# Investing in Spain



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

For those of you who have money or an interest in investment markets...

What opportunities are there to invest in Spain and what impact will the country’s upcoming election have on investor confidence? FT hedge fund correspondent Miles Johnson speaks to Joseph Oughourlian, chief executive of Amber Capital.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

So.....put your money in Spanish companies that produce/sell for the domestic market...Hmmm.
The word 'earnings' frequently employed in that clip refers to investment yields. But are earnings in the sense of wages for labour buoyant enough to support a healthy market for these mainly consumer goods?
As for buying into the banking sector....only a month ago Christine Lagarde was warning of yet another looming financial crisis.. The rubble from the last one hasn't been entirely swept away.
There are ominous signs of a mini-boom in the construction industry and we all know where that leads to.
All in all, a rather feeble Party Political for the Partido Popular. But then we don't look to the FT for left-wing propaganda.....


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> What opportunities are there to invest in Spain and what impact will the country’s *upcoming* election have on investor confidence? FT hedge fund correspondent Miles Johnson speaks to Joseph Oughourlian, chief executive of Amber Capital.


Erm. Sorry but what is "upcoming?" It sounds a bit like vomit!


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

baldilocks said:


> Erm. Sorry but what is "upcoming?" It sounds a bit like vomit!


Here's a translation for you Baldi
upcoming - traducción de español - Diccionario inglés-español de bab.la


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> Here's a translation for you Baldi
> upcoming - traducción de español - Diccionario inglés-español de bab.la


Ah. You mean the American way of saying "coming" (just two syllables are never enough for them!)

Just like "multilateral interpersonal interchange of information" = "meeting."


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

baldilocks said:


> Ah. You mean the American way of saying "coming" (just two syllables are never enough for them!)
> 
> Just like "multilateral interpersonal interchange of information" = "meeting."


I haven't got anything against the Americans nor the American language.
My closest dearest friends are American and they are wonderful people


----------



## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I haven't got anything against the Americans nor the American language.
> My closest dearest friends are American and they are wonderful people


... but when will they learn to speak English?

I've just watched a Judge Judy session and was appalled to hear "... gotten burglarized ..." (or how ever they choose to spell it!)


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> I haven't got anything against the Americans nor the American language.
> My closest dearest friends are American and they are wonderful people


The suegra is a Texan - need say more?


----------



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> ... but when will they learn to speak English?
> 
> I've just watched a Judge Judy session and was appalled to hear "... gotten burglarized ..." (or how ever they choose to spell it!)


That's American English.
British English is not the only form of English out there. 
I don't understand why some people from the UK think they are the only ones who know how to speak English


----------



## Mitch1717 (Nov 7, 2014)

Offended. &#55357;&#56862; I will admit that, I do have trouble with my punctuation's at times well most but I do my best and I am more then welling to learn to do it correctly but I don't want to be told I am stupid because I have a hard time. I do not pick an anyone for there nationality so please don't pick on me for being who I am. Thank You


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

Mitch1717 said:


> Offended. �� I will admit that, I do have trouble with my punctuation's at times well most but I do my best and I am more then welling to learn to do it correctly but I don't want to be told I am stupid because I have a hard time. I do not pick an anyone for there nationality so please don't pick on me for being who I am. Thank You


Nobody is picking on you, it is your fellow countrymen/women who adopt our language then screw around with it while persisting in calling it English instead of calling it American. That is our only gripe, which of course extends to include MicroSoft's spellcheckers that will insist on misspelling..


----------



## Isobella (Oct 16, 2014)

At least America still has miles and pounds


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Pesky Wesky said:


> That's American English.
> British English is not the only form of English out there.
> I don't understand why some people from the UK think they are the only ones who know how to speak English


Yup. There's also Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, West Indian English, Asian English, Irish English, Scottish English, each with their own accent, vocabulary, verb forms and even syntax.
The UK isn't like France. It doesn't have an institution like the Academie Francaise which sternly decrees what is and what is not 'correct' French. There are no rules for English in the true sense of the word, merely conventions of use that change over time and location.

A propos of the Academie, legend has it that one celebrated academician remarked to another that a fellow intellectual, who had displeased him, was 'un con' to which came the reply that the word was inappropriate since the person in question had neither the depth nor the capacity to please.


----------



## Mitch1717 (Nov 7, 2014)

Thank You for that. When I do here some new words most of the time I have now clue what they mean.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

Mitch1717 said:


> Thank You for that. When I do here some new words most of the time I have now clue what they mean.


Very many English people fail to live up to this imaginary ideal of 'correct usage'. In fact, it's likely that 'incorrect' forms are more common than those deemed 'correct'.
Who is it then who decides what is and isn't 'proper' British English as we unlike the French have no accepted determining authority?
It would seem obvious that English has evolved over the centuries and definitions of 'proper' usage have changed too. 
There has also been the co- existence of different forms of English depending mainly on class and education. An 'educated' speaker of English will typically employ a wider vocabulary and more elaborate syntax. But this doesn't mean that one is more or less 'correct' than the other- how could that be when there is no objective authoritative yardstick by which to judge?
Language usage is like skirt lengths....it changes according to fashion. If we all went around saying 'gotten' then in time that would be deemed acceptable. I was eighteen before I heard the f word in public and then the speaker apologised, saying 'he didn't know there was ladies present'. Now people of all walks of life use the f word and even the c word casually in all situations.
The function of language is primarily to communicate. If we understand each other then we are obviously talking the same language.


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

baldilocks said:


> Nobody is picking on you, it is your fellow countrymen/women who adopt our language then screw around with it while persisting in calling it English instead of calling it American. That is our only gripe, which of course extends to include MicroSoft's spellcheckers that will insist on misspelling..


Surely we Brits took the language we spoke when we landed on Plymouth Rock....so it was passed down, not adopted?

I like American English. It is stripped down, functional...like the traffic signals that said simply'walk' or 'don't walk'. I read somewhere that they've been scrapped. Shame if true.


----------



## pnwheels (Mar 3, 2013)

Can't believe I've scrolled through about 15 posts....Please get back to the topic!


----------



## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

pnwheels said:


> Can't believe I've scrolled through about 15 posts....Please get back to the topic!


:fingerscrossed:


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Surely we Brits took the language we spoke when we landed on Plymouth Rock....so it was passed down, not adopted?
> 
> I like American English. It is stripped down, functional...like the traffic signals that said simply'walk' or 'don't walk'. I read somewhere that they've been scrapped. Shame if true.


Actually it was a very close call whether the language of the US would be English or German. 

On that subject, much of present day English is derived from various forms of German and from French and from Latin and from... but to make the distinction we call it English, we don't call it German, French, Latin... so why should Americans still call the language they speak English rather than American?

AS for American being stripped down, it is far from it, it is overloaded with additional unnecessary syllables tacked on to perfectly functional English words, e.g. where this line in the thread started - why "upcoming" when the correct and accurate word is "coming"?


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

pnwheels said:


> Can't believe I've scrolled through about 15 posts....Please get back to the topic!


So...what isyour opinion as to the likely return on investments in the Spanish domestic market?


----------



## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

baldilocks said:


> Actually it was a very close call whether the language of the US would be English or German.
> 
> On that subject, much of present day English is derived from various forms of German and from French and from Latin and from... but to make the distinction we call it English, we don't call it German, French, Latin... so why should Americans still call the language they speak English rather than American?
> 
> AS for American being stripped down, it is far from it, it is overloaded with additional unnecessary syllables tacked on to perfectly functional English words, e.g. where this line in the thread started - why "upcoming" when the correct and accurate word is "coming"?


Could it not also have been Dutch? Or Spanish? 
Yes, English is one of the Germanic family of languages and has over the centuries absorbed Norse,a Germanic language, french, a Romance language and words and idioms from a variety of languages from Spanish to Russian. That's true. But English and German although both Germanic languages went their own ways, so to speak, experiencing sound shifts that changed consonants....German t to English d being themost obvious example and changes to verb forms. American English retains the same structure and written forms as British English.
I would contend that adding 'up' to coming gives a new force and meaning in that it implies direction whereas 'coming' is weaker, more neutral. So it fits well in that sentence.
There is no such thing as a 'correct' word. It's a matter of preference, surely. Where's the rulebook and who wrote it


----------



## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

mrypg9 said:


> Could it not also have been Dutch? Or Spanish?


No. There was actually much debate at the time (mid 17th century) between the area around Pennsylvania that wanted German (pennsylvania Dutch = Deutsche) to be the official language of the area that would become the USA and the rest who wanted English. The Southern parts which might have favoured French or Spanish didn't get a look in. However, in more enlightened recent times, it has been accepted that other languages may stand side by side with English for official purposes.

Anyone who objects to my position on language will have to accept that I have spent the last six hours in company with SWMBO and the suegra translating and correcting somebody else's mistranslation of a clumsily worded Spanish document on medical ethics into English. It was all the more frustrating since the suegra's English is a rather verbose Texan version so it has meant much culling of superfluous syllables and words.


----------



## pnwheels (Mar 3, 2013)

mrypg9 said:


> So...what isyour opinion as to the likely return on investments in the Spanish domestic market?


I don't have an opinion, but when I see a thread titled "investing in Spain" I was hoping to pick up some tips and advice!


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Might be easier just to change the thread title


----------



## concertina (Oct 18, 2012)

Hi stepping over from the Greek forum into your subject,I now realise how much of the English language is actually Greek and not limited to technical and medical,if you are speaking English you are also speaking Greek and loads of French.I get shocks all the time when I hear some Greek words that I thought were English,like-Taxi comes from Taxithi which means journey,Police which means Town,Hippopotamus,hipoo is horse and potamia is river,so horse of the river,empathy,sympathy,eratic,dogmatic,graphic,automatic, symptom,political,I could go on and on,the English have just changed some of the words slightly,in Greek hysteria is isteria,harmony,they say armonia,lots of ia endings and ic,,its really fascinating,I think English is a big soup,they had the Italians invade,the French,the German Nordic and possibly that gives the English language many choices of synonyms which are available from each of those languages.They have strange things like heri means arm and hand and fingers,so they say,oh I have pain in my heri but where in your heri I say then they use the exact word for hand or finger or palm.Same for leg,they say pothi meaning leg and foot and knee,again they say my pothi hurts.But really people dont realise how much Greek they are speaking in the English language.


----------

