can switch to English (and Spanish) at will is impressive.

This reinforced my belief that young Portuguese have better general levels of English, and most notably, infinitely superior pronunciation to that spoken in Spain. Their willingness and confidence in their ability to switch to English or indeed Spanish is striking. For me personally, this was not a great help as I was in Oporto with the intention of practising my Portuguese. However, I also learned that my own Portuguese seems to have been infiltrated by Spanish pronunciation traits, since on more than one occasion in cafes and hotels, I got a response in Spanish to my foreign accented and laboured Portuguese!

Never having taught there, I cannot comment too much on the role of English (or Spanish) in the Portuguese education system, but as I have said before I don’t think formal education is the main issue here. I am in no doubt that the heavy presence of English in its natural state (i.e. original version with subtitles whether for films, news reports or TV programmes) has had a huge impact.

Coincidentally, while travelling on the bus down to Oporto, I read an article in El País about this very subject by Fernando Galván (a professor of English philology and Rector of Alcalá University).

Here is a summary of the cultural, educational and linguistic reasons why Spaniards are struggling to master English:

1. Naturally speakers of Latin-based Romance languages are at a disadvantage to speakers of Germanic languages (Swedish, German, Dutch, etc.). English belongs to the latter linguistic grouping and therefore speakers of Germanic languages have a big head start in terms of grammar, vocabulary, syntax and so on.

True, but why is it that the Portuguese appear to speak better English than the Spanish?

2. The difference in the Portuguese vowel systems has to be taken into account. With only five vowel sounds, Spanish speakers are going to struggle to recognise and replicate the dozen vowel sounds (excluding diphthongs) of English. If in your native language you know the letter A is not always pronounced in the same way, it becomes easier to overcome this difficulty.

In my opinion, this is a minor factor. While studying Portuguese with Galicians, I felt the wider range of vowel sounds I was familiar with gave me an advantage in pronunciation that helped to make up a bit for the huge disadvantage I had in terms of vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Also it was easy for me to distinguish between the letters B and V or C and Z. However, Galicians have more vowel sounds at their disposal than Castilians yet their English pronunciation is not noticeably better.

The socio-cultural factor is key:

3. It has clearly been demonstrated that the socio-cultural environment, particularly having a wide range of audio-visual material around us, makes it much easier to learn a language. Why is it that after so many hours dedicated to study, Spaniards struggle to understand or communicate in English in daily life? The important factor is that, except in exceptional or limited cases, the majority of the population is hardly exposed to spoken English at all. When the student leaves the classroom, his or her exposure to oral English ends there. It is rarely heard on the radio, on television or in the cinema. In other countries like Portugal however, they don’t dub American TV series and films are shown in original version with subtitles. Franco ensured that all audio-visual materials from other countries were dubbed, allowing for the Hispanisation and linguistic unity of all foreign voices and accents. Spain has never really emerged from this bubble, while from a very early age, Polish, Swedish, Dutch or Portuguese students are accustomed to daily exposure to spoken English. At the end of the school day, they watch cartoons or other favourite TV series in English and barely notice they are still learning outside class.

Galván acknowledges that the situation regarding English in Spanish schools is gradually improving. However, in my view it still remains the case that young Spaniards are too heavily influenced by Spanish phonetics when trying to learn English, while young Portuguese might be reasonably familiar with the sounds of English before they are even capable of reading the subtitles. English pronunciation remains a major weakness in Spanish schools where there are too many teachers who do not have enough familiarity with spoken English and therefore cannot make it an integral part of classroom learning.

This brings me back to the question of trilingualism in Galician schools. Whether or not English can really make up a third of the system remains to be seen (it certainly seems a long way off to me). Whether it should is another matter. It's funny how imposition is rarely mentioned where English is concerned even though it's not the native language of anyone here other than a handful of immigrants like myself. But I feel the most forward-thinking step central and regional governments could take would be to look at what can be done to reduce dubbing and increase subtitling throughout Spanish media. People want to enjoy these programmes or films anyway, and it would just be a case of getting used to viewing them the way they were intended to be seen. Not that I’m holding my breath for this to happen, mind you. José Luis Cuerda, the Spanish film director, recently referred to dubbing an "una auténtica mierda" (a load of crap). From an artisitc point of view he is spot on but most of his compatriots would take some convincing. It is so deeply ingrained that many Spaniards seem to think it takes some kind of super-human effort to read subtitles even though their Iberian neighbours seem to get on just fine.

Translation News

2010-02-18T05:05:00.000-08:00

Today sees the release of the English translation of Manuel Rivas’ Os libros arden mal. The English version, Books Burn Badly, is translated by Jonathan Dunne and published by Random House. This is the sixth book by Manuel Rivas that Dunne has translated to English. Others include The Carpenter’s Pencil, Vermeer’s Milkmaid and Other Stories and In The Wilderness. Quite a feat, not least because since 1964 only 33 books written in Galician are known to have been published in the language of Shakespeare.

I must admit I’ve had the Spanish edition of the book sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now but haven’t got round to reading it due to the lack of time and desire to read such a weighty novel in a foreign language. But this whets my appetite.

The author and his translator will be promoting the book in London next week including an appearance at Harvill Secker’s International Writing Day in Foyle’s bookshop,Charing Cross Road, on the 27th of February.

This week also saw the bilingual Catalan-Galician edition of Cesáreo Sanchéz’ poetry collection El rostro de la terra published by Perifèric Poesía, with Xulio Ricardo Trigo carrying out the translation into Catalan. Like Rivas, Sánchez hails from A Coruña and he is president of the Galician Language Writers Association (AELG) among other things.

Meanwhile, Emily Dickinson’s anthology Poemas a la muerte has hit the streets in Spanish.

Galician Science Fiction Website

2010-01-31T06:06:00.001-08:00

Anyone interested in reading science fiction in Galician need look no further than www.novafantasia.com. The Gondolier is a very short story by a writer called Gareth D. Jones from Essex, England. It was translated into Galician by Ana Xaubet. I translated The Gondolier into Scots for Gareth last year. Another translation I did of one of his stories, Gone Wi The Windae, appeared in Lallans Magazine.

Strike in Schools

2010-01-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

Many working in Galician education were on strike today. The strike was called by the Queremos Galego platform in response to the Xunta’s (Galician govt.) planned educational reforms which would see the role of Galician in compulsory education reduced from at least 50% of the syllabus to 33%. The PP (conservatives) Xunta, which took office last year, has proposed that Galician will be given equal status in the system to Spanish with the introduction of a third of subjects in English making up a trilingual system.

Although President Feijóo and his Xunta appeared to think the idea was a decent compromise, it has been attacked from almost all quarters, with other political parties, cultural groups including the Real Academia Galicia and teaching unions all queuing up to have a go.

One of the main criticisms has been the proposed role of English. Teachers in the General Workers Union (UGT) have said it is unworkable and will lead to chaos. The left-wing coalition Esquerda Unida described it as “utopian”.

I don’t think the policy has been thought through for a number of reasons. In future, the plan is to recruit teachers who are capable of teaching other subjects through English. While I recognise this as a form of CLIL, I wonder where they are going to find the teachers whose English is good enough to cope. My understanding from speaking to someone working within the Galician education system is that in future teachers will be required to have a B1 in English of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages .

Here’s what such a student is supposedly capable of: “Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.”

And here is the description in Galician: “Nivel B1: Se adquiere cuando el estudiante es capaz de comprender los puntos principales de textos claros y en lengua estándar si tratan sobre cuestiones que le son conocidas, ya sea en situaciones de trabajo, de estudio o de ocio; cuando sabe desenvolverse en la mayor parte de las situaciones que pueden surgir durante un viaje por zonas donde se utiliza la lengua; cuando es capaz de producir textos sencillos y coherentes sobre temas que le son familiares o en los que tiene un interés personal y cuando puede describir experiencias, acontecimientos, deseos y aspiraciones, así como justificar brevemente sus opiniones o explicar sus planes.”

I have highlighted in bold what I consider the main points. In my opinion, that kind of level is not nearly high enough to cope with presenting English in an educational setting, and what about student essays and homework? Are they to be corrected by teachers whose own English would need a lot of correcting? I would say they’d need at least a B2 level (upper intemediate) and continual assessment/improvement or more likely C1 (advanced English) simply in order to cope.

If few local teachers are up to the job (and I can’t imagine that they will be too happy that they cannot teach, say science, because their English isn’t good enough) then what are the alternatives? Bringing in a load of teachers from the UK or other countries? And will these teachers be able to handle the Galician and Spanish dimension that will inevitably arise in the classroom?

In short, the introduction of a third of the syllabus in English is not only some way down the line, as the government now ackowledges, but probably unworkable. However, there are already signs that the Xunta is backing down. But not before taking a potshot at what they see as nationalist extremists out to spoil their cosmopolitan initiative. According to reports, there were somewhere between 30-60,000on the march in Santiago today in protest. The evidence would suggest they came from all over the political spectrum.

The legality of the draft bill has also been questioned. The Spanish Constitution states that families are only allowed to intervene in educational policy on matters concerning religion or morals. This brings us back to the new Xunta’s claim that parents should be allowed to choose the language in which their children are to receive their core education.

Another criticism of the current system has been that Spanish-speaking children were having difficulties studying subjects in Galician. If that is the case then how are pupils going to cope with the introduction of a foreign language into subjects where they already have high failure rates?

Finally, it strikes me as odd that there has been much talk about the “imposition of Galician” and how this was eroding freedom, yet this same party wants to bring a non-official language (English) into the education system and give it the same classroom time as Spanish and Galician.

Lend Me Your Ears

2009-12-06T03:36:00.000-08:00

I recently received a comment from a reader of this blog about English in the Spanish education system and the lack of real communication involved. Students in Spain often complain that the English they learn at school lacks a proper communicative component and is too grammar focussed.

Firstly, let me say that I think the Spanish can be overly self-critical about their English levels. Of course, their general level is nowhere near as good as places like the Netherlands or Scandinavia, but the native languages in these countries have a lot more in common with English. Therefore these places have a massive advantage in that respect. So perhaps Spaniards shouldn’t be quite so hard on themselves at times. Some of them speak English very well.

