Presentació del Mountain Walking in Southern Catalonia

Dilluns, 19.30, presentació del llibre Mountain Walking in Southern Catalonia a la biblioteca de Tortosa.

Philip and Vivien Freakly have written a guide to walking in the mountains of the Ebre region, in English. It will be presented in public in Tortosa library on Monday at 19.30.

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving Day is known as Black Friday. It is traditionally the first day of the US Christmas shopping season with many shops extending their opening hours and offering special promotions.


There are two possible origins of its name. Many claim it is due to the intense traffic jams caused by shoppers, while others claim it is often a day that shopkeepers actually move "into the black" - that is, they start making profits.


Happy shopping!

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the USA on the fourth Thursday in November. It is a celebration which goes back to the 17th century, the time when the first pilgrims to reach American shores gave thanks to God for surviving the winter. The story goes that the celebration consisted of a three-day feast shared by pilgrims and native Americans alike.

Nowadays many people take a four-day weekend and the main feature of the celebrations are large family meals with turkey, vegetables, pumpkin pie and other traditional foods.

Another well-known aspect of the day, thanks to Hollywood and numerous films, is the parade held in New York by Macy's department store - a clue that Christmas is just around the corner!

Conta-contes en anglès

Continuing with the intense calendar of activities organised by Tortosa's library, today is the turn of the story-telling in English. At 6pm, a famous fairy tale will be told, and acted out, by the library's collaborators. Aimed at 4 to 8 year olds, but I'm sure all ages would enjoy it.

Remembrance Sunday

Many learners of English ask why most British people appearing on the news this week are wearing this red flower.

World War I finished at 11 o'clock in the morning, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, 1918. British people commemorate this event every year on the second Sunday in November, Remembrance Sunday. On this day, we remember and pay our respects to those who lost their lives in both World Wars, and other conflicts which have happened since then.
Solemn and emotive services are held at War Memorials in towns all over the UK, with a two-minute silence at 11am.

The red poppy flower was chosen as a symbol for this day as they bloomed all over the blood-drenched battle fields of France. They are made of paper and plastic and "sold" for a voluntary donation which goes to charities devoted to ex-servicemen, disabled soldiers, army widows and so on.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

John McCrae

Confusing English (1)

Sentences or expressions which may or may not confuse learners of English (or even English learners), no.1:

The children were playing up downstairs.

Bonfire Night

On November 5th we celebrate Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes Night) in England. This celebration commemorates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot ...

In 1605 a group of Catholics tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill the Protestant King of England, King James I, with the aim of replacing him with a Catholic head of state.

However, the plot was discovered, and the barrels of gunpowder. The plotters were arrested and executed. The most famous member of the group was their leader, Guy Fawkes.

Fortunately this celebration has lost its anti-catholic connotations over the centuries and is now a great night out to blow away the winter blues. People build huge bonfires in gardens and public parks. Children traditionally make an effigy of Guy Fawkes (called "a guy") and used to drag him around the streets asking for money from passer-bys ("a penny for the guy"). When the bonfire is lit, everyone gathers around and the "guy" is thrown on to be burnt. Firework displays are very common. And, as with all great festivities, plenty of treats are consumed - jacket potatoes, toffee apples, pie and peas ...

Poems on Water

Blog Action Day 2010 deals with the issue of water.

Water, that wonderful but elusive element, which says so many things to each and every one of us. Below we offer our humble contribution to the day’s thoughts and reflections, with two poems talking about water, one in English and one in Catalan.

The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water
I heard the old, old men say,

'Everything alters,

And one by one we drop away.'

They had hands like claws, and their knees

Were twisted like the old thorn-trees

By the waters.

I heard the old, old men say,

'All that's beautiful drifts away

Like the waters.

WB Yeats

Cançó de Pluja

No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
Dorm, que la pluja ja vetlla el teu son…
Hi ha dues perles a la teranyina,
quina conversa la pluja i la font!
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?

No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?
Canten les gotes damunt la teulada,
ploren les gotes damunt del replà…
Gotes de pluja, gardènia que es bada…
No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?

¿No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina,
amb la música dels núvols desfets?
Pluja de nit, delicada veïna,
dentetes d’aigua en els vidres quiets…
No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina?

¿No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va,
dintre aquest plor de la pluja nocturna,
i les estrelles somriuen enllà?
Enllà somriu un mantell tot espurna…
No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va?

No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?
No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina?
No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va?
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?

