HOW TO BE SPANISH: AN ARTICLE AND A REPLY

You may have heard of the article recently published by The Sunday Times titled How to be Spanish. (To see and download full article, click here) Different media in Spain have echoed the article, incensed by the collection of clichés it features.

A British contributor to El País, Simon Hunter, has replied to the Sunday Times'  chief travel writer  by giving his own view of the matter. READ IT HERE.

What's your stand? Are you outraged, offended, disgusted, or on the contrary, have you been amused by it all? Are the clichés true (or partially true)? Is the tone of the article derisive or simply taunting/frank/amusing/you-name-it?  

I wanna hear your thoughts about the issue!!

PS. Here's Murcia Today's article commenting on the matter.

ELECTION DAY IN CATALONIA

21D - CATALAN ELECTIONS 2017: LIVE COVERAGE IN EL PAIS IN ENGLISH: click here to follow the news.

And good practice of the passive ;)

LEARNING ENGLISH IN SPAIN

From this useful resource to improve your reading comprehension skills, El Pais in English, here are the links to two articles on learning English in Spain. Ideally, this could be done in pairs, where each of the students reads one of the articles, then they exchange information and opinions about them.

“The traditional method of teaching English isn’t working”

Are native teachers necessarily the best?

BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT FOOD

This website adresses some of the big questions about food, such as : How can agriculture meet the world’s growing need for food while doing less environmental harm? 

Click here.

INTERACTIVE READING: The first year of life

Since we've been talking about learning and education, this could be an interesting article to complement what you've learnt about the topic. Anyone with experience of babies knows how quickly they develop. When you only see a baby once in a while, it’s incredible how much they have learned to do

The texts based on National Geographic Magazine articles are accompanied by interactive reading comprehension activities, a recording of the text, a supplementary grammar and vocabulary practice worksheet and more! Click here for the link.

AN EXPAT GUIDE TO EDUCATION IN SPAIN

In class we worked with this guide written by and for expats about the Spanish education system. Though a few things may be a bit outdated or inaccurate (especially the part about university), it is quite informative. I have highlighted the expressions you need to be familiar with.

Click here to see it.

LAW & CRIME + THE MEDIA

StudentNewsDaily.com 

Check out this website that can help you improve your reading skill. This is what they say about themselves:

StudentNewsDaily.com is a non-profit current events website for high school students. Our goal is to build students’ knowledge of current events and strengthen their critical thinking skills. This is done by providing comprehension and critical thinking questions along with published news articles and other current events items from various news organizations.

You can start by reading and listening to the news story from October 2016 about hackers. Click here.

Also check the guidelines to write a letter to the editor. 

TOP TEN CONTROVERSIAL COURT CASES

In connection with the role-play activity you did today, where you had to play a people's court, click here to take a look at some of the most controversial cases in the history of the United States. Each produced some sort of verdict, but the outcomes left many doubtful about whether justice was truly met.

Click the "Next" button on the webpage to see the cases.
 

CURRENT NEWS: PANAMA PAPERS

In connection with the topic CRIME AND LAW,  please read this article about the just disclosed Panama papers.

Click here to read it in the original El Pais English Edition website.

Click here to read the class document. Try to work out the meaning of the highlighted words.

MORE ON EXTREME SPORTS

How can the misunderstanding of two simple words cause a deadly accident? Read the article from El Pais English Edition and watch the video on their website.

Think about the risks involved in this kind of activity: 
- What are the odds that you have an accident or mishap? 
- What benefits can you get from bungee jumping or other risky sports?

HOW TO TELL IF YOU ARE A SHOPAHOLIC

We'll watch this video in class. It's got loads of ideas and interesting vocabulary. And just in case you have a spending and debt issue, I'll leave you the link to Shopaholics Anonymous.(Seriously, have a look, piles of vocab)

HEALTHCARE IN SPAIN - THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE

Check this article published on The Guardian website section for Spain News:

Immigrants in Spain to lose right to public healthcare.

BUYING OR RENTING?

This is a decision all of us have to face sooner or later. For some of you it will also be the topic in your oral exam card. So here's some info that will provide you with lots of good vocab:

1.  THE NEW YORK TIMES:

Is It Better to Buy or Rent?

 2. By Raymundo Larraín Nesbitt, Lawyer 

Renting in Spain: Top 5 mistakes

THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON OUR WORK AND FAMILY LIFE

This article from The Huffington Post is an excellent source of ideas as well as vocabulary to talk or write about the topic "The impact of technology on our work and family life". 

By the way, if you are not familiar with The Huffington Post (or HuffPost), it is an American online news aggregator and blog which offers news, satire, blogs, and original content and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy living, women's interests, and local news.

Click on the article title to read it.

RELATIONSHIP ARTICLES IN COSMOPOLITAN

Magazines like Cosmo are an excellent source of colloquial vocabulary. Check out the articles by clicking here.

URBAN MYTHS: READING PRACTICE + CONVERSATION QUESTIONS ON HOUSE AND HOME

In unit 1 of your book (Topic 2 of our syllabus) we have been speaking about urban life and about houses and homes. 

In this post you will find two activities to practise both aspects. Next week we'll go back to the topic to round it off (after the break to talk about the election). So prepare both activities for TUESDAY.

1. URBAN MYTHS: PRACTICE OF READING TECHNIQUES TO GUESS MEANING IN CONTEXT.

a. Read about the different strategies to guess meaning in context and do the exercises from this website.

b. Read this extract from the novel Solar by Ian McEwan. There's a funny anecdote which someone turns into urban myth.

c. Select 10 words from the extract that you didn't know the meaning of. Don't look them up. Apply the techniques to guess the meaning and write your guess. Then look the words up and compare your guess to the actual meaning.

2. CONVERSATION PRACTICE: HOUSE AND HOME.

Click here to download a set of questions that you will discuss in class. Look up the new vocabulary and take notes to remember your ideas and answers to the questions.