Language Trainers Blog

When meetings Spanish people for the first time you usually shake hands. Men who know each other well greet one another with an embrace and a pat on the shoulder, while women kiss each other on the cheeks starting on the left. In formal situations you usually address people with Don or Doña plus their first name.

If you are invited to dinner at someone’s home, you usually take a gift, such as chocolates, cakes, wine or flowers for the hostess. If the family has children, small gifts for them will be appreciated. You normally don’t sit down until invited to do so and don’t begin eating until the hostess starts. Most types of food, including fruit, are eaten with utensils rather than with your fingers.

If you’re doing business in Spain, it pays to establish relationships as the Spanish prefer working with people they know and trust. They also prefer dealing with people in person rather than on the phone or by email, fax or letter. Don’t be modest about your qualifications, experience and achievements as people are likely to take what you say at face value. Try to avoid arguments if possible as Spanish people tend to avoid admitting they’re wrong in public.

When talking to people in Spain, you may find that they quite often interrupt you. They’re not being rude, but just have a different way of doing conversations. Conversely, if you waiting for them to stop speaking before taking your turn in the conversation, you might find it difficult to get a word in edgeways, and they might think that you have little to say.

Today’s word, orgoglioso, which means proud in Italian, however it doesn’t have quite the same connotations as in English. Instead of having generally positive connotations of  self-confidence , it has negative connotations of self-importance and haughtyness in Italian. You can however say that you’re proud of someone else: “sono orgogliosa di te” (I’m proud of you).

Related words include

• orgoglio (pride)
• orgogliosamente / fieramente (proudly)
• inorgoglire (t0 make proud)
• inorgoglirsi (to become proud)
• fiero (proud; disdainful; haughty; cruel; fierce; audacious)
• fierezza (proud; haughtiness; boldness; daring

When looking up foreign words in a dictionary you have to be careful that you find the right one. A word in English may have more than one equivalent in Italian or another language, and vice versa. One way to check words is to look them up in the English / Italian section, then check them in the Italian / English section. Larger dictionaries have examples of usage which can help you narrow in on the exact translation you need.

When meeting a group of Italians, make sure you shake hands with all members of the group, make eye contact and smile. Not doing so is considered rude. When they know you better, don’t be surprised is they greet you with kisses on the cheeks and/or an embrace as well – Italians tend to more tactile generally than northern Europeans.

If you visit a church or cathedral in Italy, make sure you’re wearing long sleeves and trousers or a long skirt – going into such places wearing shorts and t-shirts is considered disrespectful.

Make sure you dress well when in Italy as the Italian are very fashion conscious and appearances are important, as are first impressions. The clothes you wear can indicate your social status, family background and education level. Your confidence, style and demeanour are also important.

Calling cards are quite widely used in Italy, so it’s a good idea to take a supply of you own. They usually include the person’s name, address, title or academic honours, and telephone number. They can be used in social situations, but should not used in business situations, where business cards are preferred.

When giving presents to Italian avoid chrysanthemums, as they are used at funerals, and avoid red flowers, which indicate secrecy, and yellow flowers, which indicate jealousy. Make sure any wine you give is good quality, and don’t wrap things in black, the colour of mourning, or purple, the colour of bad luck. If someone gives you a gift, it’s usual to open it straight away.

Today we are looking at colours in Spanish (los colores) and some of the idioms they’re used in.

The Spanish for white is blanco, which also means light, fair, blank or cowardly. When something is very white, you can say in Spanish that it is  más blanco que el jazmín / más blanco que el papel (whiter than jasmine / paper). If you roll your eyes or look ecstatic you poner los ojos en blanco (make the eyes white). If you haven’t got the fainest idea about something you could say estoy en blanco (I’m in white/blank), which is similar to the phrase ‘my mind’s a blank’, and if you have trouble sleeping you might have a white night – pasar la noche en blanco.

The word for black is negro, which also means dark, swarthy, gloomy, atrocious or awful. If someone you know is a real pessimist, you could say lo ve todo negro (he sees everything as black), and if things are not working out for you, you could say la cosa se pone negra (things are going black). What is called is brown sugar is considered black/dark in Spanish – azúcar negra.

Red or rojo is associated with blushing, lipstick, excitement and rage. You might say that you’re purple with rage in English, but in Spanish you go red with rage – ponerse rojo de la ira.

Green or verde has associations with jealousy and envy – estar verde de envida (to be green with envy), and with ignorance – está verde (he’s very green / he doesn’t know anything). It is also used to indicate that you have had your fill of food or other things – darse un verde (to eat a lot / one’s fill); darse un verde de algo (to have enough of something).

The English word chocolate comes via Spanish from the Nahuatl word, xocolatl, which means ‘bitter water’. The words for chocolate in most other languages come from the same root, either directly, or via other languages such as English.

The ancient peoples of Central and South America used cacao as a food, a drink and even a currency. They prepared the drink by fermenting, roasting and grinding up cacao seeds and making them into a paste which they mixed with chilies, cornmeal and other ingredients. Among the Maya, most people could drink this special beverage, but the Aztecs saw it as a sacred drink and only permitted rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants to partake of it. Sauces made from bitter cacao and chilies remain popular in Mexico, where they are used to accompany meat.

When the Spanish arrived in Mexico in the 16th century they recognised that cocao was valuable and started sending it back to Spain. They began to make cacao drinks with cinnamon, other spices and sugar, and eventually the rest of Europe started drinking chocolate as well, although for it remained the drink of the elite for several centuries due to the high cost of the ingredients.

By the 18th century it was possible to mass-produce chocolate bars and other cacao-based sweets cheaply and they became available to everyone.

False friends or false cognates are words that sound and/or look the same in two languages but  different meaning. While there are a significant number of words in German that sound and/or look the same as words in English, for example April, arm and film, not all familiar-sounding German words mean what you expect.

The following German words look and/or sound like English words but have different meanings:

• Absolvieren = to complete a course or exam (absolve = lossprechen)
• Artist = circus or theatrical performer (artist = Künstler)
• Bald = soon (bald = kahl, glatzköpfig) e.g. Er hat eine Glatze = He’s bald
• Chef = boss, head of the department (chef = Chefkoch, Küchenchef, Koch)
• Direktion = (office) administration / management (direction = Richtung)
• Expertise = report (expertise = Sachverstand)
• Fabrik = factory (fabric = Stoff, Gewebe)
• Gift = poison (gift = geschenk)
• Gymnasium = secondary/high school (gymnasium = Turnhalle, Sporthalle)
• Kollege = colleague, co-worker (college = Hochschule, Universität)
• Komfortabel = luxurious (comfortable = bequem, gemütlich)
• Mist = manure, dung (mist = Dunst, leichter Regen)
• Objekt = house, piece of property (object = Ziel)
• Pension = guest house, small hotel (pension = Rente)
• Phantasie/Fantasie = imagination (fantasy = Tagtraum)
• Sender = broadcaster, (radio/TV) station (sender = Absender)
• Transparent = banner, placard (transparent = durchsichtig)
• Roman = novel (Roman = Römer)
• Rat = advice, counsel (rat = Ratte), e.g. Rathaus = townhall