April, 2009

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The Ministry of Education announces a Spanish Competition for Teachers!

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

The Ministry of Education in Spain has announced 3 International Prizes for their department of Spanish as a Foreign Language, by creating didactic units for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. All Spanish Language teachers can participate in the program, either as individuals or as groups (of 3 people max!). The organisers have produced a document with frequently asked questions which you can read to find out more by clicking here: faqpremiosredele2009_def_27marzo

The work needs to be submitted by the 26th of May. The prizes are made up of 18,000 Euros to be split between a prize of 6,000€ for the winner, 2 runners up prizes of 3,000€ each and 6 3rd place prizes of 1,000€ each!

You can find out more about the event on the Ministry of Education‘s webpage by clicking here, where there’s all the information you’ll need about the competition. The best bit is that the competition is open to everybody. It’s at an international level and you don’t have to be Spanish to participate! It’s for all professionals of all nationalities who work or are interested in Spanish as a foreign language, teachers of Spanish as a foreign language, Spanish as a second language, or anybody interested or working with foreign students, teaching methodologies etc!! You don’t even need to be living in Spain to participate, anyone is welcome!

DELE

DELE

If you miss out on the date for applying to the competition but are still interested in learning more about teaching methodologies Mester is offering scholarships to American Spanish Language teachers, non-natives of Spanish, in Salamanca. The scholarship includes one or two weeks in Salamanca and you can find out more about this here. The course includes looking at different teaching methodologies and refreshes Spanish grammar and language.

Mester also offers a preparation for the Diploma of Spanish as aForeign Language, DELE, anyone can take the course, even beginners are welcome to take an intensive Spanish course and prepare themselves for the DELE exam! We also offer the Preparation of the Certificate and the Diploma of Spanish for Business, CAMA, and a high course for Teachers of Spanish as a foreign Langauge, SUPE. Have a look at our website for information on all of these courses, which you can take in either Salamanca, Seville or Granada!!


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The Seville Fayre

Friday, April 24th, 2009
Typical Spanish Street in Seville

Typical Spanish Street in Seville

This year the Seville Fayre is a huge event in Andalusia celebrated every year, and this year it’s going to be celebrated from 28th April to the 3rd of May. The tradition was started in 1846, when 2 men, Narciso Bonaplata and José María de Ybarra, signed a petition to have an annual fayre in Seville! There are loads of stands to see, the fayre is split between the day and night time celebrations. There’s also a huge fair ground with all the usual rides and stands, with tombolas and other activities.

The Plaza España of Seville

The Plaza España of Seville

During the day there is bull fighting and processions of beautiful horses dressed up for the occasion! Then in the evening there’s flamenco dancing and partying. The Fayre turns into a week-long party with almost a million visitors and locals. There are loads of different bull fights taking place, and you can find out about these at this link. The night time events go on until the early morning, still busy with thousands of tourists, and everything is lit up by coloured lanterns, making it pretty and colourful!

The Fayre is a huge event, with more than 1,000 stalls to see, and on the Calle del Infierno, the Street of Hell, there are more than 400 Fayre activities! The stalls are a mixture between shops, information stands, bars, arts and crafts stands, there are even political stands! The Fayre and the celebrations end with a huge firework display on the last day, on the Sunday evening. It’s a great chance to get to see the Seville life and traditions, with loads of people walking around in the typical polka-dot dresses! The event starts with a traditional meal of “pescaíto” on the Monday night, a type of fried fish that’s typical of the celebrations.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral

There’s loads of food and drink to try, and there’s a typical “fine wine” and local wine called “Manzanilla” that is drunk by the bucket load! If you get the chance to go you should take advantage of enjoying this huge event and getting to see some local traditions and cultural events in Andalusia.

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Lunes de Aguas in Salamanca

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

This Monday was “Lunes de Aguas” in Salamanca, a tradition celebrated every year, the first Monday after Easter, literally “Water Monday“. It’s a day that the whole city takes as a holiday to celebrate the return of the prostitutes to the city after Easter!!

Typical Salamanca Hornazo

Typical Salamanca Hornazo

The tradition was started by Felipe II who decided that during the holy period all the prostitutes should be made to leave the city so as not to be a temptation for the men of Salamanca! They traditionally all left the city and stayed on the other side of the river. The people of Salamanca used to go down to the river with a picnic of the traditional Hornazo of Salamanca to watch the women cross the bridge and enter the city.

