One of the problems, she believes, is that no one could see English-language films – even now original-version cinemas are rare in Spain. Anaya herself learned to speak English the hard way. When she was 13, she was sent for a month to Clay Cross, a mining town in north Derbyshire. In the airport on the way out, her sister had taught her the only words she knew: “I don’t understand you.” Anaya had asked to be billeted with a family with children her age; instead she was allocated to a childless couple, both of whom were 18 years old and who mostly ignored her for the duration of her stay, although they did leave explicit instructions to clean out their rabbit hutch.
“It was a disaster,” she says. “On the first day, they gave me tomato soup in a can for breakfast. I tried to remember what my sister told me, but I could only say, ‘I understand you’. And they said, ‘OK, that’s fine”. I lost a lot of weight that month.”
- - Elena Anaya: Almodóvar's new leading lady, The Observer, August 14, 2011.
About the author:
Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.
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