False friends in Álora? Surely not.

False friends in Álora? Surely not.

In the Rough Guide to Andalucía Álora used to be described as 'A small dusty market town with a traffic problem'. That was even before they shut the two main roads through the town this week. Bewildered drivers have wasted hundreds of gallons of petrol and diesel trying to find a route through the still dusty streets. Many visitors  who came up from the coast for a nice  day out  missed their flights back to Gatwick and some can still be spotted trying to reverse up steep one way streets the wrong way. Traffic laws have virtually collapsed and it's every man and woman for himself and herself. Except, of course, for the Law of the Chaleco (Hi-vis jackets and the wearing of). They are a colourful distraction for navigators looking for new routes round and through the town.

I spotted this young chap while trying to get home from Mercadona with my shopping. The two people in the background are on a footpath and don't need a chaleco (waistcoast) but that footpath runs out a few yards up the road so they may be in for a 200€ shock if the Benamerita (Guardia Civil) are lying in wait further up. This new regulation is clearly a desperate attempt to raise cash. More than 50% of young people here are unemployed, don't have cars, walk about a lot and have no money at all. Walkers are easier targets than motorists but they had better watch out too. A few weeks ago in Mijas, Mr. Jonathon Adshead, 45, a car dealer from Lancashire was pulled up by the fuzz (ouch!) apparently for  not signalling that he was going straight ahead at a roundabout, a new law which not many people know about but could turn out to be a money spinner. He was invited to pay 100€ on the spot or 'spend at least a night' in the cells. Mr. Adshead refused to pay and was invited to visit the cop shop. There he was told that he was also going to be prosecuted for using his mobile phone and knocking over a cyclist which is a very serious offence here (unlike in London where killing cyclists appears to be a popular sport). Mr. Adshead got  a bit cross when he was breathalysed too. Eventually he got away with only paying the 100€ .  He says that he is going to move permanently back to Lancashire and who can blame him? (If he can sell his house, that is).

I said goodbye to  the safety conscious lad in the picture and he promptly replaced his headphones, a device which many people find useful for blocking out the sound of approaching traffic as you push your child up what may well have become the temporary Álora by-pass. (That's why I was going up there after all). 
A few yards up this usually quiet back road I was surprised to see a piece of graffiti on a bus shelter.

What can this mean? At first I was surprised to see graffiti in English especially  with the word 'friends' spelt correctly. Then I noticed that it had been signed with my own initials!! 
Non political graffiti is usually the  prerogative  of  'young people' so I can  not be a serious suspect and although there is a fair clutch  of  British youth living in Álora I was surprised that 'fake friends' rate as a top teenage whinge. I decided to investigate further at the regular 'intercambio de idiomas' (language exchange) group held in the biblioteca (library) every Friday evening. Célia, 16, and Cristina, 15, confirmed that fake friends were indeed a concern but they were mystified by the graffiti. They suggested that someone Spanish may have written it and used English to throw the authorities off the scent. I  thought that was unlikely.
Further enquiries among the teenage Brit. 'community' put me straight. Rosie, 15, assured me that the improper imperative on the bus shelter refers to that perennial problem for language learners, the cognate or 'false friend'; a word which looks  like an English word but has a different meaning . For example 'pan' is the Spanish word for 'bread' and not for  an  item of cookware which would be una cacerola (another 'false friend'). I wonder if we can  expect to see other heartfelt grammatical grumbles around the white walls of this white walled town. How about;

ALL APOSTROPHES ARE ARSEHOLES  or

'POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS PISS ME OFF' or

SOD THE SUBJUNCTIVE....?

Here are a few more false friends for aficionados:

nudo                    a knot
ordinario             vulgar/coarse
pie                       foot
nombre                name
red                        net
trampa                  trap
embarazada           pregnant

carpeta                   folder
constipado             full of a cold

exito                      success
preservativos         condoms

ropa                       clothes
sensible                 sensitive
once                       eleven
delito                      crime
horno                    oven

You can see how someone could get  very upset about false friends.

November 22nd. 2013