English in Madrid

Source: Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash 2008 Do you remember when the Spanish national anthem almost got lyrics? Anthems Anthem update 2009 An atheist advertisement caused controversy. There's probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy life City centre signs discouraged anti-social behaviour. No pavement pizza! Spanish nuns joined You Tube to find new recruits. Nuns on the net 2010 Some amusing announcements from pilots and flight attendants. Funny aeroplane announcements Apparently, Scots drink the equivalent of 46 bottles of vodka a year. Scots don't drink that much surely A man was fined for blowing his nose while driving. Unusual traffic offence Use the Blog Archive to find other posts.

Source: René DeAnda en Unsplash Trump removes Spanish-language link from White House website Newly installed president also closes government’s social network accounts directed toward Latino community  Barely two days into office, Donald Trump seems to be sending a silent message to the US Hispanic community, his country’s largest minority. After announc ing a Cabinet with no Latinos in it, the first time this has happened in three decades, the new team at the White house has closed the government’s Spanish-language accounts on social networks. Furthermore , nobody has yet been announced to replace the Obama administration’s spokesperson for policies or topics relating to the country’s Latino community. At midday on Friday, while a newly sworn-in Trump was making his inauguration speech , the White House was changing hands, analogically and digitally. President Obama’s Twitter account was handed over to Trump, as was the White House website, which soon posted a...

Source: You Tube (RT) Key words: trump inauguration speech Transcript of Speech: Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans , and people of the world: thank you. We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people. Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come . We will face challenges . We will confront hardships . But we will get the job done . Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but...

Source: Steven Coffey en Unsplash I'm not very lucky when it comes to flying. Just about everything has happened to me. I have lost my ticket in the airport (remember the days when you needed a ticket at check-in ?), I've left my passport on board planes, I once forgot to take my passport with me, I've missed countless connecting flights (and as a consequence spent sleepless nights at airports or had to fork out for   a hotel), my luggage has gone missing several times and so on and so forth . This time around there were no delays even though Storm Barbara arrived the day I flew to Scotland. It was a bumpy flight . The problem was on my return journey. Unfortunately, you can't choose who you sit beside. I had an aisle   seat  for the first leg . I watched other passengers find their seats and wondered who would be sitting next to me. It turned out to be   a mother and her young daughter. I didn't worry too much. I have sat next to children ...

Source: Brett Jordan on Unsplash One of my tweets on 1st January 2016 was this link to advice on how to cure a hangover . Hopefully I won't need to refer to it this January as I intend to go without alcohol for, at least, a whole month. Don't go for the fry-up: Which hangover cures really work? | via @telegraph https://t.co/AX8Vt4iBVf . — Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) 1 de enero de 2016 The Three Kings' Day parade caused some controversy in Madrid last year. Differences on parade: Why the Three Kings have caused controversy this year https://t.co/FnLfht25aq pic.twitter.com/IxZi44otyS — El País in English (@elpaisinenglish) 5 de enero de 2016 Infanta Cristina went on trial . I wonder when and how it will end . Spain's Princess Cristina prepares for historic trial https://t.co/7uSlsSax2s — Graham Mad Teacher (@madteacher72) 9 de enero de 2016 There was that other scandal that never seems to go away or end. Blood samples in a Barcel...

Source: Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash France gives employees ‘right to disconnect’ from work emails The new employment law grants workers the legal right to ignore work emails outside of typical working hours.  That 10 p.m. email from your boss? It’s your right to ignore it. That Saturday ping from a colleague with “just one quick question?” A response on Monday should suffice . If you’re in France, that is . French workers rang in a new year at midnight — as well as a “right to disconnect” law that grants employees in the country the legal right to ignore work emails outside of typical working hours, according to the Guardian. The new employment law requires French companies with more than 50 employees to begin drawing up policies with their workers about limiting work-related technology usage outside the office, the newspaper reported. The motivation behind the legislation is to stem work-related stress that increasingly lea...

Source: Ben Wicks en Unsplash France bans smacking, raising pressure on UK to follow suit F rance has become the 52nd country in the world to ban smacking despite the vast majority of French be ing in favour of parents meting occasional corporal punishment on their children and continuing to do so. The move leaves Britain as one of only four countries in Europe where smacking remains a legal way of disciplining children. Those in France who break the new law face no criminal sanction, making it a largely symbolic change, but child protection groups say it as an essential one to put an end to what decades of research suggests is a totally counterproductive practice. Smacking children, a form of punishment the French often call “la fessée”, has long been a divisive issue in a country where 70 per cent of adults area are against a total ban and 85 per cent say they smack their children, according to a recent poll . U ntil now corporal punishment w...