Timtranslates

El dilluns vaig anar a l’Estació de St Andreu Arenal per a agafar el tren de les 8.53h a la Universitat Autònoma. Normalment agafo el tren anterior, és a dir el 8.35h (tot i que ben sovint agafo el 8.23h perquè va amb retard), per a assegurar-me — o més ben dit, perquè sigui més probable - que arribi per a la meva classe de les 9.30h. Però el dilluns vaig dormir massa, així que no podia. Però en principi no passava res. Si aquest tren va bé, puc arribar a la Facultat a les 9.20h.

Vaig arribar a St Andreu Arenal una mica abans de les 8:53, així que vaig agafar un tren anterior fins a Cerdanyola del Vallès, perquè sempre val més apropar-m’hi a la Universitat per a poder agafar un autobús o un taxi si hi ha algun problema. En baixar a l’estació de Cerdanyola del Vallès, sento el tristament cèlebre “Atenció! Atenció!”. Resulta que el tren en direcció a Martorell (és a dir, el que em porta a la UAB) va amb demora de… 40 minuts! L’única opció era agafar un taxi. Preu: 6€.

Culpa meva, potser, per agafar el 8.35h, però m’agradaria pensar que si pago el bitllet és perquè el tren arribi a l’hora correcta. Però bé, el dimecres, sí que vaig arribar amb temps per a agafar el 8.35h. Però en arribar a l’estació hi havia un munt de gent que sabia que passava alguna cosa. Vaig mirar el taulell i encara hi havia trens de les 8h que encara no havien sortit. Però a més, no hi sortia, al taulell, ni el 8.23h ni el 8.35h cap a Martorell! Vaig demanar a un informador si s’havien suprimit (de fet, ja sabent que era així). “Van con retraso”, em diu. Quina informació tan útil! Intento explicar-li que això no té res a veure i que el que surt al taulell són horaris teòrics i que, si no hi surten aquests trens, és que s’han suprimit. En fi, sembla que jo entenc molt millor que ell com funciona. I no és culpa seva, sinó de la RENFE, que només li dóna els horaris teòrics, i no li informa en absolut d’on està cada tren i a quina hora arribarà.

En fi, vaig baixar a les andanes — on hi havia un munt de gent — i vaig agafar el tren de Lleida fins a Cerdanyola. Sabent que el pròxim tren cap a l’Autònoma era el 8.53h, però amb retard, vaig agafar un taxi, amb una alumna de traducció (que hi portava més de mig hora i que tenia exàmen a les 9h!) i una de medicina, a la UAB. Preu: 2.50€ (ja que pagàvem entre tres). Uns alumnes que venien a la RENFE van entrar a classe a les 9.45h. Un estudiant pot arribar a aquesta hora, però un professor no, perquè els alumnes pensarien que vens i marxarien.

Per tant, malgrat que pago quasi 50€ el mes per al meu bitllet 50/30 de dues zones, he hagut de gastar, aquesta setmana 8.50€ en taxis. I tinc una altra classe demà!

Ja n’hi ha prou! Aquests incidents es reprodueixen massa sovint. Cal traspassar la RENFE a la Generalitat, perquè els FGC sí que és un servei digne. Llevat que unes obres de la RENFE poden provocar que FGC tampoc no va, i encara que hi hagués un traspàs de Rodalies a la Generalitat, com que compartirien les línies amb trens de mitja i llarga distància de la RENFE, seguiria tenint problemes.

Em tractaran de radical, i de no sé què més, però només veig una solució real: independència de Catalunya, i per tant, traspàs de tot el sistema ferroviari a la Generalitat i tota la riquesa creada a Catalunya invertida també a Catalunya.

Si hi esteu d’acord, a la menifestació de l’1 de desembre, a les 5 de la tarda, a la Plaça de Catalunya.

