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ONº 19Mayo2017

Escuela Ofi cial de Idiomas Alcañiz (Teruel)José Pardo Sastrón, 1 • Tel. 978 83 29 36 / Fax 978 83 03 22eoialcaniz@educa.aragon.es • eoialcaniz.com

EOI-Alcañiz

PALABR

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ESCUELAOFICIALDE IDIOMASALCAÑIZ

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Plazos a tener en cuenta para el próximo curso 2017-2018

MATRÍCULA OFICIAL PRESENCIALInscripción Prueba de Clasifi cación: del 29 de mayo al 2 de junio

Solicitud de plaza (preinscripción) de alumnos de nuevo ingreso:

• Para 1º de Nivel Básico 2 plazos: del 27 de junio al 6 de julio o del 1 al 20 de septiembre

• Resto de cursos: Del 1 al 20 de septiembre

Matrícula

• Alumnos antiguos aptos en junio: del 27 de junio al 6 de julio

• Alumnos antiguos pendientes de sept.: del 15 al 22 de sep-tiembre

• Alumnos de nuevo ingreso: Admitidos en 1º Básico en julio: del 12 al 17 de julio Admitidos en 1º Básico en sept. y en el resto de cursos: del 29 de sept. al 3 de octubre Admitidos procedentes de lista de reserva: 9 y 10 de octubre

Publicación de Vacantes: 17 de octubre

Plazo extraordinario de matrícula: del 18 al 31 de octubre

Todos los procesos de inscripción, solicitud de plaza y matrí-cula se realizarán online en las fechas indicadas en nuestra pág. web.

Información THAT’S ENGLISH! Solicitud de plaza de nuevos alumnos: del 1 al 12 de Septiem-bre, a través de nuestra página web

Prueba de clasifi cación: 15 de Septiembre

Matrícula:• Alumnos antiguos: del 15 al 22 de septiembre• Alumnos de nuevo ingreso: del 28 de septiembre al 11 de oc-tubre

Publicación de Vacantes: 16 de octubre

Plazo extraordinario de matrícula: del 16 al 20 de octubre

Comienzo de las clases de That’s English!: 23 de octubreHasta 2º de Nivel Avanzado

Más información en nuestra página web: www.eoialcaniz.com

ÍNDICEDatos del alumnado. Plazos curso 2017-2018 2

Saludo de la directora 3

Teachers are the real infl uencers 4

Communication in a foreign language: Are you culturally aware? 5

Taking Sides. Why do we need to take sides? 6

Father Ángel 6

Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra 6

Rafael Nadal, a solidary sport star 8

Pau Gasol a person committed to childhood 8

Iciar Bollaín and The Olive Tree 9

Paula Ortiz, an Aragonese fi lm director 9

Shakira and ‘Pies Descalzos’ 10

Josep Carreras & his Leukaemia Foundation 10

Paco Arango, a fi lm director turned into a volunteer 10

El Langui 11

Jordi Évole and Salvados 11

Human communication 12

Communication 12

Sign language 13

Non verbal communication 14

Emojis & Emoticons 15

Becoming a better language learner 15

Honestly it’s True! Fake News and Misinformation 16

Alternative facts 16

‘Take this waltz’, a tribute to Leonard Cohen 17

Journalism and the mass media: Their role in society 18

Is reading newspapers good for improving English? 19

Are we going to lose them? Or... are we going to keep them? 20

International Mother Language Day, 21 February 21

Les communications d’hier à aujourd’hui 22

Récital de chansons françaises 23

Le concert au conservatoire: Les choristes 24

Rencontres 25

Les bruits de la communication 26

Journée crêpes 27

Bono personnage engagé avec d’autres causes 28

Pierre Rabhi et l’association «Colibris» 28

Les Enfoirés 29

Yannick Noah 29

Sí, se necesita aprender idiomas 30

Eine Person, die etwas Besonderes gemacht hat, um unsere Welt zu verbessern 31

Luther und das Wort 32

Kommunikation ist heute sehr wichtig für die Menschen 33

Taller de plantes medicinals i destil·lació 34

Conta’m un conte: La vida de Palmira Pla 35

Aula de Andorra (Inglés) 36

Aula de Caspe (Inglés) 36

Noticias breves 37

El valor de la palabra 40

Coordinadores: Pilar Araguás Suñén, Anabel Pérez Soria, Lourdes Miguel AbueloEdita: EOI Alcañiz • Diseño y producción: Terès & Antolín s.c. ISSN: 1888-7656 • Depósito legal: TE-61-2008

El Consejo de Redacción de la revista Poligloteando no se identifi ca necesariamente con el contenido de los artículos en ella publicados

Alumnado del Curso 2016 - 2017

Inglés Francés Alemán Catalán That’s TOTAL

English

Alcañiz 272 67 29 54 105 527Caspe 43 22 65Alcorisa 44 44Andorra 57 57Calanda 33 33Valderrobres 52 52TOTAL 501 89 29 54 105 778

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Saludo¡Hola a todos! Como sabéis, la Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Alcañiz suele

dedicar sus actividades extraescolares en torno a un tema, y nuestra revista se hace eco de ello. Este año nuestro lema es la comunicación y, en particular, “El valor de la palabra”.

Hemos creído que éste debía ser nuestro mensaje para el curso 2016-2017, porque partimos del hecho de que el lenguaje es la característica más peculiarmente humana que existe; ésta, y quizás la risa, es la diferencia que existe entre los humanos y el resto de animales. Y es que a través de las lenguas humanas los hombres de todas las sociedades experimentan identidad y cohesión.

Al hilo de este lema, como cada curso escolar, la EOI ha or-ganizado una serie de eventos relacionados con nuestro trabajo cotidiano en la enseñanza de los idiomas, donde comprobamos con satisfacción la implicación de nuestro alumnado y el profe-sorado de cada departamento que, por supuesto, merecen una especial mención en agradecimiento a su voluntad y dedicación.

Juntos organizamos un exitoso concurso de postres, que nos sirvió para reunir a profesores y alumnos y, por tanto, celebrar juntos las fiestas navideñas. Sin embargo, cada departamento ha sumado esfuerzos con otras actividades que a continuación detallaré:

El departamento de inglés ha realizado una exposición de trabajos titulada “Tomar partido”, desarrollada por la profesora Lourdes Miguel y sus alumnos de 2º de Nivel Avanzado, donde han mostrado ejemplos de personas que se comprometen por una sociedad más justa e igualitaria, exposición que se encuentra emplazada en el hall de la escuela.

