Pittsburgh, Presidents and Languages

Two Presidents: Obama -I admire- and Zapatero -from Spain, I despise- have visited Pittsburgh, Pa. these last few days, and neither -just my luck- speak languages. I mention this because Pittsburgh homes my Alma Mater, Duquesne University, and the University of Pittsburgh, where I was taught English, Spanish anbd French, among other things. What a travesty of an international meeting!

In the XIX Century educated people spoke languages as a matter of course. Peruse Mann's Death in Venice where at the hotel von Aschenbach hears all the educated European languages.
Today more than ever the mastery of languages is a must, as I have written in my El laberinto del idioma inglés, which I recommend, of course.
And while we are at it, I also recommend Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh, to all those who wish to pursue a serious - a no-nonsense- education.

El idioma inglés y su laberinto

I put together and published El laberinto del idioma inglés, hoja de ruta as an answer and guide to and for Spaniards seeking to learn the English language.
If you happen to be a Spaniard studying English, may I recommend this book that will help you in your quest? In it you will find a lot of practical advice that will answer many of your questions about language learning in general. You will read: 1, Learning and mastering a foreign language IS possible. 2. Spaniards are not linguistically handicapped. 3. It's impossible to pick up a language in ten days. 4. A lot of hard work is needed. 5. Grammar and study are the easiest and fastest way to learn. 6. Beware of language quacks and charlatans. 7. Languages pave the way to culture, and perhaps jobs.
Read it and you will learn a few things about languages and it will save you time and effort.

http://www.ed-serbal.es/

In Ediciones del Serbal (http://www.ed-serbal.es/ and http://www.ed-serbal.es/listado.asp?familia=Diccionarios&idfamilia=62) you'll find information about most of my books, along with reviews, interviews and even videos. Check their web page whenever you have a minute to spare. Thank you.

Contact:

By the way, my address is: delfincarbonellatyahoo.com, just in case. (Of course, change the "at" to @, naturally).

Latest photograph

Picture taken last August in Alicante, Spain.

My Bibliography / Mi bibliografía

Important publications / Publicaciones importantes: Books/libros

· La novelística de J. A. de Zunzunegui (Dos Continentes)
· Edition of Los amantes de Teruel de Hartzenbusch (Anaya)
· Diccionario malsonante, inglés y castellano (Istmo, 1992)
· A Phraseological Dictionary, English and Spanish (Ediciones del Serbal, 1995)
· Dictionary of Proverbs, English and Spanish, (Ediciones del Serbal, 1996 and Barron’s Educational Series, 1998, N.Y. Special Award for Bilingual Lexicography, Universidad de Extremadura, Spain)
· A Spanish and English Dictionary of Slang And Unconventional Language, with a foreword by Camilo José Cela (Ediciones del Serbal, 1997)
· Gran diccionario de argot. Foreword by Luis María Anson, Spanish Royal Academy. (Larousse, 2000; McGraw-Hill, Chicago, November, 2002.)
· Diccionario panhispánico de refranes de autoridades, with a foreword by Alonso Zamora Vicente, Spanish Royal Academy, (Editorial Herder, November, 2002.)
· English in Action. First Year. English for Spanish speakers. (Serbal, Oct. 2002)
· English in Action. Second Year. English for Spanish speakers. (Serbal,Oct. 2002)
· English in Action. Third Year. English for Spanish speakers. (Serbal, Oct. 2002)
· English in Action. Fourth Year. English for Spanish speakers. (Serbal, Oct. 2003)
· A Shorter Colloquial Dictionary English and Spanish, Foreword by Hugh Rawson. (Serbal, Jan.2004)
· A Spanish and English Dictionary of Idioms, Foreword by Edward Gates (Serbal, June, 2004).
· The New Dictionary of Current Sayings and Proverbs, Spanish and English, Foreword by Dr. John Simpson, Editor in Chief, Oxford English Dictionary (Serbal, 2005)
· Diccionario de clichés (Foreword by José Jiménez Lozano, Premio Cervantes 2002, Ed. del Serbal, 2006.)
· Diccionario sohez (Foreword by Luis María Anson, Serbal, 2007; 2nd. Ed. 2008)
· Diccionario panhispánico de citas, 1900-2008, (Foreword by Enrique Vila-Matas, Serbal, 2008).
· Edition of Julio Cejador’s Diccionario fraseológico del Siglo de Oro (Fraseología o estilística castellana), with Abraham Madroñal (Serbal, 2008).
· El laberinto del idioma inglés. Hoja de ruta (Foreword by Dr. James A. Parr, Serbal, 2009)

