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What is La Crisis.

Talk to any Spanish person about the Spanish economy and you will hear the words ‘la crisis’ within their first few sentences.

In fact, talk to any Spanish person about anything and you will still find them mentioning the Spanish economic crisis very early in the conversation.

What is it all about?

I’m no expert, but from what I am told and what I have seen, Spain has gone from boom to bust in the last five or so years.  As we turned into the millennium, Spain’s construction industry was working at the top of their game.

The banks were pouring money into businesses and the whole financial infrastructure was buoyant and positive.

Then, for the reasons that only they know, the banks suddenly stopped the money flow.

The knock on effect.

All good business is built on the speculation of new ventures, supported and backed financially. Particularly in construction, payments for work done are typically made after the event and so, the big and small companies rely on the banks to support them during the building process with the promise of pay-back after the job has been finished.

When the banks closed their doors to the support of any new business, the entire industry literally ground to a halt. Nobody could pay for the goods they had ordered, the work that was to be done and quite often, the wages of their workers.

Before the crisis hit, the majority of Spain’s business were there to support the construction industry or, tourism, another important strand to the economy.

Suddenly, the vast majority of the construction support businesses got into financial problems and closed.

The impact on Spain’s economy and on the population has been catastrophic.

The domino effect.

The more the country saw a decline in construction, the more it began to affect other sectors of the Spanish economy. Money was no longer pouring into the government coffers. Municipal councils were finding it difficult to pay their staff. The ratio of civil servants to workers in private industry became worryingly unbalanced. There simply wasn’t enough money coming in to cover all the costs of running the country.

Unemployment

So many businesses have closed that there are millions upon millions of people ‘en paro’, without work, and the number keeps growing. The vast majority of the people unable to find work are under thirty and very angry.

In fact, if I was to describe the ‘ambiente’ in Spain right now I’d say it was one of anger and frustration.  The people are furious at was has happened to their country and what is now happening to them.  In the attempt to reduce costs, the government is cutting services on all sides and what was never a terribly generous government has had to become careful to the point of being ‘tacaño’.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

This remains to be seen. When you listen to the podcast of Mercedes and Maribel giving their perceptions of ‘la crisis’, pay special attention to feeling they project of real confusion and annoyance at what is happening. Spanish people love their country and are very proud of its rich culture and heritage.

This makes them all the more sad when they see what is happening to everything they love these days. They blame the government, yet the government has probably been just another victim in this affair. Until the banks begin to open their doors again and flood the market with ‘dinero’, things are going to remain the same.

Can we help?

Ahora estoy bastante deprimido jajaja.  We can help, of course, by supporting Spain’s tourism industry. Spain is a fantastic place to visit and if you have never been, then my recommendation is that you go there sooner rather than later.

You will certainly not be disappointed with the experience.

Saludos,

Gordon 🙂

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Madrid vs Barcelona.

There exists a tremendous rivalry between ‘los madrileños’ from Madrid and ‘los barceloneses’ from Barcelona.

One would imagine that the rivalry exists specifically because of football and the fact that the two great cities have two of the best football teams in the world.

It goes much further back than that.

According to my sources (mi suegro/my father-in-law) the problems between Barcelona and Madrid started in the year 1700 when there was a war between the then king of Spain, who was French and the pretender to the throne, who was Austrian.

The ‘catalanes’ were beaten in their attempts to win the throne of Spain and since then, there has been ‘un pique’, or resentment between the two cities.

Clearly, this feeling shows up in the rivalry that exists between the two football teams.

José and Mercedes

In the video-podcast we see a hilarious example of how football can cause friction even in the same household. José, Cynthia’s father, is a dyed in the wool supporter of Real Madrid, (madridista/merengue) whilst Mercedes supports el Barça (culés).

To say that Mercedes supports el Barça is stretching the truth a little. As you will see in the podcast, she actually knows very little about the team and frequently needs help from José when talking about the players.

She admits during the podcast that the only reason that she follows Barcelona is to go against José and have a bit of fun.