The River Tormes

The River Tormes

Nowadays the locals still take the afternoon as a holiday and everybody goes to a park or the into the countryside or down to the river Tormes with their Hornazo and celebrates. The Hornazo is a type of square pie made with all different types of pig meat; ham, spanish sausage and pork; to make up for not being able to eat meat buring Easter. Everybody makes their Hornazo in preparation for the day and goes out to a park or the countryside to celebrate with friends and family! It’s a traditional celebration in Salamanca, and nowadays it’s even celebrated in some local villages. Don’t forget to try the Hornazo if you’re in Salamanca next year to celebrate with Mester!

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Our School in Seville

Saturday, April 18th, 2009
The Mester Seville Team

The Mester Seville Team

We’ve uploaded some photos of our Mester school in Seville onto our Facebook page! If you’re not already a friend of Mester then make yourself a friend of Mester Courses and join our group too. You can even see more pictures of the Mester Language school in Seville on our website. Mester’s school in Seville is situated in the centre of the city, in the old town and can take up to 160 students in summer. The school has 16 classrooms spread over 1200 m2, all air conditioned, and also has a library, computer rooms, common rooms and loads of extra space!

Seville‘s a lively city split into loads of different areas, making it really interesting to visit and explore! It’s split into 4 main areas, which are El Arenal, Santa Cruz, La Macarena and Triana. In Santa Cruz is where you’ll find the cathedral and other important monuments. There’s loads of ways to see Seville, outside of the cultural activities and trips that we offer you can choose to go around on bike, by foot, on a tourist bus, or even in a horse and carriage! It’s situated in the south of Spain, in Andalusia, and is close by to other cities such as Granada, making it the perfect starting place to take more trips and see more of Spain.

The team in Seville are there to help you with anything you want whilst you’re taking your Spanish language course, so don’t hesitate to get in touch with them! You can see them all in the photo above, so that you have an idea of who is who!

Oscar and Staff

Oscar and Staff

Seville has loads of things to do and see, you could even take a trip in a hot air balloon to see the city from above! There’s loads of parks to visit, important monuments to see, and you can take a river cruise too to see the city from the water! There’s bowling, go-karting, and for the more adventurous there’s also parachuting and ice skating, or if you fancy relaxing there’s loads of spas! For the Spanish culture, there’s loads of Flamenco shows across the city for you to see.

Seville‘s really easy to get to and is worth the visit if you can make it. You can see on our website more information about how to get there. The best time to visit Seville is just as the summer is starting or ending, the temperatures in the summer are boiling and it’s really hot! The climate is mediterranean and generally very nice, it’s one of the warmest cities in Europe!

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The Alhambra in Granada with National Geographic

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

The Alhambra is a city situated in the south of Spain in Granada. It’s an old palace complex and fort where the Monarchs and important people of Granada used to live, dating back to the 13th century. The building is beautiful decorated in colours and designs from the muslims that were in Granada at the time. The interiors of the buildings are elaborately decorated and show off islamic art.

Granada

Granada

National Geographic is currently making a series of programs on Ancient Superstructures and the Alhambra episode will be shown in April, all about the city, which has been named a World Heritage Site by Unesco.Using the latest technology the National Geographic team have been able to explore all the secrets of the architecture of the Alhambra in it’s buildings and gardens. The programme is going to look at exactly why this huge complex was built, and just how the water from the river Darro was used and still is used in the palace!

Recently the Alhambra has been declared safe for 600.000 more visitors each year, following the directions of UNESCO, without risk of damaging or saturating the conservation of the world heritage site. The advisor of the Culture Board for the area of Andalusia assures us that the Alhambra is ready for more visitors, and they are putting it forward as a candidate for the 7 Wonders of the New World!

Mester helps to organise for any of the students in Granada a trip to the Alhambra, just ask at reception for help or more information. It’s a great opportunity to see this whilst you have the chance and you’re in Granada! Here you can see loads of information and photographs in Spanish about the Alhambra: alhambra_sp and here there’s even more information, this time in English and Spanish! alhambra_sp_en

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