Fa uns quants mesos, vaig trobar la Guia de correcció fonètica de Gabriel Bibloni, professor de filologia catalana a la Universitat de les Illes Balears. Trobava coses interessants. Algunes coses que ja sabia, com quan s’ha de pronunciar la vocal neutre i la diferència entre la sonora (per exemple, pesar) i la sorda (per exemple, passar) — cosa que no saben molts catalans, com els que viuen a La Masia de 1907 — i d’altres coses que, o bé sabia però que no crec que pronuncio correctament, com la doble ela, o bé no sabia i que no sé si pronuncio bé, com la famosa ela velar.

Últimament, més d’una persona m’ha comentat que, quan parlo castellà, a més de tenir un accent anglès, també tinc un accent català. No sé si és per algunes de les diferències fonètiques que explica en Gabriel en la seva guia. He gravat una lectura de la Paràbola del Fill Pròdig en les cinc llengües (o quatre i mig llengües!) que parlo: anglès, català, castellà, francès i occità (versió més curta). M’agradaria els vostres comentaris sobre les qüestions següents:

1. En la versió castellana, es nota una influència catalana en la meva pronunciació? Com, exactament, es nota? Quines fonemes pronuncio a la catalana?
2. Faig la ela velar en català? Si és així, ho faig inconscientment. La faig també en castellà? I en francès, occità (en occità s’ha de pronunciar com en castellà i francès) i anglès? Diuen que en anglès fem la ela velar quan és en posició final d’un mot. En català també ho faig així, és a dir, només la pronuncio bé en final de mot.
3. Visc a Catalunya des de fa 5 anys. Ha influenciat la meva pronunciació del francès? (Desgraciadament no tinc cap gravació del meu francès d’abans d’arribar a Catalunya).
4. Qualsevol altra cosa que no pronuncio bé!

I’m becoming increasingly frustrated writing French. The sentence structures just come out in Catalan. For example, I was start an e-mail to someone by asking them, “Est-ce qu’il y a manière de…?”. Of course, the reader would understand it, but it’s not something you’d hear a Frenchman say. My French now is a far cry from the excellent French I had upon graduating from a three-year degree in French Studies in Paris.
It is now just over five years since I left France (time flies).

During my first year in Catalonia (from September 2002), I spent the first few months speaking mainly French to one of the people I lived with, since his mother was French and he spoke it fluently, whereas my Spanish was very, very limited and my Catalan non-existent. In March 2003 I got a job for a wine shop selling mainly to French customers, so I still practised my French and even learnt new vocabulary related to the wines.

During my second year, I was taking French as my B-language at university. Though French was mainly a passive language, I did take one subject in which we were translating into French. I also was good friends with two people with whom I spoke in French. I also lived with Loïc, a French guy, and although we rarely spoke in French to each other, I heard him on the phone, and spoke in French with friends and family he had over. I also spoke French with French people I met through GBU (Christian Union), including a very good friend of mine, Mialy.
During my third year I had two subjects with French as the language of instruction, and still had one of the two French girls studying with me, so I still got plenty of practice. I also continued to live with Loïc. And having just started out in freelance translating, I got a big job translating athletics articles from French.
My fourth year is when the steady decline got steeper. Loïc got married and for some reason preferred to buy a flat in which he could share a bed with his wife rather what I thought was a far better offer: a whole bedroom and bed each in my flat. I no longer saw any other French people. Also, whereas before when I met French people I would tell them that my French was far superior to my Spanish or Catalan and we would converse in French, this was no longer the case.
My contact with the French language has virtually disappeared completely. I no longer know anyone I speak to regularly in French. I occasionally speak to my former lecturers-cum-colleagues in French, but we seldom have a long chat. Unfortunately, because of how important contacts are in finding work, I would say that less than 10% of my freelance work is from French.

I need to find solutions. Maybe I should speak to my flatmate Martina in French more often, as it makes as much sense as speaking Spanish or Catalan, since at least one of us always has to speak a foreign language. I could maybe also speak in French to Catalan people I know who speak it. I guess other solutions are to read more things on the Internet in French and to watch TV5 more often.

But most of all I’d really love to get more work translating from French. It’s not at all a problem. My passive French is as good as it ever has been. Indeed, I’d even say it’s slightly better, as there are words I’ve learnt in Catalan or Spanish that I didn’t learn in French but that I’d now understand in French because they are cognates of the Catalan or Spanish word. To give an example, I first learnt the word grua in Catalan, but now I understand grue if I hear it in French.