I have taught English to students from a number of European countries: Spain, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The English levels of teenagers in France are no better than in Spain in my experience and I don’t think there’s much difference between the general levels in Italy and Spain either. But I was very impressed with the general standard of Czech students, and if anything, a Slovakian group I taught were even better. Their native languages are nothing like English of course. It may be no coincidence that they, along with the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, opt for subtitling instead of dubbing. I also believe that many in the Netherlands have access to the BBC. On the other hand, France also likes to dub its foreign films.

That is why I think the biggest problem with English in Spain lies OUTSIDE the classroom. So many people are studying English yet they have little contact with the language once the class is over. They think all the answers lie in the classroom. I’m sure improvements could be made there as well but if teachers are not confident in their English communication skills then how can they pass this skill on to others?

No-one is going to be able to think in a foreign language that they don’t hear regularly. The internet should help in this respect, but that still involves the student making the effort to find good websites where they can listen to English. So why not just take it out of their hands and put it right in front of them?

If I could do just one thing to help improve English levels in Spain, it would be to provide daily access to the language in the form of subtitled news reports, TV series and films. This is unlikely I’m afraid, because dubbing is a big industry in Spain and many people are so used to it that they don’t want change. That is a pity, as I really do not think that reading subtitles in your own language requires a lot of effort. It is not for me to say that anyone must learn English but if Spanish or regional governments are serious about improving English levels and making their citizens bilingual or trilingual, then I think this is the way forward.

You don’t have to look very far to find an example of this theory at work. Portugal opts for subtitles in its cinemas. And when in Portugal, I cannot help but notice the vast amount of English language on television in comparison with its Iberian counterpart. I do think that that the general pronunciation of English there is better than in Spain. Some Portuguese even have an American touch to their accents due to regular exposure to US television and cinema. Portuguese TV reporters are often able to make a good attempt at pronouncing English names of people, places, films, etc. But sadly the efforts of a fair number of Spanish presenters would not be recognisable to the average English-speaker unfamiliar with the Spanish pronunciation system.

The general level of English in Catalonia is a bit higher than in some other parts of Spain in my experience. I can think of a couple of reasons why that might be. Learning languages may come more “naturally” to Catalans as most are already bilingual and this probably makes them more open to other languages and sounds. However, the geographical situation of Catalonia is also important. It is easier for them to travel abroad and mix with foreigners using international English communication. This also comes back to the point about English having more immediate relevance in their lives. If people don’t have sufficient opportunities to hear and practice the language then there is less incentive to learn it. Similarly, if English is only significant while in the classroom and is of little benefit once the exams have been passed, then why bother to make the effort?

English under Threat in Scotland?

2009-11-19T16:01:00.000-08:00

Carlos Callon’s recent article in Galicia Hoxe about the outlandish claims made by some that signposting in Galician cities is predominately in the Galician language led me to think about the situation in the UK and Ireland. There, you will hear some of the same kind of arguments about how much Gaelic or Welsh is around and about whether it is all a waste of time and money.

I’m going to focus on Scotland because that’s the place I know best. Recently I’ve heard a few claims that bilingual signs (Gaelic & English) are distracting drivers. Firstly, all we are talking about here is toponyms and street names. In other words, signs giving information about the distance to nearby towns, signs at the entrance to towns with the place name on it or street names in towns or cities. These will almost invariably include the English name as well as the Gaelic one, except in places which don’t have a separate English name, such as Drumnadrochit for instance. I’ve never seen or heard the village by Loch Ness referred to as Bridge of Drum, which is the literal meaning in English.

In the comments below a recent BBC article about The Death of Language, one Aberdonian claimed there was a “proliferation of bilingual signs (again in English and Gaelic) in Aberdeenshire. I will be on the lookout the next time I travel through the Grampian region. The poster must have a very different understanding of the word “proliferation” from me. I have never seen a traffic sign (Stop, Reduce Speed, etc) in Gaelic anywhere in Scotland and signposting in shops is conspicuous by its absence, at least outside of the Gaelic-speaking heartlands of the Western Isles and a few other places in the highlands. I haven’t been to those islands for some time but even then I’d confidently state its written presence is minimal in comparison with English. As for the Aberdeen area, I’ve spent plenty of time there, visited recently and can’t recall seeing any Gaelic signs at all!

I’ve seen a few Gaelic signs in and around government buildings in Edinburgh, and in a few places in Glasgow (traditionally the city most Gaelic-speaking highlanders move to for work or study). Glasgow Queen Street railway station is one place that comes to mind. The name of the station is clearly on view in Gaelic. It’s easy for me to remember this specific example as it’s very striking due to the lack of Gaelic in public places in Scotland’s major cities.

You are far more likely to see Gaelic in public places in the highland capital of Inverness or other smaller towns in the Highland region. Particularly in and around council buildings or cultural centres. Also, on street signs, although only in central parts of Inverness as I recall, and again it will always appear bilingually with English. When Gaelic information is given in cultural or tourist sites, it is common to find condensed versions of a more detailed English text. A token word or two of Gaelic at the door, such as “Fàilte” (Welcome) is often considered quite enough. But credit to B&Q for their efforts above as this is a rare site in commercial premises.

Although far more widely used throughout Scotland than Gaelic, the Scots language fares even worse due to its lack of official recognition. You will do well to notice its presence in public at all. It features in poems inscribed on the walls or pavement around the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh. But it’s more likely you will see it in the form of graffiti written by Scots-speakers! However, on the Scottish Parliament website information is available in Scots along with 13 other languages. This is just one example of the current Scottish Government starting to take Scots a bit more seriously as a language that can have a purpose beyond poetry or informal conversation.

Scots also features in place names or in street names (sometimes in monolingual form for the same reason as the Drumnadrochit case mentioned earlier). Some examples can be seen on the website of the Scots Language Centre. However, over the years there have also been many examples of Scottish street and place names being given an English makeover, such as the example of Baxter Wynd being changed to Baker Lane.

Even this minimal exposure to Scotland’s other languages is too much for some. They may tell you that Gaelic is a good thing but yet they are easily inconvenienced and don’t want it to affect their everyday lives in any noticeable way. For that reason, I would argue that some see Gaelic as a form of cultural decoration, something concrete that marks Scotland out from England, but that it must be kept firmly in its place. In other words, it must not interfere at all with the daily routine of a monolingual English speaker.

Another thing some people complain about is the cost of promoting the language. They seem to think that a language will continue to exist or even thrive without financial support and a place in the education system. It’s always easy not to care of course – provided it’s not your own native language that is at stake. That is why many monolingual speakers of a global language like English (or indeed a widespread international language like Spanish) fail to empathise – at the end of the day they know it is not their language that is under threat and so can’t identify with the situation.

Gali-Cat United

2009-11-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

A number of Galician and Catalan collectives have united in a bid to safeguard their languages. This week, the vice-president of the Galician Standardisation Board, Fran Rei, spoke about the linguistic situation in Galicia at a conference at a Catalan university. Meanwhile, the leader of the Catalan party ERC, Joan Puigcercós was invited to Santiago by the BNG (Galician Nationalist Party) and participated in a talk about "language as a harmonising factor".

Parallels between the languages were discussed in Barcelona but Fran Rei said that the differences also stood out. He told the Xornal de Galicia: "The situation regarding Catalan in the education sytem is very different and the use of Catalan in everyday life is more visible than it is here. Those at the conference stressed that Catalan is used in all walks of life. It is common in the cities. This is not the case in Galicia where Galician has practically disappeared from the major cities."

My own view on the last point is that although there is a lot of truth in the statement, exaggerating the situation does nothing to help and only adds fuel to the claim that nobody speaks or wants Galician in the cities. Recent estimates (which were considered bleak by Galician language supporters) were suggesting a figure of around 15-20% using Galician as their first language in Vigo and A Coruña, so I would disagree that it has practically disappeared from the major cities. Obviously its situation is not so healthy there but it's all relative. It is not the case that Galician has virtually died out in urban areas. I hear the language used in private coversations on the street at some point every other day and surely one or two in ten is not an insignificant number.

Trilingual Obsessions

2009-10-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article by María Reímondez in the Xornal de Galicia today. It deals with what she describes as “our government’s* obsession with learning English”. Reímondez thinks that (I am paraphrasing here, hopefully not too much) more people around her would benefit from learning or improving their Galician rather than English because they’d get more chance to use it.

This seems to me a reasonable observation. From a selfish point of view, the “obsession with English” has served me well because it has provided me with an opportunity to make a living and with opportunities to live and work all over the world if I so wish.

I do sometimes wonder why some students are taking English classes. Some reach a peak and fail to progress. English plays little part in their everyday lives and rarely even features on TV due to dubbing. Furthermore, the amount of English needed to communicate with customers in the average Galician workplace is not high and little English is needed to communicate on a superficial level in order to get by on holiday abroad. Certainly nothing like the level of English that is required to benefit from the kind of trilingual education system that is being talked up.

In my opinion, the general levels of English in schools are not nearly good enough at the moment to cope with that. If pupils are struggling to learn in Galician (as some claim) then how on earth are they going to manage in a language as different as English? The English levels of teachers is another important factor that I don’t think has been properly thought out. Basically, both Spanish and autonomous governments are talking a good game but it amounts to little more than that. Of course, English is useful in many countries but it is also “cool” and prestigious so it sounds good to talk up these possibilities in order to appear less insular and more cosmopolitan. Yet, few of these politicians appear able to speak English to any decent level and it doesn't hold them back too much.

I have my doubts about the sincerity of these targets. The attempt to deflect the current debate away from Galician by using English as a smokescreen may have a lot to do with it.

Reímondez correctly points out that it is normally speakers of major international languages that think the rest of the world has to conform to their way of speaking. This may well be alluding to Spanish speakers as well but she cites the example of a BBC journalist who wanted a German politician to answer him in English even though they were in Germany. She also says (again with some validity) that these speakers of international languages are the ones who struggle most to learn other languages. In my view, this has a lot to do with both necessity and political power.

The article goes on to claim that it would be a lot easier for Galicians to learn another international language – Portuguese. There is little doubt about that due to the amount of shared vocabulary, grammar, etc. Not to mention the fact that it might be more practical due to geographical location – Galicians could go to Portugal and use the language well, do more business there, etc. In fact, they already know a lot of Portuguese and it is largely a question of exposure and adapting to different pronunciation.

