EXPLORING SPANISH AND ENGLISH OR LANGUAGES. TO LEAD A MEANINGFUL LIFE =vivir una vida que tenga sentido

    Working with people ageing is an essential worry for the achievement of all learners at all levels of inclusive lifelong learning can be improved in a meaningful way that enhances our opportunities for an effective participation in society.


What do I mean by lifelong learning?

The policy debate over the last 20 years (30 years in Spain as a Adult Education) has been about bringing all types of learning together and creating the frameworks able to recognise and validate it. The aim is to link the learning taking place in a variety of settings i.e. educational institutions, in-company training, on-line learning, courses organised by civil society organisations, learning resulting from daily activities related to work, family or leisure. It is relevant for a wide range of stakeholders and institutions, including those from the youth area, the voluntary sector and work. Lifelong learning covers “all learning activity undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competencies within a personal, civic, social and/or employment-related perspective” (European Commission). A literal definition is simply ‘all learning’ that people acquire across their entire life spanL – in formal, non-formal or informal settings. Therefore, learning is a continuous task of the society and the individual that extends to all areas of life ‘from cradle to grave’. This concept emerged in European Union policy papers in the 1990´s. However, it is not new in international literature (UNESCO, OECD, Council of Europe). Of particular importance, the two landmark UNESCO publications, Learning to Be (1972), and Learning: The Treasure Within (1996) have been key sources for education policy makers and practitioners internationally. They have been influential in promoting an integrated and humanistic vision of education framed by the paradigm of lifelong learning and by the four pillars of learning to be, to know, to do, and to live together. The UNESCO is currently re-thinking education building on these key concepts. (See the entris of this blog)

A network of languages. What language is more important today? An answer.
Global Language Network by César Hidalgo. An profesor of Institute Massachuset.

What languages are the hardest to learn? The answer here
There's a reason why most students start with French, German or Spanish as a second language. These languages are somewhat similar to English and require (relatively) less time to learn than most. Using information from the Foreign  Service Institute, this infographic from Voxy categorizes 23 languages by the level of difficulty.
English and Spanish have the same difficult.

How about language.
Can any animals talk like humans?

Humans use similar sounds for common words in more than 6000 languages

But why do so many human languages demonstrate these ties to this hidden, universal language of  sounds that informs the way we speak? The researchers aren't themselves sure. They considered it could be the remnant of some form of "prehistoric protolanguage" that was once spoken by the earliest humans before the evolution of modern languages – but their own analysis suggests it's more likely that biology is somehow at play here.

Analizando.... Y PIENSA QUE LOS NATIVOS ESTUDIAN LOS SONIDOS AISLADOS PARA APREHENDERLES 

English: Stress-timed Rhythm                                                     Chinese: Syllable-timed Rhythm                 Pronunciation is important.

A stress-timed language is a language where the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. Stress-timed languages can be compared with syllable-timed ones, where each syllable takes roughly the same amount of time.
Example
English and German are examples of stress-timed languages, while Spanish and Japanese are syllable-timed.

También puedes leer a modo de introducción The differences between English and Spanish cuya referencia está en Coe, N. in Swan, M. & Smith, B. Learner English: A teacher's guide to interference and other problems. (1987) Cambridge University Press.

SPANIARS ARE IMPROVING OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE according EF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY INDEX 2014 

The results show a continuing trend towards better English language skills in Spain, with the country one of the biggest improvers since 2007 — behind only Turkey, Poland and Estonia.

"Spain is seeing the results of a significant change in attitude toward English language education. The Spanish government has defined English as one of  seven basic skills, alongside Spanish and math," the authors of the EF study noted.
The report also noted the huge increase in the number of bilingual schools in the country, where students spend 30 percent of the day in an English-speaking environment. The latest EF English Language Proficiency Index showed Spanish women had slightly better English than Spanish men, while people aged 35 to 44 had the best English. In terms of regions, the highest scores were in the Basque Country while the lowest were in ExtremaduraThe EF study also concluded there exist strong correlations between English proficiency and income, quality of life, ease of doing business, Internet usage, and years of schooling. These correlations are remarkably stable over time, stated EF in its findings.

THE ACCENT. 

The cumulative auditory effect of those features of pronunciation which identify where a person is from, regionally or socially. The linguistics literature emphasizes that the term refers to pronunciation only, and is thus distinct from dialect, which refers to grammar and vocabulary as well. The investigation of the ways in which accents differ from each other is sometimes called accent studies. Regional accents can relate to any locale, including both rural and urban communities within a country (e.g. ‘West Country’, ‘Liverpool’) as well as national groups speaking the same language (e.g. ‘American’, ‘Australian’), and our impression of other languages (‘foreign accent’, ‘Slavic accent’). Social accents relate to the cultural and educational background of the speaker. Countries with a well-defined traditional social-class system, such as India and Japan, reflect these divisions in language, and accent is often a marker of class.

In Britain, the best example of a social accent is the regionally neutral accent associated with a public-school education, and with the related professional domains, such as the Civil Service, the law courts, the Court and the BBC – hence the labels ‘Queen’s English’, ‘BBC English’, and the like received pronunciation (RP) is the name given to this accent, and because of  its regional neutrality RP speakers are sometimes thought of as having ‘no accent’. This is a misleading way of putting it, however: linguistics stresses that everyone must have an accent, though it may not indicate regional origin. The popular label ‘broad accent’ refers to those accents that are markedly different from RP.

 The emphasis which makes a particular word or syllable stand out in a stream of speech – one talks especially of an accented sound/word/syllable, or the accent(ual) pattern of a phrase/sentence. The term is usually found in a discussion of metre (metrics), where it refers to the ‘beats’ in a line of poetry – the accented syllables, as opposed to the unaccented ones. But any style of spoken language could be described with reference to the relative weight (accentuation) accent of its syllables: one might talk of the ‘strongly accented’ speech of a politician, for instance. Technically, accent is not solely a matter of loudness but also of pitch and duration, especially pitch: comparing the verb record (as in I’m going to record the tune) and the noun (I’ve got a record), the contrast in word accent between record and record is made by the syllables differing in loudness, length and pitch movement. The notion of pitch accent has also been used in the phonological analysis of these languages, referring to cases where there is a restricted distribution of tone within words (as in Japanese).

A similar use of these variables is found in the notion of sentence accent (also called ‘contrastive accent’). This is an important aspect of linguistic analysis, especially of intonation, because it can affect the acceptability, the meaning, or the presuppositions of a sentence (…) The term stress, however, is often used for contrasts of this kind (as in the phrases ‘word stress’ and ‘contrastive stress’). An analysis in terms of pitch accent is also possible. The total system of accents in a language is sometimes called the accentual system, and would be part of the study of phonology. The coinage accentology for the study of accents is sometimes found in European linguistics.

