Guides

[Maura Santangelo]

the problem is not asking the question, but what to do with the barrage of
words which comes back to you that you don't understand?

I do not find phrasebooks helpful, again because the answers can be
confusing,  though I find a pocket dictionary helpful.

Maura

On Friday 27 June 2003 07:34 am, you wrote:
> 50 words already, my goodness, you certainly can't be English then!!
>
> While it's nice, and polite too, to be able to speak in Spanish it won't be
> vital. Por favor and muchas gracias go a long, long way and pointing, which
> worked well enough for you when you were 2 years old, certainly hasn't gone
> out of fashion yet.
>
> A friend lent me some Spanish tapes to learn from in the car on the way in
> from work (Hugo's Spanish at the Wheel - a bit dated what with border
> controls etc, but quite good) and that worked OK.  I speak reasonable but
> un-grammatic French having owned a house there for some years and found I
> use French more than Spanish in the early stages from SJPP.
>
> A decent, but light, phrase book would help but, for the most part, a few
> stock phrases will suffice.  Mainly "Dónde está(n)" - where is/are - ¿Dónde
> está la farmacia? <where is the chemists/pharmacy>.
>
> Can I point you towards the BBC's language pages?
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/spanish/quickfix/index.shtml
>
> and a general search for Spanish phrases on the internet can bring some
> useful, and some surprising, results.
>
> Perhaps we could all contribute our favoured phrases for a Pilgrims' Phrase
> Book?
>
> regards
>
> Jeffrey
>
> ¿hay unas flechas amarillas por aqui?
>
> PS bumped into (literally) de Coelho coming out of church in Puenta la
> Reina in September '01 - he was travelling with a Japanese TV crew.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kinsey Carpenter [mailto:KCarpenteraCMINS.COM]
> Sent: 26 June 2003 14:51
> To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
> Subject: Guides
>
>
> Recent on line chat regarding the need to know some Spanish has me a tad
> bit concerned as I know no more than 50 Spanish words. My departure for the
> Camino is mid-September. I'm rushing to get my work responsibilities in
> order so that I can be incommunicado with my office for 5 weeks. Hence, no
> time to learn any Spanish,  "Are bilingual guides available? I read "The
> Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho and was, of course, intrigued by his guide
> Petrus.  Please share with me your comments and recommendations as to how I
> would go about finding a guide.