English no, Communication si.

[Rosina Lila]

Hello,
There is an article in today's "Voz of Galicia" newspaper reporting that
workers in the Post Office, Bus Stations, et. al., in Santiago do not speak
English, nor do the police, etc. Surprisingly, the report also says that the level
of English spoken at the tourism information offices is at the bare minimum
and, often, of little help.
Nevertheless, the article adds, most English monolingual speakers manage to
make their needs understood through gestures, drawings and the friendliness and
good will of the native Santiagans...As they emphasize :"Ingles no,
Comunicacion si."
It has been reported that around 20% of New York City inhabitants do not
speak English, or speak it only minimally (up from 10% thirty years ago); this
characteristic of our cosmopolis has spawned a lively business in translating
aids.
There are some electronic translators, barely larger than a credit card,
which not only translate the words, and some phrases, but have a sound feature for
pronunciation thereof; they cost thirty dollars.
I am leaving next week for the Camino, starting out in Seville and going by
car or so to within 200 kms. of Santiago, on the Via de la Plata route that
does not join the Camino Frances, from which point we will walk.  My son and his
bride and my sister in law Liz have insisted on coming along, a prospect which
I do not relish since none of them speaks Spanish and I fear getting stuck
translating all the time (I also like to walk alone) . To minimize the unwelcome
encumbrance I bought three of those little translators for them, and I must
say that they are more practical and effective than I expected.
Some electronic translators have three, five, or more languages in them; by
necessity the range in each language is quite limited; they are also larger,
heavier and more expensive.  I think that the Spanish-English little ones are
best for the Camino.
Warm regards,
Rosina
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.oakapple.net/pipermail/gocamino/attachments/20040723/f0c649ce/attachment.htm