In terms of moving, emigrating or working abroad, how useful is English for them? Well, it depends where they go. Very useful in some places but not especially in other parts of Spain or Latin America. Nobody would deny that it is more important to know Spanish than English in these places so why does the same not equally apply to Galician in Galicia? English may be useful to a degree in Switzerland but French or German would be a better option I suspect.

In short, I come back to this thought. The usefulness of a language depends on personal circumstances and geography rather than the numbers of speakers a language has. From time to time, I hear people say things like “Chinese is more useful than Galician, Catalan, Basque, etc." That may be true if you want to go to China or wish to hang out with the local Chinese community but surely not if you live in one of the aforementioned territories.

*I think this is a reference to the Xunta (Galician government) but it could apply to the Spanish government as well to some extent.

Fishing for Prepositions

2009-10-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

The World Fishing Exhibition took place in Vigo a couple of weeks ago. To celebrate the event, the Xornal de Galicia took the step of publishing some English translations of the World Fishing content within its pages.

The editorial headline “Fishing the future” sounded strange to the English ear, basically lacking a preposition as well as a capital letter. In other words, “Fishing for the Future” would have sounded much better. Sadly, the articles in English got worse as I read on. I don’t know whether the translations were done by non-natives, translation tools or English speakers with little experience of translation.

In any case, it would appear that the Xornal had fallen into the common trap of presenting English for marketing purposes while hoping that the poor quality of the translations would not be noticed. Many native speakers will pick up on this, as well as others proficient in the given language.

The translation business is no different from any other in that if you take the cheap option, you are likely to end up with a sub-standard product. Incidentally, I am not the type who spends a lot of time complaining about bad translations, let’s face it they are everywhere so it would be very time consuming. But I expected better from the Xornal of Galicia as it is a newspaper which normally takes the topic of language very seriously.

No Problem for Noll

2009-10-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from interview with Brazilian author, João Giberto Noll in the Xornal de Galicia (29th Sept. 2009).

Interviewer: Will we have difficulty understanding each other?

JGN: None at all. I’m very impresed with the similarities between Galician and Portuguese. Of course, I know about the existence of this language in Spain and of its historical and theoretical relationship with ours (Portuguese). But I didn’t realise the extent to which there is massive identification between the two. This is great because it allows you to understand and be understood in another country, as we saw yesterday in the group interview. It’s wonderful.

Imposición!?

2009-07-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

An example of my own today rather than from the press...

I was down at the EOI in A Coruña earlier today. There were two people in front of me in the queue. The first spoke Galician and was there for about ten minutes asking many questions. The admin clerk at the desk spoke in Spanish the whole time and at one point in the coversation the girl also switched to Spanish for a while before later reverting to Galician again. It was quite clear that Galician was her language of choice. Then she left. The guy in front of me also spoke in Galician but again was attended in Spanish. The clerk did not speak a word of Galician the whole time I was waiting (around fifteen minutes), despite dealing with Galician speakers. Either the clerk did not have the will or the ability to do so. Clearly she is not one of the alleged 90% of civil servants who is bilingual in Spanish and Galician (see my June 30th post). Some might argue that this passive bilingualism is no bad thing and that everyone understood each other. But it also occurred to me that if this situation happened in reverse, you could easily imagine word getting out and we'd have the cries of "Imposición!" from the usual suspects.

A Bigger Myth Than Hercules

2009-07-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

If you visit A Coruña, one of the first things the Coruñeses are likely to tell you about their city is that the water at the central Riazor beach is freezing - much colder than the water in other places roundabout.

That didn't make sense to me at all. So over the least few weeks I've been keeping an eye on the water temperatures that appear in the Galician press. As I suspected, there is little difference (a degree or so either way between Riazor and other beaches around A Coruña). Sure, the sea is slightly warmer down in the warmer Rías Baixas but Riazor is not the north of Scotland, nor does it have an Arctic microclimate!

On July 15, the sea temperature at Riazor was 20º, a degree warmer than nearby Barrañan or Doniños. The following day was the same with more distant Laxe also recording the same water temperature (20º) as A Coruña. I haven't kept a record of all the temperatures but this pattern has been similar for the last few weeks (give or take a degree either way). No doubt many Coruñeses will refuse to believe what they have been convinced of for so long, but the meteorological reports show it is no more than urban myth. If you still think the water is much colder there, it is merely because your head is telling you so.

Bonnie Betanzos

2009-07-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

Betanzos (pictured*) was among Spain's top 12 most beautiful villages according to an internet poll conducted by an unnamed national magazine earlier this year. It's well worth a visit if you fancy a quiet day out near Coruña.

The top 12 was as follows:

1. Albarracin (Teruel)
2. La Alberca (Salamanca)
3. Cudillero (Asturias)
4. Aínsa (Huesca)
5. Arcos de la Frontera (Cádiz)
6. Ronda (Málaga)
7. Morella (Castellón)
8. Pedreza (Segovia)
9. Santillana del Mar (Cantabria)
10.Ansó (Huesca)
11.Besalú (Girona)
12.Betanzos (A Coruña)

*Pic by Galidonia©2009

A Tower of Strength

2009-07-07T08:46:00.001-07:00

A few letters along the following lines appeared in the press in the week that the Tower of Hercules was awarded World Heritage status. This one is from the Xornal de Galicia:
Congratulations to the people of a Coruña and Galicia now that we have another World Heritage Site. It's about time our language had World Heritage status so that Feijóo does not appear on the scene to destroy it. Every attack he makes on our language is like removing a brick from our tower, our city walls or cathedral.
Pic.Galidonia©2009

Another View from Galicia

2009-07-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

The problem is that a child who studies only Spanish won't know Galician, but one that studies in Galician will know Spanish in any case. As studies show, the omnipresence of Spanish ensures children learn that language, while the scarcity of Galician means the same cannot be said in reverse. The aim is for children to acquire equal skills in both languages and this will not happen if a child is prevented from studying Galician. If some people are genuinely concerned about imposition, then they also need to talk to businesses, the media, etc., as they demand a bilingual system which respects everyone. They also need to talk to Galician speakers who are forced to consume almost all their products in Spanish.* Is this not imposition? But this is not a concern of course. Some just want to be free of Galician. I know of people who are pulled up at work for talking Galician, but I don't know of anybody who is reprimanded for talking Spanish at work.

P.A. A Coruña (letter to the Xornal, 17th June)

* I imagine this is a reference to food labelling, etc. which is mostly in Spanish. Although the supermarket chain Eroski, for instance, labels its own products in all four of Spain's official languages.

Inarticulate in Galician and Illiterate in Spanish?

2009-07-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

This week I will be translating a series of letters that have appeared in the press recently about Galician. Today, two very contrasting viewpoints about young people and the education system….

Excerpt from letter to the Xornal de Galicia, 24th June

…I speak of my experiences as a teacher in Corunna city. In my high school at the moment, about 40-50% of studying is done in Galician with the remainder in Spanish. While dealing with the students on a daily basis, it concerns me that they are unable to string a few sentences in Galician together. They begin the sentence, stop short, think about it and then begin speaking again. They lack fluency and spontaneity while having no problem in Spanish. Furthermore, every single sentence of the little Galician they speak is badly articulated. If it’s not throwing in Spanish words (“ayer”, “bueno”, dibujo”) then it’s bad collocation of pronouns or use of compound tenses, e.g. habíamos feito instead of fixemos (note: compound tenses like the former are not used in Galician). If this happens in a school where 40% of content is in Galician, I shudder to think what it’s like in schools where less Galician is used, nor do I wish to dwell on what the future will be like under the newly proposed decree…

L.S. A Coruña

Galidonia comment: The writer goes on to say that for this reason more Galician rather than less needs to be taught in schools.

A Very Different Point of View, Letter from El País, 30th June

I think identifying members of Galicia Bilingüe with the right wing is totally inaccurate. I am an activist with a (non-nationalist) left wing party and agree with GB’s stance. I agree that our youngsters arrive at university barely knowing how to write in Spanish. Also I agree that in secondary education they teach how the Golden Age, the era of Lope de Vega and Quevedo, constitutes a dark chapter in Galician history. Furthermore I agree that diglossia exists and that Spanish will have to disappear so that this phenomenon does not occur. Of course the Galician language must be protected, and it is because a school subject with this name already exists and is compulsory in the final evaluation. But the idea of teaching all subjects in Galician, except the subject of Spanish, is going to lead to an abyss of unpredictable consequences which concerns parents of children of school age in Galicia regardless of our political views.

L.H.R. Pontevedra

Galidonia comment: If you were to take both letters at face value, you would be left with the impression that Galicia is producing a generation who are unable to speak Galician and are virtually illiterate in Spanish! I know some intelligent and literate young Galicians who are also very articulate in English, so can things really be half as bad as they are depicted here?

Linguistic Success in Galicia?

2009-06-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

Linguistic Success in Galicia?

According to a report in El País today (30th June), 90% of civil servants working for the Administración General del Estado (AGE) are bilingual in Galicia and Catalonia, compared to around 70% in Valencia, the Balearics and the Basque Country.

These are the conclusions of a report carried out by the AGE’s department for official languages itself. However, the Council of Europe is not entirely satisfied with those figures, and in a separate report last December, demanded that the AGE give more support to co-official languages, claiming there were weak areas in legal circles, postal and train services (RENFE).

The Age report admits that the security forces are the area most wanting, “well below 50%” due to their mobility. According to the AGE report “practically 100% of personnel in AGE services speak Galician (with only 40% of them defined as primarily Galician native speakers), compared to the second most successful area in this respect – Catalonia – where the figure is again said to be close to 100% in Girona and Lleida and around 85% in Barcelona and Tarragona.

I’m sure these statistics will be seriously questioned by Galician and Catalan language activists. From my point of view, this raises the question of what it actually means to speak Galician (or any other language for that matter) or to be bilingual. Are we talking about an ability and willingness to switch between both languages without any difficulty or is it something much more basic than that?

