A cultural and language workshop on beautiful Spain
Many of us would recognize this picture as a tortilla bread, ready to be topped with fillings and then rolled up.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that if you ordered a tortilla in Spain, you would get this egg dish instead.
This was one of the many interesting facts that we learnt about Spain.
Having subscribed to the lifeskills and lifestyle @ People’s Association newsletter, I saw a contest about the Latin American Culture Workshop and participated for the fun of it. I’ve forgotten all about the contest till I checked my email some weeks after and realised that I’ve won! I decided to take mum along.
We reached the Tanjong Pagar Community Center and we were introduced to a Antonio Codinach, a director and teacher for the Las Lilas School - A Spanish & Portuguese Language and Cultural School.
As soon Antonio started talking, I was immediately facinated by his accent. I must be having the same facination as how my family was when they met Cartcart for the first time! :P
Antonio started with an overview of the different regions of Spain and then talked about the interesting facts about it like :
- How the flamenco which is famous in Andalucia, had Islamic roots.
- and how the City of Arts in Valencia is shaped like an eye, which will actually open and close at intervals.
There were a number of people our group whom have previously travelled to Spain and shared their experiences there. Mum chatted up to the lady sitting near her and she affirmed that Spain was indeed extremely beautiful but it could tend to be messy.
Antonio moved on towards the gastronomia - popular spanish foods, such as the Paella, the Tortilla and the Gazpacho. I have to admit that although I was fasting, my faith almost wavered while looking at the most appetizing sights!
Seeing how the food was prepared made me realise how similar Spanish food was with some of the food that I have encountered. The Arroz con Leche (rice with milk) for example, reminded me of an Indian dessert as well as a Malay Bubur Pulut hitam (Black Glutinous Rice pudding).
I also see how the Tortilla definitely reminded me of the Italian frittata as both uses eggs as the main ingredient, fried and turned over. Many Spanish foods use olive oil, as Italian foods do too.
Later on towards the end of the workshop, we learnt some basic Spanish words such as :
Hola, me llamo Marina. ¿Y tú? - Hello, my name is Marina. And you?
Me llamo awesome dude - My name is awesome dude
Mucho gusto - Much pleasure
It was interesting to note that the Spanish ‘ll’ sounds like an english y. So when we say me llamo, it is pronouced as ‘mee yammo’. As the Spanish language has it roots from latin, I immediately picked the similarities to Italian, the language that I am currently learning - like the genderisation of words and how similar certain words are to each other. For example, an egg is uovo in Italian, and huevo in Spanish.
Facinating stuff.
Without us realising it, workshop came to an end. Mum and I thoroughly enjoyed the enriching session that we had - the food, the culture, the language. To be honest, before this, it never crossed my mind about visiting Spain. I wonder if we will be going to beautiful Espanol in the future :)
Here is a clip from the workshop :
Related links
September 25th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Awesome! Now I know where to go for Spanish lessons!
Wish you had brought me. I love Spain!
September 25th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Hola!!! Que tal??
The three Latin countries (Italy, Spain and France) have very similar culture if you look at it. You can find names which when you go to the other country sound similar but a little different. Like Francisco(Spanish), Francesco (Italian) François(French). And it’s so much fun to analyze this.. Hehehehe.
The best part of spanish though is their confusion between ‘b’ and ‘v’. Heheh.. So if there is “ban on vans”.. or “van on bans”… nobody knows.. :P
September 25th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Geraldine
Gosh, I didnt know that you loved Spain. Aww … you could have joined mum and me!
I’ll keep that in mind the next time I stumble onto a Spanish cultural workshop :)
NTT
Sí. Su verdad :P
You are right, they *are* very similar in alot of things, not only the similarities between the languages, but also in the culture and food, considering that each of these countries are very very large.
Really facinating stuff :)
Confusion about b and v? Bans on vans? Hehehehe … or should I say … jejejejejeje :D
September 25th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Hola, buenas noches. Que tal senorita Marina?
Con quien hablas espanol?
Fue un viaje Spain? Con quien viaje Spain?
haha. I bring you guys for a Mexican Lunch nxt outing. Let me know a date ok? :) I have been taking Spanish for half a year. Anyway to add on, you forgot to talk about r. bailar = bailarrrrr. Lol Jose = Hose. Make the spitting phlegm sound.
Hasta luego.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Ethan
Hola! Buenos días :) No sé realmente español. ¡Pero agradezca a dios por babelfish! ¡Puedo fingir hablar español! Jajajajaja!
I didnt know you took spanish too, where are you currently learning, Ethan? Oh, talking about learning spanish, I found this really funny clip of a guy who’s learning Spanish and used what he learnt to make into a song to romance a girl.
No remembro eleven. Hahaha! Hillarious!
Cool! A mexican lunch! Not quite Spanish but that sounds awesome :) Lets set one after the fasting month ok?
September 27th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
lol izzit oversea food style or in singapore food style??
September 27th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Hi marina, :)
interesting stuff! Different races and cultures always fascinate me… the spanish language sounds very sexy, noo? hehe..
September 28th, 2007 at 5:17 am
Hisyam
How do you mean? Spain is overseas but you still see some similarities with different foods throughout the world.
When you travel and see more things, you’ll see that our world is quite mixed already with similarities from one place with another.
Ophelia
Oooh … all accents are sexy! ;) Hehehehehe
Different races and cultures facinates me too! :) Oh speaking of sexy accents, Have you watched this funny clip, by the way?
September 28th, 2007 at 11:42 am
hahaha.. yeah it’s kinda cute :)
October 24th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
[...] I quite enjoy the activities conducted from the PA Website. So far, I’ve attended the Vocal Coach workshop, the Italian language course , Yoga at the sports complex and most recently attended the Spanish Cultural workshop. [...]