Asimismo, se preparó un quiz (en presentación Powerpoint) cuyo título era “Periodismo y medios de comunicación: su papel en la sociedad”, que consistía en un concurso por equipos para concienciar de la necesidad de acceder a información veraz como garantía de la democracia. Este tema se completó con la charla de nuestro lector Jackson, que nos habló de los diferentes puntos de vista para la comprensión de las noticias cotidianas. De igual modo, el auxiliar del colegio “Emilio Díaz”, Jason Carlisle, nos ofreció una conferencia sobre la falsedad en las noticias y la desinformación, situaciones que, desgraciadamente, están orden del día en nuestra sociedad.

Por último, los alumnos de inglés, en homenaje al poeta, músico y cantautor canadiense Leonard Cohen, fallecido en noviembre de 2016, interpretaron el emblemático vals “Take this waltz”.

El departamento de francés desarrolló una serie de conferen-cias sobre el tema de la comunicación: “Les bruits de la commu-nication” a cargo de Pascale Giaj y “Les communications d’hier jusqu’à nos jours”, impartida por Annick Colazet, dos francesas

afincadas en la zona.Disfrutamos también de un concierto de can-

ción francesa con Carlos Gargallo, acompañado de su guitarra eléctrica; y, como ya es tradición en este departamento, llevamos a cabo nuestra célebre jornada de crêpes, para celebrar la “chan-deleur”.

En colaboración con otros centros de Alcañiz hemos realizado diferentes actividades a lo largo del curso, como la colaboración con el Conser-vatorio Superior de música de Alcañiz, con la interpretación de dos canciones de la película de “Los chicos del coro”: Vois sur ton chemin y Caresse sur l’océan, a la que se unió el departamento de alemán, con un poema recitado por sus alumnos. También, con el IES Bajo Aragón, con la actividad

“Apúntate a lo sano”, en la que han participado todos los departamentos de nuestra escuela.

Además, después de cinco años, mantenemos nuestro encuentro mensual (Rencontres), donde nos reunimos un grupo de alumnos, ex-alumnos y amigos para hablar en francés sobre temas diversos y que realizamos fuera del horario escolar.

El departamento de alemán organizó una conferencia sobre la figura de Lutero, a cargo de la profesora Anna Graf, puesto que este año se celebran los 500 años de su reforma, cuyo contenido se ha visto reflejado en un artículo para esta revista, donde se nos habla de la influencia que tuvo la traducción de la Biblia al idioma alemán.

El departamento de catalán organizó un taller de plantas medicinales y destilación −teórico y práctico, puesto que tuvimos la oportunidad de ver una destilación de romero en clase− que estuvo a cargo de Víctor Vidal Caballé y que resultó de gran interés para los alumnos y los profesores que tuvieron la oportunidad de asistir. Cabe señalar que este taller se pudo llevar a cabo gracias a las actividades organizadas por la Dirección de Política Lingüística del Gobierno de Aragón y el proyecto “Jesús Moncada”.

Del mismo modo, se han preparado otras actividades en el departamento de catalán, como la lectura de algunos fragmentos de la obra de Jesús Moncada, Camí de sirga, para celebrar el Día de la lengua materna; un mural interactivo sobre Els bancs de temps y se han tratado en clase –en sinto-nía con el lema de este año−, algunos personajes que han ayudado a hacer nuestra sociedad mejor, como el presentado por una alumna sobre la vida de Palmira Pla, una profesora de Cretas (Teruel) que emigró y que consiguió fundar una escuela en Venezuela.

Nuestra Escuela sigue creciendo –aparte de la extensión de Caspe, donde se imparte hasta 2º de Nivel Intermedio de inglés y de francés, las tres aulas de Alcorisa, Andorra y Valde-rrobres donde se puede estudiar hasta 2º de Nivel Intermedio de inglés−, y como ya anunciamos el año anterior, hemos iniciado este curso con la apertura del aula de Calanda, que ha impartido 1º de nivel básico y de nivel intermedio,y que se verá ampliada con los segundos cursos en 2017-2018. Además, este curso se ha impartido el nivel C1 de francés, catalán y de inglés en Alcañiz.

Me gustaría, por último, agradecer la colaboración de nuestro compañero de la EOI de Soria, Jesús Bozal quien nos obsequia con uno de sus artículos, también a Jessica Toro su conferencia y su artículo sobre cómo motivar a nuestro alumnado, y, por supuesto, a nuestros a nuestros alumnos y profesores, por su participación en esta revista con sus reseñas

Anabel Pérez SoriaDirectora EOI Alcañiz

Claustro de profesores curso 2016-2017

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Teachers are the real influencersIt is a fact that the digital world has com-

pletely changed the way we interact with each other. We can do anything

online: buy clothes, book hotels and fl ights, check the weather forecast, watch our fa-vourite TV series, talk to friends abroad free of charge, do research for a school essay, get information about our symptoms, etc. Everything you need is only some clicks away.

You can be connected 24 hours a day seven days a week. You can choose when and where: tablets, smart phones, PCs, te-levision.

The world of education has also been revolutionized: information that used to be hidden in the most remote libraries is now at the tip of your fi ngers, you access online courses of any discipline, there are tutorials and forums for everything... But is life easier in the digital times? Are people happier? Do we not suff er from existential angst?

For the digital natives (people born af-ter 1980) the internet and the social media are not only an important source of information, but also of distraction. They can create their own content and upload it easily so that anyone can see it. They have accounts on Face-book, Twitter, Instagram and spend hours on end checking notifi cations and exchanging “likes”.

Their heroes are no longer singers or sports people but bloggers and youtubers. They have millions of followers aged between 12 and 25 who watch all their videos and read their en-tries. I’ve visited the sites of some of those Spa-nish web stars who are at the top of the ratings and I have found that while some of them really have a fi eld of expertise and upload interesting pieces of work worth watching, many others just deal with trivial, shallow matters and publish tacky videos which are not even funny.

As a teacher I wonder: could these new gurus ever subs-titute traditional teachers? Hopefully not!

Teachers accompany their students through-out the long education years and their role is incredibly important, as they are shaping the minds of the people who will rule countries, make laws, run companies, manage health, education, safety and all public services in the future.