(CRYSTAL, DAVID (2008 ): A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Sixth Edition. Blackwell Publising, Oxford UK. P. 4) 

AN OPINION. Onestopenglish.com. Skills pronunciationWhat accent should I teach? I suggest you teach your own accent. Whether you are a native or non-native speaker, teach the accent that you speak. Tell your students there are many English accents around the world, and that you will expose them to some through the course materials, the internet and movies, and they can try them out too. Having fun with accents means having fun with pronunciation and gaining confidence.
What about Received Pronunciation (RP)? Although RP is a minority English pronunciation, spoken in the South East of England, it was for historical reasons selected as a prescriptive model of English in teaching materials. Those historical reasons are changing, and it is now better to treat RP as a point of reference and not as a preferred pronunciation target. Certainly RP has widespread intelligibility, but so do many other accents. The American English ‘equivalent’ is known as General American (GA).
So, what is the best pronunciation target for my students?The aim is not that they should sound like a native speaker, nor that they should adopt a specific accent such as RP. Rather, the aim for your students should be comfortable without difficulty or distraction, and when they listen they can comfortably follow what different speakers are saying.

This means two separate pronunciation targets: a speaking/productive one and a listening/receptive one. The speaking target can be slower and perhaps more careful and the listening target requires the student to follow more rapid speakers with different accents and differing clarity. For example, a student can say What’s the time? but needs to understand others saying wostime?.
Should students keep their own accent?We don’t need to tell students to lose their own accent because we all have an accent. We should help our students to speak and listen with comfort and confidence and enable them to discover that they have the capacity to develop and change their pronunciation in the direction of any accent, if they have the interest and will. The important thing is that they discover that they can learn new pronunciations, be understood, and enjoy it.
Won’t changing my students’ accents change their identity?We do not want to undermine a student’s sense of identity if that is connected with their pronunciation. But, nor do we want to hide behind identity as an excuse not to show students how to change their pronunciation and adopt the accent of their choice. I don’t think I have ever had a student in my class who was not excited by the discovery that they could change their pronunciation and then change it back if they wished!

 Expose your students to other accents of English whenever possible.
Constantly expose your students to short clips of different accents through course materials, online resources and accents of other teachers in the school. Expose them both to well-known global varieties of English for example accents from the United States, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, etc and to local accents of English from anywhere in the world for example in the UK this could be a Devon accent or an accent of someone from Liverpool or Edinburgh.

Invite them to notice and play with the differences between accents. The more they do this with their voice the more they will educate their ear to hear the distinctions when listening to different accents outside the class. Here are some YouTube videos you might like to use.
Twenty one accents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k
One woman, 17 British accents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyT2jmVPAk
Fun tour of American accents https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NriDTxseog
3. Be playful with different accentsThe best way to notice different accents is to try saying the different pronunciations. Get your students and yourself to do this playfully, and with pleasure. Encourage students to listen to the differences and above all enjoy it. If you the teacher joins in and experiments, you can relieve the anxiety and grow an atmosphere of creative exploration and fun in which there is laughter with each other, not at each other.
David and Ben Crystal have a website at http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/bencrystal/yousaypotato which consists of people round the world saying the sentence “This is how I say potato and I come from …” Your class could listen to the differences, and add their own. 
4. Practise sounds and words, but then immediately join them upHelp your students to practise individual sounds, but then ensure they join the sounds up into words, and join the words up into connected pieces of speech. A good tip is this: The right words in the right order is not the same as correct. When doing grammar and vocabulary exercises in class it is easy for the teacher to say good when you hear the right words in the right order. But it is not actually ‘good’ until it has the best connected up flow and clarity that they can manage at that moment. Students notice how it brings the language alive when you require this and you will quickly raise the standard in your class. Using a smart phone you can get students to practice recording and listening to their own versions of a connected up sentences that you are practising in class.
5. Aiming for comfortable intelligibilityTell your students that a core aim in learning English is ‘comfortable intelligibility’ when speaking or listening. This is important as it gives an overall standard for progress. To develop the ability to listen to rapid speech, get your students to imitate, and practice bits of rapid production. Not because they need to speak quickly themselves, but because this helps them to listen quickly. The mouth educates the ear. I tell my students “I don’t expect you to speak rapidly, but you still have to listen rapidly”.
 For more practical ideas see my blog www.adrianpronchart.wordpress.com

ENGLAND TODAY
The most potent symbols of the British establishment, including the coronation of the next monarch and the House of Lords, need to adapt to reflect modern Britain, which is increasingly less religious, less Christian and more diverse, a major new report says.
“Britain’s landscape in terms of religion and belief has been transformed beyond recognition,” says the report, Living With Difference. It points to three “striking” trends:
• The rapidly increasing number of people with non-religious belief and identities, now almost half the population.
• The decline in Christianity, now a minority of the population – and among those, a huge shift away from mainstream denominations to evangelical and Pentecostal churches.
• Increased diversity in faith and rapid demographic growth of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu populations in the UK.
(...)
Acknowledging that society “needs customs, symbols and ceremonies which give public expression to how it sees itself”, it says that those responsible for such events, including the coronation, should “ensure that the pluralist character of modern society is reflected”.
Article. The Guardian.2015/dec/07. Key Symbols of the Establishment must reflect modern Britain

Has the queen become frightfully common Received pronunciation / Estuary pronunciation
By the middle of the 20th Century, the class system itself had become a little more fluid; now, accent was one of the few ways to mark out those who had inherited their wealth from those who had earned it.
(...) As more and more people of working class background have begun to occupy positions of power – some characteristics of more regional southern English accents have started to creep into the crystal tones of Received Pronunciation.
(...) he thinks an answer comes from some interesting recent psychological studies looking at the art of conversation. Various experiments have found that each time we speak to someone, our accent moves very slightly to match theirs, perhaps an unconscious effort to build rapport. There is also some evidence that it improves your comprehension of what they are saying

ACCENTS
These are the accents we find the most and least attractive

Most attractive British Isles accents:

1. Irish (42)

2. Received Pronunciation (31)

3. Welsh (20)

4. Yorkshire (15)

5. West Country (13)

Least attractive British Isles accents:

5. Glaswegian (-29)

4. Cockney (London) (-30)

3. Mancunian (-31)

2. Liverpudlian (-33)

1. Brummie (-53)

SAYINGS. Refranes y expresiones populares. Los dichos de las abuelas inglesas.