For instance, I could claim to speak French, Italian or Scottish Gaelic. I wouldn’t be lying as I have taken courses in these languages. However, this does not mean that I could comfortably hold a conversation with a native speaker in any of these languages. Far from it if the truth be told. In other words, it is very easy to say you speak a language or tick a box saying that you do but what this means is very subjective. I would seriously question the claim that close to 100% of civil servants in Galicia are bilingual in Galician as I think there are many who lack either/both the ability and willingness to do so.

Willingness to speak the language without reservations or feelings of superiority or inferiority issues is a major factor in my opinion – it is easy to say you can speak a language but if you have reservations about doing so, can you genuinely claim to be bilingual, proficient or even comfortable about speaking the said language in public or everyday situations?

In my experience, many people living in Galicia see Galician as inferior or at least secondary in terms of importance to Spanish; not to mention the view and general attitudes towards other languages of the State in monolingual parts of Spain.

With regard to printed material, the AGE claims “practically all” printed forms are bilingual (presumably meaning available in both languages?) in Galicia and the Basque Country, dropping to around 65% in Catalonia and Valencia. The Balearics figure is somewhere between the Catalan and Galician/Basque ones.

In terms of signposting, Galicia and the Basque Country again come out tops while ‘some deficiencies’ remain in Catalonia and the Balearics. Finally, Galician civil servants in the Tax Office and Social Security again come top of the table with “close to 100% being bilingual”.

As I’ve alluded to, from the point of view of living in A Coruña, I find many of these figures surprising and basically hard to believe. I also spent a few years living in northern areas of Catalonia. In my experience, I encountered more confident attitudes in terms of both the importance/prestige of Catalan and ability to speak it, particularly among younger natives. However, I am not blind to the fact that I may well have a totally different perspective had I lived in L'Hospitalet and Padrón rather than Vic, Girona and A Coruña.

What do readers of this blog think? Comments are welcome in English, Galician, Catalan or Spanish. (I would include Basque if I could read/translate it. Sorry!)

Language, Social Conflict & War

2009-06-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Galician language departments at A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago Universities have written to the president of the Xunta expressing their concern at the linguistic measures taken by Feijóo's government. They accuse the Executive of legislating against the country's language without even bothering to consult powers that be outside Galicia.

A Coruña's language department (of Galician, Portuguese and French) claims Feijóo's Xunta is "giving citizens the impression that the Galician language is neither necessary nor useful", adding that "the Xunta has created a new social conflict with measures that are bound to lead to an increase in those lacking competence in Galician".

Source of the above - Galician Supplement in El País

Meanwhile, Anxo Lorenzo, the General Secretary of Linguistic Policy, has stated that, "there is not, and never has been, a 'linguistic war', no matter much radicals and extremists of one type or another want to claim this is the case".

What's in a Word?

2009-06-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

Under the new PP administration there will be no "Galescolas" (Galician nursery schools) and no "national library" at Monte Gaiás. It is interesting that many (often on the political right) are quick to condemn name changes as "political correctness" (something I actually begin to doubt the existence of but that's another story). Yet, they seem just as willing to do the same when it suits their agenda. What next? Patacas do país to be renamed "regional potatoes" perhaps?

Saramago & Rivas

2009-06-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

José Saramago was in A Coruña on Wednesday evening to share his ideas on writing and memory. The Portuguese author said that when in Galicia he was never sure whether to talk in Portuguese or Spanish. So he gave the audience the choice. After a mixed reception he proceeded to speak in Portuguese before changing over into Spanish at some point in the talk.

In my view, this is true bilingualism at work - a willingness to use both languages without reservations or prejudices.

Saramago shared the stage with Manuel Rivas. While Saramago went into his theories about literature, the Galician author opted instead for a series of entertaining anecdotes and stories based on his upbringing in A Coruña.

A few days prior to this event, Rivas gave his views on the future possible segregation of Galician pupils on linguistic grounds. Rivas believes this is a "very serious problem based on ignorance" and "a waste of time" which will result in anti-Galicia". The author added that "it is dangerous and worrying that important politicians and instititions hold fanatical and fundamentalist ideas from a pre-constitutional past".

Demonstration in Santiago

2009-05-19T03:38:00.001-07:00

Supporters of the Galician language gathered in the Plaza de Obradoiro on Sunday to protest against the PP's proposed education changes. The Police estimated 20,000 were on the march while A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística (Standardisation board) who organised the event, said the number was over 50,000.

Silvia Pontevedra, writing in El País, claims it is common knowledge that the square holds around 15,000 and that it was filled twice over. Whatever the case, the Galician president Feijóo claims language is not about numbers and reiterated that imposing a language carries risks.

PSdeG (the Galician branch of Spain's governing socialist party) claim that Feijóo and his new Xunta are the real threat to the Galician language.

Among the demonstators, according to El País, were defenders of the national "reunificão" of Galicia and Portugal, member of teaching and farming unions, student collectives, cultural groups and some political groups who counter-demonstrated against the march organised by Galicia Bilingüe in Santiago in February.

Gloria Lago, president of Galicia Bilingüe said that it is very sad that people want to demonstrate to curb the freedom of their fellow citizens and that this is a manifestation of linguistic intolerance.

What is Galicia Bilingüe?

According to the organisation it is a non-profit making organisation whose principal aim is to defend the rights of parents (or indeed students) to choose the language they are to be educated in, and generally to grant citizens the right to choose which of the two official languages (Spanish or Galician) the governmental bodies communicate with them in.

However, the organisation's detractors see Galicia Bilingüe as little more than a thinly veiled smokescreen created or backed by the new PP led Xunta in order to further marginalise the Galician language, and to re-establish or strengthen the role of Spanish as the main language in the education system and other walks of life.

Intolerance and Imposition

There is a lot of talk about linguistic intolerance and language imposition in Galicia at the moment. Some believe that it is Galician that is being imposed upon Spanish speakers, while others believe that Spanish is still the dominant language and that Galician needs to be defended and given more support. Whatever the case, it is clear that if the PP proposals to reduce compulsory Galician to only one third of teaching time materialise, then Spanish will be the predominant language in the classroom as the planning and knowhow is not in place to give English a significant role in a plurilingual education system.

Education Policy

2009-05-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

The new PP administration has suggested reducing subjects taught in Galician to a third of the school syllabus with 66% being taught in Spanish and English and with parents having some input into the process. The 2007 decree legislated that (at least) 50% of subjects be taught in Galician.

The PP election manifesto stated that parents should be allowed to choose the language their children are taught in, but how that is to work in practice is anybody's guess. Since when were parents responsible for deciding education policy?Will provision be made for those parents who would prefer their children to have a Galician-based education? What part will English play in this and are students and teachers up to the task?

The whole issue provides more questions than answers at the moment.

What a Load of Bull!

2009-04-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

The Encyclopedia Britannica has made a major boob by featuring a photo of “Juli”, a bullfighter from Madrid, on its Galician webpage. Although the photo was taken in the bullring in Pontevedra, it is very misleading to present this as a typical image of Galicia. Only a handful of bullfights take place in Galicia each year. It is one of the parts of Spain where the activity is least popular.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/223994/Galicia

Galician and the G-20

2009-04-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

I read with interest a short piece in the Xornal de Galicia today, entitled G-20 lingüístico. The writer, Fernando Ojea points out that it was odd that the leader of the world’s most spoken first language, Hu Jintao of China, could not speak with any other world leader at the recent G-20 in his own language. That's assuming the others don’t know Mandarin, of course.

Meanwhile, Zapatero (Spain) could talk freely with Calderón (Mexico) and Fernández (Argentina). At least four leaders at the summit, Obama (US), Brown (UK), Harper (Canada) and Rudd (Australia) could have a cosy chat. I’d also assume that the leaders of India and South Africa, where English is official, would have no problem joining in. Neither would too many others I guess – Zapatero excepted.

Lula of Brazil could talk shop directly with Barroso (the Portuguese PM and president of the European Commission). Ojea points out that this means a Galician speaker could have direct communication with five of these leaders, while a monolingual Spanish speaker would be limited to three. Ojea emphasises that “Galician is not the same as Portuguese” (this can be debated till the cows come home), but it allows for easy communication in its sister language. It is worth noting here, that representatives in the European Parliament can use Galician as it is accepted there orally as a form of Portuguese.

This brings me to a recent blog manifesto called O galego é útil (Galician is useful). It claims to be a-political and aims to promote the idea that knowledge of Galician makes it easier to learn other languages, as well as allowing for relatively easy communication with approximately 200 million native Portuguese speakers around the world.

Finally Ojea goes on to suggest that Portuguese should be the second foreign language taught in Galician schools and that if Galicians can master English, then they have the world at their feet. Indeed, it is very satisfying (if a little hypothetical) to think with my own knowledge of English, Spanish, Galician and Portuguese, that I could communicate with around half of the leaders at the G-20 in their native language.

Galician in Serious Decline?

2009-04-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

A study carried out by the Real Academia Galega (an instititution dedicated to the study of Galician language and culture) and funded by the Xunta (Galician govt.), claims that Galician has gone from being the main language used by around 60% of the Galician population to only 20% in just twelve years.

Although the results of the study have just been released, it covers the period between 1992 and 2004. It is claimed that the study is the most extensive sociolinguistic analysis carried out in a Romance language in terms of the number of people interviewed.

According to Carlos Callón, the president of the Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística(Linguistic Standardisation Board): "Galician has never been in a worse situation than it is today."

The study also finds that in this twelve year period, the number of people who never speak Galician has risen from 13% to just over a quarter of the population. Meanwhile those who use Galician as their first language has dropped from 30.5% to 16%.

The study found that those who define themselves as bilingual tend to use more Spanish. According to Callón, this shows that “there isn’t bilingualism” but “an unequal diglossic situation”. It was also found that 85% of subjects were taught in Spanish and that 11% of under-18’s who had always lived in Galicia claimed they were only given classes in Spanish.

The study confirmed what is already known - that Galician continues to be more associated with rural areas. Ferrol was the most Spanish-speaking city (85% of the population) with Vigo and A Coruña not far behind (both 81.9%). Santiago and Lugo were the most Galician-speaking cities with (41.9%) and (40.5%) respectively, opting for Galician.