Josep Maria de Sagarra

Are dying languages worth saving?

An interesting article from the BBC website:

Are dying languages worth saving?

Language experts are gathering at a university in the UK to discuss saving the world's endangered languages. But is it worth keeping alive dialects that are sometimes only spoken by a handful of people, asks Tom de Castella?
"Language is the dress of thought," Samuel Johnson once said.
About 6,000 different languages are spoken around the world. But the Foundation for Endangered Languages estimates that between 500 and 1,000 of those are spoken by only a handful of people. And every year the world loses around 25 mother tongues. That equates to losing 250 languages over a decade - a sad prospect for some.

This week a conference in Carmarthen, Wales, organised by the foundation, is being attended by about 100 academics. They are discussing indigenous languages in Ireland, China, Australia and Spain.
"Different languages will have their quirks which tell us something about being human," says Nicholas Ostler, the foundation's chairman.
"And when languages are lost most of the knowledge that went with them gets lost. People do care about identity as they want to be different. Nowadays we want access to everything but we don't want to be thought of as no more than people on the other side of the world."

Apart from English, the United Kingdom has a number of other languages. Mr Ostler estimates that half a million people speak Welsh, a few thousand Scots are fluent in Gaelic, about 400 people speak Cornish, while the number of Manx speakers - the language of the Isle of Man - is perhaps as small as 100. But is there any point in learning the really minor languages?

To continue reading the full article, please click here.

Un llibre, un lector

El passat mes de juliol la Fundacc va publicar el Baròmetre de la Comunicació i la Cultura amb interessants dades sobre el consum de cultura en català. Aquí hi podem llegir una notícia al respecte. Personalment, però, el més xocant va ser aquesta frase amb la qual la Fundacc defineix qui és un lector:

“l'enquesta considera lector qui llegeix un llibre a l'any” ...

British English and Australian English (1)

The English language is spoken in many parts of the world and for various historical and cultural reasons, differences often occur between British English and the English of a specific country or region. We have already looked at some differences between the English spoken in the UK and the USA. Today we offer a few examples of Australian English – bearing in mind, though, that some of them are quite colloquial.


UK – farm; Australia – station

UK – field; Australia – paddock

UK – Good morning; Australia – Good Day (pronounced G’Day)

UK – horse; Australia – neddy

UK – beer; Australia – amber liquid

UK – mosquito; Australia – mozzie

UK – sausage; Australia – snag

UK – excellent; Australia – tops

And my personal favourite – apparently Australians refer to tight-fitting swimming trunks as “budgie smugglers”!

Presentació de Plantes del Port, en anglès

Divendres dia 17 a les 19.30 al Centre del Parc Natural dels Ports, Roquetes, tindrà lloc la presentació de la traducció a l’anglès dels llibres Plantes del Port, del Grup de Recerca Científica de les Terres de l’Ebre.

Plantes del Port is a reference book in three volumes covering the amazing flora to be found in the local mountains, near Tortosa, known as El Port. A translation into English has now been published and will be presented in public on Friday the 17th at 19.30 at the El Port Natural Park’s centre in Roquetes.

British English and north-American English (3)

Apart from vocabulary, there are other small differences between these two versions of the English language. One question is spelling with American English often offering a simpler option. For example, color instead of colour, or traveling instead of travelling. Prepositional differences include examples such as “on the weekend” (USA) instead of “at”, or “on the team” instead of “in”, or “Will you write me?” instead of “Will you write to me?”


American English sometimes uses the Past Simple where British people would use the Present Perfect. For instance, “I lost my key”, rather than “I’ve lost my key”; “I didn’t tell him yet” rather than “I haven’t told him yet”, or “I just saw her” rather than “I’ve just seen her”.

To finish this brief glimpse into these interesting differences, we would just like to point out that the verb “to enjoy” seems to have evolved and become intransitive even in the UK thanks to Hollywood and its tendency to cry out “Enjoy!” with no one asking “Enjoy ... what?”.

British English and north-American English (2)

As we said in an earlier post, there are some differences in the use of the English language in the United Kingdom or in the USA. Here are a few more examples (with thanks to fellow bloggers):


UK – nappy; USA – diaper

UK – bonnet (of a car); USA – hood

UK – boot (of a car); USA – trunk

UK – windscreen (of a car); USA - windshield

UK – autumn; USA – fall

UK – petrol; USA – gas

UK – underground (the Tube in London); USA – subway

UK – subway; USA – underpass

UK – sweets; USA - candy