1. Every cloud has a silver lining = “No hay mal que por bien no venga”
2. When God shuts a door, He always opens a window. Una mezcla entre “Dios aprieta pero no ahoga” y “Cuando en un lugar se cierra una puerta, en otro se abre una ventana”
3. Can’t judge a book by its cover. No juzgar un libro por su cubierta, es decir, la expresión que nosotros solemos decir:no juzgar por las apariencias, o “El hábito no hace al monje”
4. Easier said than done. “Más fácil decirlo que hacerlo”
5. Spill the beans. “Levantar la liebre”
6. To hit the sack/sheets/hay . Para lo que en inglés literalmente se traduce como “golpear el costal” o el “heno” nosotros diríamos algo tipo “irse al sobre”
7. In the nick of time. “Justo a tiempo”
8. Better late than never. “Más vale tarde que nunca”
9. Cat got your tongue? “¿Te ha comido la lengua el gato?”
10. Feeling under the weather “No sentirse bien”

Do Spaniards use a more obscene language than the French or the English, for instance? The short answer is: yes in Why do the Spanish “shit in the sea”? El Pais, 2015/06/23 in English y en español

1º.  S- IN ENGLISH in English.
I'm sure most of you are having some serious problems with the pronunciation of some sounds or words in Spanish or in English. For example, one of the most typical mistakes in the pronunciation of English by Spanish speakers is, precisely, words like Spanish, speaker, sport, study... Typically, they add a non-existant vowel before the "s", that's because such a combination of sounds does not exist at the beginning of a word in Spanish, so it's more difficult for us.

LONG WORDS
On the other hand, English speakers have some serious problems with long words in Spanish, they tend to make them shorter. That's because in English, there's a difference in length between stressed and unstressed syllables. For instance, an English speaker might have some serious problems in producing a word like "esdrújula" properly.  One of the objectives of this BLOG is that you help each other with these typical issues. I'd like you to participate in this forum thread and tell us what pronunciation problems are you facing as a non-native speaker of the language when speaking English or Spanish.

S- IN ENGLISH in Spanish
Estoy seguro que la mayoría de vosotros sufrís de serios problemas con la pronunciación de algunos sonidos o palabras en español o en inglés. Por ejemplo, uno de los errores más típicos en la pronunciación del inglés por parte de hablantes de español es, precisamente, palabras como Spanish, speaker, sport, study... Normalmente, los hablantes añaden una vocal no existente antes de la primera "s", eso es porque esa combinación de sonidos no existe al principio de palabra en española y eso lo hace más difícil.

LONG WORDS
Por otro lado, los hablantes de inglés también presentan serios problemas con palabras largas en español, tienden a hacerlas más cortas. Eso es porque en inglés, hay una diferencia en duración entre las sílabas con acento y sin acento. Por ejemplo, un hablante de inglés podría presentar  serios problemas en producir la palabra esdrújula adecuadamente así como alienígenas, aeropuerto, fuerzas aéreas, reivindicación, y mi favorita ingeniería.

Uno de los objetivos de ESTE BLOG es ayudarnos unos a otros con estos problemas. Me gustaría que participarais en este hilo y nos contarais los problemas a los que te enfrentas como no nativo de español o inglés a la hora de pronunciar ciertos sonidos.

2º. The difference in rhythm between English and Spanish lies on the fact that they are two different languages in terms of stress. In English, only those syllables that have some stress on them are pronounced in a full form, the rest of the syllables are not important so they are compressed.

Besides, there's always one syllable in every sentence which is the most important, it's always towards the end of the sentence and all the weigh of the sentence lies on it.

On the other hand, in Spanish all the  syllables have got the same duration, of course we put more emphasis on stresses, but we don't compress the unstressed ones. Let me give you an example (I put some stresses to show you which words and syllables are the most important).
English:  Thére's a cát sléeping on the róof - Only those syllables with a stress on them are pronounced in a full form, and the word róof is the most important word, so it's even more stressed.
Spanish: Háy ún gáto én él tejádo. - All the words have got stress, and the unstressed syllables are not compressed.
Aquí os dejo este link para que comprendáis, programéis vuestro trabajo y practiquéis: deletion with connected speech English pronunciation Es la primera vez que entiendo el sonido de la "h". ¡Eureka!

3º. FLUENTLY
In his foreword to the report Mr Worne stresses that it is functional skill rather than fluency that counts.
"'Fluent' is an inhibitor, 'functional' is a liberator". BBC.com news education 20 Novembre  2013.

4º. SPELLING
Me gusta este artículo del profesor de la Universidad de Gales David Crystal, Story English Spelling
The Gardian, 2012 sobre la ortografía inglesa.
"La historia de la ortografía inglesa es la historia de miles de personas unos conocidos y otros desconocidos que dejaron una huella en ella. Es una historia que cubre unos 1.500 años (...)" (libre traducción, free traslation).

 5º. Cost of living in England and Spain.
Here there are a study of Movehub about countries where the reference is New York and their cost of living. Looking for a country to exchange languages. If you are studying Spanish, tell me.  I am Spanish.
This information is published periodically for Numbeo.com cost of living. Rankings by country  and you can comparer Spain and England in 2015.

El Pais. 2015/07/29 in English y en español The average salary in Spain falls 0.2% in 2014, to €22,606

6º. Adult Education in Spain 

7º. Learning Spanish. Warning! El Mundo cultura 2015/04/26 La lengua es comunicación y dinero, mucho dinero.

8º.  ESTUDIOS. En el Reino Unido, al igual que en España, se organizan los títulos universitarios dependiendo el área de estudio que abarquen. Podemos encontrar:

1. BA: Bachelor of Arts (Diplomatura en Humanidades)
2. BSc: Bachelor of Science (Diplomatura en Ciencias)
3. BEd: Bachelor of Education (Diplomatura en Educación)
4. BEng: Bachelor of Engineering (Diplomatura en Ingeniería)
5. LLB: Bachelor of Law (Diplomatura en Leyes)
6. MB o BS: Bachelor of Medicine (Diplomatura en Medicina)

En cuanto al tipo de carrera universitaria, distinguimos varios tipos, dependiendo de su duración, área de estudio o calificaciones obtenidas. Estos son los tipos de carreras o grados que podremos estudiar:

1. Ordinary degree: Estudio de varias asignaturas a un nivel general. Estos grados tienen una duración de tres años.
2. Honours degree: Estudio de un campo a nivel más avanzado. Hemos de realizar más créditos que en un Ordinary degree para la obtención de este título, aunque su duración suele ser también de tres años de duración. Según las calificaciones obtenidas, podremos obtener First Class Honours, Second Class Honours o Third Class Honours.
3. Joint Honours degree: Se trata de un Honours degree pero que combina dos áreas diferentes de estudio.
4. Combined Honours degree: En estos cursos se estudian tres o más áreas a un nivel más general.
5. Grado sándwich: Se trata de un grado que contiene, al menos, un año de prácticas en el mundo laboral, en un sector relacionado con el área de estudio, o bien un año de estudio en el extranjero.

RESOURCES
Michael Tomasello (2010). “Origins of Human Communication”. Massachusetts: MIT Press. Click here for more information. 

Steven Pinker (1994). “The Language Instinct: How the mind creates language”. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Click here for more information. 

Victoria A. Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams (2013). “An Introduction to Language." 10th ed. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning. Click here for more information.

Noam Chomsky (2006). “The Architecture of Language”. Oxford India Paperbacks. Click here for more information. Guy Deutscher (2006). “The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind’s Greatest Invention”. Holt Paperbacks. Click here for more information. 

