Lazy Saturday

24 March 2012

Today ended up being a pretty lazy day. I went with some friends to a movie in the afternoon. We saw Blancanieves (Mirror, Mirror) with Julia Roberts and Lilly Collins--mostly because I was in the mood for something lighthearted. It was probably one of the worst movies that I've ever seen. I'm not sure how much it has to do with the fact that it was dubbed in Spanish or if it's that bad in English too.

In Spain, most TV shows and movies are dubbed in Spanish. In Alicante, I haven't been able to find any theaters that offer movies in their original version. However, when I lived in Madrid, I could find showings of movies in their original version. Some Spaniards I've talked to think that the fact that most movies/TV shows are dubbed contributes to the lower level of English that Spaniards have in comparison with the rest of Europe. If all American TV shows were just in English, people would have greater exposure to the language and more of an incentive to be able to understand. This is what happens in countries like Sweden and Germany--where the level of English is much higher.

According to a recent study, Spaniards have the third worst level of English in Europe--only coming in ahead of Turkey and Russia. The study contributed a number of factors to this low rank--such as beginning age of the students, the quality of the teachers, the amount of daily English exposure (in newspaper, TV, movies), and the method used to teach (often rote memorization). While the study has some bias as it wasn't completely randomized and it was sort of a self-selecting group, it does lead to some interesting questions about the role of English education in Spain. You can read the article here.

In order to save this blog post from being depressing, I'm going to post a picture to lighten the mood. Check out the parrots I saw one day on my way to the TRAM stop!

The Spanish art of flirting...

23 March 2012

During today's intercambio, I learned a number of phrases related to flirting... Apparently, in Spanish, there are distinctions made based on the type of flirting and who is doing it.

ligar--used when the person is the recipient of the flirting. Ex. Hemos ligado. People flirted with us.

coquetear--used when the subject is the person flirting. Ex. He coqueteado con él. I flirted with him.

liarse--implies something more than just flirting.

I also learned an adorable phrase for when someone pats himself/herself on the back for a job well done.

No tiene abuela--literally, he/she doesn't have a grandma.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail... Easter's on it's way.

22 March 2012

Given that Easter is still a couple weeks away, I wasn't thinking about preparing Easter activities for the kids until over the weekend. However, in calculating the days that I have with each class before spring break, we realized that I only had today to work with 4th grade on an Easter activity.

This meant that I frantically managed to put together a powerpoint about Easter in the United States in about 30 minutes.

After talking about my family's traditions in the United States, we did a comparison of Easter in Spain and Easter in the United States--highlighting the differences and the similarities. Even though Easter is celebrated by Christians in both Spain and the United States, I was surprised to find out that they are fairly different.

I won't elaborate on all of the differences--since some of them I'll write about during Semana Santa (Holy Week). However, I'd like to write about some of the things we discovered. 

Similarities:


Special food--At least with my family in the United States, there is a special meal that we eat--including ham, baked beans, and mashed potatoes. While in Spain there isn't one particular food that is eaten at the Easter meal, there are a number of special foods that are only eaten at Easter--such as la mona and torrijas.


La mona is similar to a kings' cake, but they put an egg (sometimes decorated) in the middle. This is a tradition specific to the eastern side of the coast of Spain--specifically Catalunya. Torrijas are my personal favorite. They are sort of like pieces of French toast but covered in more cinnamon and honey.

Time spent with family--In both countries, Easter is a time to visit your family.

Differences:

Religiousness--On the whole, I think that Easter in Spain at least comes off as being more religious. In the United States, Easter has turned into a very commercialized holiday with the Easter Bunny and all the chocolates/sweets that companies try to sell.

In Spain, Semana Santa (Holy Week) is important--even for the people who aren't practicing Christians. There are religious processions in which people walk all through the city. In Alicante, on the Wednesday before Easter, there will be a religious procession that will last from 5 hours!

Activities--While decorating eggs and having Easter Egg Hunts is becoming more popular in Spain (due to globalization), I discovered that most families take a trip of some sort--to the beach, to the castle, to the countryside, etc--in order to celebrate Easter. There, their families might have a picnic or eat a paella.

Old McDonald Had a Farm...

21 March 2012

I could write a whole series of blog posts devoted to a review/criticism of the English books that our school uses. All in all, it's not a bad book. There are parts of the book where I can see that they are attempting to incorporate "best practices" for language instruction. However, I have some issues with the book--starting with its songs.

Each chapter in our English book has a song for the children to learn--which is great in theory. Children learn A LOT from songs. There is a reason why so many of the things that we learn when we are young are put to song--like the ABCs, the Clean-up Song, the 50 States, etc.

However, the songs in our books are some of the weirdest songs I think I've ever heard. The writers try to find a way to put every single vocabulary word and grammatical point into a short song. Consequently, we get songs about pulling off granddad's shoe and what school supplies you have on your desk.

Don't get me wrong. There are a couple songs that are kind of cute--like the following song we sang with 2nd grade.


"I like you.
Hello. Hi.
I've got black hair and brown eyes.


I like you.
Hello. Hi.
I've got blond hair and blue eyes.


I like you.
You like me.
With my friends,
I'm happy." 