The findings of the study have been questioned for reasons, such as a disproportionate number of city dwellers being interviewed and the fact that people over 54 years of age were not included in the survey this time.

Compiled from articles in the Xornal de Galicia and El País in March 2009

More on Immigration

2009-03-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

There may still be a lot less immigration than in other parts of Spain but the number of foreigners in Galicia has multiplied by 500% in only ten years. Romanians are now the fifth most numerous group after their numbers increased by 80% in the last year.

Country of origin and amount: Portugal 17,175; Brazil 10,643; Columbia 8,353; Argentina 6,100; Uruguay 4,787; Morocco 4,305; Venezuela 4,217; Peru 2,764; Dominican Rep. 2,705; Cuba 2,124; France 1,703; China 1,551; UK 1,501.

Rosalía in Japanese

2009-03-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

A translation of one of the key works of the Galician literary renaissance, Cantares gallegos by Rosalía de Castro, has been published in a Japanese-Galician bilingual edition by DTP publishing in Tokyo. It is the work of Takekazu Asaka, who was in Santiago on Tuesday to promote the book. Mr Asaka has previously transalted Lorca's published translations of Lorca's Poemas galegos into his native language, as well as works by Castelao, Pondal, Pardo Bazán and Fernández Flórez. This new edition expands on Asaka's previous translations of Rosalía's poems.

Did You Know...?

2009-03-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

The overseas vote is crucial in today's Galician election. Over 335,000 people living abroad have the right to vote. That's more than the population of Vigo, Galicia's largest city. They represent 12.7% of the total number on the electoral roll. The highest number of foreign-based potential voters is in Argentina, where over 120,000 Galicians (or their descendents) can exercise their right.

Use of Galician Today

2009-02-01T14:28:00.000-08:00

The figures below show that Galician is the main language in the education system today – until university level when there is a dramatic shift towards Spanish. Although Galician is the language most frequently used for communications and public information notices in universities, only 28% of lecturers use Galician orally or distribute class handouts in the language of the region.

One reason for this is that the linguistic policies of the Xunta (Galician government) focus on compulsory education. But the predominance of Spanish in urban areas where universities are situated is another factor. Although most primary school children in the region use Galician as a first language the opposite is the case in the seven largest cities (Vigo, A Coruña, Ourense, Santiago, Lugo, Pontevedra and Ferrol) where 72% of primary school children principally speak Spanish. Just over 40% of secondary school teachers in these urban areas prefer to use Spanish at work, while in the region as a whole over 72% opt for Galician.

Only 6.5% of parents are opposed to the use of Galician in the classroom, while around 19% are indifferent and 74% in favour. The majority of parents believe the use of Galician in schools will not increase in the coming years and that the amount of Galician already used is enough.

Language Used

Nursery: Students Teachers
Sp 43.3% 29.4%
Ga 56.7% 70.6%

Primary: Students Teachers
Sp 36.8% 23.2%
Ga 63.2% 76.8%

Secondary: Students Teachers
Sp 42.2 32.1
Ga 57.8 67.9

University: Students Teachers
Sp 71.4 75.8
Ga 28.6 24.2

Galician in the Workplace

In health centres, the public is attended to mainly in Galician (63%); while in contrast, Spanish predominates in 54% of dialogues with the system’s users. The majority of GP’s opt for Spanish in their work with only 31% opting for the use of Galician with their patients. In hospitals this figure drops to 26%.

78% of Xunta staff use Galician in the workplace where 95% of documentation is written in the regional language. However, 4 out of 10 civil servants attend to the public in Spanish.

57% of calls to the Policía Nacional were answered in Spanish and 49% of conversations with the public were conducted in Spanish. 64% of the Guardia Civil speak Galician although 97% write in Spanish.

In other areas, Galician continues to lag behind. In the court system, 66% of judges and other courtroom staff use Spanish with the public and 86% of courtroom documentation is in Spanish. At the tax office, Galician documentation is an even rarer sight with only 9% of texts written in the language of the region.

Info taken from La Voz, 7th Jan, 2009. Statistics from the Galician Language Observatory created by the Secretaria Xeral de Política Lingüística.

Is Galicia Spain?

2009-01-24T13:02:00.000-08:00

47.8% of Galicians feel as much Spanish as Galician. 22% feel more Galician than Spanish. 8% feel Galician only.

Survey carried out and published by La Voz de Galicia, January '09. No explanation given as to what the remainder of those surveyed thought.

Roller Hockey

2008-12-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

Liceo 0 Barcelona 3

I attended my first ever roller hockey match yesterday. The match was a Spanish top of the table clash in La Coruña. The visitors handed Liceo their first defeat of the season with a surprisingly comfortable win. Obviously a newcomer to the sport does not see it through the same eyes as a seasoned fan, but it looked to me as if Egurrola, the Barça goalkeeper (if that's the right term) had an outstanding game, while Liceo spurned too many chances.

Roller hockey is a sport that’s particularly popular in Catalonia. Most of the best teams in the Ok Liga are Catalan and many cities there have their own club. Surprisingly, a little research tells me that Great Britain played a leading role in founding the sport and were once regarded as the best in the world. But since the Second World War they have been very much overtaken by Spain, Portugal and Italy. Roller hockey is also quite popular in South American countries like Argentina and Chile.

A game consists of two halves of 25 minutes. However, the clock stops between plays so the duration is roughly the same as a football match.

Advantages over football? Well, it’s reasonably priced for a start. I paid 7 Euros for my ticket. The cold slab seating may not be up to the standard you expect at top class football these days, but it’s a comfortable indoor environment where you don’t get really cold or wet.

The atmosphere was good with nearly three thousand in the stands and drummers backing their team throughout, while a few “Ultra” fanatics with a megaphone ensured the crowd didn't get too sedate. It was also pleasing to see the home fans accept defeat in a gracious away. Some applauded the victors off the court while the Liceo players were also given praise for their sterling effort – not something I could envisage taking place in the “beautiful game” after a 3-0 home defeat.

Homage in Vigo

2008-11-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Around a hundred people congregated in Pereiró Cemetery in Vigo this summer to pay homage to Emilio Martínez Garrido and seven other socialists and Republicans who were lined up against the cemetery walls and shot on 27th August 1936.

A spokesman for the Vigo collective 'Memoria do 36' said: "We are here without political colours* in defence of democracy and freedom. This was the date when the Fascist hordes tried to murder us, which they did for forty years."

The group held up a placard displaying photos of the victims along with the words "Non esquecemos" - Galician for "Don't Forget Us".

* A Spanish Republican flag was centre stage at the event.

Loosely translated from an article in El País, 28th Aug. 2008

Depor in Europe

2008-10-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Deportivo La Coruña enter the group stages of the UEFA tonight with a tough tie in Moscow against CSKA. Next month they face Feyenoord in Coruña on 27th November. The third match will be a trip to play Lech Poznan in Poland in the first week in December before rounding things off against Nancy in Riazor a week before Xmas.

Galician Tartan

2008-07-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

Santiago Bernárdez, a designer from Cangas de Morrezo, has started selling Galician kilts. Although Santiago lived in Scotland for five years, the idea occured to him while attending the Ortigueira Celtic Music Festival on the northern coast of Galicia.

He designed a tartan, signed up with the Tartan World Register (at a cost of €400) and called a Scottish friend to order thirty kilts. They sold quickly. He has now ordered another hundred, which are on the market for €27.99 each. The kilt is a combination of cobalt blue and navy blue with a touch of white.

Galicia is not the first foreign land to register its own tartan by any means. The likes of Germany, The Netherlands and Australia already have their own.

http://www.galicianshop.com/

Info from Galician supplement in El País, 30th July, 2008.

The Lusophone Commonwealth

2008-07-15T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Xunta will have to come to an agreement with the Spanish central government in order to obtain permission to become an associate observer of the Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), whose full members are the Portuguese speaking countries of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor and Portugal itself.

CPLP Executive Secretary, Luis Fonseca, has advised Galicia to request permission from Madrid to join as the CPLP does not want get embroiled in diplomatic conflicts with central governments.

He pointed out that the body is made up of countries and not regions, so Galicia could only hope to become an associate observer like the former Portuguese colonies of Goa (India), Macao (China) and Malay (Malaysia).

Fonseca added that if Galicia applied through the Spanish central government it would have every chance of gaining the statute thanks to its shared values and similarities with the Portuguese and Lusophone culture.

Paulo Coelho St.

2008-06-25T09:15:00.001-07:00

"I embarked on the pilgrimage thinking mainly of the personal quest but I discovered the Way is simplicity, contact with the people." - Paulo Coelho

The Brazilian writer was in Santiago this week where he was met by the news that he will have a street named in his honour there. His first published book, 'O Diário dum mago' was about the Way and had the Spanish title 'El peregrino a Compostela'.

Football Round Up

2008-05-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

It has not been a great season for Galician football in all honesty. Celta Vigo’s new coach, Alejandro Menéndez, is their fourth of the season. Having given up hope of promotion to La Primera a few weeks ago, the club still needs a few more points to ensure they do not suffer consecutive relegations. Celta are just above fellow Galicians, Racing Ferrol, who have enjoyed a better second half to the season. If Racing stay up it will be a satisfactory achievement considering they were promoted last season.

Deportivo La Coruña have been in excellent form recently after a disastrous start to the season. Read my thoughts on the main reasons for the turnaround at Goal.com.

Did You Know?

2008-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Image by Barry Kay, Set Designer

Galicia and the neighbouring region of Castilla y León produce 20% of Spain's wind energy but consume only 8% of the total.

Jousting with Giants

The Long Way Round

2008-04-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

On 1 April, two Cantabrians set out from Torun, Poland, on a trek that they hope will take them to Santiago de Compostela. Eduardo Benájes (58) and Jesús Molleda(62), expect their walk will take three months to complete.

Their route passes through Germany and France to Roncevalles on the French-Spanish border. When they arrive in Spain, they plan to opt for the Northern Way, across the Basque Country, Cantabria and Asturias. The two hardy souls have been awarded €1,000 by the Cantabrian culture department. However, they estimate their journey will cost fifteen times that amount.