Joel Davis (1994). "Mother Tongue: How Humans Create Language. Birch Lane Press." Click here for more information. 

LanguageLog. Blogposts on news, new articles and observations by several renowned linguists, among which Mark Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum. Click here to read.

Babel. Language Magazine featuring everything from Chinglish to Shakespeare. Click here for more information.

Bergmann, A., Hall, K.C., & Ross, S.M. (Eds.). (2011). "Language files: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics". 11th ed. Columbus, OH: Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University. Click here for more information 

Linguistic Society of America. This organisation publishes the number one scholarly journal for linguistics, appropriately called Language. However, they have also published a plethora of free pamphlets on a wide variety of linguistic topics, written by pre-eminent scholars. Some of these we are allowed to use in this MOOC (for which we are very grateful), and there are many more on their website. Click here for more information.

DONDE ESTÁ MI BLOG

En el blog para expatriados podemos encontrar este blog donde consideran que la vida en el extranjero esta mejor descrita por los que viven tal experiencia, y pro ello propone una lista de blogs de expatriados a través del mundo. Dan también la posibilidad de crear un blog gratis y de aprovechar las herramientas ofrecidas para los miembros de la comunidad de Easy Expat

http://www.blogexpat.com/es/dir/espana/blog/aprendeinglesconedad.blogspot.com.es    


en Centros de día  También está en http://www.blogomayor.com/blogs-de-mas-de-50-anos para mayores de 50 años. Una blogosfera de Infoelder. Veremos 08/06/2015
Me he dado de alta con lo siguiente:
Este es un blog para gente que nos gusta el aprendizaje permanente y que tenemos ya una edad. Personas con una edad y que nos gusta viajar y aprender una lengua, cultura, etc. La educación es experiencia. This is a blog for people with age and like Lifelong Learning experiences. People who have long age and want to travel and learn a language because I think it is the best way to learn a language, culture, etc. Education is experience.

Una vez que te das de alta te envían un correo: 
Si necesitas ayuda, comunícate con nosotros en info@blogomayor.com
¡Gracias por participar!
Equipo de BLOGOMAYOR
www.blogomayor.com

APRENDER INGLES CON EDAD: MI CANTABRIA.

 MI CANTABRIA

Canciones:

Santander la marinera de Chema Puente.

                                     Letra

Paseando por tus calles, me encontré un son de habanera
quizás la perdió un soldado, que de Cuba regresó
Se me enredó en la memoria, me hizo un tiempo compañía,
y una racha de nordeste, y una racha de nordeste
a tus calles devolvió.

Santander la marinera, es la que más quiero yo,
la que tiene azul el alma y al viento su corazón.
La que crió a Sotileza, la del hablar cantarina
en el tendal ropa blanca y un jilguero en el balcón.

Me tienes a ti atrapado, en una red invisible
trincada al Barrio Pesquero y a San Martín de la Mar.
Siempre regreso a tu brisa, a la luna en la bahía,
y por lejos que me encuentre, y   
y por lejos que me encuentre tu faro siento brillar.

Santander la marinera, es la que más quiero yo,
la que tiene azul el alma y al viento su corazón.
La que crió a Sotileza, la del hablar cantarina
en el tendal ropa blanca y un jilguero en el balcón.

Hay dinamita en tu entraña y el trajinar de los muelles,
viento sur enloquecido y una blusa azul de mar.
En Puertochico te espero, frente de Peña Cabarga,
ponte el pañuelo encarnado, ponte el pañuelo encarnado
y vamos a pasear.

Santander la marinera, es la que más quiero yo,
la que tiene azul el alma y al viento su corazón.
La que crió a Sotileza, la del hablar cantarina
en el tendal ropa blanca y un jilguero en el balcón.

Santander eres novia del mar de Jorge Sepúlveda.

                 
                        Letra

Santander, eres novia del mar
Que se inclina a tus pies
Y sus besos te da.

Santander, las estrellas se van
Pero vuelven después
En tu cielo a brillar.

Yo también, dejaré tu bahía
Y un recuerdo en mi vida
Que jamás borraré.

Santander, al marchar te diré
Guarda mi corazón, que por el volveré.

Santander, las estrellas se van
Pero vuelven después
En tu cielo a brillar.

Yo también, dejaré tu bahía
Y un recuerdo en mi vida
Que jamás borraré.

Santander, al marchar te diré
Guarda mi corazón, que por el volveré.

Santander.


Cantabria por Viento del Norte, Sergio y Nando Agüeros (Tanea).

Viento del norte  (José Fernando Agüeros)

Me embruja el murmullo del río y del monte
con lluvia de mayo me quiero mojar
voy a correr como el lobo en la noche
pretendo sentir toda tu inmensidad.

Me guía la luz de un rayo de luna
la clara del alba al amanecer.
Me llena de vida toda la hermosura
de esta tierra verde que aprendo a querer.
Quiero saltar de la rama de un roble
gritar tu nombre y echar a volar
tengo la fuerza del viento del norte
y esa bravura que viene del mar.

Un puño de tierra, de arena o de nieve
hacen tan pequeño lo poco que soy
que a veces me alienta y otras me hiere
yo vengo de ti y no sé dónde voy.

Quiero saltar de la rama de un roble
gritar tu nombre y echar a volar
tengo la fuerza del viento del norte
y esa bravura que viene del mar.

MOOCs COURSES SPANISH & ENGLISH and ENGLISH & SPANISH

    INTRODUCCIÓN
    A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) offers interactive participation and coursework to anyone with Internet access. In addition to video lectures, readings, and quizzes, MOOCs provide discussion areas that build a community for the students, professors, and course staff and everybody who wants to do that.

 College Writing 2x is a writing course designed specially for learners of English. It will be offered through edX.org, and will be completely free. It will use some of the most advanced tools in online writing instruction. Students will have meaningful ways to practice their writing and get feedback on how well they are doing. Bekerly University.
Aquí un video muy interesante sobre la manía de aprender inglés en el mundo.

    I wonder if you are aware of how exceptional and rare is learning foreign languages in a GOOD MOOC course. How could anyone think, 10 years ago, that we would be able to have videoconferences with people from all over the world, with the sole purpose of practising our speaking skills, and for free? Things are changing and we have a wide range of new possibilities nowadays. For instance, Tandem, online chats, lyricstraining for songs...
It would be great if we could share in this thread any alternative and innovative ways of learning languages that you've used or know about.  Maybe we can come up with a list of interesting tasks or activities that we can all enjoy. I'm really looking forward to know any other methods or approaches you're using these days to improve your skills (Listening, speaking, writing and reading) and society! Go ahead and tell us!

If you want to know more about MOOCs, see below in OPINIONES, in Spanish.

    Me pregunto si realmente sois conscientes de lo excepcional y raro que es aprender un idioma en un  BUEN curso MOOC. ¿Quién podía pensar, 10 años atrás, que podríamos mantener videoconferencias con gente de todo el mundo, con el único propósito de practicar nuestra habilidad oral, y además gratis? Las cosas están cambiando y tenemos una gran variedad de nuevas posibilidades hoy en día. Por ejemplo el Tándem, chats online, lyricstraining para las canciones...
Sería fantástico si pudiéramos compartir en esta entrada cualquier manera de aprender idiomas  alternativa o innovadora que hayáis usado o conozcáis. Quizás podamos confeccionar una lista de tareas o actividades interesantes que todos podamos disfrutar. Tengo ganas de leer sobre esos métodos o técnicas que usáis hoy en día para mejorar vuestras habilidades lingüísticas (audición, habla, escritura y lectura) y sociedad ¡Adelante, cuéntanos!.

Si quieres conocer algo más sobre MOOCs mira abajo en OPINIONES (In Spanish)

                                                       1ST COURSE: SPANISH

Hola a todo el mundo:

El próximo febrero se inaugura la tercera edición de "Español Salamanca A2". Si no terminaste el curso en la primera edición o si quieres repasar contenidos puedes aprovechar esta oportunidad.

En la primera edición miles de inscritos pudieron aprender español con "Español Salamanca A2". Como siempre, se trata de un curso en línea gratuito y accesible para todo el mundo. ¡Avisa a tus amigos y familiares!

Recuerda que podrás disfrutar de un entorno de aprendizaje colaborativo, una miniserie cómica y multitud de materiales didácticos para mejorar tu español.

Nos vemos muy pronto en "Español Salamanca A2".

Hello, everybody,

On February we will open the second edition of "Español Salamanca A2". If you did not finish the course in the first edition or if you want to go over again its contents you can make the most of this opportunity.

In the first edition many thousands of users could learn Spanish with "Español Salamanca A2". As always, this is a free and online course for everyone. Let your friends and family know!

And remember that you can enjoy a collaborative learning environment, a comic miniseries and lots of educational materials to improve your Spanish.

See you soon at "Español Salamanca A2".

         2SN COURSE: SPEAKING IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH

 ¿Quieres mejorar tu español o tu inglés hablado? ¿Necesitas práctica oral con un hablante nativo?

Este curso de seis semanas te ayudará a desarrollar estrategias comunicativas por medio de

contactos con hablantes nativos de español o inglés. Mejora tu fluidez oral realizando tareas tándem

con hablantes nativos de la lengua extranjera que estás estudiando TANDEM MOOC SPANISH &

ENGLISH 

CONSEJOS: NO ACONSEJABLE.
                                                            
                                                  EVALUACIÓN
VENTAJAS:
Te envían en pdf un certificado personal en base a tu autoevaluación "gratuito".
El profesorado es cariñoso.
Se graban las intervenciones entre los miembros del Tándem lo que te permite una revisión.
Existe un portfolio.
Hay contacto con monitores o profesores.
Instrucciones a tu email.   
DESVENTAJAS:
Es muy difícil de seguir y de encontrar tándem.
Empleas mucho tiempo sin resultados personales. 
Te usan de conejillo de indias. 
Fala de transparencia democrática. No funciona bien casi nada en la plataforma.
No existe feedback con el profesorado o monitores a nivel profesional.   
Las actividades no programadas, se van colocando a medida que transcurre el curso, o son nulas o demasiado infantiles, o de entretenimiento, no orientadas a un trabajo serio y riguroso del idioma.
Si quieres el título debes de rellenar una encuesta.
Se desconoce la cualificación profesional de los monitores o profesores.
El porfolio es personal.
Hay un ranking para colocar delante con premios finales de media hora de conversación, a los que "mejor" trabajan en la plataforma.   
This sectors of education is organized around the needs of the teachers or institution, not the needs of the students and the society = Este sector de enseñanza está organizado alrededor de las necesidades de profesores o de la institución, no de las necesidades de los estudiantes y de la sociedad.

MORE COURSES FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE STUDING
ENGLISH.

Exploring English: Language and Culture WILL START 2nd February. This course for learners of English looks at British culture and examines English in use to help you improve your language skills.

UNIVERSITY OF READING . UK.  A Beginner's Guide to Writing in English for University Study. Learn how to use English for study at university or college and develop your writing skills, vocabulary and gramar WILL START  on 19 Jan 2015. 

TIP:  I recommended it.

ADVANTAGES:
A good plaform.
Easy and fast acces.
Clear explanations and videos too.

DISADVANTAGES:
No directly information to students at the begginging of the course.
Certification is not free, more or less 23 pounds and you know that at the end of the course.
Lack or little of personal orientation.
Don´t know the qualifications of the teachers or people.
A litte grammar.
It is not for begginer students in academic writing.

COURSERA. Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade (Fundamental English Writing) by Lawrence (Larry) Barkley, Ted Blake, Lorrie Ross
UOTTAWA UNIVERSITY WRITING RESOURCES. 
Se puede usar a blog tool, such as Wordpress or Blogger, would also be an appropriate way to keep your writing practice assignments online. You may also choose to use a word processing file or a Google doc to store your writing assignments.

The Writing Centre
Moriset Hall
Room 0036
Ottawa ON Canada
K1N 6N5
No e-mail writing help available
writcent@uOttawa.ca

Encontramos cosas tan interesantes como lo siguiente y posteriormente te explica cada parte:

Parts of Speech	Jobs They Perform in Sentences
Nouns, pronouns	Subjects (the actor/who/what) and Objects (receive the action of the actor)
Verbs	Verbs (describe the action of the actor)
Adjectives, adverbs, prepositions	Modifiers (add details and description)
Conjunctions	Conjunctions (link sentences, words)
Interjections	Interjections (exclamations)

INTERJECTIONS
Interjections, the last part of speech, express surprise, emotion, or demand attention.

• Amen!
• Wow!
• Hey!
• Absolutely!
• Bless you!
• Ouch!
• Damn!

You should avoid using interjections in formal academic prose. Insert interjections in more informal writing or when you are writing dialogue

TIP:  I recommended it. The best part of this course is the explanation about Grammar.

It is American English
  
MORE Moocs COURSES

If you are interested in History SEE HERE

COURSERA cursos de universidades internacionales. No es gratis el certificado pero tienen becas.

 OPEN EDUCATION EUROPE  

2016/06 TANDEM MOOC. Universidad de Barcelona.  Inglés y español pero no los dos. 


OPINIONES of MOOCs (in Spanish) en El País. 2014.

More opiniones of MOOCs in El País 2014/12/26 in Spanish plus my opinion.

It is a business:
- Los títulos 'online' se antojan necesarios ante el aumento de universitarios.
-  El número de alumnos de los campus presenciales (sin contar los másteres) descendió un 12% en la última década (en 177.000, hasta quedarse en 1,21 millones); sin embargo, a pesar de la bajada de 2013, en las no presenciales creció el 15% (hasta 198.000). (...) Muchos lo hacen porque el precio es más barato y porque así pueden estudiar lo que quieren sin desplazarse. Pero cada vez más es que están hastiados de los horarios, de tener que ir a remolque de lo que el profesor mande.
A. Advantages: Cualquier persona en cualquier parte del mundo se puede inscribir y seguir el curso (normalmente equivalente a una asignatura) a través de clases grabadas, bibliografía o podcasts, haciendo trabajos e interactuando con compañeros. En general, solo hay que pagar algo si el alumno quiere un certificado de asistencia.
- Hay momentos de inteligencia colectiva.

B. Disadvantages:
-  Hay demasiadas universidades intentando hacer lo mismo. La calidad sufre.
- Los animales aprenden, por ejemplo, de sus padres = Animals learn from example of their parent(s). That is why the teacher in the classroom is essentially modelling this behaviour, learning from an elder = Ese es porque el profesor en la clase es esencial, modelando el comportamiento, el aprendizaje de una persona mayor.
- This sectors of education is organized around the needs of the teachers or institution, not the needs of the students and the society = Este sector de enseñanza está organizado alrededor de las necesidades de profesores o de la institución, no de las necesidades de los estudiantes y de la sociedad.We need more teachers and we need them to be our celebrities. Otherwise, we will just model the “idiocracy” of our current culture.

Thesaurus  recomendable. English.
       
Ejercicios de español. Verbos. Universidad de indiana.edu

MOOC List 2016
About ageing: Strategies successful ageing


Educators          

Rose Anne Kenny (Educator)

Rose Anne Kenny is the Principal Investigator and founder of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) and Professor of Medical Gerontology at Trinity College Dublin. www.tilda.ie                

Brian Lawlor (Educator)

Professor of Old Age Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin; Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of the Memory Clinic at St. James's Hospital, Dublin.                

Deirdre O'Connor (Educator)

Postgraduate Research Assistant at TILDA, interested in dietary patterns & effects on health in ageing. Deirdre has a BSc in Nutritional Sciences and a Masters of Public Health Nutrition. www.tilda.i                

Deirdre Robertson (Educator)

Deirdre Robertson is a post-doctoral researcher based in in Columbia University in New York. She is interested in how psychology affects physical changes in the body, particularly in later life.                

Denis Roche(Educator)

Composer, artist and curator Consultant Artist in Mercer's Institute for Successful Ageing, St.James Hospital, Dublin and Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin.                

Desmond (Des) O'Neill (Educator)

Academic geriatrician with >500 publications, Prof O'Neill is also a writer/commentator in national media, has received national and international awards for advocacy & research, Twitter @Age_Matters                

Eithne Sexton (Educator)

Post-doc researcher based in TILDA (www.tilda.ie), and working on the HaPAI project (www.hapai.net). Interested in how to measure and improve health and wellbeing in later life.                

Fiona Newell

Professor in Psychology and Institute of Neuroscience. Fiona's research is based on investigating how the brain merges information from the different senses into a coherent perception of the world.                

Maria O'Sullivan (Educator)

Associate Professor in Nutrition & Principal Investigator at Trinity College Dublin. Interested in diet, lifestyle & inflammation in healthy ageing. Diet facts v fiction. http://people.tcd.ie/mosulli5                

Mary Ni Lochlainn (Educator)

I am a FY2 doctor in Kent, England. I completed my medical studies at Trinity College Dublin, qualifying in 2014. I am passionate about pursuing a clinical and research career in Geriatric Medicine.                

Orna Donoghue (Educator)

Project Manager on The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Current research focuses on the factors influencing gait, mobility and falls in older adults.                

Richard Layte

Richard Layte is Professor of Sociology at Trinity College Dublin                

Sabina Brennan (Educator)

Educator: "Strategies for Successful Ageing" I'm a Psychologist, I research ageing & cognitive function & I make animations about Brain Health www.freedemliving.com www.hellobrain.eu www.sabinabrennan.ie                

Virpi Timonen (Educator)

Professor in Social Policy and Ageing

HOMOLOGACIÓN DE TÍTULOS. No es fácil.
El lugar más adecuado para saber lo que se necesita es el NARIC, una red de centros de información europea que en España tiene sede dentro del ministerio. Ofrece información sobre todos los procesos de homologación y reconocimiento profesional (tanto dentro del país como en otros estados si la intención es dar validez en el extranjero a un título obtenido en España).
(...) Antes de escoger el centro académico y los estudios que se van a cursar, los expertos recomiendan consultar los listados de titulaciones oficiales que publica cada país. Solo se pueden homologar los oficiales. En España es el RUCT (Registro de Universidades, Centros y Títulos) el que proporciona la información relevante. Hay equivalentes en otros países europeos. Allí están inscritos los nuevos títulos de grado, máster y doctorado oficial. Si unos estudios no figuran, es que no son oficiales. Economia. El Pais 2015/05/22

 WEBSITES
Udemy. Cursos gratis sobre leer y escribir. 

CURIOSITIES AND BRITISH HISTORY EXPLORER

SALUTATION
Salutation with three fingers and with two

Instead of using their middle fingers, Britons use what is known as a two-fingered salute. 



Suburbium

   "Tanto suburb(s), inglesa, como suburbio, castellana, provienen directamente de la palabra latina suburbium, que designaba al territorio rural cercano a la urbe, a la ciudad. No tenía connotación peyorativa. En la capital del Imperio la plebe se hacinaba en ciertos barrios y los patricios que se lo podían permitir, mantenían alguna villa por el suburbium como quien tiene un chalecito en la sierra. Del suburbium latino a los suburbios (Rabat que significa “suburbio” en árabe y en maltés arcaico), y los suburbs ingleses apenas hay cambios ortográficos. Pero entre las ciudades antiguas y las actuales las diferencias son notables, por lo que, a la fuerza, el término suburbium tuvo que evolucionar. Y la evolución no fue la misma en la Europa mediterránea que en la anglosajona.

    La ciudad mediterránea ha sido históricamente más compacta y ha subrayado la separación entre paisaje urbano y rural. Sus murallas han sido elemento sagrado durante siglos y por lo que la ciudad ha optado por crecer a lo alto, densificando la población en su interior. Fuera de estas murallas estaban los suburbios, de alma arrabalera: barrios extramuros donde no había ley ni orden. O, para ser más exactos, regían otras normas y se permitían ciertas actividades prohibidas en el interior de las murallas. El siglo XIX derribó esas murallas y se crearon los ensanches. Elegantes bulevares para la burguesía, modestos barrios para la clase obrera. La palabra suburbio perdió el matiz geográfico (fuera de la ciudad) pero mantuvo la connotación social. El prefijo sub- sugiere condiciones de vida inferiores. Los suburbios en España son los barrios bajos, barrios marginales. Pueden estar en las afueras, o ser barrios interiores degradados, pero inspiran desconfianza e inseguridad.

