English in Madrid

Source: Lia on Unsplash   Catholic saint-finding game 'Follow JC Go!' wants to rival Pokemon Go  Pokemon Go, the wildly successful mobile game, has been downloaded around 800 million times and scooped over $2bn (£1.5bn) in revenue since 2016. Figures like that were always going to spawn some imitators . But the latest - the Catholic Church (followers: 1.2 billion) - might come as a surprise to many.  "Follow JC Go!", a Christian take on the game, lets players "catch" saints or Bible characters, instead of the little Japanese monsters. The game is the brainchild of Fundación Ramón Pané, a Catholic evangelical group, which made it in preparation for World Youth Day 2019, a Catholic youth event taking place in Panama in January. As with Pokemon Go, the game uses the player's smartphone camera to take in their surroundings , then superimposes digital characters. But you're more likely to find Saint Peter than Pikachu. Pl...

Actual and actually do not refer to time. actual (ESP) ≠ actual (ENG) and actualmente ≠ actually So be careful when translating sentences like the following: La situación política actual genera preocupación The actual political situation is giving cause for concern.  😡  The present political situation is giving cause for concern.  😍  La tasa de desempleo actual es la más alta de la Unión Europea. The actual rate of unemployment is the highest in the European Union.  😡  The current rate of unemployment is the highest in the European Union.  😍  La juventud de hoy tiene más oportunidades que sus padres? Do actual young people have more opportunities than their parents?  😡  Do young people today have more opportunites than their parents?  😍  Source: Marcin Nowak on Unsplash El Parlamento reformará algunas de las leyes actuales. Parliament will reform some ...

Source:  Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash Why you shouldn't hug your colleagues Whatever happened to the simple handshake at work? asks author Alison Green, and the creator of the workplace advice column Ask a Manager. You're greeting a colleague who you haven't seen in a while - and suddenly, without warning , they're enthusiastically opening their arms and heading in for a hug. Hugging used to be reserved for close family and friends , but it's been infiltrating professional contexts for a while now , leaving huggers delighted and the rest of us shrinking back in the hopes that we can avoid unwanted embraces . Hugging hasn't become the norm in every industry, but there are entire fields where it's common in both greetings and goodbyes, especially as workplaces become increasingly informal. That can be odd for those of us who aren't huggers, or who aren't huggers at work. And the fact that different people have different pr...

Image Source: Wikipedia (Felipe Gabaldón) MADRID. What does it mean to you? What's your favourite neighbourhood? Why? What advice would you give to a visitor? What changes have you seen? How would you compare it to other cities that you know? Have a look at some of these extracts from the * Wikitravel guide to Madrid .  Do you agree with them? What advice would you add? * Text in Wikitravel may be edited. Madrid  is the capital of Spain, as well as the capital of the autonomous community of the same name (Comunidad de Madrid). The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million with a metro area population of almost 6.5 million.  Madrid is best known for its great cultural and artistic heritage, a good example of which is the El Prado museum. Madrid also  boasts  some of the liveliest nightlife in the world. Image source: Wikipedia   Culture The culture of Madrid was dominated by its religious and royal history. Enormous, monoli...

Source:  Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash Man reads entire Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary is not everyone's idea of   a page turner . But a man has just completed the  mammoth , if not  bizarre , task of reading the 22,000-page tome cover to cover . Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10 , spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day. Cooped up  in the basement of his local library, the  removal man  from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day  painstakingly   making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee. Every time he came across an interesting word, he  jotted  it  down , fearful that he would not remember its meaning. Among his favourite discoveries were obmutescence ( willfully  quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laugh...

Source: Photo by Nick de Partee on Unsplash   What is the difference between these clothes related verbs? Let's start with put on . This verb is always used with an object. I put on my glasses to read the small print. You should put on a jumper . It's getting cold. I took off my black shoes and put the brown ones on . They're much more comfortable. Why aren't you wearing your seat belt? Put it on before the police catches us. You can see from the last example that you have to put something on before you can say you are wearing it. (Does that make sense?) It's the opposite of take off . You could say that put on is to start wearing and take off is to finish wearing something. Both put on and take off are separable phrasal verbs . This means that the object can go between the verb and preposition or come after the preposition . However, if you use a pronoun , it must be in the middle . She forgot to put her earrings on.  😍...

Image source: Wikipedia (Alex E. Proimos) Student union bans clapping to make events 'inclusive'  The University of Manchester's student union wants praise communicated using jazz hands instead - and cheering is also banned. Clapping has been banned by a student union in a move to be more inclusive towards those with anxiety or sensory issues . Jazz hands - British Sign Language (BSL) clapping - will replace clapping, cheering and whooping at the University of Manchester's student union events. According to student newspaper Mancunion, the ban was agreed at the first union meeting of the year. "It resolved to swap out audible clapping for BSL clapping at SU events, and to encourage student groups and societies to do the same, and to include BSL clapping as a part of inclusion training ," the student paper reads. The motion was authored by liberation and access officer Sara Khan, and received little opposition. Ms Khan has made t...