The Gold of Paris

Hi blog readers! 

Translated by: Dani Miller, Judi Cunliffe and Michael García

Today, I am going to write about a book titled: 'The Gold of Paris' which was written by Antonio Nieto Díaz in order to raise money for AdELA. AdELA is a charity that helps patients of ALS (Amiotrophic Lateral Syndrome) raising money for the needs caused by the disease. AdELA not only uses the money collected to buy medical equipment but also offers physiotherapy treatments and psychological support for patients and their relatives.

The Gold of Paris was first written in Spanish under the title: 'El Oro de París' and shortly after being published was translated into several other languages: German, Italian, Catalan, Galitian and English. The English version was translated by me with the invaluable assistance of two native speakers: Judi and Michael. Translating the book from Spanish to English was a long and difficult task but the reason was well worth the effort. 

A few months after 'The God of Paris' was born, it was presented and sold at the yearly 'Book Fair' in The Retiro Park and I had the enormous pleasure of assisting to one of the 'signature days' in the AdELA stand and I even signed some copies myself!

Now, almost a year later, the book is going to be shown tomorrow at one of the 'Friday's Breakfast' that the Official Language School where I work usually organises and this makes me feel very proud again,  not only as a translator, but also as the son of someone who passed away because of ALS.

I really hope you like the book and you enjoy it even more thinking of the reason why the book was written.

Here is a link where you can enjoy the first chapter: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2007JPM4NSJWWljQXRqdXg2QTA/view?usp=sharing

And here is the link where you can buy the book: 

http://adelaweb.org/nos-ayudan/tienda-adela

Thank you for keeping on reading this blog and for your support. 
 

God Save The Queen!

Hello folks!

Today as you have probably heard is The Queen Elizabeth the II's birthday. She is 90 years old and one of the best sovereigns The United Kingdom has ever had. In order to commemorate her birthday and learn some English along the way, we are going to look at some 'royal idioms'. There are 10 idioms in the picture above. However, I am going to highlight five of them, which I consider more relevant, funny or interesting for the learners of English.

•  If someone is a 'Queen Bee', they think that they are the most important person in the group. Queen Bees often like feeling the centre of attention in meetings or parties and they usually get noticed at such events.
• If something is 'Your Crown Jewels'  it means it is your most favourite or most valuable possession. For example, your car or your flat may well be your crown jewels. 
• If someone is a 'Royal Pain' means that he or she is very annoying and often a bad influence. Everyone has a 'friend' or a 'neighbour' who is a royal pain. Don't you? 
• 'Drama Queen' is a popular expression given to people who tend to exaggerate and overreact in certain exciting or dangerous situations. 'Drama Queens' are very popular in TV shows or films and they are often the origin of the comical puns... 
• 'A King's ransom' is a very large amount of money, so large that would be very difficult to get it in a short time. For example, buying a house today would require a king's ransom. Do you agree? 

That's all for now.

I really hope you have liked this especial 'royal idioms' post and have a nice weekend!

Hillary & the New York Subway

Hi guys!

Today I want to show you another funny video and use it to  learn some new expressions and vocabulary.
This time, the video is from Hillary Clinton one of the potential candidates to be the next president of The United States and about her not so successful ride in the most popular subway in the world: The New York Subway. Have a look at the video:

Did you ejoy it? Have you ever been to the New York subway? Did you have any troubles swiping the ticket through? I did!
The first phrasal verb that we notice is 'to get around' (travel from place to place). Then, we read: 'had some troubles making it past the turnstile'. The idiom 'to make it past something' means to get to the other side of something, in this case of the 'turnstile' (a struture that stops passage until a charge is paid or a number of people has passed through). Then we see the number of 'swipes' that Hillary needs to do in order to get to the train platform. 'Swipe' can be a verb or a noun in English. As a verb, 'swipe' means to slide a magnetic card through an electronic device that reads data. As a noun, 'swipe' is the action of that verb. So, the number of swipes that Hillary needs mean the number of times she needs to swipe her ticket.
Finally, the video ends by quoting: 'but don't worry Hillary. Your opponent still thinks that people use subway tokens'. This line has no other meaning than adding a comic effect to the clip by making reference to Bernie Sander´s old age since the New York Subway users used to have to buy tokens to ride the subway from 1953 to 2003.

I really hope you have liked the video and don´t forget to swipe your ticket thoroughly when you visit New York's subway next! Have a good week!