Bless Babel

I have a real affection for colleagues who conduct all their phone conversations with spouses, lovers, smelly housemates, wedding photographers, attention-seeking mothers-in-law, and people they go to the pub with, exclusively in Gujarati, Finnish or Afrikaans.

I can just about puzzle out written Spanish in a newspaper - if schoolgirl Italian doesn't give a clue, schoolgirl French or Latin will - but even if I become fluent in Spanish, tango lyrics are so slangy and obscure that I'm unlikely to understand them unless I go and look them up.

No bad thing. The tune of Por una Cabeza makes me cry. When I looked up the title ("by a head") I decided not to pursue the lyrics further. An extended whinge about fast women and slow horses is not something I'm going to relate to sympathetically; my reaction is "you're a pillock, grow up;" much better just listen to the music.