The Podcast

And that is what happens in the podcast. The dynamic between the two is very funny, with Mercedes struggling to muster up a convincing argument as to why her team is better. Finally, after losing the argument various times she plumbs for criticising Real Madrid’s financial situation, which, on the face of it, seems to be far worse than that of Barcelona.

Fortunately, both of them take the whole situation with a pinch of salt and the banter is very friendly and fun. In Spain, however, things aren’t taken quite as lightly and the serious supporters are exactly that. They take their team and every result personally.

Whenever there is a match between the two rivals, Madrid vs Barcelona, just about every bar in the two cities is filled to capacity with ardent supporters shouting for their team.

Personally, football isn’t something that interests me (Gordon). As a child my father used to take me to watch Sunderland and I feel that the entire experience left me traumatised. He he. (I apologise to any Sunderland supporters.)

If you ever choose to visit Spain, however, you must be prepared to have at least one conversation about football, even if it’s just to say: “No lo entiendo.” (I don’t understand it.) or even more daringly, “No me interesa.” (It doesn’t interest me.)

We hope you enjoy the podcast as much as we did.

Gordon 🙂

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Spanish Insults.

The first thing to make clear when we talk about Spanish insults is that we are talking about the way insults are used in the Spanish mainland.

Every country has its own way of using insults. In some countries in Latin America, for example, everyday, easy on the ear swear words from Spain would cause tremendous offence.

AVISO.

When learning these expressions and words, please use them with care and do not drop them, willy nilly into conversation unless you know that the person you are talking to will not take offence.

Lo más ligero.

There are some very light words that are used extremely frequently in Spain. Let’s take a look at the word ‘leche’ or milk.

On the face of it, it would seem that this is a fairly innocuous word. However, it has its place in this list of light swear words.

Sorpresa/Frustración.

If you get a shock, then you are well within your rights to shout: ¡Leches!

This is the equivalent of ‘Goodness!’ or perhaps, ‘Holy cow!’ or if in frustration, it could mean ‘Bugger!’ or ‘Bloody hell’.

Whatever it does mean, it is one of the lightest of the light.

Estar cabreado/enfadado/enojado

When someone is in a bad mood, or perhaps has a bit of a nasty side they can be described as ‘having bad milk’.

example: Qué mala leche tienes! = You’re very nasty. or, You’re in a bit of a bad mood, aren’t you?

Friendly banter.

This is also used in friendly banter when a pal has said something to make fun of you or has been brutally honest with you, you can say the above sentence in a jokey way.

Having a poo.

I personally think one of the strangest things about Spanish insults is the way they seem to be obsessed with having a poo in things.

You will see as you go through the series of three podcasts that as the insults get progressively stronger, the places that they poo in get progressively worse.

For the moment, however, let’s look at the light version, which is in the milk.

Goodness gracious.

When you want to express surprise or shock, or amusement, or irony or really, any reaction to an event, then you can begin to poo in places.

To do this you say…Me cago en..

This comes from the verb, Cagarse, which means to poo oneself.

The lightest version is: ¡Me cago en la leche! which translates very much as: Well, goodness me! or Good grief!

I’m constantly amused that this is light given that it involves the act of having a poo in or on something. Yet, mums use it with their children all the time.

ejemplo:

¡Qué guapísimo eres, me cago en la leche! = What a handsome boy you are, for goodness sake.

As bizarre as it may seem, this is probably one of the most popular swear words in Spain and so, expect to hear it often and in all of it’s versions. We’ll cover them in the next podcast.

So, enjoy the podcast and remember, these words are better to be used as reference only until you know how to use them correctly. Misuse often offends. jeje

Saludos, Gordon 🙂

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Spanish Swear Words.

For those of our followers who have already watched or listened to our previous podcast on Spanish swear words, then you will know that the Spanish are very good at cursing. In fact, swearing is as much a part of their life as is tortilla española or la paella.

It’s important to add the disclaimer that the Spanish swear words we cover in this podcast only apply to Spain and are NOT something we recommend you to use carelessly. In other Spanish speaking countries they could be considered very offensive.

A tomar por culo.

Let’s focus on this particular expression in the blog. The reason for this is that it’s probably one of the most common and interesting Spanish insults.