I meant to write this blog entry in French. A few years back I’d have had no qualms with doing so, but it was just going to be too difficult. I can’t get the Catalan sentence structures out of my head. I’d have possibly felt more comfortable writing it in Occitan. My vocabulary may be more limited, but at least I can use Catalan sentence structures more often than in French.

Anyway, back to my e-mail… How about “Ce serait possible de…?”

I have received a reply to the letter I sent to David Cameron regarding the fact they invited Esperanza Aguirre - the President of the Community of Madrid - to speak at the party conference:

Dear Mr Barton,

Thank you for emailing David Cameron - I am replying on his behalf. I do
apologise for the delay in my reply.

Timothy Kirkhope MEP said in his speech to Conference last month that
"Esperanza Aguirre was a friend from the Spanish Partido Popular with
whom we also have close relations in the European Parliament". Currently
we both belong to the EPP-ED, we have been long-standing allies in the
European Parliament. The  PP were in the old European Democratic Group
with us and the Danish Conservatives before all three parties joined the
EPP-ED in the late 80s and early 90s.

In recent times we have common ground in the economic sphere, the Aznar
economic reforms of the 1990s have transformed the Spanish economy in
the way Margaret Thatcher's reforms did here in the 1980s.

Thank you once again for your email.

Yours sincerely,

David Beal
Correspondence Secretary
David Cameron's Office
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

A typical answer from a politician, dodging the key issues.

Anyway, guess what? I’ve just discovered that I still have a right to vote in the UK. Now, I’ve said before that I don’t think ex-pats should be allowed to vote. I would rather vote for the national parliaments of Catalonia and Spain, since they are what most affect me, but as I can’t vote in these elections, maybe I’ll vote in the next UK general election anyway. I may have once considered voting for the Conservative Party. Though it wouldn’t be my natural party, and I have never voted for them, if they were going through a moderate phase and I didn’t like the way the other parties were going, I may consider voting for them. However, if they are willing to ally themselves with the likes of Spain’s Partido Popular, then I will definitely not vote for them, and though I live abroad, I may well vote at the next British general election, for the sake of my family and friends in the UK.

I know their alliance with the PP is probably out of ignorance. After all, the analysis I made of the All Wales Accord showed that they respect the Welsh language and Welsh culture and have no qualms, for example, about referring to Wales (and England and Scotland) as nations. However, so long as they ally themselves with a quasi-far-right party, I will not vote for them.

Just found this little beauty (well, big beauty, actually!).

Enjoy!

By the way, it looks like the Swedish glossary hasn’t been finished properly, with lots of adjectives missing (for example, all types of “levers” are simply labelled “arm”.

Este es el vídeo que vi yo.

Parece que el PP vio otro vídeo, porque ha criticado la actuación de Zapatero, pero ha defendido la actuación del Rey.

Tiene que haber visto otro vídeo que yo. Porque yo vi un presidente del gobierno que ha actuado muy dignamente, defendiendo incluso a un rival político. En cambio, vi un rey que ha actuado sin tacto, sin diplomacia, como el tipo de personas que se ve en aquellos programas que da Antena tres por las tardes.

La única crítica que tengo de Zapatero es que ha defendido el comportamiento del Rey. Pero supongo que tiene que hacerlo, porque si Zapatero actúa así, podemos decidir simplemente no votarlo en las próximas elecciones. En cambio, el Rey, diga lo que diga, seguirá siendo Rey hasta la muerte.

Si vamos a tener un Rey hoy día, tiene que ser imparcial, sin opinión política. No puede levantarse y irse de un cumbre porque no le gusta lo que se está diciendo. Así tiene que ser un Rey moderno. Dicho esto, ¡si hay República, mejor!

¡Que cosa más ridícula!

Artículo de El País.