La Via Regia or Regal Way, is an old medieval route connecting Eastern Europe with Paris before it heads south for Santiago. It was an old commercial route used by merchants in the Middle Ages, passing through key German cities like Leipzig and Frankfurt. This is also known in Germany as the Salt Route. Another way begins in Kiev, some 5,000 miles from Santiago de Compostela.

Rising in the Dark

2008-04-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

As I have to get up earlier these days, I wasn't too happy when the clocks went forward. Geographically, it would make sense for Galicia to be on the same time as the UK and Portugal, but of course we are an hour ahead. According to an article in La Voz there is 40 minutes difference in the daylight hours between Catalonia in the east and Galicia in the west. I ask myself why we need to have daylight until 9pm at the end of March, while we have to get up in the dark just before 8am.

Santiago Syndrome

2008-03-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

Psychiatrist, Jesús de la Gárdara, has studied 38 cases of "Santiago Syndrome" in the last 7 years. All the sufferers have 3 characteristics in common: they are affected by strong mystic feelings, fatigue from so much walking, and they have a history of psychiatric conditions.

70% of those who suffer from this syndrome which strikes while walking to Santiago are males. The average age of the sufferer is 40.

Symptoms include: psychiatric episodes, delirium and intense emotional disorders of a manic nature accompanied by paranoia.

The victims spent 10 days in a psychiatric unit in Burgos and only 4 of them continued with the walk. The rest went home.

Translated form an article in La Voz de Galicia, 27 Sep. 2007

The Hercules Legend

2008-03-02T06:29:00.000-08:00

As most people know, Hercules, son of Zeus, was a nasty character who killed his wife and children and was punished by the oracle of Delphi. King Eurystheus set Hercules the task of tracking down Gerion.

Hercules used the same boat for his journey that the Sun had used on his travels. However, the Sun did not want to hand over the boat but decided it was for the best after a salvo of arrows from Hercules. On his voyage he had to threaten the Ocean who tried to sink his boat.

According to one version of the legend, Hercules came ashore in Galicia. After killing Eurition and his dog on Ons Island, where Gerion had taken refuge, the son of Zeus set out again in pursuit of the giant. Gerion arrived first at Punta Hermina. He raised his boat on his shoulders and climbed to a clifftop where he hid under the vessel to rest. But Hercules was smart and guessed his hideout.

The two giants had a fight to the death which lasted three days and three nights. Hercules decapitated his enemy and buried his head in the ground. This image appears in Coruña’s coat of arms with the skull and crossbones of Gerion. Hercules lit a bonfire as a sacrifice to Zeus. The bonfire was the original “lighthouse”, which would later become the Tower of Hercules. Legend claims that Hercules built the tower himself using the same stones he used for Gerion’s tomb.

In thanks, King Eurystheus ordered resettlement of the zone. One theory is that the city was called Cruña after the city’s first female inhabitant.

More Stats! Emigrants This Time

2008-02-20T04:53:00.000-08:00

Over 325,000 Galicians living abroad have the right to vote in next month’s Spanish general election. Did you know that there has been so much emigration from Galicia to Argentina over the years that Spanish immigrants in general are known as Gallegos?

Below are the ten countries with the highest number of Galician emigrants:

Argentina (116, 682)
Venezuela (33,109)
Switzerland (29,253)
Brazil (29,156)
Uruguay (28,438)
France (16,057)
Germany (13,356)
UK (10,033)
USA (9,397)
Cuba (9,516)

Source – La Opinion 29th Jan. 2008

Cheers

2008-02-19T14:56:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, there are no shortage of cafes, bars and restaurants in Spain. A report published at the end of last year, tells us that Cyprus is the only EU country with more bars per head of population. Galicia is the Spanish region with the third highest number of bars per person, with a bar for every 165.1 people. But Galicia’s neighbours have even more choice. Asturias has a bar for every 163.9 inhabitants and Castilla y León comes in second (164.9). However, the larger region of Andalusia has the most bars (35,981).

In culinary terms, Catalonia has the highest number of restaurants (11,564, although this figure also includes cafes) and for your fill of caffeine, the Valencian community has plenty of choice, with 2,324 cafes.

Source – Mercasa and INE. Info published in the Galician language daily, De lunes a venres.

Changing Times

2008-01-24T10:07:00.000-08:00

Emmigration is a recurring theme in Galician history but nowadays more people are moving in. Immigration into Galicia has increased by ten percent in a year. Most incomers are South Americans: Brazil (8,309), Columbia (8,091), Argentina (6,390), Uruguay (4,449) and Venezuela (3,860). However, the largest single nationality group are the Portuguese (14,352). Other significant numbers of immigrants into Galicia came from Morocco and Romania. In contrast to many other parts of Spain, more French than British incomers arrived to enjoy Galician life. Although only 2.97% of the total Galician population is foreign, the immigrant population is almost double the figure of just five years ago. The figure is around 9% in Spain as a whole. Extremadura is the only autonomous community with less immigrants than Galicia.

From a report in La Voz de Galicia, 18th Jan. 2008

Fraga on Franco

2008-01-17T11:35:00.000-08:00

"Figures of the calibre of Franco can't be judged until a certain amount of time has passed." Thirty odd years clearly isn't long enough for Manuel Fraga, Franco's former Minister for Information and Tourism and president of the Xunta (Galician Govt.) until as recently as 2005.

Shelling Out

2008-01-06T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Galicians love of seafood goes overboard during the Christmas period. Demand is always high for the much-prized percebe or goose barnacle (pictured). This festive season, Galicians were prepared to pay up to 330 Euros per kilo for them. A more typical price was 150 Euros for 1200g for the quality Roncudo type although they could be bought for as little as €20 per kilo if you were prepared to accept the frozen version from the North Sea.

Average prices for small crabs were 40 Euros per kilo for local produce and €12.50 for frozen ones from Ireland. Larger crabs cost €60 for the local goodies and those brought from Scotland were available frozen for just over 20 Euros.

Lobsters were more pricey – around €180 per kilo fresh although you could get them for less than €30 if you were prepared to rough it with the frozen ones imported from Cuba.

Portuguese Language Reforms

2007-12-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

I read today about some reforms to the Portuguese language. This may also lead to yet more alterations to the Galician language in the coming years as there is a movement to make Galician even closer to Portuguese for reasons which include improved communication for trading purposes with the Portuguese-speaking world.

The following is loosely translated from www. caetanobarata.wordpress.com (an interesting Brazilian blog):

From January 2008, Brazil, Portugal and other Portuguese speaking countries will undergo language reforms in an effort to unify spelling. Portuguese is the third most spoken western language after English and Spanish. (Hands up, who thought it was French?) Having two different spelling systems (Brazilian and European Portuguese) impedes the spread of the language at international events. Unification would help define criteria for exams and certificates for foreigners. The proposed modifications would result in about 1.6% of the vocabulary in Portugal being modified while only 0.45% of Brazilian words would be affected. However, it will not influence pronunciation differences in any of the countries.

The figures show a general drift towards the Brazilian form of Portuguese. That may be why Portugal appears to be in no hurry to introduce these reforms. Isabel Pires de Lima, the Portuguese culture minister has said that the reforms will come into force within ten years.

Some examples of the reforms include:

In Brazilian Portuguese the circumflex will be removed from words like “abençôo”, “enjôo” and “vôo” which will now be spelt “abençoo”, “enjoo” and “voo”.

The dieresis will be done away with altogether. That is, “linguiça” will replace “lingüiça”, “frequência” instead of “freqüência” and so on.

The new alphabet will consist of 26 letters as “k”, “w” and “y” are added.

In Portugal, the “c” and “p” will disappear from words where the letter is not pronounced. For example in “acçio”, “acto” and “baptismo”.

Also, in Portugal, the “h” will disappear from some words such as “húmido” which will be spelt like the Brazilian “úmido”.

MORE ON THE PORTUGUESE-SPEAKING WORLD
http://bama.ua.edu/~clc/portuguese/portuguese_language_info.htm

MORE ON GALICIAN
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language

Grass backs Saramago

2007-12-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

In an interview with the Portuguese magazine Expresso the German author Günter Grass has given his backing to the idea of uniting Portugal and Spain suggested by José Saramago.

“Maybe it won’t happen but it should be given some thought. A single Iberian federal state in Europe would carry more weight than two individual ones,” says Grass.

He adds that the suggestion is interesting and that Saramago deserves credit for speaking his mind on controversial subjects.

Read more about what Grass had to say on other European issues at my other blog

www.catadonia.blog.co.uk

Rain in Spain

2007-11-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

It has been raining a bit in A Coruña today. Nothing unusual about that you might think. But when a fine drizzle (the famous Galician orballo) fell on the streets of A Coruña yesterday morning it was the first drop of rain for 17 days. In fact, since the start of October only 7 days have seen any rain.

I’ve been quite happy about that after last year's dreich autumn but it’s not good news for Spain as a whole. The country depends upon Galicia for much of its water supply. Last October it rained 22 days out of 31 in A Coruña.

The English Cemetery

2007-11-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

Recently a student lent me a book called Mar Tenebroso – A costa da morte do Sol – by Ramón Allegue Martínez and Ramón Allegue Barreiro. I’ve only had time to dip in and out of it but it touches on a topic I’d like to find out more about: the intertwining history and legends of the Costa da morte; so-called because it has been a graveyard for many ships over the years.

One of the best known of these was an English ship called The Serpent, which left Plymouth in choppy waters in November 1890. It was heading for South Africa with a cargo that included gold and armoury when it sank off Punta Boi with only 3 survivors out of a crew of 175.

When the bodies of the victims were washed ashore, they were said to have been plundered for clothes and jewels before other ships from both Spain and Britain arrived on the scene.

The victims were buried in a cemetery in Punta do Boi between Cape Vilán and Trece beach. It is known as the “Cementerio de los ingleses”. There is also a plaque in honour of these sailors in the San Carlos Gardens in A Coruña.

