Dawn

Dawn

Monday, March 12, 2012

When I and my (then) wife were learning Farsi (Persian) a few years ago, we had a teacher by the name of Tavakoli. To say he was an unappetising cove would be something of an understatement. He also had some decidedly odd views, as this conversation shows. It took place after my wife had gone to the toilet:-
I'm finding this tough. I'm pretty good at languages but I can't keep up with my wife. She finds the difficult sounds easier than me and she seems to have total recall of the vocabulary. Whereas I have to spend my evening learning it.
Don't worry. It's quite normal. Woman are always better at learning languages.
Why do you say that?
Well, they have much less in their heads than men. So it's much easier for them to find space for new things.
(Laughing) That's good . . . Oh, you're not laughing. You mean it.
Yes.
Well do yourself a favour. Don't mention your view to my wife when she comes back from the toilets.

I see the Pope has blamed 'liberal teachings on sexuality' for causing 'grave social problems'. Unlike illiberal teachings on contraception, which, of course, don't.

It's reported in Spain that the amount of money shelled out in the phoney pensions case I mentioned on Saturday was 933 million euros but I must say I find this implausible. Less hard to believe is that 9 million went to companies owned by the then president of the regional government.

Equally unsurprising is the claim that, with 22 days holiday and another 14 fiesta days, Spain's total of 36 free days is only beaten by the 38 of Austria and Malta. By the time you've added 'bridge' holidays to the Spanish total, it surely emerges as the winner.

Perhaps because I've never done it - and because I live in Spain - It baffles me that British youth of all classes go out of an evening with the aim of getting drunk.

Which reminds me . . . I saw this notice on a bus the other day:-

If you are eating on this bus,
not everyone will share your enthusiasm.

I found it surprising there was no exhortation along the lines of: "Don't do it!" Or even "Please don't do it". As with this second notice I saw today:-

Seats are for sitting
And the floor is for feet.
Please don't put your feet on the seats.

But my satisfaction at seeing the final line failed to compensate adequately for the disappointment that such a notice was necessary in the first place. Perhaps I'm getting old.

No comments: