Why Spain Needs a Good Riot
Monday, September 29, 2014
A couple of months ago a friend asked me how things were going in Spain. I don't remember what I said exactly, but my conclusion was this; "everything is just so shit and unfair. What Spain needs is a good riot". It was a bit of a weird, dramatic conclusion but what happened this week has only confirmed my belief.
I live in Zaragoza and cycle to and from work. Over night, with no warning, the city council have decided that cyclists are now not welcome in several roads in the city centre and there will be a fine if you cycle here. One of these roads (Paseo Independencia) actually has a cycle lane on it.
This came into effect on Sunday at midnight and on Monday morning there were police giving out fines. There was no warning, no public consultation (that I know of) and there are no physical signs in the street saying that the cycle lane is now out of use or that bikes cannot enter these streets.
According to one newspaper the council is giving a 15 days "transition period" regarding the changes yet the same article says that 20 people have already been fined. The general consensus is that this is a quick way for the council to make money. That it's terrible and unfair and illogical. But whenever I bring up the issue the response is "yeah this is stupid, but this is Spain, what do you expect?".
I expect people not to just roll over and accept it. In the UK people would start an online campaign through something like change.org and they'd protest, they'd get the local newspaper on board, they'd demand to be listened to. People in the UK start petitions about a lollipop man outside a school, imagine what they'd do if the government just changed the Highway Code overnight and started fining people for it.
 And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Spanish government is introducing worrying changes in every sector which will only push the country further into recession and into the past. They're cutting vital health services. They've frozen the minimum wage. They're proposing increasing the number of children per class by 20%. This means 36 students for 1 teacher.
My boyfriend said to me "In Spain things either happen very quickly or very slowly. The things that go quickly are things that make them money like introducing fines and making cuts. The things that go slowly- well everything else"
And the sad thing about this is that it happens, and will continue to happen, because Spanish people are not prepared to do anything about it (this is where the riot comes in). The government is like a school bully. They make up their own rules, for their own gain, and then take the hard-working public's lunch money.
The only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them. This is why Spain needs a riot. They've tried organising peaceful protests but Spaniards couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.
There was a protest about the bike thing on Friday and I'd say a good 500 showed up (though only around 30 turned up on time- the rest flowed in when they felt like it). We all took our bikes and started cycling very slowly and peacefully down Paseo Independencia. It held up traffic and the bikes dominated the singe-laned traffic while the bike lane sat lonely and unused right next to us. The idea being to show how absurd it is to not use a perfectly good bike lane.
This would have been great. If it had lasted more than 40 minutes. The bikes just started to hold up traffic and then everyone just disappeared. It was almost like "right, the tram's started running late and the traffic's a bit backed up now. Job done. Let's go get a cerveza."
It's been three days since the protest and not one newspaper has written anything about it. So unless you were on that exact street at that exact time, you wouldn't even know it had happened.
This is typically Spanish. The vast majority of people do nothing. The people who do try to do something, don't do it well. The media doesn't support it. Nothing changes.
Of course this is a local issue which only affects certain people but even the national protests on very serious issues are not done well. Take the abortion law for example. Abortion has been available on request in Spain since 1985. Last year the government decided they want to ban abortion except in very specific cases where the mother's health is at risk or she was raped. To most people this is a step backwards. You can't criminalise a medical procedure that's been legalised for almost 30 years. But that's what the government wanted to do.
There was a protest in January. This is how they did it:
Their campaign is called "el tren de la libertad", (the train of freedom). Now, if you were to walk past this protest what would you think they're protesting? Probably something to do with trains. The word abortion doesn't feature on their banners at all.
Spanish people are just very bad at protesting. How are you supposed to convince people to support your campaign to keep abortion legal with a purple choo choo train?
{note; the government has just announced this week that they're putting the abortion law on the back burner until after the general election. Not because of the protests, but because they don't wish to debate such a sensitive issue so close to the elections when this could lose them votes.}
Choo Choo trains aside, most citizens sit back, shrug their shoulders and let a couple of hippies organise a badly designed, half-hearted demonstration. This is why Spain needs a good riot. A good old-fashioned national strike. A full-blown something that'll force the media and the government to sit up and listen.
It's easy to ignore a group of people cycling up and down a road for 40 minutes one afternoon. It's easy to not take the pretty purple train seriously. Riots. Strikes. Spaniards need to do something that those in power would take seriously.
If regular citizens are unwilling to unite, stand up for themselves and make a bit of noise then the bully will continue to take their lunch money. Their cycle lanes. Their regular sized classes. Their abortions. The government will just keep taking and taking, cutting and cutting and fining and fining.Then what will be left?
0
Like
Published at 5:25 PM Comments (4)
How the internet destroyed Feminism and why Emma Watson might just save us all.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Feminism was something that was taught to me in my first year at University. It was an hour long lecture, compulsory for anyone studying anything vaguely politics-y.
We learnt was that there were two types of Feminist;
1) people who believe that women are naturally superior to men and
2) people who believe that the sexes should be treated equally.
Everyone in the class agreed that the second kind of feminism was a good idea. If anyone did disagree, they didn't dare say so aloud. We also read pretty much everything by Mary Walstonecraft and were asked if it is possible to justify paying men more for doing exactly the same work as a woman. No one could.
And that was the end of it. Feminism number 2. Let's do that. Next lecture: Environmentalism.
