An Important Exam I Failed

In Spanish Education System, we spent four years in compulsory secondary school. After that, we have two (optional) years more at secondary school to prepare our university entry exams: we call them "exámenes de Selectividad". Your university access mark is calculated from both your average in the last secondary school years and from your marks in Selectividad.

I was 18 years old. I had the better average anyone can have in secondary school when I did my Selectividad exam. I had been selected as the better student in my high school. Supposedly, I was prepared to pass any exam I was going to do.

I had to do 8 exams in 3 days. I don't remember which subject I began with. I don't remember what day the mathematics exam was, or even if it was the first exam of the day. I only know that I felt very comfortable with most of the exams appart from the Spanish language and English ones. I'm very self-tough.

We did the exams in the Complutense University of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). There were thousands of students there: all the students who had passed the last two year at every secondary school in Alcalá de Henares were there. 

I had selected my options before I knew the Selectividad marks. I wanted to study (in this order): Medicine, Physiotherapy or Engineering. 

I passed all my exams. In the English exam I got a low mark but I passed it. In the Spanish language one I got 10/10!! But in Mathematics... I really failed: I got 0/10. It changed to 4/10 after I made a formal appeal. Anyway, I couldn't study neither Medicine or Physiotherapy. 

Finally, after 6 years at the Technical University I became a Computer Engineer. However, nowadays I work as a Mathematics teacher in secondary school and I try to prepare my students well for their university entry exams.

Destiny or coincidence?? Who knows. I only hope my students will get entry to the degree they want.


PS: You could find more vocabulary about Education and other topics (and its pronuntiation) here. 



Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!!

A Time I Met A Celebrity

Two years ago I met "Culebra" and "Cabeza". These are the nicknames of Rafi y Fali, two Spanish boys from Sevilla who made comedy sketches. My friends and I had been laughing at their short comedies during the last summer holidays and suddenly...

Antonio and I were in Sevilla for the weekend, at my mother's house. It was a lovely sunny day so we decided to go out. We went for a walk across Betis Street. This street is one of the prettiest streets in Sevilla: it follows the bank of the Guadalquivir river and you can see the "Torre del Oro" and even the Cathedral from there, at the same time you see people canoeing in the river. The views you get from this street are just amazing!

After walking for a while, when we arrived at the Triana Bridge, we decided to stop and have a beer in the famous Faro restaurant/bar. We sat down on the terrace in order to enjoy the wonderful views. The sun was shining strongly, so it was hot. We quickly finished the first beers, so I went into the bar to order another couple. When I returned to the terrace I could see how Antonio was talking to two boys. - University friends, I thought while I got close to them -. After two minutes talking with them I realized who they were:

- OMG, you are "Culebra" and "Cabeza"! -, I said.

They didn't look like themselves, probably it was the reason why I didn't recognize them at first. In all the sketches they make, they get dressed as a stereotype of different people; as hippies, as posh people, as urban youths,... That day the looked like "normal people". In each of their comedies, they talk about the same topics, but these problems are told by the different stereotypical people who each have different points of view. It's not only funny but also very interesting to watch the sketches, because I think they open your mind in a humorous way.

Rafi and Fali produced their first film ("El mundo es nuestro") last December. It was the first Spanish film financed through crowdfunding. Its cinema session cost only two euros, as opposed to the 8 euros you must pay (at least) to watch any other film in Spain.

It's very difficult to understand their accent, but anyway it's funny to watch their scketches.


Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!! 

Each Other vs One Another

Which is the different between "each other" and "one another"?

Maybe you could think they have the same meaning, and you are not completely wrong. Both of them are reciprocal pronouns, generally synonimous. However, there is a little different between them:

• We frequently use  "each other" when there are only two persons involved in the action. For example, "Nines and Laura greeted each other"
• We commonly use "one another" when there are more than two people involved in the action. For example, "All guests greeted one another".

I hope this helps.


Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!!