Breakfast Thoughts

2007-09-29T11:22:00.000-07:00

After a 3-week holiday in Scotland I'm having a late breakfast of Spanish coffee, orange juice and Donuts in one of my regular cafes in (L)os Mallos. There may be less of it but Spanish coffee beats Latte any day. Prices are cheaper here too and I'm glad to be away from the fierce North Sea winds which make a mockery of the air temperature. It's good to be back then although I awoke to the sound of morning traffic and construction. Not as peaceful as waking up to the chattering of birds on an Edinburgh back green. My partner and I hope that's the air travel over for a while. It's always been a bit stressful but it's such a carry on now with the extra security measures.

One Day in Europe (Galatasaray-Dépor)

2007-09-03T08:01:00.000-07:00

Four vignettes set in Moscow, Istanbul, Santiago de Compostela and Berlin during a fictional European Cup Final between Galatasaray and Deportivo La Coruña. In each story someone is either robbed or claims to have been robbed.

In the Galician capital fans of Depor wander through the streets of the old town and in the police station an officer sits drinking out of a Dépor mug with a scarf on top of the telly. That seems quite feasible even if I have always been led to believe Santiago is a predominately Celta Vigo supporting town.

This film by German director Hannes Stöhr (b.Stuttgart 1970) is unusual in that it comes from an objective European perspective. That’s to say it is not a German film. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that includes so many languages: Russian, English, German, Turkish, Spanish, Galician, French and even a few words of Hungarian.

You don’t have to like football to enjoy this film but it helps. Ideal for those who like their cinema to be realistic and slow-moving without becoming too heavy. I loved it.

Order it here

ETA in Portugal?

2007-08-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

Investions have begun to establish whether ETA has created a temporary base in Portugal. Spanish investigation teams will work with their Portuguese counterparts in the same way they already do with the French. Spanish anti-terrorist experts believe there is an ETA base in the south of the country operating out of an isolated, rented house. Portuguese police doubt that this base exists although they acknowledge that there is ETA movement in their country.

Summarised translation from EL País, 27 Aug. 2007

Teresa Herrera

2007-08-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Deportivo La Coruña won their own pre-season tournament for the second year running. After defeating Atalanta (Bergamo) on penalties following a 1-1 draw they faced Real Madrid. The Spanish champions had beaten Os Belenenses (Lisbon) with a late Robinho strike assisted by a terrible error by the Portuguese outfit’s goalkeeper.

Real Madrid’s line-up for the final was a bit disappointing as they have the Supercopa (Spanish version of the Charity Shield) against Sevilla this weekend. Baptista scored a cracker though and I was well impressed by the defending of Sergio Ramos. Maybe he's one of those players you don't fully appreciate when watching on the telly. Depor also have new star to look out for – a Mexican international left midfielder/wing back called Guardado.

It was an entertaining game won by the hosts with strikes from Riki and a deflected Verdú free kick. It’s early days but there were signs that certain players, most notably Riki, might play with more freedom than last season when any flair Depor possessed was restricted by the stultifying tactics of Caparrós.

Os Belenenses beat Atalanta in the third place match but that didn’t stop the Italian fans from making a big noise on the streets of A Coruña.

Match highlights here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKdYKPGJgUw&mode=related&search=

Portuguese Cool on Union

2007-08-02T09:27:00.000-07:00

Saramago's recent comments have received a cool reception in his homeland.

Portuguese Foreign Office Minister, Luís Amado, said that the idea of Iberian union was more of a fictional scenario than a possibility. "The problem is not relations between Spain and Portugal, the problem is who is going to govern these relations."

Meanwhile, singer and actor Zeca Medeiros pointed out "Spain now has Saramago but Portugal doesn't."*

Last September the weekly paper O Sol published a survey which found only 28% of Portuguese were in favour of a single Iberian nation. However, at the same time, 97% of those questioned said union with Spain would be of economic benefit.

Journalist Joao Céu e Silva points out that Saramago's comments have received a lot of attention in the international press while in Portugal itself they have been largely ignored.

*The author lives in Lanzarote.

Summarised Translation from La Voz de Galicia.

Iberia United?

2007-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

José Saramago once wrote a novel in which the Iberian Peninsula disconnects from the rest of Europe and floats out to sea. Its English title is the Stone Raft. This week the Portuguese Nobel prize winner was in the headlines again with another Iberian concept: he has predicted that one day Portugal will merge with Spain into a new country known, in all probability, as Iberia.

In an interview with the Diário de Noticias, Saramago said that on the whole the Portuguese would accept this if it was explained to them properly: “With ten million inhabitants, Portugal would gain a lot in terms of development and it would not mean the end of the country, it would continue in another way. It would not mean we stop speaking, thinking or feeling Portuguese, (...) and we would not be governed by Spaniards, there would be representatives from the parties of both countries in a single parliament with all of Iberia’s political forces”.

Surprised? I only recently became aware that there is a degree of support there for such a scenario in Portugal. I was listening to an interview with Paul Preston, the English historian and expert on Spain. He pointed out that it is odd that Catalonia appears to be drifting away from Spain at the same time as Portugal wants to grow closer to it.

So what do Spaniards think of the idea? El País carried out a survey to gauge public opinion. Six percent of Spaniards don’t really mind but object to being called Iberians, nineteen percent think the Portuguese find it difficult to be independent and are doing okay as they are, while a whopping 75% though it was a great idea because Spain would have ten million more inhabitants and a better chance of winning the World Cup.

Sign of the Times

2007-07-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

The BNG (Galician National Party) who are in coalition with the socialists on the A Coruña council, are campaigning for street names in the city to be in Galician.

Here are some public opinions on the matter which I have translated from La Voz de Galicia, 8th July, 2007:

It would be terrible to have them only in Galician because Galicia is a bilingual country.
- Viriato Valdés

It's an unnecessary expense and just for show. Damaged pavements and hospital lists are more important. These signs can wait.
- Jose Anido

Tourism is important here. Putting everything in Galician would create a bad impression. If I went somewhere and didn't understand the street signs it would seem strange to me.
- Alberto Tomé

Galidonia comment - Is changing the name of say, calle Riego de Agua into the Galician rúa Rego de Auga going to cause that much confusion? I doubt if you have to be a linguist to realise what rúa means in this context when it is so similar to the French word and the same as the Portuguese word - give or take an accent. That's just one example but I would question whether many street names are going to change dramatically.

I can understand what it means but it's absurd.
- Tamara Gómez (Asturias)

A lot of people from other places live here. The signs are in Spanish and it will be total chaos. I run a business and if they put up signs in Galician I'll get lost.
-Susana Álvarez

It's like "A Coruña". Other cities are given their regional name. I like the fact they do that. I'm totally in favour of this measure.
- Franciso López

Jose Antonio León says the signs should be in both Spanish and Galician. His wife, María José Lopez says just Spanish would do.

Spanish J or Galician X?

Pablo Monteigo from Avenida de Arteijo or Arteixo says it wouldn't matter if all the signs are in Galician because we are in Galicia. "If the Catalans do it then why not us?"

Meanwhile Carlos García has a novel idea: "The BNG should be worrying about more important things although I don't care if it's Arteijo or Arteixo or even if they put it in English!"

Language Policies in the Spanish Education System

2007-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

The law that ensures at least half of school subjects are taught in Galician is now being opposed by the main Spanish opposition party. The PP is accused of a volte face. In 1997, a similar law was brought in regarding the use of Catalan (Mallorquin) in the Balearics. The PP now argue that there is a difference because in Galicia its "at least 50% of classes" (in Galician)", while in the Balearics its "up to 50% of classes" (in Catalan).

In Catalonia the law stipulates that lessons should be conducted in Catalan at all levels with the obvious exceptions of foreign languages and Spanish language and literature.

The situation in the Valencian Community is that Valencian-Catalan is compulsory in 75% of councils and is a " voluntary or compulsory" subject in the remaining 25%. However, my belief is that Valencian-Catalan is treated as a subject on its own and that the majority of classes are carried out in Castillian Spanish but I need to verify this.

In the Basque Country and Navarre things are more complicated. The Basque education law of 1993 noted the need for students to obtain a minimum level in both written and oral Basque and Spanish. But there are four models to choose from:

A. A predominately Spanish education but with some compulsory Basque.

B. Mixed system with a balance between the two languages.

D.* A mainly Basque education with Spanish as a separate subject (similar to the Catalan model).

The situation Navarre is similar to the above but there is also the G-model of Spanish only with no Basque. This is available in the non-Basque speaking areas of South-West Navarre.

*No "C system" as the letter does not exist in Basque!

Info from La Voz de Galicia, 5th July, 2007.

Babies Hit the Jackpot

2007-07-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

From Tuesday of last week, babies born in Spain would receive €2580 from the state. Most new mothers appear to have good timing. On Monday, only 7 babies were born in A Coruña, while on Tuesday there were 25. A spokesperson for Belén Maternity where 11 babies were born on Tuesday said: We've never seen so many babies born in a single day.

Based on article from La Voz de Galicia, 5th July, 2007.

Welcome to Galidonia

2007-07-10T03:12:00.000-07:00

This blog is about my observations of life in Galicia. It will focus entirely on matters of interest to me which are related to the city and the region/country. I have been living in A Coruña for one year now. Below is a record of previous writings on Galician subjects that have appeared on my other two blogs; the football dominated The Ball is Round at http://www.ballis.blog.co.uk/ and the more general Catadonia at http://www.catadonia.blog.co.uk/ . The posts were written between August 2006 and July 2007. Start from the bottom if you want to read in chronological order. The posts are separated with asterisks.

*
One of the objectives of the new "Ley Orgánica de Educación" is that Galician children will begin to study English from 6 years of age. La Xunta (the Galician govt.) has decided they should be taught English from 3 years old and almost one thousand Galician schools will begin teaching English to 3 year olds in the new school year (2007-08)

*
"Luton is more famous for its airport and an old and glorious football team than for anything else." That's according to the newspaper La Voz de Galicia. Glorious football team? Maybe they remembered that image of David Pleat skipping across the pitch like a demented pony in his brown tweeds sometime in the early 80's. But come on guys, that was because they had avoided relegation, not won the FA Cup. To be fair, Luton Town weren't a bad team back then.