    La ciudad anglosajona presenta un modelo diferente. El núcleo urbano nunca ha sido tan importante como en la ciudad mediterránea y era fácil encontrar elementos típicamente urbanos (lugares de culto, mercados, ferias…) distribuidos por el paisaje rural. Con la Revolución Industrial y el aumento de población urbana las ciudades se desparramaron (suburn an sprawl) sin complejos por la campiña inglesa. El modelo alcanza su expresión más emblemática en EE.UU., con la llegada del automóvil y el “American way of life”. Estas nuevas urbanizaciones son los suburbs. Ningún carácter peyorativo; al contrario, suponen la meta de la clase media: zonas verdes, tranquilidad…

    Los modelos de ciudad están en constante evolución. La ciudad mediterránea y la anglosajona se mezclan. Así traducir el término inglés suburbs por suburbios es erróneo en el caso de España. “Barrios periféricos” o “urbanizaciones” se acercarían más al concepto de suburbs. Por otro lado, para referirse en inglés a los suburbios (con matiz de barrio marginal) habría que barajar términos como slum area o shanty town, pero no suburbs". (Adaptado de FalsosAmigos.com)

'Alarming shortage' of foreign language skills in UK
Si quieres saber más sobre esta noticia lee BBC news  Novembre 2013.


PROCESSED FOOD: MODERN FOOD AND SOCIAL DIFFERENCES.

Felicity Lawrence wrote a book which is titled Not on the Label and here tell us that there are countries that have done much better at hanging on to (conservar) their food culture. One of the things that´s peculier to the Anglo-Saxon world, so both the UK and America, is that the UK was the first to industrialise. They were the first to break that link with the land, and the first population to become predominantly urban, as opposed to rural and urban. And places like France and Italy (nothing about Spain) they´ve kept much more of a link over a much longer period with the land, so you see these food culture surviving, regional food cultures, surviving much more. You´ve also got social differences: you go to France and people still stop for luch and go home and cook. In England no.

What happen in these countries in Europe, even in these sort of MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES that everybody says have got food right? (everybody says ... got food right= donde todo el mundo dice que se come muy bien). They´re actually under intense pressure from this hyper-processing of food, hyper-industrilialisation of food, which provides a diet of empty calories, completed depleted (desprovisto de) of the nutrition that people really need, so even in the countries that people talk about doing well, you ´ve got this huge increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers related to diet, and the problem, really, is that the food industry is built on taking cheap commodities (materia prima), breaking  them down (separar) into their constituent parts and then bolting them back (volver  a juntar) together, and that´s not what we need to eat.

And you don´t forget that IS A BIG BUSINESS. Another feature of the processed food is the excessive amount of sugar and other unhealthly ingredientes but there are economics reasons for this.
(It is an adaptation of SpeakUp, 352. P. 13-15. Felicity Lawrence: Modern Food)

RELIGION UK Mapped these are the world´S most religious countries
The UK is one of the least religious countries in the world, according to a new study, but two thirds of the global population consider themselves to be religious. Only 30 per cent of British people said they were religious compared with 53 per cent who said they were not a religious person. But only a small amount of Britons believed they were convinced atheists - 13 per cent.

Alberto Letona, periodista entrevistado en radio Euskadi. Escribe un libro sobe el "temperamento" inglés.  Intenta responder a: ¿Cómo son los británicos? en una cultura anglicana y protestante. Dice:
1. Excelente sentido del humor.
2. Hipócritas.
3. Bebedores. En las culturas nórdicas de prioriza la bebida sobre la comida. Es una cultura donde se prioriza la bebida.
4. Moral victoriana respecto al sexo.
5. Los españoles no nos parecemos nada a los británicos: individualistas, hacia dentro ellos y lo contrario nosotros. Además "nosotros somos una sociedad en la que ha existido el dogma católico, en la que te dicen lo que tienes que creer, en Gran Bretaña no hay dogmas, lo descubres tú. Y eso, durante años y siglos, conforma otro tipo de sociedad. En la política se ve claramente. Aquí, si no eres de mi ideología puede ser que no seas ni mi amigo. Allí todo lo contrario. Este tipo de sociedad se ve también en el periodismo". Aquí
6. Ruptura generacional que avanza hacia el mundo globalizado.
7. Gran respeto individual. Nadie se entromete contigo. Son capaces de decirte las cosas con sinceridad.
8. Mecanismos de control contra la corrupción. Aquí el amigo, el compadreo, allí sería inaceptable.
9. Las mujeres británicas no son especiales pero sí han jugado un rol muy importante en la cultura feminista. 
10. Encajan las críticas de forma flemática.
11. Euroescepticos. Buscan su propia identidad.

TIPS / CONSEJOS TO PEOPLE WITH AGE WHO ARE LEARNING LANGUAGES / PARA PERSONAS CON EDAD QUE ESTAN APRENDIENDO IDIOMAS, SPECIALLY ENGLISH AND SPANISH

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El más importante y útil consejo es:

“Consciousness [is] a global phenomenon that occurs everywhere in the body, and not simply in our brains.” Lynne McTaggart
       How many times
have you learned
                       a new idea and
                                          known what to
                                                                do, but found
                                                                                   yourself unable
                                                                                                        to actually do it?
Personas de edad. 

Este término es elegido por que se utilizó en la Asamblea General, en su resolución 45/106, de 14 de diciembre de 1990, proclamó el 1° de octubre Día Internacional de las Personas de Edad, como seguimiento de iniciativas de las Naciones Unidas tales como el Plan de Acción Internacional de Viena sobre el Envejecimiento, aprobado en la Asamblea Mundial sobre el Envejecimiento celebrada en 1982 y que la Asamblea General hizo suyo ese mismo año (resolución 47/86). “Personas de edad” designa a personas que están no sólo obligadas a tener un papel de subordinadas, marginadas, obligadas a ser seres dependientes, relegadas a papeles secundarios o nulos, vaciadas del propio rol social, y sin autonomía personal si no que en este contexto, los organismos internacionales, 

buscaban designar un sujeto con menos diferencias con el adulto más joven y, en alguna medida, tratando de aportar nuevos significados asociados a estos términos tales como autonomía, derechos, principios, etc., reivindicando con ello un nuevo status dentro del contexto social actual.

Developing Somatic Intelligence  From this rich stew of ever-present social and emotional
experience, the brain swiftly, unconsciously, and inexorably extracts the underlying patterns that dictate how to relate to our fellow human beings. Like the acquisition of spoken language,
emotional learning, patterns of behavior, and styles of relatedness are not taught, they’re simply absorbed. “Just as grammatical English emerges from our lips automatically, a structured pattern of relatedness emanates from each of us.” (Lewis, et al 2000) Because each individual’s life experiences are so unique, our ways of relating are marvelously idiosyncratic. p. 3

Si quieres seguir por este camino que esta entrada te propone, puedes leer la entrada de este blog titulada "Si quedas en casa tienes ..." donde encontraras más caminos a seguir.