Adjetive Order

You know you can put more than one adjective before a noun (often two and occasionally three). These adjectives go in a particular order:

1. Opinion adjective go before fact adjectives, 
2. If there is more than one fact adjective, the go in the following order:

This is very difficult to remember, so I'm writing a rime that a teacher tell me some time ago, in order to helping me to remain this order in my memory:

“In my nice (opinion) big (size) flat,

there’s an old (age) round (shape/style) box,

for my green (colour/pattern) Swiss (nationality) hat,

and my woolly (material) walking (purpose) socks”

If that doesn't work, you always can use the "acronim" formed by the first word of every adjective. I mean, you can use: OSAShCNMP

Even so, if this doen't help, you could try with the following chain of characters: it is used by Vicent, one of my blog reader and an English student too: 'BNLPISS', which means 'Big New Long Pink Italian Silk Skirt'

I hope this help.


Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!!

Carrying My House In My Back

There is an Spanish expression that means you are carrying your house in your back, just like snails. This expression is "con la casa a cuestas". I have been looking for a similar expression in English and I have found this one, "always on the move", but I am not sure if it is really right.

I studied Computer Engineering, but after 6 years working on it as a professional, I decided to make a change in my life and I became a mathematics teacher in Secondary School (in Spain, it is from twelve to eighteen years old). I had to work and study hard to get it, because after you get an university degree (in Spain, it takes you at least six years), you must get a master's degree in pedagogy. Once you both degrees, you are able to take a State exam. 

This exam has 4 parts: a written theory exam (you must expound on one lesson completely - selected randomly from 70 possible ones-, in only two hours), a practical written exam (where you have to solve five high-level mathematics problems, in two hours), a educational project (where you must develop a memory about an hypothetical complete course from Secondary School and you have to deliver it on exam day) and a practical oral exam (where you have to explain how you'd organize a lesson - selected randomly from the lessons you have included in your project - and how you'd explain it to the students, in one hour).  Only if you pass all of them, will you get into the State Education Employment exchange. To remain on it, you must pass this exam every 2 years.

Once you are in this Employment exchange, you can be called to work at any moment during the academic course (from 1th of September to 30th of Jun). You can be very lucky and get a vacancy for the rest of the course, or more likely you only get to work for a few months, weeks or even days. When the teaching possition is finishes, you go back again onto the Employment exchange and can be called once again until the course is over.  In any case, you have to move away to the city where your new school is. We are always carrying our houses in our backs.

 Today I am in 9th possition in the Employment exchange, so I think that I am going to move out very soon... Always "con la casa a cuestas" ;-)

PS: You could find more vocabulary about job and other topics (and its pronuntiation) here. 

Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!!

New Year Resolutions

Since I was a child, I have been scared of needles. I mean, the sort of needles that are placed in a vein - only those make me feel panicky. I have always had a bad relationship with them:

• When I was 5 years old, doctors prescribe my first blood test: When my parents and I arrived at the health clinic, nurses had to tie me (literally) in order to extract me blood.
• Every time I have had a blood test since then, I have felt dizzy and even fainted.

To give blood was not only a recurring "new year resolution", but also a "life resolution": I would like to help people to feel better and healthy.  It seems to be so easy that I always feel bad with myself when I don't take a step forward to give blood.

Last Friday, my mother had her back-checked at Puerta del Mar Hospital, in Cádiz. She was operated on 9 months ago. She had 4 slipped discs (hernias) at the bottom of her back (lumbar spine) and she needs to have the screws and the plate checked to see that they haven't moved. Normally, this type of checking takes a long time, so I don't know why but I decided to spend this time in banishing my fear.  

Today I can say that on 28 December 2012 it was just the first time I gave blood. It made me feel so so happy and proud of myself.   

And what about your resolutions? Did you carry them out in 2012? Have you thought abut your 2013 resolutions?

In relation to this post, I want to upload my next note here, and this one is about vocabulary for healthy (Illness And Treatment).


Please, If you find any mistake or you have another point of view about the information that I have posted, please leave a comment. We can all learn together! This blog feeds on your coments!!