Teachers sow the seed of curiosity in their students, the desire of learning and of fi nding

their own answers. Students not only need Maths, Science, Computer literacy and English –a kind of education that leads them to crazy competitiveness deprived of any em-pathic feelings. They also need philosophical, historical and artistic knowledge; matters which have been considered use-less much too often but which indeed deal with the universal worries of mankind.

Students need to acquire and develop skills and values that will be useful for the rest of their lives and that will be instrumental to the kind of human beings they will become.

Classrooms are an excellent environment to train and de-velop those skills and values that can hardly be assessed in an exam: respect, tolerance, equality, justice… Many teachers take advantage of their classes to bring up controversial topics and current aff airs to help their students question themselves things that they had never thought about: violence against women, rising male chauvinism among young people, equal opportunities of access to education, gender equality, the control of our privacy through new technologies, manipula-tion of information, etc. Teachers can do a lot to help bend stereotypes and overcome the fl aws of our society.

In the classroom students can participate freely; they learn to listen to other people’s opinions, hold discussions respec-ting the turn of speech, present and refute arguments, and also change their mind after a colleague presents a well rea-soned argument. They learn the value of words.

Paula Ordovás (@mypeeptoes), a campaigner for “I’m not a real infl uencer”

Teachers plants seeds of knowledge that grow forever

book, Twitter, Instagram and spend hours on end

and I have found that while some of them really

out the long education years and their role is

students, the desire of learning and of fi nding

A teacher is someone who helps you

make a rainbow out of the colours

of your mind

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As Edna O’Brien said, “people’s lan-guage is a sign of their integrity and their intelligence” (El País Semanal, 11 December 2016).

The final aim of education should be that students learn to think critically and to analyze facts from all sides so that they can build their very own in-formed opinion. This way we will raise citizens who are prepared to seek and defend the truth and the fundamental values, not people who let themselves be intoxicated and manipulated by propaganda.

There is a recent campaign that is trying to put order in this chaos so that our young people have a reliable reference. The famous bloggers Paula Ordovás (@mypeeptoes) and Alberto Ortiz Rey (@albertoortizrey) back up this campaign, saying that they are not and shouldn’t be “influencers”. They reserve the honour title “influencer” for teachers, as they shape societies ge-neration after generation. As a teacher, I appreciate their gesture very much!

Finally, I would like to mention an article by Manuel Rivas that inspired me (“La erótica de la enseñanza”, El País Semanal, 31 December 2016), where he talks about a book by Massimo Recalcati (La hora de clase, Anagrama 2016), that I am looking forward to reading.

Here are some ideas for you to explore. I hope you find interes-ting things there!Channels: Visualpolitik (interna-tional politics), Fundación Gusta-vo Bueno (philosophy), Jesús G. Maestro (literature, history, philo-sophy), Fernando Díaz Villanueva (politics, history, classical music), Libertario (interviews), Ernesto Castro (interviews, philosophy), LateMotiv and Ilustres ignorantes (humour), “La voz de Iñaki Gabi-londo” and “Cuando ya no esté”.Youtube documentaries: “The century of the self”, “Desmontando la energía”, “Vivir bien con menos”, “Mentira la verdad”, “Españoles por el mundo”, “Madrileños por el mundo”

Lourdes Miguel AbueloTeacher EOI Alcañiz

P.S. Thank you to my colleagues Rebecca Martínez, Pilar Araguás and Jackson Reams, who have revised my writing and helped me improve it, and to my son Andrés Pé-rez for sharing with me some interesting sources of information and entertainment.

Communication in a foreign language: Are you culturally aware?

“Tell me and I ForgetTeach me and I may Remember

Involve me and I Learn… “ (Benjamin Franklin)

Th is quote has followed me throughout my life, for it is true that when we are involved we

learn, if not, theories are just a hypo-thesized concept of the mind. We all are able to communicate even without a language; new born babies commu-nicate their needs quite efficiently to their caretakers. So besides commu-nicating we want and should decide what kind of communicator we would like to be…

Communication in foreign langua-ges is based on the ability to under-stand, express and interpret concepts, thoughts, feelings, facts and opinions in both oral and written form (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in an appropriate range of societal and cul-tural contexts according to one’s wants or needs.

Communication in foreign langua-ges also calls for skills such as mediation and intercultural understanding. An in-dividual’s level of proficiency will vary between the four skills (listening, spea-king, reading and writing) and between the individual’s social and cultural back-ground, needs and/or interests. Therefo-re, why do we get lost in the language when we visit another country or when speaking to a foreigner in English?

When I was at the University, way before internet and google, I had an Asian Professor, sorry I can´t remember his native country, who I had just han-ded in a research paper for. Since I was somewhat of an overachiever at that time, I wanted to talk to him privately about my research. He was incredibly academic and knowledgeable so when I met up with him I made sure my lan-guage was quite formal and polite. He, being from a different culture was very quiet for a long time while I continued to give him my speech about my paper. He nodded at almost everything and as he shook his head at me, that very irrita-ting side to side movement, I thought I would have to convince him more and more of all my research and findings.

After much brain exhaustion, when I ran out of arguments, I thanked him for his time, and he said : “Well Done”… I was left with so much doubt, did I just waste my time on this research paper? Will I fail the course? Does he dislike women? I clearly got mixed messages that had nothing to do with language because we were both clearly profi-cient native speakers.

The next day, while talking it over with a colleague, she asked me why I thought he didn´t like my assignment. So I explained how every time I stated an argument he would nod. After a brief chuckle, my friend explained that in the Professor´s culture they nod when they agree. So the whole time I was arguing, he was agreeing with me and I didn´t even know. Since he doesn´t like to interrupt, another cultural attribute of his, there was a clear communication disruption but not based on language but on culture awareness.

Communication in a foreign lan-guage isn´t only about words and lan-guage, it is also about being able to know a little bit about the other per-son´s culture and how different other cultures communicate. I have had the opportunity of travelling around the world and I am thankful for that lesson of communication that I learned at the University. Know your gestures and un-derstand why some people might find it difficult to understand you and the nonverbal messages we give them.

Jessica Toro

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Because it is unbearable to live in a beaten up society where so many things are going wrong

without at least saying we don’t agree with them.

I recently read an article by Rosa Montero in which she warns against lukewarm people, those who never engage in anything, never rebel against unfair situations, never try to protect the vulnerable or face up the bully. She calls them “tibios” and she considers them worse than really bad people because their indiff erence allows evil to spread.

