Members' Meeting 6.9.2016

Our first meeting of the season on Tuesday evening was well attended. Ann Large took the meeting, as Jan was away. We were entertained by our speaker Christina Spencer, entitled 'Living with 60 million foreigners'. Christina started by congratulating us on being the largest WI she had addressed! She was born in Leipzig, in the former East Germany but has spent her adult life in England. She became a translator and interpreter after studying at Liverpool University and worked as archivist for the Bibby Line for many years. Having married an Englishman, she has been totally immersed in British life and language for many years. She gave us a very amusing account of her life and work, pointing out all the anomalies and idiosyncrasies of our language and way of life. One anecdote illustrating the pitfalls of language translation was that the announcement of Vauxhall's new model the Nova, did not go down well with the Spanish market, as 'nova' in Spanish means 'won't go'! Vauxhall had to rename the car for export to Spain. Her love for the UK and Merseyside in particular came through throughout, and she was proud to tell us she was made an honorary "Scouser" in 2009.