In English we have something similar in our expression, “Shove it up your arse.”

The Spanish are very frequently telling people to “¡Vete a tomar por culo!” which, literally is “Go and take it up the bum.”

The thing is, just like the English expression, “Bugger off.” the original meaning is no longer appropriate nor current and so, “Vete a tomar por culo.” really means, “P…s off, F…k off”, or “Bugger off”.

What happened in 2005.

The fact is that in Spain, the word “culo” and the phrase “por el culo” appear everywhere. I recall that in the lead up to the 2005 “noche vieja” (New Year’s Eve) everyone was talking about the suggestion made by a famous TV celebrity. He had suggested that everyone in the country should wish each other a Happy New Year in this fashion:

Feliz año 2005, por el culo te la hinco.

And, effectively, that’s what everyone did.

Being a curious person, I had to ask about the expression as I was unfamiliar with the verb HINCAR, which I was informed meant to plunge, stab or thrust.

Then, continuing with my line of questioning, I asked what, to me, was the more intriguing question:

“And what does the ‘LA’ signify?”

There then followed a moment of extreme embarrassment in which everyone in my Spanish family went red in the face.  Finally, after a long pause, Cynthia said to me: “Bueno, ¿qué crees que será, Gordon?”

It was then that I realised that the ‘LA’ referred to that infamous word that so many students get mixed up with ‘pollo’ and that is, “polla”, which means ‘cock’ or ‘dick’.

It was then that I really understood the relaxed and groovy attitude that Spanish people have toward Spanish swear words and profanities.

I don’t need to translate the sentence for you, for I’m sure you can work out what virtually the entire Spanish nation was saying to one another as a New Year greeting. je je

Enjoy the podcast. And don’t take it personally. We really did it for a bit of fun and and education. After all, if you are going to Spain, you are going to hear these words, like it or not!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:47 — 24.7MB)

Very strong Spanish swear words

This is the third in the series of Spanish swear words and general profanities.  Please ensure that before you watch this video that you are 18 years of age or more. It contains strong language.

The poor mums.

In Mexico, when something is really good  it is described as being ‘PADRE’  (father) and when something is bad, it is ‘UNA MADRE’. (a mother)

If someone is not a particularly good person, then you would be well within your rights to say: “Qué poca madre.” which probably translates along the lines of: “What a shit.”

When I asked why mums should have such ‘mala fama’ in Mexico, I was told that it stemmed back to the conquest of Mexico.

Cortés and Doña Marina

Hemán Cortés, the man who orchestrated the conquest of the Aztec people became involved with a Mexican woman called Doña Marina. As well as having children with her, Cortés used her in his overthrow of Mexico and since then she has become known as La Malinche, the woman who is seen as the treacherous mother of Mexico.

Since then, mothers have had a bad rap in Mexico. (You make one mistake..!)

Whatever the case,  it seems the case that throughout the Spanish speaking world, if you really want to insult someone then you bring into question the good standing of their mother.

In Spain, to express exasperation or to say something like: “What a guy!” in surprised way, they often say:

“LA MADRE QUE TE PARIÓ.”

Which, translated directly is, “The mother that gave birth to you.”

By saying this you are questioning what on earth the mother of that person was thinking of bringing them into the world.

Stronger than that, however, is the reference to someone’s mum as a prostitute.

This is also one of the very common Spanish swear words.

The exclamation, ¡Su puta madre! (His/Her/Its/You formal bitch mother.) really just means something like: “For f…ks sake!”

However, to make it more personal, you might bring in the big poo guns and mix then with an insult about their mum.

“Me cago en tu puta madre.” Which literally means: “I poo on your bitch mother.”

This this is a very strong insult which can be used in a joking way, but only by those very skilled in its use. It is NOT recommended that you use this unless:

a, You are ready to run away at high speed.

b, You are alone in your bedroom.

c, You are with very good, life long Spanish friends who use that kind of language normally.

Please enjoy the podcast and take it all with a pinch of salt. We do.

Gordon 🙂

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:55 — 29.6MB)