The purpose of this class project is to set our eyes on the contemporary heroes who not only say things, but also act on their beliefs. People who go a step further and embark in passionate adventures, aban-doning the comfort zone and doing much more than what their jobs strictly demands from them. Those who commit themselves to worthy causes and whose step further makes a big diff erence for others.

Why do we need to take sides?

The class project is presented in two posters: • the fi rst one has a light background and gathers the stu-

dents’ examples of people who take sides positively.• the second one has a black background and presents a list

of twelve topics that show the current embarrassing situa-tion in the world. It is intended to present facts rather than opinions, to help us think and to raise awareness about the current state of aff airs.

When trying to translate this word, I found a long list of ugly sounding adjectives: deaf, heedless, unheeding, unreactive, careless, callous, aloof, un-moved, unsympathetic, impervious, uncaring, distant, detached, unimpressed, apathetic, unresponsive, inattentive, incurious, in-sensible, lethargic, uninterested, uninvolved, indiff erent, uncon-cerned...

I hope this project can vaccinate us against indiff eren-ce, so that the word “tibio” cannot be applied to us.

Lourdes Miguel Abueloteacher 2nd Advanced B

“There is a hidden interest in keeping people ignorant, in lowering their cultural level to a minimum so that they can be more easily dominated. Culture is something real that prevents violence, puts aside speculation, makes man reason and gives him a moral and a civic conscience. But for many the only urgent thing is to have enough to go on living. We can only be saved if we recover citizen values like generosity. We need to get away from greed, from that power who wants to seize more and more. It is important to be brave to tell the truth and get outraged when we are told false tales on purpose”.

Free translation of Darío Fo’s words in the interview in El País Semanal, 14 Sept. 2014

If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor

Desmond Tutu

Taking sidesA class project developed by 2nd year Advanced level students which is in exhibition in the hall of the school since February

Some quotes:

In the following pages you can read about how diff erent people take sides.

“We must always take sides.Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victims. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Elie Wiesel

2nd Year Advanced students in front of the posters

First Year students visit the exhibition

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TAKING SIDES

Father Angel

Ángel García Rodríguez, known as Father Ángel, is a Spanish Catholic priest, born on March 11, 1937 in La Rebollada (Mieres), founder and president of the NGO

Mensajeros de la Paz. He is also the founder of the Robin Hood solidarity restaurant.

Since “Mensajeros de la Paz” appeared in 1962, more than 4,000 have-nots sit in front of a hot plate. Previously it was because Spain was underdeveloped, now because of the cri-sis. He says “Although in Spain nobody dies of hunger, there are people that would not eat if there were no Social Soup Kitchens”.

In total they have eleven Soup kitchens in Spain in which more than 600 hundred children eat a day. Public Institutions help to make the project succeed. But Father Ángel believes this is not enough ¬ “We spend more on roads or airports that are not used”- said.

His work was recognized with the Prince of Asturias Award of Concord in 1994. Mensajeros de la Paz is considered an or-ganization of public utility of national and international scope.

It is well known his support of the gay community, which led him to have confrontations with the Catholic Church. Despite this, he continued defending love among people, re-gardless of their sex and everybody is welcome to his church.

He is in charge of San Anton’s parish in Madrid and has turned it into a field hospital, open the 365 days of the year, offering free wi-fi. Something unheard of so far!

Recently Father Ángel opened a restaurant, near the pa-rish, named Robin Hood where homeless people can go to have dinner totally free. During the day anyone can go and pay a reasonable price for a good breakfast or for a good daily

menu. In the evening the poor can enjoy a hot plate or a pud-ding. In March 2017 this restless man turned 80. He says- “It is not about robbing the rich to give to the poor but about those who have more to share with those who are most needy”.

More than five restaurants have already shown interest in this initiative, in different parts of Spain, they want to be part of the solidarity chain restau-rants.

Father Ángel’s theory is that a person who cannot wash, eat or does not have a roof over his head, cannot go out looking for a job with dignity.

Mª Dolores Collantes Santalucía

2nd Advanced B

Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

It is a project founded in 1999 by the pianist and conduc-tor Daniel Barenboim and the philosopher Edward Said. The name of the orchestra was inspired by a collection of

poems by Goethe and it consists of musicians from the Pales-tinian territories, Israel and other Arab countries.

This project was born with the purpose of combining study and musical development sharing knowledge and un-derstanding between cultures that have traditionally been rivals.

Its first editions were between Weimar and Chicago until in 2002 it settled definitively in Seville. Since that year, young musicians from Spain participate in the orchestra too.

The orchestra has performed in many European countries such as Germany, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Bel-gium, and American countries for example Brazil.

The West - Eastern Divan Orchestra usually meets every summer in Seville to participate in a training workshop and offers a concert tour.

It has received several awards since its creation, including the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 2002, the Premium Imperiale given by the Japan Arts Association and an Interna-tional Emmy to his DVD “Knowledge is the Beginning”.

In 2004 the Barenboim-Said Foundation was created, ba-sed in Seville and financed by the Junta de Andalucia. The purpose is to develop educational projects through music

based on the principles of coexistence and dialogue. The Ba-renboim-Said Foundation not only manages the West- Eastern Divan Orchestra, it also manages other projects such as the Academy of Orchestral Studies in Seville, the Music Education Project in the Middle East and the Children’s Musical Education Project in Seville too.

Barenboim has spoken about the project and he says that Divan is neither a love story nor a peace story. It was concei-ved as a project to understand other people even if you don’t agree with them.

Soraya Faci Olmos2nd Advanced B

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TAKING SIDES

Rafael Nadal, a solidary sport star

Pau Gasol a person committed to childhood

Not only is Rafa one of the best sportsmen in the world, he is also, one of the most involved in social issues.

Because of his innumerable successes on the track and of course, his natural and close personality, he is one of the most beloved tennis players by the Spanish public. Despite his fame, Rafa is also down to earth and he is really aware of the social and economic problems in our society. For this reason, he created with her mother and in collaboration with the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, a homonymous foundation with which he helps more than five hundred children.