To me its always just been that simple. Until the internet decided that Feminism was the new black. There are millions upon millions of articles, videos and social media posts about Feminism, but not just Feminism; post-structural-feminism, neo-feminism, transfeminism, antifeminism, and whatever else becomes the cool, new prefix. There is an argument and a counterargument to everything. For every article there are thousands of angry commenters saying that no, no no, the author's got it all wrong.
I've read too many articles explaining why Beyoncé is a great feminist. Why she's a terrible feminist. Why Nicki Minaj is a better feminist than Beyoncé. But that's a pointless debate. It doesn't matter. No one should be a better feminist than anyone else.
The internet is taking us in circles. We've started fighting each other instead of fighting for equality. Words such as "slut-shaming", "male privilege" "sexual harassment" are thrown around with little care. For every logical point discussed there is at least one idiot in the world who will say "yeah I don't care what this woman has to say, she's an ugly cow" or "you don't get a say about feminism because you're a man".
Every article or you tube video produces an endless cycle of unproductive, angry and ill-informed debate. Before people became so bold and troll-y on the internet everyone agreed that equality was, in general, a good thing. But somewhere along the line feminism has become a dirty word.
So people have stopped identifying as feminist. It causes too too many problems. It induces eye-rolling and trolling and threats. In some cases the word has been hijacked to mean something completely different or something so extreme that people are scared to be associated with it.
No one should be afraid to say they're a Feminist. Feminism is a simple concept. It's a good concept. It is, pure and simple, the quest for economic, political and social equality.
Emma Watson gave a brilliant speech about this at the UN. She said that feminism is a fight for everyone, that both men and women are stereotyped and discriminated against and that this must stop. Her words are infallible. Her argument water-tight.
But for the mere fact that she's a woman, some lowlife scum have decided that they need to "teach her a lesson" and "put her in her place" by releasing nude photos of her.
Before the internet, this could never have happened. If anyone had any problem with Emma Watson's speech they'd have to write to her personally or write to a newspaper. And like hell would a newspaper publish anything to "get back at" Emma Watson for doing her job as a UN Goodwill Ambassador. Nowadays anyone can publish any number of horrendous things online and they can whip around the world in seconds, shared on social media. The internet has made people bold. It rewards the evil.
But how do we stop it? How can we go back to the days of Politics 101 when no one dared argue publicly against equality for fear of being shouted down as a sexist, misogynist, ignorant prick?
This is how: we support Emma Watson and her HeforShe campaign. We don't let the bullies win.
We take the feminism debate offline and into the boardroom. We take it into parliament. We take it onto the street.
We stop fighting behind computers and we start demanding equal pay, we start blaming rape on rapers not on alcohol or outfits, we start breaking down gender stereotypes and we start treating everyone withthe respect they deserve.
It won't be easy, but we cannot let the internet destroy equality. We cannot let the evil trolling bullies and the feminist hijackers win.
I am a feminist. I support HeforShe. I hope you do to.
0
Like
Published at 12:52 PM Comments (1)
Spanish History 103: From Dictator to Democracy to Corruption (the fun cliffnotes version)
Thursday, September 25, 2014
This post follows on from History 101: http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/say/13787/Spanish-Politics-101-How-Did-Spain-end-up-with-Franco.aspx and History 102: http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/say/13797/Spanish-History-102-Francoist-Spain-(the-fun-cliffnotes-version).aspx
The Death of a Dictator
Franco's health started deteriorating in the early 1970s. He was getting on a bit and he knew it so he started to dish out his power. He named Juan Carlos de Borbon as his heir-apparent. This was a bit of a surprise as Juan Carlos's dad, Don Juan, had a superior right to the throne. But Franco, being a dictator, wasn't one for following 'rights'. Juan Carlos had been raised and educated under strict guidance from Franco and Franco believed that he would continue ruling under the same mantra after he'd gone. That he'd continue the dictatorship.
Franco had a long-running battle with Parkinson's and fell extremely ill in 1974, handing over the role of Acting Head of State to Juan Carlos. When he died on the 20th November 1975, the now King Juan Carlos decided to have Franco buried in the Valle de los Caídos (Valley of the Fallen). Franco had had it designed and built to honour those who had fallen during the Civil War.
Democracy
Luckily for Spain, Juan Carlos decided not to continue ruling as Franco had done, but instead steered the country towards democracy.
The transition to democracy wasn't easy for Juan Carlos. Many of Franco's supporters expected him to continue ruling as Franco did, so trying to make Spain a democracy was a tricky task. One which he pulled off spectacularly;
It was a long and complicated process as he had to work within the very tight framework of laws set by Franco. A new political regime couldn't just be created; Franco's dictatorship regime had to be dissolved through the Francoist government itself.
This came about in the form of the Ley para la Reforma Política (Law for Political Reform) and a referendum in 1977. 97.4% of the population agreed to the bill. This legalised political parties (previously banned under Franco) and the democratic election of parliament.
Of course, there were traditional Francoists who weren't at all happy with the democratic direction that Juan Carlos was taking the country in, and there was an attempted coup in 1981. But Juan Carlos was extremely charismatic, and very popular with the people; he gave a speech on television denouncing the coup and just like that the coupers surrendered the next day. The Basque terrorists also eased up considerably when the ban on regional languages was lifted.
Spain joined NATO in 1982 the EU (then the EEC) in 1986 and became an economic powerhouse. Spain invested heavily in construction and tourism and the economy boomed. Juan Carlos was therefore extremely popular with the public, not only had he helped transorm Spain from a dictatorship into a functioning democracy, Spain was riding high. One particular highlight was in 2007 when he told the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, to shut the hell up. It was brilliant, everyone loved him for it, so much that it was even made into a ringtone. He was the people's king.
Disaster
Things started turning sour for Juan Carlos with the economic crisis, when he started hunting and killing endangered elephants on African safari (while the rest of the country was in economic crisis) and when his family became involved in heated corruption scandals.
He tearfully stepped down as king last month. A sad ending to what should have been a legendary story.
0
Like
Published at 3:02 PM Comments (0)
Spanish History 102: Francoist Spain (the fun cliffnotes version)
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
This post follows on from History 101: http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/say/13787/Spanish-Politics-101-How-Did-Spain-end-up-with-Franco.aspx
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain lasted from the end of the Civil War (1939) until his death in 1975. This was a pretty long dictatorship and I can't really do it justice in a blog post. So here is a cliff-notes version of the most important facts.
Politics under Franco
Because Franco was mates with Hitler and Mussolini, all other countries hated him. Spain wasn't allowed to join the UN or the EU (or the EEC as it was back then) and everyone except Portugal and Argentina imposed an embargo on Spain. This, added to the fact Spain had just undergone a Civil War (half a million dead, entire towns destroyed, disease and starvation rife), meant that Spain was in pretty bad shape, and stayed that way for a long time. There was rationing until 1952, 14 years after the war had finished.
The Re-Christianization of Spain
Franco was a devout Catholic and made sure that everyone else in Spain was too. All the advances made towards women's rights and freedom of speech were reversed, in keeping with traditional Catholic theology; contraceptives, abortion and prostitution were made illegal, it was made pretty difficult for women to achieve virtually anything and it was illegal to be gay. Many gays were arrested and sent to special prisons called "galarías de invertidos" (meaning inverted, or reversed) where the "problem" would try to be "corrected".
To this day, Spain remains a very Catholic country, but has reversed most of the Francoist laws above. The anti-gay laws under Franco were overturned in 1979 and gay marriage was introduced in 2004; one of only 11 countries in the world to do so. Abortion is also now legal and available on request (during the first trimester) since 2010. It was available under restricted circumstances from 1985. Prostitution remains illegal, but is still practised.
Anti-Regionalism and Terrorism
The other main impact that Franco had on Spain was that he banned regional languages. He wanted to create a 'unified Spain'; he made Bullfighting and Flamenco the national sports (because they're 'proper Spanish') and Castellano (what we call Spanish) the national language. This was the language spoken in Madrid and in the south, but other parts of Spain had their own languages. Many people didn't even speak Castellano Spanish. So it was a pretty big deal. All schools, official documents and media suddenly had to change the language they were in. A joke was commonly made that the only place that Catalan could be seen was on the manhole covers leading to the sewers. Everything else, including roadsigns were remade in Castellano. Regional languages were still spoken at home, but in public everything was in proper Spanish.
The Basques in particular were extremely hostile to this. Their language is unlike any other Spanish language and they're pretty proud of their Basque heritage. In 1958 a terrorist group called ETA formed, opposing Franco and his anti-Basque laws and campaigning for the independence of the Basque Country from Spain.
Their tactic was to kidnap rich people, hold them for ransom, then, with this money, buy arms and bombs. Most notably they kidnapped Enrique Iglesias's grandad in 1981. They also killed Luis Carerro Blanco, who was Franco's right hand man, back in 1973.
According to Wikipedia they've been responsible for 829 killings in total and about 700 of it's members have been caught and imprisoned. When Franco died in 1975 and the ban on regional languages was lifted, the terrorism eased up. There's been a number of ceasefires since, and ETA officially ceased armed activity last year for good. But they have said this before.
In Spanish History 103 (the final post about Franco) I'll talk about his death and how Spain became a nice democratic and liberal country again. Or did it?
0
Like
Published at 3:12 PM Comments (0)
Spanish History 101: How Spain ended up with Franco (the fun cliffnotes version)
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Originally posted on my old, old blog http://properspanish.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/spanish-history-101-how-spain-became.html ,
The post is intended to be fun, light reading to give people the basics.
Spanish History 101: How Spain Ended Up With Franco
General Francisco Franco was the dictator of Spain between 1939 and 1975 and he was a complete badass.
How Franco got to power
It all kicked off in 1936. There was a General Election and the left-wing party won. Spain was already pretty liberal at the time (they had votes for women, allowed divorce and that sort of thing), so when the Left won in '36 the Right were pretty pissed and thought that Spain was getting waaaay too liberal for its own good. The Right also blamed liberalness for Spain losing the last of its 'good' colonies in 1898; Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guam.
Just after the election, José Calvo Sotelo, head of the Renovación Espanola party, (a right-wing party) and the Leader of the Opposition was assassinated by lefties. So naturally, the Right got even more pissed, so pissed in fact that they decided to lead a coup d'etat.
This coup was led by Franco, who was the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and a very traditional Conservative. He got all the right wing parties together and formed an alliance (called the Nacionalistas) and staged a coup from North Africa (which was owned by Spain at the time).
The problem with the coup was they didn't get control of any of the major cities, except Sevilla, and the lefties (now called the Republicanos) fought back hard. So the coup turned into a Civil War. Which lasted 3 years. I'll do another post about what went down during the war, but so as not to get sidetracked all I'll say is that lots of people died, it was pretty horrific and the Nationalists (Franco) won.
How Franco kept power
Now Franco was a clever little bugger. He had just won the Civil War and was already the head of the Army, so he then made himself Head of Government, Head of State and then, because he could, he made himself the king. Technically he was the "de-facto regent". Which meant he was acting out the role of the king until HE decided to name an heir to the throne.
Spain was a monarchy, and there was a lot of pressure on Franco to reinstate the throne after the war, but Franco didn't like the guy who was supposed to be king, Juan de Bourbon. He was too liberal for Franco's taste, so Franco just made himself the de-facto king, not naming the heir to the throne until he became very old and ill. Franco put his face on the coins and lived in the Pardo Palace (the Spanish equivalent of Buckingham Palace). He also took up the title "Caudillo por la gracia de Dios" (Leader by the grace of God). So Franco was practically untouchable.
And anyone who did want to touch him was killed. He made a law in 1939 saying that anyone who was associated with the Republicans would be imprisoned or killed. This law (called the Law of Political Responsibility) was so harsh that people were imprisoned for simply being related to a Republican. Needless to say, no one dared object to Franco after this. Which is why he lasted so long.
Spain and World War 2
Franco was mates with Mussolini and Hitler. They'd both helped him out in the Civil War (Germany had bombed Gernica for him; partly as a favour to Franco and partly just to test out their new bombing strategies). So when it came time for Germany and Italy to go to war a couple of months after the end of the Spanish Civil war, it was only polite that Franco should help them out.
But he didn't. He stayed well out of it. Spain was crippled after the Civil War and would have been neither use nor ornament to the Fascists. Spain couldn't feed itself, let alone give the Nazis a hand. So Spain stayed officially neutral during WW2. A couple of Spaniards volunteered to join in on both sides, but as a whole Spain tried to keep out of it. In the end this worked out pretty well for Franco as his regime outlived his mates' by a good 30 years.
In part 2 tomorrow: Francoist Spain - the reality
1
Like
Published at 3:37 PM Comments (13)
Why Spain Needs to Stop the Obsession with Learning English
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
I probably shouldn't be saying this, because all these people wanting to learn English is keeping me in business, but Spain really does need to calm it on the English obsession.
Spain has huge problems. It is politically corrupt. It has an economic system which is rotten to the core. It has the second highest rate of child poverty in Europe (1). Its education system is so shockingly bad that a graduate from a university in Spain has the same skill-set as a 15-year-old teenager from Japan (2).
A lot needs to be done if Spain wants to become a prosperous nation and someone has come up with the bright idea that learning English will solve everyone's problems.
Problem is, it won't. There is a link between the prosperity of a country and its ability to speak multiple languages. Most people in Northern European countries are fluent in English. Japan and Korea are pretty good at it too. But this correlation is misleading; they’re not rich countries because they have mastered English (though this probably does help international business and such), they’re rich because they have strong educational, political and economic systems. And a strong work ethic.
But it’s easier to assume that speaking more English = better prosperity.
So English has become the new craze. Like loom bands. English and loom bands. Everyone in Spain now needs to speak English and then all of the problems will magically go away.
There is 26% unemployment here, which rises to 55% for young people (3) and the idea is that if everyone learns English then everyone will be more employable and that will solve that problem. Which is scary.
Languages are useful. But it doesn't guarantee you a job. And it's not necessary for most jobs; postmen, electricians, PE teachers; they don't need to speak a second language. Neither really do doctors or lawyers or engineers. Yeah it's got its advantages (more academic journals are published in English, therefore you can learn more about your subject etc. etc.) but you can do a perfectly splendid job without it.
Being multi-lingual doesn’t automatically make you a superior nurse or accountant or personal trainer. Much more goes into it than that.
But Spaniards have been brain-washed into thinking otherwise. The other day I picked up a leaflet advertising jobs in Stradavarius, a clothes shop. They only had two questions; what is your availability for work and what languages do you speak. There was enough space to write four foreign languages. Obviously it hadn't crossed their minds that if someone can speak four foreign languages they're probably not going to be interested in working in a clothes shop.
Then there's this new law which requires all teachers in public schools to hold a certificate proving that they have a B2 level of English. All teachers. Regardless of what subject they actually teach. I've got a guy who teaches PE in Primary schools, who has been doing it for years, and who is probably really good at it. But he's shit at English. It's just not his forté. There’s not a linguistic bone in his body. But unless he somehow passes a B2 exam in September he's at risk of losing his job. His job teaching PE.
So what's happening is that people are prioritising speaking English over other, more useful and more necessary skills.
Stradavarius aren't asking potential employees, say, if they have any experience working in a shop, or if they're good with people or if they're organised or interested in fashion or any of the other things necessary to be a good Shop Assistant. And no one cares if Paco is good at teaching PE, if he's a good role model for his kids, if he's patient and kind and inspiring. No, they only care if he can speak English.
Spain really needs to stop this obsession with learning English or it risks putting people who are good at their job, out of work.
It’s also going to have a very serious consequence on people’s attitude to language learning; when you are forced to study something, something that you don’t really care much about, or that you’re not particularly good at, you start hating it.
Remember school? Remember being forced to memorise the definition of osmosis, Pythagoras’s theory, the 13 French verbs that conjugate with etre in the past tense instead of avoir? Remember the anger we all felt? Remember thinking “this is a bloody waste of time, I’m never going to use this in real life!”? Well that’s exactly what is happening now with people being forced to take up English again.
It’s risking making everyone resent English.
I’ve noticed a marked change in the attitude of students. Especially since the teacher law thing. There are now so many people that come to me saying “I don’t care about speaking English, I just need to pass this exam to keep my job”.
I also get parents forcing their kids to take extra classes because they think it will secure their future. I want to just shake them and tell them; “look at your son, he’s seven, and can’t string a sentence together in English after three months of one-to-one classes. He hates speaking. But when he holds a pencil in his hand, he transforms. He is creative and colourful and resourceful. His imagination is out of this world. This kid is not a linguist. He is an artist. An architect. A designer”. But I can’t say this.
I want to say “your daughter is 18 and has failed three years of English exams at school, not because she’s not bright, but because her skills lie elsewhere. She’s brave and funny and sociable. Her instinct and logic is flawless. She's just not academic”. But I can’t say this. People do not want to hear this. Not in Spain.
However, my seven-year-old’s older brother is gifted at English. Sometimes he makes me want to cry from pride at how articulate and resourceful and expressive he can be. He is a born linguist. And this should be encouraged and nurtured. But it’s hit and miss. Some people should be encouraged to learn languages, others, like his brother, should not be.
Learning languages is not for everyone, and it is foolish to assume that it is.
I’m not saying Spain should stop encouraging people to learn English. I’m saying Spain should stop forcing everyone to learn English. In doing this, in pursuing this obsession, people who are skilled and talented in other areas are at risk of being overlooked, side-lined, disregarded. It is risking telling people that they are not valuable members of society unless they can speak English. And that’s worrying.
Languages are great, but too much of a good thing will only have negative consequences in the long term. People, sooner or later, will get sick of learning English. They’ll realise that it hasn’t made a blind bit of difference to their employability or to the quality of work done in Stradavarius or in PE lessons or to Spain’s prosperity. Just like the loom band craze will surely be replaced with something else new and shiny, so too will the idea that learning English is a guarantee to success. And the sooner that happens, the better. The sooner I can go back to teaching students that actually, genuinely, want to learn.
References
3
Like
Published at 11:07 PM Comments (19)
España debe dejar de obsesionarse con aprender inglés, según una profesora de inglés.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
España tiene muchos problemas económicos. Hay crisis. La tasa de desempleo es 24,5%. Pero eso ya sabemos.
Hay mucho que hacer si España quiere convertirse en una nación próspera y rica y alguien, no sé quién, ha decidido que aprender inglés es la solución. Hoy en día la gente piensa que “si aprendo bien inglés, seré más apto para trabajar, tendré más opciones”.
Por eso aprender inglés se ha convertido en la nueva moda en España. Cada día abre otra academia de inglés. Yo trabajo en una academia a diez minutos de mi casa en bici. Paso por otras tres de camino al trabajo.
Gano la vida enseñando inglés y debería estar contenta de tener tantos estudiantes. Pero no lo estoy. Esta obsesión que tienen los españoles para aprender mi idioma es una tontería.
La mayoría de los alumnos solo viene por un título que poner en su currículm o para ganar puntos en una oposición. Nadie viene a la academia porque le gusten los idiomas. Las clases de inglés en España son un medio para alcanzar un fin. Pero de lo que nadie se da cuenta es que una vez se alcanza ese fin, es decir, encontrar un trabajo, el inglés no es necesario en la mayoría de los casos.
Ser cartero, electricista o profesor de educación física no precisa un segundo idioma. Tampoco ser arquitecto, masajista o ingeniero. Por supuesto, tiene sus ventajas, hay más revistas académicas en inglés por ejemplo, pero es posible hacer bien su trabajo sin él.
Ser bilingüe no significa que haces mejor tu trabajo. Una enfermera bilingüe no es automáticamente una mejor enfermera. Hay talentos mucho más importantes en el trabajo que los idiomas, y parece que los españoles han olvidado eso.
El otro día estaba mirando una oferta de trabajo en Stradivarius. Había dos preguntas; ¿Cuál es tu disponibilidad? Y ¿Qué idiomas hablas? Había espacio suficiente para poner cuatro idiomas. Obviamente Stradivarius no había pensado que una persona que habla bien cuatro idiomas no le interesa trabajar en una tienda de ropa.
Y ahora hay un nuevo requisito que manda que todos los profesores de colegios públicos tengan un título de inglés. Todos los profesores. No importa que enseñen. La mayoría de mis alumnos en la academia son profesores, o quieren ser profesores y necesitan sacar el B2.
Uno de ellos, Paco, es profesor de educación física en una escuela primaria hace mucho tiempo, y probablemente es un buen profesor. Pero habla inglés fatal. Los idiomas no son su fuerte, pero si él no aprueba el B2, es posible que pierda su trabajo. Su trabajo enseñando deportes a niños de cinco años.
Lo que está pasando con esta locura es que estamos priorizando el inglés sobre otras habilidades y conocimientos más importantes.
Stradivarius no está preguntando a trabajadores potenciales si, por ejemplo, tienen experiencia trabajando en una tienda, o si trabajan bien en equipo o si les interesa la moda o la ropa; las cosas necesarias para ser buen dependiente. Y a nadie le importa si Paco enseña bien a sus niños, si es un modelo a seguir, si tiene paciencia, es simpático o inspirador. No, solo le interesa si habla inglés.
España tiene que abandonar esta obsesión de aprender inglés o el país se arriesga a dejar sin trabajo a mucha gente que hace bien su trabajo. Se ha convertida en un país de gente de mente estrecha. Tengo muchos padres que están forzando a sus hijos a tomar clases extras porque piensan que el inglés asegurará un buen futuro para ellos.
Quiero gritar; “tu hija tiene 18 años y ha suspendido el inglés tres años seguidos, no porque no sea inteligente, sino porque tiene aptitudes diferentes. No es académica pero es creativa y sociable. Tiene estilo y tiene buen ojo para la moda. Debería trabajar en Stradivarius”. Pero eso yo no lo puedo decir. Los padres de Sofía solo quieren que saque un 6 en inglés. No les interesa su interés por la moda.
Quiero gritar; “Alfonso tiene 7 años y no puede decir ni una frase completa en inglés después de tres meses de clases particulares. No le gusta hablar, es tímido, pero cuando tiene un lápiz en la mano, se transforma. Dibuja mejor que un adulto y su imaginación esta fuera de este mundo. Tu hijo no es lingüista. Es artista, arquitecto, diseñador”. Pero eso yo no lo puedo decir tampoco. Los padres españoles no quieren oír eso.
No quiero decir que España debe parar de animar a la gente a aprender inglés. Quiero decir que España debe parar de forzar todo el mundo a aprender inglés. Tantos profesores de educación física como niños. Al hacerlo, al continuar con esta obsesión, es muy probable que la gente que está dotada en otras áreas sea ignorada, omitida y marginada. Arriesga a dar la impresión de que una persona no es un miembro apreciado de la sociedad si no habla inglés. Eso es preocupante. Paco, Sofía y Alfonso son buena gente, son inteligentes y trabajadores pero no les interesa el inglés y no tienen aptitudes para ello. ¿Por qué tienen que seguir aprendiéndolo?
Los idiomas son geniales, pero demasiado cansa. No todo el mundo es lingüista y la gente, tarde o temprano, estará harta de aprender inglés. Especialmente cuando se ve que no ha marcado ninguna diferencia en el trabajo o la tasa de desempleo. Tampoco en la calidad de las clases de educación física o en las ventas de Stradivarius.
El inglés no garantizará el éxito y cuanto antes nos demos cuenta de eso, mejor. Y yo puedo volver a enseñar a la gente que quiere aprender de verdad.
0
Like
Published at 10:57 PM Comments (3)
Scottish Independence Simplified- What's actually going to happen
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
There's a lot of "what ifs?" about the vote on Thursday. Should Scotland be an independent country? Most polls put the vote pretty much neck and neck. So what would happen if people vote yes? Most of this is educated speculation, but here's my best shot:
Economy:
- Both Scotland and the rest of the UK would be economically worse off. 80% of FTSE chairmen say that there would be a "significant negative economic effect" (1)
- The Economist says that an independent Scotland's "long-term economic prospects are dire: it would be a rich country, set to get poorer quickly" (2)
Conclusion = independence is bad for everyone
Business:
- Many Scottish businesses are already planning to relocate out of Scotland if there is a Yes vote. These include the Royal Bank of Scotland (oh the irony). They say it's because being a bank in an independent Scotland would make it "harder to borrow" (1)
- The head of John Lewis said that many big businesses "would be forced to put up prices" in Scotland, especially if they had a different currency. Asda, Waitrose and B&Q have said similar things. (1)
- Then there are things such as The National Lottery, the Met Office and TV channels. Scots wouldn't be able to play the lottery and they'd have to set up their own weather forecasting company. If they wanted to watch British TV they'd have to do what other foreign people do; pay loads more to access these channels through digital packages. And no iplayer. (9).
Conclusion = independence is bad for business and Scottish shoppers
Money:
- A question most people are asking. What would Scotland do about currency? Salmond's answer is that Scotland would try to form an official monetary union with the UK and keep the pound. Westminster says they wouldn't ever allow this.
- Plan B would be to form an "informal union" with the pound. This basically means Scotland would have a "Scottish Pound" that copies whatever the British Pound does. IE if the British pound drops in value against the dollar, so too would the Scottish pound. Scotland would simply piggie back the British pound until it got on its own feet with currency. That would take years. (4)
- Whatever happens, the value of both the British pound and the Scottish pound would drop. The value of the pound is already at a 10 month low due to the run up to the vote (4)
Conclusion = everyone loses out.
- The biggest political problem facing an independent Scotland would be legislation. It'd have to make up its own constitution. It'd have to make up its own Immigration policy. Its own Citizenship policy. And all the other policies.
- Salmond's stance on all of this is "let's get independence and then we'll sort out all the details later". What's certain is it'd take years for Scotland to come up with these details on its own. The Yes Scotland website says they'll design an interim constitution to last until 2016 and then they'll "begin to craft a permanent constitution, involving people from all walks of life" (6) This would be a long, difficult and time-consuming process. And that's just the constitution. That's not even touching on other legislation.
- It'd also affect the rUK; 41 of Labour's seats in the Commons are from Scotland. Take these seats away and Conservatives have a run-away majority. They wouldn't even need to campaign to win the next election. (3)
Conclusion for Scotland = years and years of paperwork, probably more trouble than it's worth.
Conclusion for England = if you're Tory, independence is good, if you're anything but Tory, independence is bad, very bad.
International Politics:
- Internationally, Scotland is nothing without the UK. It's the UK that holds the Security Council seat in the UN. It's the UK that's in the G8. It's the UK that has the most votes in the Council of the European Union (together with Germany, France and Italy). The votes are based on a country's population; the higher the population, the more votes you get. An independent Scotland wouldn't hold any position of significance in the UN, wouldn't be invited to the G8, and with a population of 5.2 million, would have the same influence on the EU as Slovenia (which is pretty much nil). An Independent Scotland would be insignificant in world politics and international relations.
- Despite this, Scotland would probably want to continue to be a member of the EU. Whether or not it can be, no one knows. This situation has never come up and the chances are there would be lots of hoops for Scotland to jump through. Spain would probably oppose Scotland's application for membership (anything to stop Catalonia following in Scotland's independent footsteps) and it would confuse the heck out of people who think the UK should leave the EU. Why would Scotland so desperately want in and then the UK want so desperately out? (5)
- Also, North Korea is the only country that's actively supporting an independent Scotland (7). Is this an ally Scotland wants?
Conclusion = headaches, confusion and loss of influence all round.
Population:
- Scotland has an older population (ie more pensioners) than the rest of the UK. It's also generally less healthy and more obese. The population is getting older, sicker and fatter and the birth rate is decreasing. This means that over the next 50 years the Scottish workforce will shrink. There will be less people working and more people claiming pensions and health care (2).
- This will screw up pretty much everything that makes Scotland prosperous and the only solution to this problem would be to have a very relaxed immigration policy. Let in a shed load of young, healthy foreign workers to fill the gaps in labour, to pay the taxes that cover the health service and pensions. That means a lot more of immigrants in Scotland.
- For the rUK, on the other hand, this is very good news. Scottish people get free prescriptions and as a percentage of the population, more of them take a pension. Last year Scotland spent £12 billion more than it raised in taxes (8) So without Scotland, the rUK would save more money in the Public Purse.
Conclusion for Scotland = bleak
Conclusion for England = good
General Conclusion
The only person who could possibly be in favour of an independent Scotland would be a die-hard British Conservative who wants rich Scottish businesses to move south of the border. Someone who's so rich themselves that they wouldn't be affected if the economy went a bit tits up.
Wait.
0
Like
Published at 2:41 PM Comments (2)
12 Signs You're Fluent in a Foreign Language
Monday, September 15, 2014
They say that dreaming in another language is a sign you're fluent. I don't think that's necessarily true. When I was taking my A Levels I often had dreams in Spanish but that was just a combination of recycled pieces of vocabulary I'd studied just before going to bed and stress about the exam. But four years of Spanish at uni, one Spanish boyfriend and 18 months living here and I'd consider myself fluent. And the only dream I have in Spanish is one about me failing my oral exam.
There are varying definitions of fluent- some people measure fluency in number of words and grammar structures you know, others use a more qualitative method; can you get by? Can you ask for directions and write a formal letter? For me, fluency is not what you can or can't do in a language, it's about your attitude towards it.
Here's my list of signs you're fluent in a foreign language;
1) You stop looking for opportunities to 'practice'.
For me this is the most important sign of being fluent; that you just don't care what language you're speaking. You can have the same conversation in both languages and you don't feel the NEED to practice your Mongolian any more. You avoid 'language exchange meetings' like the plague.
2) You can have a meaningful relationship with someone who doesn't speak your mother tongue
You can talk to that person without the safety blanket of your first language to fall back on. You also stop looking for foreign friends just because they're foreign. The fact you have different native languages is insignificant.
3) Going to the hairdresser doesn't scare you
You're so confident in your language skills that you'll bet your hair on it.
4) You know when google translate is wrong
Which is a lot. Which is why you never, ever use it.
You can watch stand up comedy in a foreign language and not have to pretend to get the jokes. And if you don't get something, you're not ashamed to ask why its funny; because its probably some cultural reference you're not familiar with, you just didn't catch it, or it simply wasn't funny.
6) You can do boring, adulty things in that language
Like open a bank account, have a job interview or do your tax return.
7) You're not flattered when people say you speak well
You speak well because you were either brought up that way or because you worked damn hard at it. You don't need a compliment from a stranger to make you feel good about your language skills. For me, I just feel patronised when people tell me my Spanish is good. I know they're only being nice, but it's kinda like telling a doctor that his knowledge of medicine is good. You bloody well hope so when you've paid for a degree in it. When you actually speak a language well you don't need people to tell you you do.
8) People don't automatically know where you're from
It's not that you're mistaken for a native speaker, but the occasional tilt of the head and "you're not from here, are you?" or "what is that accent you have?" means you're a lot more fluent than someone telling you "your German is really good (for a foreigner)". When someone can't tell where you're from; that's a proud moment.
9) You're tired of 'oral' exam jokes
It was funny to begin with, but you're over it. Now when you hear the word oral you don't think of sexy time, you think about sitting in an uncomfortably small room with a stranger and having an awkward conversation about something you know and care little about.