Whenever I’ve been with visitors in York, I would normally take them to two magnificent museums: York Castle Museum, which is all about the history of York and the surrounding area, and the National Railway Museum, which has a fabulous collection of some stunning locomotives. Obviously I would also take them to York Minster, which has such a long history. If they were staying a bit long I would take them to Jorvik Viking Centre, warning them to bring a peg with them to put on their nose. But I can’t say I’ve ever taken anyone to the Yorkshire Museum, nor have I ever been there myself (at least, I can’t remember ever going, though I’ve got feeling I may have gone on a school trip in Year 3, that is, in 1988/89, when I was 7 or 8 years’ old).

So, has anyone reading this ever been? What’s it like? How would you rank it with the other museums? What about the other museums? The only other one I can remember visiting is the Museum of Automata. I can’t remember the last time I went in the Art Gallery.

By the way, is it true that there are no peacocks left in the Museum Gardens? Would be very sad were it true.

Estos días el Rey de España está de visita en las ciudades autonómicas de Ceuta y Melilla. Esta visita ha abierto un crisis diplomático entre Madrid y Rabat.

¿El Rey tendría que ir? Pues, yo creo que sí. Aunque soy republicano, mientras el es Jefe de Estado tiene que tener en cuenta todo el territorio español.

¿La reacción de Marruecos es exagerada? Yo creo que sí. Pero, fijaos que cuando la Princesa Real (Ana) del Reino Unido visitó Gibraltar en 2004, el PSOE dijo que era una muestra de la “frivolidad y el cinismo del Reino Unido”, entre otras cosas. Además, cuando los príncipes de Gales anunciaron que querían empezar su luna de miel desde Gibraltar, los reyes de España decidieron no asistir a la boda como forma de protesta. Entonces la reacción de Marruecos por la visita de los reyes a estas dos ciudades africana no es más exagerada que la reacción de España cuando un miembro de la familia real británico ha visitado el territorio ibérico.

Una anécdota final: cuando los medios de comunicación dicen cosas como “la Reina de Inglaterra” o “Carlos de Inglaterra”, es un error. Ya hace tres cientos años que Inglaterra ya no es un reino en si, sinó que forma parte de un reino. Por eso la denominación correcta es esta.

A bit of history for the sake of non Brits. Because there is no British Football Association, and because the European teams entered into the tournament are the same as those that qualify for the European U21 Championships (in which England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete separately), Great Britain has not competed in the Olympic football tournament since 1960.

In 2012, the Olympic Games will be held in London. This eliminates the problem of Britain not being able to compete in the qualifying competition, since the hosts qualify automatically for team sports.

Since it was announced that London would host the Olympic Games, there has been lots of talk (see, for example, this report and discussion on the BBC’s Inside Sport) about a British team being entered into the tournament. Most people are in favour in theory, but fear that if a GB team is entered into the Olympic tournament, FIFA will insist that the UK enter a single team into all other tournaments, including the World Cup. And this certainly wouldn’t be popular in any of the four constituent countries of the UK (with the possible exception part of the population of Northern Ireland).

This has led the Scottish, Welsh, and now the Northern Irish, football associations to withdraw support for a British team. The English FA, however, continue to support the idea. They argue that FIFA has given assurances that this will not affect the status of the four British teams in other tournaments.

I wouldn’t believe a word Sepp Blatter is saying. It would make FIFA’s life much simpler if they could say that to have a national team, you must be a sovereign State. And Sepp Blatter has suggested before that there should be a single British team. Though it would be great to have the British team in the Olympic football tournament, surely it is not worth the risk of jeopardising the participation of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the World Cup and the European Championships.

Why wouldn’t I want a British team at the World Cup? Well, I guess it’s hard to explain to someone who is not British (though maybe people from the former USSR can empathasise with us). I would probably support the team, but I wouldn’t get as excited. I guess the simple answer is that I consider my country to be England. If you’re from the European Union, imagine that one day the European Union became a single sovereign State. Wouldn’t you still want to go and support your own country?

For similar reasons, I’ll be right behind the Catalan roller-hockey team tonight in the final of the Copa América. But then Spain will be playing a football match later this month and I’ll watch it passively.