JELOU, MAI NEIM IS ANN

(NA: Spanish pronunciation for “Hello, my name is Ann”)

For various reasons I have been many days without putting anything in the blog. I wanted to talk about different things, but I’ve found this as the one that I think it deserves some thought now.

Like many people, yesterday I saw how Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics. Like many people, I saw how they said “NO” to Madrid, for the third time. If you watch the Spanish press (newspapers, TV, Radio, whatever), Madrid's bid was the best, the one that offered more, the one that did better presentation, the one that...

IOC members, however, are a bunch of corrupts, who think only about their interests, that have no idea and therefore they didn’t chose Madrid. Some media said that the candidacy of Madrid had secured 50 votes (that means absolute majority on the first ballot). Suddenly, just 26. What about the others 24? Have they been bought by the enemy? Have they added wrongly?

Well, let this aside, which is not the subject of this article. Beyond Spain's economic problems, beyond not to be strong enough with the issue of doping, beyond that many structures of sport in Spain must be removed, I am with something else: The first thing to change is the Spanish educational system. To see the Prime Minister how he only spoke Spanish and to see the level of English of the Mayor of Madrid suggests that something is wrong. When traveling through Europe, you see children 11-12 years with a level of English unthinkable in Spain. Most children can have a more than acceptable conversation in English at that age. And they learn it at school. No private academies. Spanish children, a little bit more than "Good morning" and "My name is...". And, later, of course, it happens what it happens. At 18 there is no one who is able to have a conversation in English, except those who have studied on their own. Those who have studied it at school, nothing at all. And, many of these are then going to be later the country's ruling class. And they have to go abroad to negotiate, whatever. Of all the Presidents of government that has been in Spain since democracy, I think that Calvo Sotelo was the only able to speak English. The others, nothing, zero. Neither Suarez, nor Gonzalez, and Aznar (unless he does it in private, as he does with Catalan, according to him, of course), nor Zapatero and nor, obviously, Rajoy. They leave home with a translator, because they can not ask for "café con leche" (NA: coffee with milk), as Ana Botella said yesterday (which, for those who do not know is the wife of Aznar) . Let them say whatever they want, but it is not acceptable. In any way. I felt embarrassed listening to them. And I did not understand anything she said. From what I've seen, more than one member of the IOC didn’t understand anything neither.

I remembered that Louis de Funes movie, "The Gendarme in New York", where the group received English lessons. The pronunciation was obviously horrible. Like yesterday. To do this, it is better to make the speech in Spanish: it’s bad, but no one laughs at you. And we're talking about the person who runs 5 or 6 million people, many more than those who live in many countries. Then, the usual talk about that if there is a “mania” against the Spanish, if they are not wanted in the world, if this, if that. How do you want to be loved if they do not understand what you say?

Jordi Pascual

You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP