¡Vámonos!

Posted by lisibo at 19:47 0 comments    

Labels: festivals, Spain, video, Youtube

A beautiful, moving video of the Picasso painting Guernica, presented here in 3D. The music makes it all the more haunting.

Posted by lisibo at 05:52 0 comments    

Labels: 3D, art, Spain, video, Youtube

Today is Shrove Tuesday - I'll be making pancakes very soon for my hungry 'bichos'. However, in Spain and other Hispanic countries, they celebrate differently - as we found out at WCPS during our eTwinning project.

Posted by lisibo at 18:08 0 comments    

Labels: carnaval, Colombia, festivals, hispanic, Latin America, primarylanguages, Spain, spanish

As we're all taking down our Christmas decorations and enjoying the snow, (well, we are here having been granted a snow day!) in Spain and Mexico, children have been receiving their presents this morning, left for them by Los Reyes Magos.

And not forgetting the hilarious clip I shared last year!

Posted by lisibo at 12:25 0 comments    

Labels: christmas, festivals, icu, mexico, reyes, Spain, traditions

So, the decision about to whom London pass on the Olympic flame at the end of 2012 will soon be made. And much to everyone's surprise, Chicago (despite Obama) are out and Madrid are still in to fight it out head to head with Rio.

Posted by lisibo at 17:00 0 comments    

Labels: RTVE, Spain, spanish, Youtube

Just picked up the following from Twitter via @josepicardo who was alerted to it by @luciax.

Published by The Guardian in its Language Resources - Spanish area, 'Learn Spanish gestures' is a guide to some typically Spanish gesticulating that you could employ to look truly authentic as you complain of being fed up or tell your friend how busy the bar was at lunchtime.

Gesticulating is something that I can't help doing when speaking, especially in Spanish so this is just up my street. And I can see that this would be a useful resource for intercultural understanding activities, comparing typical gestures. I recall discovering the hard way that gestures that are innocuous in one country can cause offence to other nationalities - not my fault that Greece lost 5-0 in the football and noone had told me that holding up five fingers with my palm facing a Greek was rude!

Posted by lisibo at 19:50 1 comments    

Labels: funny, intercultural understanding, news, Spain, spanish

As I don my Spain shirt to watch Spain take on the singing might of Bafane Bafane, I thought I'd share with you a clip of the 'guapísmo' 'Nando Torres scoring a hattrick against New Zealand earlier this week.

(thanks to Year4 at Green Park School for sharing this originally!)

Posted by lisibo at 19:21 2 comments    

Labels: football, Spain

Yesterday saw the biggest lottery of the year - El Gordo (the Fat One) - in Spain. As far as I know - and I think I would know - my Aunt didn't win and nor did anyone else I know, but I still like to check it out as it is drawn and called in such a quaint way with children singing the numbers and prizes.



As The Guardian reports;

The Fat One showered €2.15bn (£2.02bn) in prize money across the country. It brought tears of relief to some winners and champagne-soaked pledges to pay off mortgages and meet debts from others.

The world's biggest lottery payout has ushered in the Spanish Christmas season for almost two centuries since it was first drawn in 1812.

Rarely has the prize money, spread among tens of thousands of people, been so eagerly welcomed. "Everybody says they are going to use it to get themselves out of problems," said Madrid lottery seller Rosario Rueda.

So, congratulations to the winners, and to the losers...there's always next year.

Posted by lisibo at 17:29 0 comments    

Labels: christmas, news, Spain, traditions

Now I've broken up for Christmas holidays, I'm ill - isn't it always the way with teachers? So, to get myself in the Christmas spirit, and because it is very funny - and true! - here's the inimitable Stephen Fry explaining a couple of rather particular Catalan traditions. Perhaps not the clip to use to explain it in class though!!

Warning - these clips contain coarse language that may offend.



And here's a clip of children attacking their Caga Tio!

Posted by lisibo at 10:12 0 comments    

Labels: catalan, christmas, festivals, funny, Spain, traditions

Well, it's December 1st and as much as I've tried to be strong, Christmas has finally got me! School is full of Christmas plans for plays, parent partnership days, activities, assemblies and the like, and home is likewise in Christmas mode as littl'un plays the lead in the Infants' play tomorrow as The Little Angel - if his temperature doesn't get any higher :os

And, obviously, plans for classroom activities are turning Christmas-ward too!

So, I've been through my files and found some Powerpoints that might help you - and me! to get our classes in the Christmas spirit as well as ticking a few Intercultural Understanding boxes!
I am not claiming responsibility for all of these as lots have been kindly shared by people on Yahoo! MFL resources group, or the Consejería.

So - to start you off, why not try learning how to say Merry Christmas in 10 languages other than English? Perhaps you could take one each morning for the next two weeks?

Here's a Disney video from Youtube if you want more languages - and it's even got the pronunciation for you!



Then perhaps have a look at some Christmas vocabulary in Spanish? If your room is decorated for Christmas, why not label the decorations - or use them for a game of 'Búscame...' ?

Christmas in Spain is very particular and the Ministerio de Educación y Cienciain conjunction with the Consejería de Educación en el Reino Unido e Irlanda have produced a great powerpoint presentation choc-a-block with authentic pictures of the events in December and January - not all of which are religious.

They have also produced a presentation about El Belén - the traditional Nativity scene that decorate Spanish homes at this time of year. I usually use my ELC nativity scene to retell the story of Christmas from the Biblical perspective completely in Spanish. Kids understand because it is a story with which they are familiar and also because I'm very dramatic in my retelling - the Head of the Catholic Prep, School where I used to work was rather taken aback by my reenactment of Mary being told by an angel that she was pregnant with Jesus ;o)

I also uncovered this very comprehensive presentation about Spain at Christmas complete with more photos and information in bite size chunks. It includes details of El Gordo, el Caganer (in ploite language!) and el Roscón de Reyes.


I've also found a presentation I did a few years ago at Birmingham Council House (I think it was!) about ideas for Christmas in the MFL classroom. It includes ideas for French, Spanish and German, and the ideas are suitable for right across the age range. I posted it last year too but in case you didn't catch it....hopefully something for everyone! (hope the links still work!)


to be continued!!

Posted by lisibo at 15:54 2 comments    

Labels: Christmas traditions festivals, free resources, holidays, intercultural understanding, Slidecast, Spain, spanish

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm currently in Spain, in Madrid at a bilateral eTwinning meeting for Spanish and English teachers looking for partners - for eTwinning projects.

The meeting is coming to an end today after three days of frantic activity as teachers from both countries really threw themselves into the task of making friends and influencing one another. After a treasure hunt around the sites of central Madrid, numerous three course meals and several copas de vino, everyone has found a partner or partners, and begun to formulate project ideas. So it's been a very successful meeting - and some of the project ideas that people are sharing as I type are really interesting and creative!

One partnership are going to use digital storytelling and video to share talents between their schools with pupils acting as a Simon Cowell and judging the talents of their partner pupils.

Another group are planning on looking at festivals and cultural events along the lines of 'similar but different' - I know that this type of project leads pupils to not only learn about their partners' culture but also to reflect on their own!

'One liners' will be based around a 'guessing game' involving proverbs in Spanish and English, with the partners schools exchanging one line each week that will be displayed for the pupils who will work out / guess what it means. The partners hope that this will lead to discussion of the imagery of proverbs and a comparison of similarities and differences. Apparently this idea was formulated yesterday in the middle of the session I delivered on Voki Voicethread and Audacity in eTwinning after I shared the Voicethread highlighted in the previous post called What could it mean? :o)

Another group were inspired to create a NING network in my session (and I only mentioned those in passing!) and are planning on a monthly Voicethread activity about the City of the Future - environment, culture, lifestyle etc.

I've had some very interesting conversations over these few days about languages and technology, and also about the use of technology in general. One delegate told me on the first night that he hated technology, couldn't do anything technological and that his own children were banned from using computers as they are 'evil'. Mmm! I suggested that he might like to learn how ICT works alongside his children, thus knowing what they were doing and learning at the same time, and we had a discussion about educating rather than banning but didn't seem overly swayed by my argument! So I took that as a challenge for my session and was pleased as punch when he made a Voki in my session and declared that perhaps he could do something after all. And in the report back, he's just suggested using online Playstation competitions as a way of maintaining and establishing links between the schools. :O)

Here's my presentation below - and the notes I made too.
You can't put Keynote presentations in Slideshare or Pages documents in DocStoc so the formatting is a little odd as I had to export it as .ppt and .doc :O(

Notes for Madrid - Get more Business Documents

Posted by lisibo at 09:56 0 comments    

Labels: audacity, etwinning, podcasting, Spain, voicethread, voki

Bon dia des de Barcelona! Didn´t think I´d get to blog from Barcelona but as ´mi marido´is ´trabajando´and the hotel has a PC with free wifi, ´aquí estoy´.

I am having a lovely time and there´s still more than a day to go.

Yesterday we went to Montjüic and visited MNAC, Fundació Miró and el Poble Espanyol.

Today we´ve visited la Sagrada Familia (I expected scaffolding but there was far too much of it!) and then Parc Güell. And it´s only lunchtime.

Next on the agenda is Port Vell and Port Olimpic before el Barri Gòtic etc and some serious shopping tomorrow.

I´ve taken lots of pictures - typical tourist ;o) - but as ´el marido´is using his laptop and this PC doesn´t Bluetooth or have an SD card reader, I can´t downlaod them at the moment. However, I have ´borrowed´one by the lovely Theo K to illustrate my post!

Fins aviat!


PS I am trying really hard to speak Catalan - after all, that´s why I´ve been revising. However, every time I try I am either looked at blankly or answered in Spanish. So, either I´m trying it out on people who can´t speak Catalan, my Mallorquí accent is confusing them, or I really am rubbish at Catalan! Hoping it´s not the latter ;os

Posted by lisibo at 15:37 0 comments    

Labels: Barcelona, catalan, holidays, Spain

Soooo excited! Tomorrow I'm off to Spain with Mr S (and without the little Master Ss!)

Three nights in Barcelona - definitely not long enough but I'm grateful for any time spent in Spain. And Barcelona - wow! I've studied the history of the city at University, learned the language and read books (fact and fiction) about its streets. So can't wait to be let loose to explore properly - last time I was on an organised trip and had a measly 2 hours to ourselves! Mr S will just have to follow me around and as long as he is allowed to partake of coffee, beer and tapas at regular intervals, he'll be fine!

Hope to take lots of pictures of my own, but here are a few by other people to set the scene.




And a brilliant 3D movie of how the Sagrada Familia might / will look when it's finally finished - in 2020!!

Posted by lisibo at 21:37 2 comments    

Labels: Barcelona, catalan, Spain

Slideshow by Roelof.

Posted by lisibo at 17:39 6 comments    

Labels: Spain

Whilst I've been getting overexcited about the exceptional performances of Team GB in the rowing, cycling, swimming and sailing - not to mention the gymnastics yesterday - Spain has been enjoying success too.

Yesterday saw Rafa Nadal win gold in the men's tennis singles, beating Fernando González of Chile 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. And this morning he was crowned World Number 1, knocking Roger Federer off his perch!



And Spain won another gold on Saturday, courtesy of Joan Llaneras in the men's points race in track cycling at the Velodrome (Chris Newton of Team GB won bronze)

Then today saw silver for Martínez and Fernández in the 49er sailing - oddly no British medals in that one ;o) They might even be promoted to gold after a protest over the (gold medal winning) Danish crew using a Croatian boat in the final race after theirs broke.


And Leire Olaberría didn't quite manage to emulate Llaneras' feat on Saturday, but did win bronze in the women's track cycling points race. (Rebecca Romero, having won gold yesterday in the women's individual pursuit, came 11th in her first attempt at the points race)
With good prospects of medals in the open water canoeing, hockey, synchronised swimming and triathlon amongst other things, Spain is optimistic of adding to its medal haul before the Games are out.

¡Vamos a ver qué pasa!

Posted by lisibo at 13:19 0 comments    

Labels: olympics, Spain

After my week in Anglesey (pictures on Flickr!) I returned to a mammoth list of posts to read in Google reader. I've now waded through them and am back to a nice clean page (until someone else blogs!)

This post on About.com -Spanish language caught my eye-



Reporting on an article in the Telegraph , it seems that Barcelona FC cancelled their flight to the USA on Air Berlin as the company refused to deliver the in-flight communications in Catalan. The club's President, Joan Laporta is involved in the promotion of Catalan and the decision, it seems, was made as a matter of principle.



Whilst I can support the right of people to speak and promote their language, especially in the light of the treatment meted out by Franco to Catalan, Basque and Gallego, and in light of recent discussions, I'm wondering...
how realistic the demands are on a low cost airline? As the spokeman for Air Berlin said, it would involve a great effort.
how far the right to have announcements in your language could be taken - will those from Valencia expect valencià to be spoken whilst those from Mallorca would want them to 'xerrar es mallorquí' ?
how much it was for the entourage rather than the players - although the manager is now Pep Guardiola - Catalan through and through - and there are a number of players from Barcelona, there are others who perhaps would be more comfortable in Spanish - or perhaps they should have asked for announcements in Portuguese, French and Icelandic as well?

And one last thing - does anyone pay attention to the inflight announcements anyway?

Posted by lisibo at 17:31 0 comments    

Labels: catalan, football, opinion, Spain, spanish

First there was the Spanish football team winning Euro 08.

Then there was Rafa Nadal winning Wimbledon.

And now, Carlos Sastre has made it a hat trick of Spanish wins, riding into Paris as winner of this year's Tour de France.After my post on Saturday re my dilemna, I did feel rather sorry for Cadel Evans who lost out to a Spaniard in the time trial last year too (Alberto Contador who was unable to defend his title as his team Astana were not invited in the wake of Vinokourov-gate last year) but he was simply too tired I think to pull it out of the bag.

However, I must admit that I was secretly really pleased to see Sastre triumph as he rode out of his skin in the time trial. Not simply because he's Spanish and from one of my favourite towns (Avila), but because he was SO humble about it all. At every opportunity he praised his team who supported him so well throughout - and they deserved it too.

Without the Schleck brothers, Stuart O'Grady, Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voigt (who lost his saddle somewhere on the Champs d'Elysees!) Kurt Asle-Aversen, Nicky Sorensen and Volodymir Gustov, Sastre would have been as isolated and tired as Cadel Evans.

He dedicated his win to his brother-in-law, José María Jiménez, who was also a professional cyclist who died in 2004. As Sastre said 'su derrota era querer ganar esta carrera' so it made his win all the sweeter for him and his wife, Piedi, Jiménez's sister.

So here's to Carlos Sastre - ¡muy bien hecho!

Posted by lisibo at 20:32 0 comments    

Labels: Spain, spanish, sport

Although Fernando Alonso let the side down, Spain are at it again, winning!

On Saturday, Alejandro Valverde opened the Tour de France with a win on Stage one from Brest to Plumelec.

And then on Sunday, Rafael Nadal finally conquered Roger Federer on grass at Wimbledon after a roller coaster of a game. Without the good old English weather, Rafa would have won in straight sets, and saved much nailbiting, but we'd have missed an epic tussle between two incredible tennis players.
And to cap it all, he became the first player to ever climb into the Royal Box!!



Not sure how Rafa'd feel about the assertion that he's 'ante todo, español' as a proud Mallorquí, but all of Spain is proud of him!

Posted by lisibo at 10:22 0 comments    

Labels: Spain, sport, video

Posted by lisibo at 09:14 0 comments    

Labels: Euro08, football, Spain

Miss the match last night? Here are the highlights, complete with commentary in Spanish, footage of the crowd in Vienna and in Madrid, and shots of the Royal Box.

Posted by lisibo at 22:35 0 comments    

Labels: Euro08, football, Spain