Spain 9

Listen to Spain 9, a 23-year-old man from Madrid, Spain. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 23

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/11/1994

PLACE OF BIRTH: Madrid, Spain

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: Caucasian Hispanic/Castilian

OCCUPATION: graduate student

EDUCATION: first-year graduate student

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The speaker lived in Madrid until he was 19. He then lived in the United States for four academic years, with summers spent back in Spain. While in the United States, he lived for one academic year in Fargo, North Dakota, and for three academic years in Lexington, Kentucky.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

The speaker’s first language is Spanish. He began studying English casually in kindergarten and more intensely at age 12. As a teenager, he spent four summers in the United Kingdom, including Edinburgh, Devonshire, and Ascott. He studied acting in college and took one voice class.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 30/08/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

So I grew up in Madrid, in Spain. Um, it’s a very hard place to describe in many ways. Eh, I would say that, the, as compared to the U.S., it is a much more relaxed and much more bizarre place, in the sense that we are very focused on working to have time to, like, enjoy afterwards, and we are very, very aware of our pleasures in life, per se. So everything is more relaxed; everything is kind of chaotic and shambolic many times. But it, it gives it a fun spin to it, I guess.

So, growing up I was, I had like, what I think is a pretty normal childhood, until I grew up, and then I looked back and I was like, no, that was not a normal childhood — at all, whatsoever. But I went to a very small school; it was basically like a big house. Uh, we were 14 people in each year so, like, it was like, it was about a hundred students.

Um, and it was very — I was like very hippy, very progressive, very like, “Oh, oh, like, I love peace and love, and like arts and crafts.” And then I switched schools because that school only went for elementary school, so when I was in mi-, when I went to middle school, I had to switch. And then realized that I had a lot of creativity, a lot of, like, resources but that I hadn’t really learned much as of what it was expected for me to know at that point. So that was an interesting transition, and I think that was the moment where I started like noticing the more serious part, like the more serious sphere of what Madrid was like. Uh, suddenly I started relating with people that were more work focused and not so much, oh, “living a life outside of work” kind of thing.

Um, so that was a very interesting change and switch. Uh, within my own family, we had both sides, so I had been exposed to that before, but not that much. And, yeah, then in high school, I became this really weird, creative kid, but like not sporty. Like, I was not a theatre kid because there was no such thing as a theatre program. So, I didn’t know what I was. But I was kind of like fooling around, and like playing music and being really emotional all the time. And yeah, it was, I dunno. It was kind of a weird time in my life. And then went to college. Uh, didn’t — was going to be a doctor in the beginning. Uh, realized when I was choosing my faculty, like – not my faculty, my college – that was not what I wanted to do, so I didn’t do it.

Got into med school; I actually got accepted into med school, but never, uh, got in. Decided that because I liked to take photos and was like into photography at the time, that I was going to study filmmaking and television because that made sense. And started doing that; actually I really enjoyed it. Um, and then it was my sophomore year of, of college that I got in my first play: the first time I ever performed, the first time I ever did anything. Uh, it was a musical. It was Newsies; we were supposed to dance. I cannot sing nor dance, so it was a quite interesting experience. I don’t know how I got cast in that. …

[Subject speaks Spanish]: Cuando estaba en Kentucky y empecé a estudiar “canto” – que nunca había estudiado canto, bueno, había dado clases pero no de manera sería – hubo una profesora, doctora, que me obligó a cantar “Zarzuela,” que para el que no lo sepa, es una especie de ópera en Español, que para mí era una cosa totalmente extraña que apenas había oído y nunca había interpretado.

[English translation: When I was in Kentucky and started studying “singing” – which I had never studied singing, well, I had had classes but not seriously – there was a professor, doctor, who made me sing “Zarzuela,” which for those who don’t know, is kind of opera in Spanish, which for me was something totally strange, which I had hardly listened to and never before performed.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: Deric McNish

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 09/09/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

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