El Imparcial

For those of you who can read Spanish and are interested in what's going on in Spain and Europe, I suggest you check the new El Imparcial (www.elimparcial.es) piloted and steered by my good friend Luis María Anson, a true believer in freedom and impartiality. Let us all welcome this new line of thought which, I am sure, will help present the news in a better light than at present.
Congratulations Luis Maria Anson and José Varela Ortega.

The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

This is NOT a book review, just random comments on The Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (secoind Edition). I chanced upon it on the Internet and checked a few writers, Spanish mostly. Cervantes was first: only one hit, "Hunger is the best sauce in the world", which happens to be a proverb and long in existence before Cervantes was born. And I ask myself: Of all Cervantes wrote -and he wrote a lot- is this the best quotation the compiler could get? No further comment.
Then I turned to Ortega y Gasset (He wrote The Revolt of the Masses, remember?) and got again only one hit: "Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia, y si no la salvo a ella no me salvo yo." And the sorry translation offered is -get a load of this!-: "I am I plus my surroundings and if I do not preserve the latter I do not preserve myself." There!
In view of this, I turned to other Spanish-speaking writers and thinkers, some of them Nobel Prize winners: Baroja, Aleixandre, García Márquez, Benavente, Azorín, Jiménez, Calderón, Lope de Vega, Galdós, Neruda, Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral... who are not included. But, of course, I find Groucho Marx, no less, who provides quotations from his film Duck soup without crediting the scriptwriters, the ones responsible for the funny gags and turns of phrase. Also, and per usual, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Bernard Shaw are included.
To the average British mind Spanish-speaking writers and thinkers are of little account. Salvador de Madariaga -he taught at Oxford, and wrote in English also- is a garlic-smelling spick who should be kept off an English Dictionary of quotations. For the British Groucho Marx carries more intellectual weight, by all means.
Stereotypes die hard.

Bertrand Russell and poor me

Bertrand Russell wrote about how we all needed "some human warmth to keep away the chill of the Universe" but that we find more often than not, as he said, "the treachery of friends, the discovery of the cruelty that lurks in average human nature..." and we realize how alone we really are when the chips are down, when we must rely on the strength of our character to keep away the hurt, the pain and confront, somehow, "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" We franticaly try to plug up the holes of our inadequacies with futile make-do activities... but time slips through our fingers, and our convictions shudder...
Forgive me for this flight into my emotions. It will pass... I hope.

Edward O. Wilson.

I entered Duquesne University to pursue studies in Chemistry and Biology but I soon changed my mind. In fact, before the school year started I visited Fr. Joseph Moroney, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and changed my major and minor. The Dean tried to persuade me not to do it, but I was pigheaded. Did I do right? When reading Naturalist, by Edward O. Wilson, I enjoy it so much that it makes me wonder whether I made the wrong decision. Do read Naturalist, Wilson's autobiography, and his Journey into the Ants and Sociobiology. You will not regret it. And for a treat check this interview: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-45154219728824809.

The Limitations of my Mind

Alas, a recent and unexpected discovery has weaken my resolution to push forward: it has suddenly dawned upon me that my mind -the workings of my brain- has deep limitations and that its scope is narrow. I have been suspecting this for long, very long, but I chose to look the other way, I chose to ignore the evidence. My brain's shortcomings are: an inability to grasp the meaning of time, the concept of beginning or end, nothingness, death and birth, the nature of happiness, the concepts of justice, love, friendship, memory... why go on? The list would be endless. And at this stage I despair of ever putting things right and learn... Too late. I have lost the sense of meaning of nearly everything. Fortunately others do not share my shortcomings...