10 consejos para aprender idiomas
Interesantes y ciertos los consejos que nos dan en esta website.

y an inspiring talk by Sid Efremovich about 5 techniques to speak any language ...

Otros Reasons to learn Spanish. RAZONES PARA APRENDER ESPAÑOL

 TRABAJO INDIVIDUAL ¿Qué podemos hacer? PARA QUE PUEDA MEJORAR LAS COSAS, TÚ TIENES QUE MEJORAR. No esperes que las cosas cambien, cámbialas tú. Puedes leer las entradas a este blog "Relatos de vida" y "Si te quedas en casa tienes que ...". (Si quieres leer más en este sentido, vete a las entradas de este blog).

INDIVIDUAL WORK What can we do? IN ORDER THAT YOU COULD IMPROVE THE THINGS, YOU HAVE TO IMPROVE. Do not hope that the things change, change them you. You can read the income to this blog " Statements of life " and " If you remain in house you have that ... ". (If you want to read more in this respect, meet to the income of this blog).

Lo único que importa es ¿QUÉ VOY A HACER?, y ¿QUÉ PUEDO HACER?. Podemos hacer las cosas más notables en las situaciones más dificíles, si es que tienes cosas que hacer. Puedes tomarlas como son y hacerlas como deseas.

The only thing that matters is WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?, and WHAT CAN I DO?. We can do the most notable things in the situations more dificult, if you are that you have things that to do. You can take them as a sound and do them since like you wish.

Piensa en tu situación actual. 

El cambio empieza por el cambio de ACTITUD pero tiene un precio que será el tiempo de aprendizaje. Ésta requiere de los DESEOS. Pero no confundas deseos con OBJETIVOS. Los deseos pasan a ser objetivos cuando toman una forma concreta que nos permiten desarrollar planes de acción, proyectos adecuados a nuestras circunstancias reales. Esto tú lo conoces bien. Úsalo.
La falta de objetivos no nos conduce al éxito, conduce al fracaso, a la rutina y al aburrimiento y con ello al abandono. 
Todo éxito importante comienza con un deseo, un sueño, una emoción que activan la mente para materializarlos.  

Si quieres aprender inglés fíjate en: "Se necesitan 2.000 horas de dedicación en el menor plazo de tiempo posible, para que no se difumine ni haya pérdida de energía. Dos mil horas divididas en 400 horas de clase individual, 800 horas de estudio personal sin profesor (no sólo libros, también viendo documentales, informativos, anuncios, páginas de internet en inglés) y 800 horas de apuros en la vida real" (Richard Vaughan en el Suplemento Cultura del Imparcial).

CONSEJOS. Para estudiar un idioma se debe tener en cuenta varios factores, entendidos éstos de forma integral. Estos nos deben conducir a una inmersión (o también la conjunción lingüística o bilingüísmo integral que supone tener las dos lenguas como vehiculares).

Estos consejos se referirán a las condiciones físicas que debemos tener para ponernos a estudiar un idioma, a las condiciones psicológicas y a las condiciones medioambientales para gente de nuetra edad que difieren de las condiciones que necesitan los niños o jóvenes. Ver también la entrada este blog de "Consejos"

BUSCANDO DESTINOS:

Aquí una interesante web llamada helpx para intercambiar por muchos países en el mundo.
CONSEJOS: Viaja, viaja, viaja. Sé creativo buscando destinos.

y












Here there are a study of Movehub about countries where the reference is New York and their cost of living. Looking for a country to exchange languages. If you are studying Spanish, tell me.  I am Spanish.
This information is published periodically for Numbeo.com cost of living. Rankings by country  

I like Mincome, Canada, a research (It is in Spanish) by Evelyn Forget (University of MANITOBA) show that:

" In North Carolina, children in experimental families showed positive results on elementary school test scores. In New Jersey, data on test scores was not collected, but a positive effect on school continuation rates was found. In SIME-DIME there were positive effects on adult continuing education (Levine et al. 2005: 100). These results are all the more remarkable when juxtaposed to the academic literature that shows it is very difficult to affect test scores, dropout rates or educational decisions by direct intervention."

 
WORKING AS A VOLUNTEER:

If you are interested longer periods, you can look  workaway info to work and exchange languages as a volunteer. 

I have read thoroughly this web, the part is free, and from my point of view, it looks like a concealed from of work without salary.   
According with Alice, from the organitation: "There is no age limit for Workaway. It is open to everybody.  Older workawayers are sometimes more sought after due to them having more general skills than a student who has just left university.
Over 20% of Workawayers are over 40.
For more information we have a post on our blog:http://workawayblog.com/workaway-is-not-just-for-students-and-gap-years/ ".


Si te interesa periodos más largos mira workaway information language learners para trabajar e intercambiar trabajando como voluntario. Volunteer opportunities.
He leído con detenimiento esta web, la parte que da gratis, y desde mi punto de vista, parece una forma encubierta de trabajo sin salario. Pero, según me dicen Alice, de la organización, el 20% es gente de edad.
Consejo /Tip: ¡Cuídado! / Be careful!. The free part.

Otra dirección anyworkanywhere.com Esta página ofrece muchos trabajo de voluntario pero con trabajos que requieren mucho esfuerzo físico.

Consejo /Tip: ¡Cuídado! / Be careful!. The free part

Websites : Travel blogs. Volunteer abroad

                    VSO International. Volunteering opportunities overseas
                  
                    Independent age.org.

                                                       LEARNING VOCABULARY

APRENDER NUEVO VOCABULARIO. LEARNING NEW VOCABULARY
Debes usar la palabra aprehendida al menos 7 veces, según nos recuerdan los andragogos. Además debes implicar a las emociones. Un camino es how to memorize new words easily

The most important part of learning new vocabulary is being able to remember it the first few times you need to, after that a new neural pathway is created in your brain and the link is already established. The first few times you use it though should be a little way apart. It is not as effective using it 3-4 times in 30 seconds as using it 3-4 times in 5 days.

This usually causes the problem; because there is so much information coming to us all the time, we don't retain everything, we only retain what stands out, what seems significant, and because the new word may not have triggered significance to us, (because it's a sound we re unfamiliar with and tends then to be thrown out with the rest of the noise) we don't remember it when we need to use it. This lowers our confidence in our ability, makes us reiterate that "learning languages is difficult" and our brain switches off to protect us from things that are difficult in case we fail at them which would make us feel even worse!

So how do we know what IS significant? Anything that makes us feel an emotion, anything that snaps us out of our normal autopilot filters and makes us take notice.

New websites
Duolingo    https://www.duolingo.com/
Forvo  http://es.forvo.com/events/  interesante para saber y oír pronunciar por nativos

MultiDub for the mobile phone. 
Italki es the pago https://www.italki.com/discussion/79184