Radio interview of three students from Tía Tula

As we recently posted on our Facebook page, three students of Tía Tula, Colegio de Español took the opportunity to participate in a programme on Radio 5 (RNE), the national Spanish radio station, in which they shared some of their experiences about being Spanish students in Salamanca.

If you would like to know more about what makes Salamanca the perfect city to come to for learning Spanish, watch the video that we recorded during the interview:

We also have a podcast of the whole programme, which includes a talk between Enrique Clavero (the joint director of Tía Tula), Ricardo Ortiz (the director of 'Lingua Globe') and Carmen Ballesteros (the director of 'Salamanca City of Spanish'):

And for you? What do you like the most about Salamanca?

Spanish version

Cinema

Let´s see what we can watch during this week. Here we have some films that could be interesting for you:

The first in my list is “Divergent”.  I watched it in Spanish to practice and I think it’s a good idea because you don’t need a perfect language in movies with all that action. The movie is based on the book by Veronica Roth. The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic Chicago where people divide themselves into five groups based on their talents: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, Erudite. The main character is Beatrice sixteen-year-old girl. After the Choosing Day she became the one of the Dauntless. So she has to live without her family. But a good point that she meets her instructor and falls in love with him. Beatrice needs to practice more to stay in, otherwise she’ll be homeless.  And more she has to survive and save people. Guess what happens in the end and why the film is so famous by going to the cinema.

And the second one is a world-wide famous, dramatic and historical. It won an Oscar. It’s titled "12 Years a Slave". The film is based on an incredible true story of a man’s fight to win his freedom. Three prizes were taken merited because of its talented cast, director and soulful, heart-rending story.  No doubt, it’s very hard to watch especially some of scenes of cruel behavior of humanity. Its striking deep history will force you to reflect. No words, just… bravo!

 

International Day of the Book

As every year, we’ve celebrated the International Day of the Book (23 April), we’ve taken the opportunity to ask the school staff which book of the Hispanic literature they will read again. The literary works could be of any genre but originally written in Spanish.

The purpose of this poll was to create a list of our favorite books, by Spanish or Hispanic authors, to recommend to students and of course, enjoy ourselves. Throughout this work, we were able to confirm what we were already suspecting: the school staff has an exquisite literary taste!

Here is the result of this small public opinion poll (in strict alphabetical order, though...):

Aline : ‘Sin noticias de Gurb’  by Eduardo Mendoza.

Ana Andreu : ‘La tabla de Flandes’ by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Ana Cortina : ‘El manuscrito de piedra’ by Luis García Jambrina.

Ana Fernández : ‘El maestro del Prado’ by Javier Sierra and ‘La verdad sobre el caso Savolta’ by Eduardo Mendoza.

Ana Sáenz : ‘Retahílas by Carmen Martín Gaite.

Beatrice : ‘La sonrisa etrusca’ by José Luis Sampedro .

Carmen : ‘El tiempo entre costuras’ by María Dueñas and ‘Como agua para chocolate’ by Laura Esquivel .

Cristina Martin : ‘Cien años de soledad’ by Gabriel García Márquez, and ‘Retrato en sepia’ by Isabel Allende.

Cristina Ramos : "La Celestina" by Fernando de Rojas.

Elena : ‘Poesía completa’  by Alejandra Pizarnik .

Enrique : ‘La ciudad y los perros’ by Mario Vargas Llosa, and ‘Olvidado Rey Gudú’ by Ana María Matute .

Javier : ‘Los renglones torcidos de Dios’ by Torcuato Luca De Tena.

Lourdes : ‘Espantapájaros’ by Oliver Girondo .

Macarena : ‘La sombra del viento’  by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

Montse : "Bichos" by Miguel Torga .

Nela : ‘Poeta en Nueva York’ by Federico Garcia Lorca.

Rosa: ‘La Tía Tula’ by Miguel de Unamuno, and ‘Marianela’ by Benito Pérez Galdós.

 

We’ve also included the list of the 100 best novels in Spanish published by El Mundo newspaper in 2001, in which they’ve taken into account the opinion of both 20,000 critics and readers:

Top  100 novels in Spanish by “El Mundo” - 2001

We hope you come over just as well as us with these magnificent works. In addition to, we'd love to know your opinion. What book of Hispanic literature would you like to read again?

Activities 09/12 - 13/12

Monday, 9th of december: Holiday. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, also known as Immaculate Conception, is a belief of  the Catholicism which holds that Mary, mother of Jesus, unlike all other human beings, was not achieved by original sin but from the first moment of conception, was free from all sin.

Tuesday, 10th of december, 18:00: Movie: El labirinto del fauno de Guillermo del Toro (2006). Set in 1944, features the exciting journey of Ofelia, a girl of 13 years with her mother, Carmen, convalescing because of a heavy pregnancy, moves to a small town, meet Vidal, a cruel captain of Franco's army, eventually Carmen's new husband but Ofelia feels no affection.

Location: Tía Tula - Film Duration: 112 min.

Wednesday, 11th of december, 17:30: Ice Skating. Come skate with us on the ice rink assembled in the Plaza de la Concorde (behind el Corté Inglés) Price: 5 € (2X1 = € 2.50 per student) Location: Tia Tula - Skating Duration: 45 min.

Thursday, 12th of december, 19:00: Nochevieja Universitario. Tía Tula recommends participation in the university nochevieja. From 19 pm, Plaza Mayor will host a show of light and sound with some of the best DJ's and national artists. The Fun Zone, at Plaza de Anaya, is a luxury setting with own programming to extend the fun.

Friday, 13th of december, 19:30: Costume party at Tia Tula. Come dressed to celebrate with us the joy of the arrival of the winter seasons. There will be a costume contest and games Location: Tia Tula - Approximate duration: 1:30

Remember to sign up for the activity at the reception beforehand (the minimum number of people needed for each activity is 3). If the cost is not stated then the activity is free. We recommend that our students participate in the activities so they can get to know other students in the school, so they can broaden their knowledge of Spanish culture and to practice and improve their Spanish in a fun way.