English in Madrid

Source:  Miguel Ángel Sanz en Unsplash Business class drop hits Iberia Iberia has reported a loss of 165.4m euros ($237.2m; £145.7m) in the first half of the year after passenger numbers fell during the downturn . Revenue plunged almost 20% to 2.2bn euros. The group said declines in business class passengers accounted for almost a third of this fall. As a result of the loss, Iberia said it would cut capacity by a further 5% in the second half of the year. The Spanish airline made a profit of 21m euros in the same period last year. Many major airlines have been struggling against falling passenger numbers during the downturn, with a number of them reporting big losses. On Thursday, Aer Lingus reported a big increase in first-half losses while Air New Zealand announced a large drop in annual profits. Source: BBC News  

Schools to rethink 'i before e' The spelling mantra "i before e except after c" is no longer worth teach ing , according to the government. Advice sent to teachers says there are too few words which follow the rule and recommends using more modern methods to teach spelling to schoolchildren. The document, entitled Support for Spelling, is being distributed to more than 13,000 primary schools. But some people believe the phrase should be retained because it is easy to remember and is broadly accurate . Bethan Marshall, a senior English lecturer at King's College London, said: "It's a very easy rule to remember and one of the very few spelling rules that I can remember and that's why I would stick to it . "If you change it and say we won't have this rule, we won't have any rules at all, then spelling, which is already terribly confusing, becomes more so." Judy Parkinson, author of the best-selling book I Before E (Ex...

Source: Friso Hogendoorn on Unsplash   Japanese tourist turns down free holiday offered by Italy as apology Italian government offers Yasuyuki Yamada and his fiancee a trip to Italy to make amends for €700 restaurant bill It is the sort of offer that most tourists would jump at: an all-expenses paid return visit to a dream destination, as amends for a * sleight by an unscrupulous host. But not Yasuyuki Yamada, who yesterday * turned down an offer of a free holiday in Italy as guests of the country's government after he and his fiancee were presented with an enormous bill at a restaurant in Rome earlier this month. Yamada, 35, thanked Italy's tourism minister, Michela Brambilla, for the offer but said the trip would be a "useless way to spend Italian taxpayers' money," according to the Ansa news agency. The couple complained to the police after they were charged €700 – including €207 for a pasta dish and a €115 service charge – for lunch at Il P...

Source: Markus Winkler on Unsplash How To Fly With Ryanair Withou t the Extra Cost Ryanair is famed for offering incredibly cheap flight fares, sometimes as little as £1. But beware of being caught out by their hidden additional costs. These days finding a cheap deal on flights is easier than it used to be , with airlines like Ryanair offering such low prices to get from A to B . However, what looks like a £1 flight can often inflate to £100 when you factor in extra charges and fees . We take you through these charges so that you can see for yourself how much your bargain Ryanair flight is really going to cost you. Booking your flight Unless you pay by Visa Electron to book your flight, you will be charged £5 per person, per one-way flight, when you pay by debit or credit card. ‘Priority boarding’ will cost £3 per flight. You must specifically de-select this when booking to avoid pay ing the fee if you don’t want it added to your flight cost. Make sure that yo...