In this episode, again taken from her book “Capital Letters”, Gwyneth tells about a visit from British friends while she was living in Madrid and the problems encountered when ordering a simple coffee or a cup of tea.

Sprinkled with lighthearted linguistic insights, the pieces in “Capital Letters” touch on stories in the news and current affairs at the time of writing. They are written mainly in English, but with a scattering of Spanish that allows the reader to assimilate new vocabulary and phrases from context. The essays have been collected into a book, which is available to buy from Gwyneth’s website either alone https://gwynethbox.com/b/capital-letters-essays-of-expat-life, or as part of the “Expat essays” bundle of books: https://gwynethbox.com/b/a0M5x

In this episode, Gwyneth talks about how she started using her regular newspaper column “Capital Letters” to add some natural Spanish into the lives of the English readers based on the Spanish coast. She reads “Sizing things up”, which touches on such topics as word order – “dos años y medio” versus “two and a half years” – how Sam was wrong when he sang “a kiss is just a kiss”, and how Don Quixote may actually have been a big Don Quixo.

Sprinkled with lighthearted linguistic insights, with a scattering of Spanish that allows the reader to assimilate new vocabulary and phrases from context, the “Capital Letters” essays have been collected into a book, which is available to buy from Gwyneth’s website either alone https://gwynethbox.com/b/capital-letters-essays-of-expat-life, or as part of the “Expat essays” bundle of books: https://gwynethbox.com/b/a0M5x

In this episode, Gwyneth talks about how a good title and an intro to a friend of a friend were key to her getting a regular column in “The New Entertainer” newspaper. She reads “Collectors and collectibles”, the first piece she wrote for “Capital Letters”, which explores the concept of collecting things spontaneously to express our individuality as she did as a child or through strictly regimented fascículos, as the Spanish do, starting new curated collections each autumn.

Sprinkled with lighthearted linguistic insights, the pieces in “Capital Letters” touch on stories in the news and current affairs at the time of writing. They are written mainly in English, but with a scattering of Spanish that allows the reader to assimilate new vocabulary and phrases from context.

The essays have been collected into a book, which is available to buy from Gwyneth’s website either alone https://gwynethbox.com/b/capital-letters-essays-of-expat-life, or as part of the “Expat essays” bundle of books: https://gwynethbox.com/b/a0M5x