This idea started in India in 2005, where Rafa was playing in a tennis tournament and he was aware of the enormous economic differences between the Indian people life and

Sometimes it seems that professional sportsmen don´t worry about social problems but, in my opinion, peo-ple who think that are making a big mistake. Talking

about social problems and sportsmen, I would like to tell you about one of the most important Spanish basketball players in history, Pau Gasol.

our lives. That experience marked him and decided to take sides, launching the Rafa Nadal Foundation in 2008. The mission of this foundation is to provide educational programs to many socially disadvantaged youngsters, with a common denominator, sport.

The Foundation started step by step with only 70 children of Anantapur region, but nowadays, approximately 190 children receive education and healthy food in India, thanks to the program ‘Anantapur Educational Centre’. In addition, it has other active programs in Spain such as ‘Más que tenis’ that works with around 130 children of the ‘Special Olympics Organization’ and ‘Integración y Deporte’ in collaboration with ‘Aldeas Infantiles SOS’ that helps more than 190 children from

Barcelona, Granada or Zaragoza.At the end of 2015, ‘Rafa Nadal Foundation’

inaugurated its first own centre in Palma de Mallorca, where the organization of the tennis player launched an education and sport project for children from 6 to 16 years old who live in a socially disadvantaged environment. That project was especially important for him because it was the first one which completely belonged to the foundation and it was going to be developed in his land, Mallorca.

You can find more information about the foundation projects on the website:

http://www.fundacionrafanadal.org/esp/default.asp

Elena Faci Olmos2nd Advanced B

He was born in Barcelona in 1980 and he grew up in a quiet and well known neighborhood where his parents worked. Today, he plays in the San Antonio Spurs team in the NBA league and he is one of the best basketball players in the world.

Although he is very famous and earns a lot of money, he always has time to participate in different ONG projects. For instance, when he was in his early twenties, he was involved in social programs like Hoops for Saint Jude, which raised funds to combat child cancer.

Some years later, he became ambassador of UNICEF and started collaborating with different projects to do with children’s rights and combating child poverty. For that purpose, he travelled a lot when he had free time between matches or on his holidays.

Recently, he and his brother Mark, set up their own foundation Fundación Gasol, which is fighting against child obesity by giving conferences in primary and secondary schools to make people aware of the problem.

To sum up, perhaps famous people with lots of resources ought to get involved in different social organizations and participate in this sort of programs, so that their lives become really meaningful.

Enrique Abril Pérez2nd Advanced B

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There are people who go a step forward from what they are supposed to do in their lives and maybe that step doesn’t make a big diff erence, but it’s enough to make

us question ourselves and commit to any cause. Iciar Bollaín is one of those examples that raises awareness

in almost every spectator of her films. She is that kind of director that lifts up her work to the next level, transforming it in a social claim. Her last work, The Olive Tree, is a drama about shattered roots and broken bonds between generations, and a young Spanish girl trying to recover a very old olive tree from its current corporate owners in Germany. At fi rst it might seem quite predictive, but it’s a truly life lesson, about the importance of family origin and the heritage given to us that we all have to pass forward, it’s about fi ghting for what belongs to us and not give up even if there are hard times coming up. After everything we’ve been through with the last economic crisis and the globalization, it makes us wonder about what have we done to ourselves, about the price we are paying for “selling” our priceless goods, like millennial olive trees, and if it’s worth it.

But there is still hope, like Bollaín is trying to make us understand through this fi lm: “Take care of your community, take care of your legacy, take care of the landscape...because the landscape is YOU ! “

Alina Ilie2nd Advanced B

Paula Ortiz, an Aragonese film director

Paula Ortiz was born in Zaragoza in 1979. She graduated from the University of Zaragoza in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Hispanic

Philology. She studied cinema directing in the Graduate Department of Film and Television at the University of New York.

So far, she has written and directed two fi lms: De tu ventana a la mía (2011) and La novia (2015).

She fi nished shooting her fi rst feature fi lm, De tu ventana a la mía in summer 2010. It won numerous national and international prizes and achieved commercial success.

In September 2014, Ortiz fi nished her second fi lm, La Novia, an adaptation of Bodas de Sangre by Federico García Lorca. Shot in Spain and Turkey, it was nominated in twelve categories for the Goya Awards, and was the fi lm with the highest number of nominations.

Both films narrate the struggle of different women, at diff erent times, to build the lives they want and write their own future. “Passion, tragedy, death, destiny...” are very present in these fi lms.

Paula Ortiz deserves a post among the people who take sides” because she tries to refl ect in her fi lms social behaviours that cause that not everyone –especially women- can achieve happiness with dignity.

Ana Rosa Acero2nd Advanced B

TAKING SIDES

Iciar Bollaín and “The Olive Tree”

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Josep Carreras & his Leukaemia Foundation

Paco Arango, a film director turned into a volunteer

Josep Carreras, born in Barcelona in 1946, is a famous opera singer who has sung in the best opera theatres around the world. He became a singer when he was

a child, and in fact has had a long career including his most famous performance alongside with Luciano Pavarotti and Plá-cido Domingo in the “Three Tenors”. Nowadays, he continues singing songs by Verdi and Puccini.

In 1987, a leukaemia was diagnosed when he was on the top of his career. Doctors gave him little possibilities to survive, but he won his fight against leukaemia. One year after that, he

founded the “Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation”, a private and charity foundation, with a main purpose: One day leukaemia and blood illnesses will be curable.

Since 1988, the Foundation has developed different projects like “Apartments for patients who stay for a long period of time”, available for

I want to tell you a nice story about a great person. In 2001 Paco Arango started to collaborate as a volunteer at the Niño Jesús Hospital. He spent every Wednesday playing

with children who had been diagnosed with cancer. Step by step he

met a lot of children, their families and the doctors who treat the boys and girls.

H e d e c i d e d to help them and this cinema and TV director, producer and screenwriter decided to create the Aladina

families who have moved to a different city for their treatment included abroad patients from Romania, South America or Africa. They have other programs which focus on the medical attention that transplanted patients need when they receive treatment. They have a comfortable apartment available in close proximity to the medical centre, reserved to patients who live too far from the hospital.

In 2010, the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) was founded in close collaboration with the regional government. It is the first European research centre exclusively focused on leukaemia and other haematological diseases.

REDMO was created as a register of bone marrow donors to ensure that all leukaemia or haematological disease patients will be able to receive a transplant in case they didn’t have a donor in their family. REDMO collaborates with more than 100 hospitals in Spain, and that is not all, as they also collaborate with other registers around the world, searching a possible donor independently of their country of residence.

José Manuel Palomino Alloza2nd Advanced B

Foundation. It supports all the families that need assistance in this hard world of the fight against cancer. Through this foundation it has also been possible to improve the hospitals.

Now this director has released the film Lo que de verdad importa (What really matters), a film 100% charitable, as all the earnings will go to Serious Fun Children’s Network a summer camp for children who have serious illnesses, which was founded by Paul Newman.

Thanks to this man who one day started to visit children with cancer, this foundation is not only improving their lives but also giving smiles and hope to families who are suffering this terrible sickness, as the holiday can be as healing as the treatment.

Laura Barrabés Balfagón2nd Advanced B

TAKING SIDES

Shakira and ‘Pies Descalzos’

The worldwide singer Shakira is highly concerned about the living conditions of children in vulnerable situations.

In 1997, when she was only 18 years old, she foun-ded her own non-governmental foundation called Pies Des-calzos, mainly to promote the education of poor children

of Colombia, her country.

Nowadays it supports more or less 6000 chil-dren who have every day access to food, home, clothes and an educational en-

richment through music and art in an environment of quality public education.

She was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador on 24 October 2003, what allowed her to expand her child advocacy efforts on the global level with children at risk.

She is also part of a group of eminent people who ad-vocate to help promote actions to achieve the agreements adopted by world leaders at the United Nations Sustainable Development institution.

In 2010 Shakira was honored by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in recognition of her work in promoting children and youth around the world.

Cristina Lostal Senlí2nd Advanced B

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Jordi Évole and Salvados

As the promoter of this project, I felt that I had to con-tribute to it, and my choice is the journalist Jordi Évole and his TV program Salvados. I’ve been following it for

the last three years and I’m hooked on it. I think that the varied topics of his reports -which have to do with social and political matters- are tremendously interesting, and usually controver-sial!.

Each show may be an interview, a dialogue between two people with opposing points of view, or a debate with several experts discussing their field. Other times he presents an event that has been on the news recently and analyses it from every possible angle. He talks to representatives of all the parties involved and brings in the testimony of first-hand witnesses.

The field work is extensive, conscientious and it may take place in Spain or abroad. He visits every place and gets into everybody’s offices.

I like his style: he speaks in a low voice and asks very incisive questions in a very calm, unhurried way. He sounds friendly and polite. He may look naive, but he is relentless and asks all kinds of awkward questions.

He usually surprises his interviewees bringing out a tablet with a video or a statement that person did some time ago. He shows documents proving the point he wants to make and the interviewee is confronted with their contradictions.

Often we can see that the interviewed person doesn’t feel comfortable, but he can do nothing but admit the overwhelming facts. Évole is really good at unveiling people who haven’t behaved morally.

Nearly all Spanish politicians of all political parties as well as dozens of recognized people in other fields at a national and an international level have come up in his program. He has introduced me to many people I didn’t know at all or I didn’t know well: Naomi Klein, Owen Jones, James Rhodes, José Mújica, Roberto Saviano, Yanis Varoufakis, etc.

The list of topics Évole has dealt with in his program is very wide: the legal stratagems of big corporations to pay less taxes, energy poverty, gender-based violence, euthanasia, the housing problem and the vulture funds, the Catholic church, evictions, women and the labour market, hand-picked appointments in politics, citizen mobilizations, child abuse and many more.

His episode about the Valencia Metro derailment uncovered irregularities around the incident and provoked a re-opening of the investigations. The Austral episode has also been very important because it has made us face how callous we may be towards the refugees drama and how it is necessary that we raise our voices.

I am thankful to him because I have learned many things watching his reports. He also provides me with food for thought and with inspirational ideas for my classes.

In the time of the internet the social networking, the access to information is easier than ever, theoretically speaking. However, the deluge of information can be counterproductive. That is why I believe we need many voices like Evole’s who are prepared to unmask the abuses of power and to arouse the consciences of all of us, so that we can react to unfair situations and demand action from our governments.

Lourdes Miguel Abuelo Teacher 2nd Advanced B

TAKING SIDES

El Langui

Juan Manuel Montilla Macarrón, known as “El Langui” was born in 1979 in Madrid.

He is an actor and rap musician, and he sometimes works in TV programs. He became famous with his group “La Excepción” in 2001. In 2008 he debuted as an actor in the film “El truco del Manco”. It was for this role that he won a Goya award for Best New Actor and another one for Best Song. He participated in several TV programs in the past and currently he is collaborating in radio programs such as “Levántate y Cárdenas”

He has cerebral palsy caused by the lack of oxygen at the time of delivery, but this is not a problem for him and he talks openly about it in interviews. He is married and he has two children.

El Langui has worked in a new social campaign about bullying in schools. He has composed a rap song called “Se

buscan Valientes” (Brave Men Wanted). The aim is to mobilize witnesses of bullying situations so that they are courageous enough to react, face the bully and help put an end to the situation.

Ana Novoa Balboa2nd Advanced B

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Human communicationSince the year dot the human

being has wanted to com-municate. Before speech

existed they used sounds or visual signs. There are rock paintings, hieroglyphs and statues dated at different times in history and they are great examples of the human need to express what they saw.

Then we learnt to speak. I suppose, that every group of people agreed about how to name each thing or place. Of course they had their own dialect or language in each part of the world.

From drawings to writing, language has undergone many changes to make communication better.The Bible says that in the beginning of times we all spoke the same language,

but today, there are around 7000 languages in the world.

It is not only important how to write or speak a language, but also to know its culture to avoid misun-derstandings among people.

I would love to speak all the languages in the world to be able to communicate with everybody in

their own language or through signs. Obviously, you need to be extrovert and open minded to meet new people every day and you need to make a great effort to make yourself un-derstood. It is fulfilling for me and when I cannot make myself understood, I feel really helpless.

In my opinion communication is the most important thing. I think that if in the great powers and their leaders were able to communicate better, many conflicts would be avoided.

As far as families is concerned, the same problems exist. People tend not to communicate at all. They do not speak to each other and, as a consecuence, they do not know each other. A recognized newspaper says in a recent article, that in 62,5% of the families communication has worsened due to the arrival of new technologies. “Excessive use of video games and smarphones is causing less communication”, says this article.

Times are changing.

Maria Dolores Collantes Santalucía 2nd Advanced B

Communication

When I was a child, there weren’t any laptops, PCs, Iphones, Wifi, Internet or Google. In my house there were two televisions (one in black and white and

another in colour) and we could only watch two channels. We had a landline and if someone phoned and you weren´t at home, then, you didn´t know what they wanted to say to you. Sometimes, it was important (job, doctor,..) but.. sorries.

Nowadays, it is different. My children can choose which channel to watch. They can watch cartoons all day, 24 hours. They know how to use mobile phones and nobody has taught them.

Everybody has a mobile phone. You can phone whene-ver you want. If you have a mobile phone, you will receive or send emails, book a trip, buy something, phone when you want. Before, if you wanted to go on holiday, you would go to a travel agent´s, now, you don’t. You can do everything; this is right but people answer or send a text or message when

they are talking to other people, they don´t leave their mobile phones in their pockets or bags. Sometimes, when you are in a theatre, in a meeting, in class or in a cinema there are people who don´t switch off their mobiles, why? In general, some people spend more time on their mobile phone or on the internet than before, teenagers send whatsapps all day long and children play Clash Royale. I say to my children: “Leave your mobile phone and play football”.

I think that communication has advanced a lot; this is good, in general, but people overuse their mobile phones, the internet, applications,…and this can be annoying.

Noelia Furió Blasco2nd Intermediate B

Pinturas rupestres del Val del Charco del Agua Amarga

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Sign languageCommunication is the most important activity for the

human being.Since we are babies, we need it, for example, to ask

our mothers for food.This is harder for deaf or mute people, who have to

express themselves in an unusual way.People who were born deaf or who lost this sense at an

early age cannot talk because they have never heard the sounds of the oral language.

Deaf people cannot hear, but they can see. So they use sign language to communicate. This is a combination of hand movements, gestures, face and body expressions.

Some deaf people cannot talk using conventional phones, but they can do it using text phones. They cannot listen to the radio, but they can know the news through newspapers. They cannot listen to TV, but they can access to this information if they have an interpretation system or subtitles.

Five out of a thousand babies born in Spain every year have hearing problems and use sign language.

Sign language learning stages: • A baby with hearing deficiency

assimilates the sign language to communicate at the same age as a listener baby starts to speak.

• When a deaf baby is 9 – 12 months old they start using their hands to communicate. According to a research deaf babies change the orientation of their hands in a repetitive way.

• The first signs of deafness are known from the first year.

If the parents are also deaf the signs could be known or identified even before that age.

• When a baby is between 17 and 22 months old, they can understand at least 50 signs. They can

express ideas and complex perception ma-king their first combinations of gestures.

• Nowadays, the sign language is be-ing developed with babies who don’t have hearing deficiency, as it has been found out that babies and

children enjoy communicating with their parents in that way to ask for basic

necessities.

There is not a unique sign language. Every country has one or several and in Spain there are

two.The Spanish one is recognized since 2007, and it has

more than 100.000 users. It has a rich grammatical structure. It can be used to argue about any subject.

The Spanish sign language contains different letters from other sign languages, and it has many versions in each community. The same word can be represented in different ways, to express different meanings.

Although every community has different signs, only Catalonia has its own language since 1994, being the first community which passed a law for this. A Spanish sign user can understand up to 70% of the Catalan sign language.

The Belier family is a film directed by Eric Lartigau. The family is formed by deaf-mute parents and boy, and a girl. Only the girl is able to hear and she has a gift for singing.

They have a farm and they also run a family business as they sell their own cheese in a market. The girl, who learned sign language, is in charge of communicating her family with the outer world. She is the one who does the speaking with the customers.

The father considers that his disability is not a problem to run in the elections of his town. Although, communication is a fundamental piece for this position.

A very moving scene in the film was when the girl takes part in a competition and she performed the song and she represented the song translating into sign language so that her family, who was part of the audience, could understand it

Inmaculada Espallargas Serrat 2nd Advanced B

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To communicate is much more than the explicit mea-ning of words, the information or message conveyed. It also includes implicit messages, maybe intentional

or not, which are expressed through nonverbal be-haviours.

When we talk about communication we refer to a social event that allows us to express ideas and feelings as well as to give information to people. Although we usually identify communication with speech, but communication is composed of two dimensions, verbal and nonverbal communication. We say “hello”, but at the same time we also shake hands or nod our head to express the same.

There is a famous statement that says “we converse with our vocal organs while we communicate with all our body”. This aspect has been explored and demonstrated with a study which claims that when humans communicate, only 7% of the message is verbal and the other 93% of the message refers to nonverbal communication including both, linguistic featu-res such as tone and extra linguistic features like for example posture or gestures.

Nonverbal communication refers to the transmission of messages by a medium other than speech or writing. It can be explained as the process of communicating by sending and receiving wordless messages, so communication without words. It includes gestures, body movements, posture, eye contact, touching, facial expressions, signal, sounds, etc.

If you have doubts on the importance nonverbal com-munication has, think on how lovers express emotions with sparkling eyes and blushing faces or touching, hugging and kissing (words are too pale for them!). Or you can watch an-cient, silent films for instance Charlie Chaplin’s ones and see how, without a word, he is able to make the world smile and even guffaw. You can also consider how Robinson Crusoe can “talk” to Friday without knowing his servant’s language.

Nonverbal communication is so important that even while we are writing, we use it. Or what do you think is the use of emoticons, capitalization or boldfaced terms?

We have to be extremely careful with the nonverbal communication we use because of different reasons: it may conflict with verbal communication. Nonverbal messages are largely unconscious most of the times. They also show

Non verbal communicationyour feelings and attitudes and of course they are culturally strong-minded. Let’s analyse some examples more deeply:• Gestures such as thumbs up can be interpreted differently

in different cultures. It is taken as an “okay” sign in many cultures, whereas it is taken as a vulga-

rism in others like Iran and Latin America or in other countries this sign is not offen-

sive but means “zero”; the “come here” finger movement, so much used in our culture, in Philippines is such an offensive sign that you can be arres-ted for doing it.• Eye contact: Western cultures mostly consider eye contact to be a good gesture, it shows confidence

and honesty, in other cultures such as the Asian ones it is not taken as a good

expression, but as a rude, violent expres-sion.

• Touches are taken as rudeness in most cultures; shaking hands are acceptable almost everywhere, even

among strangers; similarly, kissing, hugs and other forms of body contact are seen differently in different cultures; patting somebody’s head or shoulders can also have many interpretations. For example in Asian cultures patting chil-dren’s heads is a very bad signal while here, in the European culture it means confidence and affection.

