2013 Review of Spanish news (Oct-Dec)

Read some of these news stories. In your comments, tell me the new expressions that you have discovered.

Which of these stories interested you most?



Spain grants bullfighting protected status

"Women drive worse than men": Spanish judge

Spanish wealth gap is biggest in Europe, says charity

Madrid's buskers to face X-factor-style audition

Madrid is just fine

Spain summons US ambassador over claim NSA tracked 60m calls a month

Spain pulls out of two-year recession

Spanish government drops plans to cut European funding scheme


Spanish royals feel the heat as e-mails compound fall from grace

Spanish taxpayers pay price as king goes from have yacht to have not

Noisy neighbour faces the music

Catalonia sets date for independence referenudm but Madrid vows to block it

Spain's Eurovegas plan: US casino operator pulls plug



Comments

Roberto said…
I think the fact of women have to pay more because they "drive worse than men", is unfair and sexist; and I think the news about the pull out of the Eurovegas operator, are good news for Madrid...
Graham said…
Roberto,

I think that men still have to pay a higher car insurance than women. Isn't that unfair too?

I'm glad that Eurovegas pulled out too.

...is good news for Madrid.

Roberto said…
Of course is unfair too...
Graham said…
Of course, it is unfair too...

Montse said…
Hi, Graham. My comment is about the Madrid’s buskers.

It is a surreal situation for me…There have always been a lot of buskers in the streets and in the underground; they are part of the city’s scenery. If you like them, you stop and listen to them, if you don’t, keep your way.
I agree about the timetable that they can play because sometimes it can be really annoying but I think it is ridiculous that they have to suffer a bid to make a living. What will be the next thing? Are they going to draw up a new guidelines about how the beggars have to dress if they want to beg?

See you!
José said…
Hi Graham. My homework are here. "Spain pulls out of two-year recession".

I think is the best a piece of news. Officially, Spain has emerged from a recession, although the data are even not good as a whole. However, the gains in exports improve term on term, the foreign investment is encreasing every month, the tourism has risen with record, the economy growing is positive, the stock market reachs 10.200 points and meanwhile the risk premium was over 600 points in 2012 it´s down 200 points now. Eventually, the unemployment goes down in 2013.

I hope that Spain will grow more than 1 point in 2014 and that everyone will have a employment. See you. José.
luciti said…
Hi! I have read : Spanish wealth gap biggest in Europe, says charity"

I think that it's the most important:
"the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, Nils Muižnieks, issued a report warning that "cuts in social, health and educational budgets" had led to a worrying growth of family poverty in Spain. "This has had a particularly negative impact on the enjoyment of human rights by children and persons with disabilities."

It's very difficult to archieve things as these for all people. These goals had two years ago and now they are dissapeard...

It's sad.

Bye,
PD it is easier write number than letters.
Graham said…
Hi Montse,

I don't mind buskers as long as they are good.

The problem is that the majority of them are awful. What is more they all play the same few tunes.

Aren't you tired of hearing "bésame, bésame muuuuuucho" played on an accordion?

I'd give a busker some of my change if he or she played a different tune.

I must have told you about the guy who played the trumpet near my home. For six or seven months and around six times per day, I*'d hear "hello dolly".
*would = used to

He is lucky that I didn't break his trumpet in a fit of rage.

So I applaud this initiative but I suppose the police, as they do with other things, will just turn a blind eye.



My comment is about Madrid’s buskers / the buskers in Madrid

It is a surreal situation for me…There have always been a lot of buskers on the streets and on the underground; they are part of the city’s scenery. If you like them, you stop and listen to them, if you don’t, keep out of their way.

I agree about the timetable when they can play because sometimes it can be really annoying. On the other hand, I think it is ridiculous that they have to suffer an audition to make a living. (I'm not sure what you meant by "bid")

What will be next? Are they going to draw up new guidelines about how beggars have to dress if they want to beg?


Graham said…
José,

I didn't know you were an expert on economical matters.

You sound a bit like a government spokesman LOL

Didn't you see I put a link to an article about the boson particle? See the post about Turing.



My homework is here.

I think *it is the best piece of news.

Officially, Spain has emerged from a recession, although the data is still not good on the whole. However, the gains in exports improve month by month, *foreign investment is increasing every month, *tourism has risen to a record level, growth is positive, the stock market has reached 10*,200 points and meanwhile the risk premium which was over 600 points in 2012 *is down to 200 points now. Eventually, *unemployment fell in 2013.

I hope that Spain will grow more than 1 percentage point in 2014 and that everyone will have a job.



* You must read the latest post "Who is it? It's me".

* You still make lots of mistakes with "the". Check the Label "articles" for some practice.

* and we use , when you use . for numbers.


See you on Thursday.

I'll try to be on time. :-)
Montse said…
Hi, Graham.
If I were you maybe, I would change my mind. LOL
The word "bid" appear several times in the article but I think I understood it wrongly....
Graham said…
Lucía,

I am surprised that the gap between rich and poor is the widest in Spain. Every country has different ways of arriving at these statistics and I don't think they are particularly reliable.

I think that the most important thing that it says in the article is:
...

It's very difficult to achieve things such as these for everyone. We had these goals two years ago and now they have disappeared...

Bye,
PS It is easier to write number than letters.
(I'm not sure what you mean)

José said…
Thank you very much Graham. Nobody does that you do.

I´m not an expert on economical matters, only I like reading about this theme. But I´m sorry to tell you that there are not the experts on economy, if they there were, they would be wealthy. They do that they can, like me.

I answer you are okay, I´m a government spokesman, its male side, because the female side is who earns. I´m “youth pp”, I always have been young.

I agree with you, as well I´m tired of hearing “bésame muuuucho”. I think that is necessary to establish rules very compulsory to the buskers, for example, they have to do a list of songs with corresponding fee to play and the people can choose one. Then the people give a money according the list. If the busker plays "bésame muuuucho" he will exile. LOL. José.
Graham said…
José, José...where do I start?:-)

I agree with you about the so-called experts. Why is the economy in such a mess if they are so expert?

I'm not sure I understand your paragraph about "my answer" and "male/female side" - is it another one of your cryptic messages??


I'll try my best to correct what you wrote:

Nobody does it quite like you do. (ie am I the best??)

I´m not an expert on economical matters, it's just that I like reading about this theme. But I´m sorry to tell you that there are no experts on the economy, if they there were, they would be wealthy. They do what they can, like me.

I answer you are okay ???? I´m a government spokesman, its male side, because the female side is the one which earns.???? I´m a member of the "pp youth”, I have always been young.

I agree with you, I´m tired of hearing “bésame muuuucho” as well. I think that it is necessary to establish strict rules for buskers, for example, they have to make a list of songs with a corresponding fee to pay and people can choose one. Then the people give money according the list. If the busker plays "bésame muuuucho" he will have to go into exile.
luciti said…
Hi Graham,
I have read the article:
'Women drive worse than men'
and I'm looking for report verbs, these are my samples...
1.- To decide + in favour of +
decided in favour of a ….
2.- To argue + sth local driving
which had argued their decision to charge
3.- To proved + that+sth
Spain’s Directorate of Traffic proved that “…”
4.- To advertise + a deal/a fact...(generalizar)
Autoescuela Zaragoza advertised a deal where..
5. To need +to+ infinitve
...they needed to obtain their driving license.
6.- To proceed + to + infinitive (is it report?? I think it isn't)
which proceeded to fine the driving school
7.- To argue + that
Autoescuela Zaragoza, who argued that even
8.- To show + (that)
own data showed male learners
9.- To agree + with
To present + by
To argue + that
To be obvious+ that
To offer + objt
To need + for
To appeal + to +sb
Judge Albar agreed with the stats presented by the driving school, arguing that it's obvious that a fee that offers male drivers more classes than they need for a higher price won't appeal to them as consumers.

bye
Anonymous said…
Hi Graham: I would like to say you that I read the comments on your blog. I sent you a comment about "Las Vegas in Madrid". I try to find the correction of my mistakes and I didn't find it...
Perhaps I don't know how to manage the systhem.
Thanks
Nacha
Graham said…
Hi Lucía,

Reporting verbs are a more expressive alternative to "say" and "tell".

Verb patterns (include reporting verbs) are how we construct a sentence with verbs: + to, + verbing, + object, + that, + preposition...

Some of your examples are common collocations ie words that go together eg. decide + in favour of, advertise + a face...


I think it's a good idea to look for examples of things that we have studied in class.

Keep up the good work.



Graham said…
Hi Nacha,

I hope that you have found my reply to your Eurovegas comment.

For some reason you wrote it under the post What a Cheat: http://madteachergraham2.blogspot.com.es/2014/01/what-cheat.html

You can find my reply there too.

I would like to tell you that... I am trying to find the correction of my mistakes but I can't find it...


See you on Tuesday.