## Metadata * Author: [[John Reel]] * ASIN: B0BH8349G9 * Reference: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BH8349G9 ## Highlights languages are not learned through osmosis. They’ve got to be—in the gentlest sense of the expression—forced down our throats. — location: [151](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=151) ^ref-58864 --- The thing about expat life is that you can’t really make friends, or, if you do, they will soon be gone, — location: [267](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=267) ^ref-54188 --- The first time she brought me to the defunct coal town that she was raised in, Villanueva del Río y Minas (New Town of the River and Mines), — location: [326](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=326) ^ref-8013 --- Somehow I had, as the Spanish say, arrimado el ascua a mi sardina (brought the coal ember closer to my sardine), which meant working the system to my advantage. — location: [375](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=375) ^ref-5778 --- My media naranja (half orange), which is how the Spanish say “soulmate,” — location: [389](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=389) ^ref-10534 --- embobada (silly in love).” — location: [414](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=414) ^ref-49869 --- When I mistakenly say, as I often do, soñar sobre (to dream about), I am speaking in Spanish but thinking in English. It should come as no surprise that a new language spoken correctly ends up reprogramming you. — location: [450](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=450) ^ref-10151 --- Seville City Hall, a grand example of the plateresco (Plateresque) style, so named for its extensive and elaborate reliefs, sculpted as though molded in plata (silver). — location: [524](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=524) ^ref-63323 --- The intermixing of ancient cultures and creeds combined with the weather, the political folly, the aristocratic decadence, and the stubborn persistence of the poor to be happy and to live with dignity despite everything seeming to work against them had given the region a unique character and personality that lent itself to cliché. — location: [533](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=533) ^ref-17523 --- in short, Spanish fatalism, apathy, idealism, — location: [536](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=536) ^ref-40829 --- It’s a mere introduction, so you can start to understand the difficulty of it. — location: [546](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=546) ^ref-44399 --- When it comes to speaking a foreign language, if you doubt yourself, you’re doomed. — location: [569](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=569) ^ref-62490 --- I like that certain aspects of it remain as unalterable and mysterious as the universe. Astrologists look for answers in the stars; I look for them in the gender of Spanish nouns. — location: [840](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=840) ^ref-37135 --- I dreaded such conversations, even more so in Spanish, which was exactly why I had to go through with it—to overcome my fears. — location: [875](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=875) ^ref-20673 --- Central, I saw the bailaor (flamenco dancer) Israel Galván perform Arena. With daggers attached to his shoes and a poker face, he danced a duet with a rocking chair, his symbol for the Iberian bull, or perhaps for what he believed the Spanish had reduced it to. I instantly became a fan. — location: [1452](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=1452) ^ref-30327 --- Seville’s top-shelf cultural offerings will disgust, bore, or dissatisfy me four out of five times, then suddenly give me a taste or glimpse of heaven. — location: [1509](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=1509) ^ref-20816 --- “¡Manque pierda!” (Even in loss!), described true loyalty, while Sevilla FC’s “¡Nunca se rinde!” (Never give up!) smacked of cliché. — location: [1614](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=1614) ^ref-48837 --- Every day it seems clearer to me that there are three sure acid tests to finding out if you really know yourself: live abroad, get married, and have kids. — location: [1918](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=1918) ^ref-53199 --- According to the norms of social behavior in Seville, a kiss on each cheek is given to members of the opposite sex when you are introduced. — location: [1943](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=1943) ^ref-3249 --- In Spanish, “family-friendly” has no translation, because it goes without saying. — location: [2195](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=2195) ^ref-40839 --- Meanwhile, “¡Que me quiten lo bailao!” is what Andalusians say when they have lived it up at the expense of more pressing concerns. Now, as the pressing concerns come to bear, the revelers recall “the already-danced” as consolation. George Gershwin wrote “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” to capture the feeling. — location: [2385](kindle://book?action=open&asin=B0BH8349G9&location=2385) ^ref-45902 ---