Rafa vs. Rafa

Majorca's number one son Rafa Nadal was the talk of the town last week following his epic defeat of his great rival and five-time-titleholder Roger Federer in the Wimbledon finals last Sunday. The pros were full of praise for the quality of the match, Björn Borg called it the most nail-biting final ever and both John McEnroe and one-time British hopeful Tim Henman said it was the greatest match they had ever seen.

Rafa's English - despite being still peppered with a handful of unforgivable mistakes - does seem to have improved somewhat since his early attempts to express himself in the language. Although nowhere near as good as Federer's English, Rafa still needs to work out his infinitive / -ing ending confusion, but he has made a fair bit of progress, so credit where credit's due.

Fellow sporting Spaniard and namesake Rafa Benitez seems to have mastered the language more quickly, but maybe several years living in Liverpool may have something to do with it. The Liverpool manager seems a little more relaxed speaking in English than the Wimbledon champ... so let's have a look at the two of them.

This first clip of Rafa Nadal shows him answering a few very simplistic questions about his life on and off the tennis court.

Rafa Benitez meanwhile is seen here entertaining reporters with his slant on that quintessentially English sport of sports... no, not football - cricket!

Oh, and here's what the papers had to say about Rafa (Nadal) and his victory:

• Daily Mail
• The Sun
• Daily Mirror
• Daily Express
• Daily Telegraph
• The Scotsman
• The Sporting Life
• The Independent
• International Herald Tribune (USA)
• The Times (Rafa's Blog)

... and last Spanish Wimbledon men's champ Manolo Santana speaks to The Times...

Fernando Torres speaks

After scoring the winning goal for Spain in the Euro 2008, ex-Atletico Madrid and current Liverpool golden boy Fernando Torres is once more the centre of attention for the British press.

Here are a few clips of him and his gradually improving English.









Did you catch that awful "can to" though?

(Is the interviewer Spanish in this final clip?)

Sadly nothing on the Spanish Euro triumph, but here's what some of the papers said:

• The Mirror - Germany: Torres not Nº 1 Striker


• The Sun - Spain Will Reign for Years Now


• The New York Times - Slumping Striker Helps Spain Win


• The Guardian - Spain Reign with Beautiful Game...


• Daily Telegraph - Iker: Win is for All Spain


• The Times - Global Rule Next for Torres


• BBC News - Moment of Unity as Spain Win


• The Guardian (again) - How Luis Did it


• Liverpool Echo - Villa: Torres Vital to Team


• Daily Mail - Torres Snubs Chelsea


• Sky Sports - Aragonés: We Were the Best


• Football365 - What the Papers Said


• Australian Daily Telegraph - Sydney's Spanish Quarter Celebrate


• IOL South Africa - Spain's Euro Glory...


• Goal.com - Spain's Most Hated is Vidicated


• Bild (Germany) - Crazy Euro 2008


• The Local (Sweden) - Spain's Euro Win bad for Swedish Economy (?)

Finally, as connoisseurs of the great British pun, let us leave you with a selection of Euro 2008 wordplay courtesy of the tabloid press:

• "Diamond Guiza"
• - of course in the UK commentators pronouce Güiza as "Geezer"
  
• "The Reign in Spain"
• - Think of Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady
  
• "Torres on curse for glory"
• - the quarter-finals curse, of course

Espe speaking English

Unlike most of her "Popular" contemporaries past and present, in both local and central government, Community of Madrid President Esperanza Aguirre - "La Espe" - is genuinely able to speak English, as she proved on Richard "Mr. Ubiquitous" Vaughan's TV station recently. Her fluency is very impressive, her accent is not too bad (though occasionally - and bizarrely - reminiscent of Björk's English accent), but she does make the unforgivable mistake of using responsible as a noun, as well as using a few unnecessary definite articles.

That's what happens if you don't practice, Espe!

Bardem: Not Without My Mother

Here he is, in English.... with Mummy watching.

Best Supporting actor for his role as a serial killer in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, which also picked up a few other gongs including Best Picture. Love him or hate him you've got to admire someone who told his director bosses before filming that he couldn't speak English and then only made one mistake in his acceptance speech.

But he still couldn't help speaking Spanish at the end!

Rafa Nadal: English Blogger

Rafa Nadal,currently trying to get his play on grass up to the standard of his Federer-beating play on clay - it's Wimbledon time again - has started writing a blog.

"Ha!", I hear you cry, "how can you be sure that it's really him writing it, and not some Rafa-obsessed fangirl?" Well for a start it's published via The Times' website, which must vouch for its authenticity (if we forget about the Hitler Diaries for a minute, that is)...

... and secondly his English still has... how shall I put it... room for improvement... although fair play to the lad, it is a huge advance on his early tongue-tied replies in English to journalists in the past.

Can you correct his mistakes?
Rafa Nadal's Wimbledon Blog.... in English!

Footnote:
After reading Nadal's first post he comes clean and admits that "most of you know that my English is not that good normally. It is not that I suddenly learned English perfectly. I am writing this blog in Spanish and then it is getting translated into English. Maybe one day I will be good enough to write it in English all by myself, but for the moment it is not the case."

Can he really not afford a native English speaker as his translator then, or have standards slipped so low in the sector?

Re: Volver

Listening to few of my students talk about Spain's most celebrated contemporary film director and Spain's most internationally successful actress you'd think that most people in Madrid were hoping that Penelope Cruz wouldn't be in the running for tonight's best actress Oscars.

Yet the fact that "Pe" was nominated at all is quite an achievement considering the lack of critical success garnered in the US for her American films (where she has played a Brazilian, a Greek, a Colombian, a Mexican and even a Frenchwoman - the last of those in Fanfan la Tulipe - but rarely a Spaniard) and for such a (*ahem*) typically Spanish role to boot.

Here's the British trailer, followed by the American one...

Did Almodovar include the scene of Penelope sitting on the toilet as a nod to Tom Cruise's other ex who did the same thing in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut?

Did a jokey reference to whether Raimunda seemed to have a more generous chest than her mother remembered have its origin in scurrilous gossip about Ms. Cruz's own measurements?

And did the much commented "false rear" that added to the Penelope Cruz is this year's Sofia Loren comments really inspire Victoria Beckham in those poses for the "his and hers" Beckham perfume poster campaign?

Of course the smart money is on Helen Mirren to win for her portrayal of The Queen... but as we all know - unlike Nicole and Penelope - the Queen doesn't go to the toilet.

Some people reading this in Spain still may not realise, but in the English-speaking world dubbing films from one language into another is usually regarded as tacky, and is usually an option limited to pornography and old kung-fu films.

Therefore any Brits, Yanks, Aussies and the like who have seen Volver will have had to struggle with the subtitles. However, Penelope's command of English has enabled her to promote the film in a way that Santiago Segura was never able to do for Torrente (despite also notching up an impressive array of bit-parts in various American movies).

Here she is promoting Almodovar's flick on some American talk show... and unlike on a BBC radio interview (sadly offline!) she doesn't have a titter at the poor "Anglo" pronunciation of the film's title which sounds more like part of the female anatomy than the Spanish verb for coming back. "Volver" pronounced as in "Re-volver"? In English? Get it??

Okay.. just watch the film clip ...

Oh, and here are a handful of reviews in English:

• The Guardian
• BBC Movies
• Metro
• Time Out
• Rotten Tomatoes (a collection of US reviews)

...and finally, an amusing guide to all the things prudish Americans could find offence with in Almodovar's latest film, at screenit.com.

Spanish people speaking English: Aznar

It's always a bit of an eye-opener to many Spanish people to hear their fellow countrymen and women speaking English, especially if those fellow countrymen and women happen to be famous. Actors, sports stars, politicians, royalty... all have varying levels of English.

Fernando Alonso speaks better English than Rafa Nadal, but despite being based in the UK for some time Alonso's English is hardly proficiency level.

Antonio Banderas has an impressive level of fluency but still has quite a strong Spanish accent.

Penelope Cruz sometimes comes unstuck with prepositions despite all those years with Tom Cruise.

Let's not mention Ana Obregón.

Ooops.

But whose English has come in for most ridicule from his fellow Spaniards? None other than that of former Prime Minister (in English you can't be a president and have a king!) Jose María Aznar.

The man who instead of giving a Stateside speech in English gave it in (supposedly) Texan-accented Spanish. The man who went on to lecture - in English! - at Georgetown University.

The man who once had to ask King Juan Carlos to be his interpreter.

What follows is a fascinating interview - in English - that appeared on one of the BBC's international channels in July 2006. Unlike the sycophantic interviews Aznar conceded to PP-friendly channels in the past this interview pulls no punches.

His English seems to have improved since the early days of his friendship with Bush, and he seems to have less of a strong Spanish accent than in the past.

Pity that he has replaced it with a French one.

Also notable is the way that he has also used Bush as a model for his English... depite the BBC interviewer's referring to the Basque separatist terrorist organisation as ETA (a one-word acronym - pronounced as in Spanish), Aznar insists on calling it E.T.A. (as Bush did following the March 11th attacks). I wonder if he also refers to the former Spanish capital as To-leeee-doh when speaking English.

Watch the body language too!

Watch him squirm!!


(Part One)

(Part Two)

(Part Three)

Now let's see if I can find a clip of Zapatero trying to speak English!