10) People don't change the way they speak when they talk to you
They don't slow down or simplify their vocabulary to speak to you. And if they do, you notice, get annoyed and tell them that you're not an idiot and you understand perfectly well thank you very much.
11) You sometimes don't realise what language you're speaking (or reading)
It's a real downside to being fluent because people think you're being pretentious, or you're showing off. You're not. It's just your brain is so used to switching between the two languages that sometimes it forgets to flip the switch back. And sometimes it processes information without noticing what language it's in; like not noticing when a text changes font (like this).
12) You've had this conversation before;
"What does x mean in Spanish?"
"I don't know, it depends on the context"
"You don't know? How do you not know. I thought you spoke Spanish"
"Then how do you not know what x means?"
Unless it's something like 'apple' or 'yellow' most single words are difficult to translate without a context. Only when you're multi-lingual do you get how difficult translating is and how infuriating it is when people doubt your ability to speak a language based on one word.
0
Like
Published at 3:13 PM Comments (0)
The Spanish Reaction to "Mamading" (Brits exchanging oral sex for alcohol)
Monday, September 15, 2014
(originally published 14/7/14)
We all saw the news this summer. A drunken 18-year-old girl from Northern Ireland, on holiday in Magaluf, put 24 penises into her mouth in less than 2 minutes and won a free cocktail worth 4 euros. Someone filmed it, put it on the internet and it went viral. So viral it was picked up by the main newspapers and everyone is now putting their two pence in.
The Britsh press, and especially the comments sections, were full of people rushing to her defence (she's an adult so she can do what she wants, it was only a bit of fun), people claiming she's a victim (she only did it because she was told she could win a holiday, she was coerced, she was too drunk to know what she was doing) and then you get those who say she's just a slut and deserves the backlash. Everyone chipped in on it. Even Nicole Scherzinger advised the girl to "get down on her knees and repent".
Everyone's got an opinion on this. Everyone except for the Spanish media. It made the news in Spain. But ONLY because it made the news in the UK.
People here in Spain were not really that shocked. No newspaper rushed to criticise her or defend her. No Spanish celebrities gave her her advice. Why? Because they know what we're like...
This is not a new phenomenon. This is not a one off. It has a name. Which means it's a pretty well established occurrence. Spanish people call it "mamading"; mamar is Spanish for "to suck" and they added 'ing' on the end of it because that's an English suffix. And it's only Brits that do mamading.
Brits have always done stupid, drunk things in Spain. A couple of years ago the craze was "balconing" - jumping from the hotel balcony into the pool. Now it's "mamading". In general Spaniards, and in particular the Spanish press, look the other way when we do idiotic things on holiday. Why? Because it brings them money. Spain is in economic crisis and the large majority of their income comes from us idiots holidaying abroad.
They accept that we do disgusting, horrific and risky things because, well, why not? It's pretty much supporting the economy and quite frankly, they've got enough problems to deal with without worrying about what we're getting up to. They're used to British girls flashing their tits for a free drink, to people having sex on sun loungers on the beach, to people drinking so much they have to get their stomach pumped. They're happy to let Brits do what they want until it comes to the point when they can't ignore it any more. Until it starts getting dangerous. Until it's time for an intervention.
Balconing (Spanish word 'balcon' + English suffix 'ing' - see the pattern?) got so bad in 2010 that the hospital Son Dureta in Mallorca released statistics saying that 33% of all cases admitted to A+E as "serious" or "critical" condition were a result of a drunken idiot jumping from a balcony. 33%. It was then, and only then, that Spain decided to clamp down on Brits and their balconing.
The same is now happening with the drunken sexcapades. Now that the British media have picked up on it, the Mayor of Mallorca has promised to "clamp down on" this behaviour and has launched an "investigation" into what is going on in the Mamading bars. The Tourism Minister, Jaime Martinez, has also said he wishes to introduce tighter controls to restrict businesses that "don't fit with their tourism model". But all these controls and investigations are only happening because of the viral outrage it caused in the UK and online. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt Spain would have done anything. I doubt it would have even been on the news.
But what about the moral judgement? Is she being slut-shamed in Spain? Is she being defended? Neither. All the Spanish media are reporting is that Mayor Manuel Onieva and Tourism Minister Jaime Martinez are going to try and tighten security and not let this happen again.
Some papers aren't even covering the story. EL Pais, the right-wing broadsheet hasn't got one mention of it anywhere on its website. And all of the comment sections of the newspapers are pretty bare.
No one is interested in the 'why?' The 'how on earth was this allowed to happen?' The 'what was she thinking?' Not like us Brits.
It's not part of their culture. Spaniards get rat-arsed like the best of us but they just don't do what we do on holiday. And they don't understand it. They don't get the appeal. Their philosophy is to leave the crazy, disgusting Brits to do what they want, as long as they're bringing in the money and not doing too much damage. They're not interested in analysing the moral degradation of society that this represents.
The Spanish media could very easily have turned this around, got on the moral high ground, and wrote stories about how "disgusting" Brits are and how shockingly awful we behave and how we're an absolute disgrace. But they didn't. Because Spanish people already know how bad we are. Sadly, that's not news. The news here is that it looks like they're finally going to have to do something about it.
1
Like
Published at 3:07 PM Comments (1)
Spam post or Abuse? Please let us know
|
|