The reason Luton got a mention in the Galican press is because a lounge at the airport has been named 'La Coruna'. The newspaper questioned the dodgy spelling of the airport company in question. It looks very strange from a Spanish perspective to see Coruña without the ñ, which makes the (correct) pronunciation "Corunya" not "Coruna". A spokesman for the company explained this was because the ñ does not exist in English. He also faced interrogation over the use of La Coruña instead of A Coruña. You might see the name of the city spelled both ways, that's because the former is Spanish and the latter Galician. However, even most of the mainstream Spanish press now opt for A Coruña as that is the official and politically correct name for the city these days.

*
Galician football puts the word ‘crisis’ into perspective at the moment. The Old Firm are said to be ‘in crisis’ after losing a couple of games and other Scottish teams like Hibs and Hearts were ‘in crisis’ after dressing room bust ups this season. But Galician football really is in a bad way right now.

Celta Vigo are fighting for survival in the primera and must beat Getafe at the weekend to have any hope of staying up. However, an even bigger crisis is arguably taking place at Deportivo La Coruña. Last weekend they lost 5-2 at home to the mighty Recreativo de Huelva. But that pales into insignificance compared with Depor’s estimated debt of almost 150m €, that’s about 100m pounds. Top international players such as Capdevila (Spain), Andrade (Portugal), and Duscher and Coloccini (Argentina)look to be on their way out this summer. They will be replaced, in all likelihood, by more young hopefuls gathered up from the reserve sides of other clubs. This development started last season and saw the club nicknamed ‘Baby Depor’. But the team has been struggling to find its feet this season, currently languishing in 14th position with the joint lowest goals for total in La Liga. The coach, Joaquín Caparrós, who is also certain to leave, could be partly blamed for negative tactics but his hands have been somewhat tied in the transfer market as years of big spending have finally come back to haunt Depor.

Many fans are holding the club’s president Lendoiro to account. He has plenty on his plate as he’s involved in legal disputes with former club legends like Fran, Mauro Silva, Luque and Tristan who claim they are still owed money. Lendoiro claims these players are holding the club to ransom and had to leave ‘by the back door’. Quite frankly, it’s hard to believe that players like Fran and Mauro Silva who dedicated most of their playing careers to Deportivo, and are still held in high esteem by the fans, would now go to the trouble of undertaking expensive legal campaigns unless they had a case.

The latest development is the resignation of club lawyer, Germán Rodriguez Conchado, described as Lendoiro’s right hand man. The final straw for him was apparently being called a ‘macho gorilla’ by the club’s own newspaper but it might just be that he has had enough of trying to defend the indefensible.

*
Hristo Stoichkov is the new coach of Celta Vigo. Celta are in relegation trouble as although their away form is pretty good they’ve only won once in a league match in Vigo all season – against Valencia in October. It would be somewhat ironic if Celta could end this dismal record on Sunday. Stoichkov faces a baptism of fire as his first match in charge will be at home to fierce rivals Deportivo La Coruña.

*
This must be my third or fourth Christmas in Spain. But it’s the first one I’ve spent with a Spanish family. It’s traditional to have a big family meal on Christmas Eve. Last night we ate loads of king prawns and shrimps, followed by cod with cauliflower and then lamb before finishing off with dessert.

No presents today as the tradition is to give gifts on the last day of Christmas – the 6th of January. I quite like this because it makes the run up to Christmas more relaxing. No frantic last minute rush and I can buy some stuff while I’m visiting the UK. Hopefully the shopping frenzy will have died down by the start of the year.

I used to miss things, like some decent comedy, while spending Christmas in Spain but not any more with the Internet and sites like youtube. Today I watched the Steptoe Christmas specials from 1973-74.

Plenty of good food too. The Christmas Day menu included a chicken soup with pasta, “salpicón” – a cold seafood salad, queen scallops and then a spread of sweets with marzipan and almonds featuring heavily. ¡Felíz navidad a todos!

*
Last week I went to the Barbanza coast to check out some stuff for an article. We got lost on the way as Susana, her mother and sister, all have a terrible sense of direction. I ended up having to point out on two or three occasions that we were going in the wrong direction. Quite sad really as I had never even been in these places before and was supposed to be the tourist.

The museum in A Pobra about the writer Valle-Inclán was closed due to flooding. There’s been an incredible amount of rain over the last few months. I read once that Santiago de Compostela has three times as much rainfall as London. I’m beginning to believe it now.

On the way there we passed through a village called Escravitude (Galician for “slavery”). There wasn’t much in Slavery apart from a crane depot and a small train station. Since the museum was closed we took rocky route a trip up to the Mirador de Curota where we got a good view over the Arousa firth.

Then it was on to Corrubedo. I have been told that it has the largest moving dune in Europe. I can’t verify that but it was certainly an impressive sight. I read that there are nineteenth century records talking of a 60 metre high dune. If you know Edinburgh, that’s about the same height as the Scott Monument.

While walking back from the dune the sky suddenly darkened and we were hit by a heavy hailstorm that turned to rain. We were all soaked through by the time we got back to the car. Luckily, Susana and I had a change of trousers as we were staying over in a hotel for the night. Her mother and sister weren’t so fortunate. After a lunch in A Pobra of sea bass in orange sauce, lobster and crab, we went to a shop together to buy some dry shoes. I think the owner thought we were crazy but it was probably his biggest sale of the day.

*
Hopefully there won’t be a bad atmosphere at home later tonight. We’re going to watch the Galician derby between Deportivo La Coruña and Celta Vigo. Susana is a big fan of Deportivo while Celta were the first Spanish side I saw in action. I still have a soft spot for the team from Vigo. However, I can live with the result no matter what happens as I'm not a fanatical native.

Deportivo 0 Celta 1
Rangers won the “crisis derby” this week with a goal from Nacho Novo. He is from the Galician region of Spain where I currently live. I’m not sure which team Nacho supports but I went to the Galician derby in La Coruña on Sunday. Celta won the match thanks to a strike from Nené, a Brazilian, midway through the second half. We worry about the lack of Scots on show in some of our own derbies but there was only Galician in the starting line ups for this game – Celta midfielder Oubiña. It was a pretty cagey affair and more incidents of note took place off the pitch.

Firstly, it would not have been difficult to walk into the match without a ticket just before kick off. There are no turnstyles at the Riazor, Depor’s ground. Although there is normally a gate where someone checks the tickets, on this occasion big gates were opened up and we were caught up in a flood of fans and just flashed our tickets as we passed the two policeman standing at either side of the entrancee.

Secondly, as there is no great tradition of travelling away fans in Spain the segregation is not very good. In one corner of the ground, not far from where we were sitting, there was a group of about 500 Celta fans who made a good job of making themselves heard among about thirty thousand Depor fans who were expectant of victory. At half time the less desirable elements among the Depor support were able to launch a volley of spit over the top of a toilet wall reserved for Celta fans. One or two Celta foot soldiers raised their heads over the top of the trenches to complain and were then hit with a rain of lager as plastic cups were thrown in their direction. The police finally realised what was going on and chased the hoodlums. Just before the goal I saw plastic seats flying through the air between opposing fans.

The game itself wasn’t overly physical apart from a free for all in the Celta penalty box near the end which resulted in one player from each side being booked. At full time various objects were thrown onto the pitch, mostly plastic cups. But a couple of glass beer bottles were lobbed from a great height and landed not far from security staff. I have seen this happen quite often at matches in Spain and the throwing of objects onto the pitch rarely gets a mention in the press. Of course, in Britain coins are sometimes thrown or even the odd mobile phone. But on the whole it brings home to me that our football grounds are more secure due to more efficient policing which can seem a bit over the top at times. Bottle throwing is very rare as you can neither take them into the stadium or buy them inside. And in the Scottish grounds I tend to visit, away fans are given their own stand and can feel safe. Not that I felt in much danger the other night but I probably would have done if I’d been sitting near the fence that separated the two groups of fans or if I had been standing just behind the goalposts where bottles were landing at the end of the game.

Here are the Riazor Blues – the most fanactical element of the Depor support complete with lunatic fringe –warming up for the game:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=B0qOgvz0BVc&mode=related&search=

Depor are on the attack and the Blues are singing. This is one of their favourite songs, “Vamos campeón” (Come on the Champions). Well , they were champions six years ago and it looks like they are still celebrating:http://youtube.com/watch?v=AOyKtJq0CUk&mode=related&search=

They were left feeling blue by the end of proceedings though. At the time I thought the goal was a bit scrappy – a typical derby winning goal. But viewing it again it came from a neat, swift counter attack that is quite characteristic of Celta Vigo. I was high in the stand just behind where the goal was scored:http://youtube.com/watch?v=m_iAQ9EAryo

Hope you enjoy the clips.

For more on Celta Vigo, see these pages from my book The Iberian Horseshoe:
http://www.badosa.com/bin/obra.pl?id=n250-06 http://www.badosa.com/bin/obra.pl?id=n250-07

*
A few months ago I moved from Catalonia to Galicia. At around 700 miles it's more than a hop from Barcelona on the east coast to La Coruña in the west.One of the consequences of this move is that I am encountering yet another new language. I have left Catalan behind and am becoming acquainted with Galician (galego). It's fun watching and listening to Galician TV.

Although the language is very much secondary to Spanish on the streets of La Coruña, I like to tune into TVG (the regional Galician channel) for an hour or so each day. Galego sounds pretty similar to Spanish but is perhaps closer to Portuguese in many respects. In fact, Galician and Portuguese are so closely linked that subtitles from Portuguese are not deemed necessary on TVG. So far I have heard a doctor from Oporto explain some medical problem and a Brazilian woman give her viewpoint on the recent Brazilian elections without any dubbing or subtitles.

Last night I was watching an old episode of Os novos (The Young Ones) on TVG. It’s a series which has really dated. Perhaps I’m biased as I seemed to be one of the few teenagers of my generation who didn’t see what the fuss was about in the first place. But this so-called anarchic comedy now appears simply archaic. Surely sticking your head through a wall or hitting it with the nearest object to hand can no longer be considered hilarious. I wouldn’t claim to be a Ben Elton fan by any means but the Blackadder series he co-wrote with Richard Curtis, the writer of daft but not unwatchable British screen hits like Notting Hill and Love Actually, was surely the motormouth's high point. The Young Ones had an immediate and devastating impact when it hit our TV screens in the early eighties but is there anyone out there who would still describe it as great comedy?