Once you've sang this song about 20 times, you start to think it's okay. Clearly, it's supposed to be teaching acceptance of difference--which is great for elementary school children. However, it also seems a little random--in the sense that the chapter is about the parts of the face so the writers had to figure out some way to write about hair/eye color.

The older the kids get the weirder the songs are. I'll have to find a copy of a 6th grade song to share one day.

I've been trying to teach the kids some of the songs that I sang as a kid. This week, with 1st grade, we've been learning about pets--so I thought we could learn "Old McDonald Had a Farm."

We started by practicing our best pet noises--which they were surprisingly reluctant to do. Since we've been practicing gestures with each word, the kids have become more accustomed to making a gesture for whiskers than meow-ing like a cat.

Next, we cut out and colored a picture of Old McDonald and a farm to use in singing the song.

Like any song, at first, they started mumbling along--only clearly getting out "EE II EE II OOOO." Pretty soon, they picked up pretty well and the kids took turns choosing the pet to sing about.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

20 March 2012

Unfortunately, rather than writing about culture, language, or teaching, this post is going to turn into a bit of a rant. Somehow, days off from school inevitably lead to "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days..."

The day got off to a bad start even before it really began. I woke up to find that it was raining. This was surprising because Alicante only gets an average of 20 days of rain all year. However, it wasn't a light drizzle, a nice spring shower. Nope. It pretty much poured all day.

Now, this would normally be nice--since Alicante really needs the rain. However, it's not so great when you have a broken umbrella.

I have bought two different umbrellas since coming to Spain--both of which broke during my trip to San Sebastian and Bilbao. I haven't gotten around to replacing them because it just doesn't rain that often in Alicante. Once again, this wouldn't be a problem on a normal day, but I also lent my jacket to a friend over the weekend.

So I had to walk around in the rain with a sub par umbrella and a sweatshirt.

 At lunch, I decided to go to one of my favorite cafeterías and got a sandwich and a pastry for dessert. Unfortunately, when I went to pay, I realized that I didn't have my wallet and that I had left it in my other purse--which I used over the weekend. I was mortified! I couldn't believe that I had forgotten my wallet!

Fortunately, this is a cafetería that I go to frequently so I was able to talk to the owner and she is letting me come by tomorrow to pay off my debt. It didn't stop me from feeling extremely embarrassed.

The only bright part of the day was that I managed to send the last of the pen pal letters to the United States. Now we just have to wait for responses--which can't come soon enough! Every class has about 3 or 4 students who ask me EVERYDAY about the letters.

El día del padre/Día de la Pepa

19 March 2012

No school today! We had the day off for two reasons--though due to the commercialized world we live in today I mostly heard about only one of the reasons for today's holiday.

Today is el día del padre--Father's Day--specifically it's Saint Joseph's feast day. Everywhere you go, there are advertisements for offers for Father's Day. Ah, globalization...

It's also el día de la Pepa--Day of "la Pepa." Apparently "Pepa" is a nickname for Josefa--which is the feminine form of José (Joseph) whose feast day it is today. "La Pepa" is the affectionate name for the Constitution passed in 1812 in Cadiz--which was Spain's first move toward democracy--guaranteeing rights such as male suffrage and free press.

More importantly, today marks the 200th anniversary since "la Pepa" was passed--even though the constitution only really lasted 2 years. However, "la Pepa" laid the groundwork for future constitutions (of which there are seven).





In honor of this holiday, I went to one of my favorite cafés for dessert!


And no, I did NOT eat both of these desserts!

Las Fallas in Valencia

18 March 2012

This weekend marks the end of one of the most anticipated holidays in Valencia! Even though I didn't have the chance to make my way to Valencia for Las fallas, I wanted to be sure to write a little about this neat fiesta.

Las fallas (possibly coming from the Latin for "torch") is a five day long festival in honor of Saint Joseph--which culminates in the burning of the fallas. Historically, it was a festival to mark the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Nowadays, I'm not sure if it's so much a holiday to honor St. Joseph as an excuse to burn things. It's a pyromaniac's dream holiday!

People spend all year preparing for this special celebration! Different neighborhoods in the city of Valencia form groups--called Casal Faller--that get together to create a ninot--which are made of materials like paper-mache, plaster, wood, and cardboard. These ninots are by no means small--or cheap to make for that matter. Some ninots are around 20 feet tall! The ninots typically are satirical in nature--making fun of political figures, celebrities, and events of the previous year.

In the week leading up to Fallas, each neighborhood takes their falla around the city to show off their work.

The festival itself actually only lasts for 5 days--in which there is basically non-stop firecrackers, partying, and fire.

For people, like me, who are easily startled by unexpected firecrackers in the streets, the five day celebration is enough to give you an anxiety attack. Each day at 2:00 PM, the Mascletà occurs in each neighborhood. These are firework/firecracker displays that are made to gain the honor of supplying the display for the final mascletà. 


Throughout the week, there are fireworks displays at night--ending with the Nit del Foc--the Night of Fire. This is the night with the biggest, most impressive fireworks. 



However, the most important event is the cremà on the last night of Fallas. On this night, the fallas are burned--all except one! People vote on one falla each year to save--which ends up in the Fallas museum. 


Even though I didn't get the chance to go to Valencia for this holiday, I'll get to have a similar experience in June when Alicante has its own version of Fallas. Hogueras!