• Physical postures are also quite different among cultures; the most common example is the habit of many American executives of placing their feet on their desk, which in the Middle East, Europe and Asia is considered highly offensive.

As we see, the differences in nonverbal communication between cultures are pretty striking. This means that when we need to communicate with people from different cultu-res, it makes sense to learn in advance about their nonverbal communication.

This can save us a lot of embarrassing and misunderstan-ding situations. And we should also remember that verbal communication and nonverbal communication are insepa-rably interconnected. Each one helps the other in order to facilitate communication.

María Fernández Martínez2nd Advanced, B

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In digital communication Emoticons and Emojis have become vital tools for com-municating.According to Professor Ivy Evans, au-

thor of The emoji Code, in the UK today adults spend 22 hours online on average each week.

If you are one of those geeks, and you think you’re suffering from FOMO (fear of missing out) you may be tempted to read the fun facts that follow:

Emoticons came first. They’re images made using normal keys on a keyboard. For example a colon -two dots- followed by the curved line of a close brackets is a?... right! A smiley face

When did emoticons appear? Well, in fact, it seems that a witty speech Abraham Lincoln reprinted in a newspaper as far back as 1862 included a semi colon with a close brackets... like a winkling face! Although, sadly, some people think that this was just a typo (a typo-graphical error).

The official birth of emoticons is usually gi-ven as 1982, when a US professor instructed

his students to use smiley faces to indicate jokes.

Whereas an emoji is something com-pletely different. It’s an actual image. It can be a simple, yellow smiley face; or some-

thing like a dancing lady, or even a jug of beer.

“Emojis enable us to express emotion and empathy in digital communication” says Evans, as “60% of information when we’re talking to each other comes from non-verbal cues” (facial expres-

sion, body language, or the look in your eyes).So, we’ve been using emoticons for over

30 years! I remember them in the “archaic” SMS and e-mails. And now, can you imagine your whatsApp without any emoji?! Certainly com-munication wouldn’t be so efficient ;)

Pilar AraguásTeacher in Alcañiz

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Emojis & Emoticons

Becoming a better language learner

Last Tuesday, 20 December 2016, the Director of studies and teacher

trainer at Oxford University Press (OUP), Jessica Toro, gave us a talk called “Becoming a better language learner”.

She started her teaching ca-reer in her native city New York and after a time she started training teachers in Turkey, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain, where she currently lives with her Aragonese husband.

The lecture was really inte-resting for those people who want to improve their level of English, because she gave us many good pieces of advice, which can be summarized as follows:1- Monday: Name aloud in English everything you can see

for at least 5 minutes.2- Tuesday: Read whatever (a chapter of a book, a comic, a

newspaper, a magazine…) in English for 5 minutes.3- Wednesday: Listen to some English music, but trying to

understand the most that you can, also for 5 minutes.4- Thursday: Record yourself talking in English for a minute

and play it back.5- Friday: Read any English website for 5 minutes more or less.6- Saturday: Write the shopping list in English and go shop-

ping with it or think about what you ate and drank the day before.

7- Sunday: Watch some video clips on Youtube, it goes

without saying that it must be in English.Apart from this, Jessica encouraged us not to be afraid of

speaking English in public as a good way of improving our vocabulary and pronunciation, because although every coun-try and each person has his/her own accent, Spanish people aren´t worse language learners than others and in her opinion we shouldn´t lose our essence and identity trying to seem what we are not.

To finish, she reminded us that the human brain is equally efficient no matter where we are from, and consequently we can do whatever we propose ourselves to do with it.

Cristina Lostal Senlí2nd Advanced B

Students who attended the talk, with Jessica

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Honestly it’s True! Fake News and Misinformation

The talk aimed to look at what fake news, misinformation, lies and propaganda are in the twenty first century. The talk particularly focused on Brexit, and the spread of lies

and fake news around the United Kingdom’s referendum on leaving the European Union.

Firstly we looked at some earlier pieces of fake news na-mely the myth that carrots help you see in the dark (they don’t, it was the British who made it up during the second world war)!

The main focus was then on the use of specific numbers and statistics used in the referendum and the way some of the language was used by the media to influence the vote. Phrases such as ‘Breaking Point’, ‘Asylum Seekers’ and the language of fear used by certain parts of the British media.

We also looked at how to spot fake news, check sources, and look for the hidden agen-da of those who may write journalistic articles, or own the newspapers they are printed in.

Finally we finished on a light-hearted note with a look at some of the more comical and silly fake news stories from the British media, think ‘bendy bananas’....

Jason Carlisle

Alternative facts

For my discussion on the topic of choosing si-des, I chose to discuss the problems currently being experienced in the American media,

particularly on the topic of politics. After a thorou-gh explanation of the problem, we can begin to examine its sources.

The problem is that there is a growing trend of disregard of verified truth and/or expert opinion in favor of emotionally charged accusations which are

Jackson Reams, is the American language assistant that has been working at our school this year. He pre-pared a talk trying to figure out what lead American people to choose P45 (Donald Trump) to take the power of the USA and how preposterous terms such as “alternative facts” became of common use.

either unverified or directly false to serve a political agenda. In other words, certain parties (or politicians) have been lying – and knowingly lying – because they know that it is what their audience wants to hear. The audience, in turn, believes what they can see is a lie because they want to believe it.

The term “alternative facts” first came from a white house adviser who, in response to being caught in a lie, said that

she and other white house staff had been using “alternative facts”. This was widely mocked online, but nonetheless

has continued to be the policy of certain political entities when caught lying: to simply insist they are right, no matter what the evidence says.

This has gone on at a lesser degree for a long time, of course. The problem is not new. What is

new is the degree to which the current administra-tion exploits the problem to play to the people they

think will support them.The effect of this abuse has been

an increased lack of clarity both in the political system and in the pu-blic’s understanding of what exact-ly is going on. This damages the effectiveness of the political system and makes the public more divided along party lines. The administration appears to believe that this divide will help them, but the damage that it creates may turn on them in the long-term. After all, there is no such thing as “Alternative Facts”.

Jackson ReamsJack and all the students ready to sing

Jason at the end of his talk

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‘Take this waltz’, a tribute to Leonard Cohen (Montreal, 1934-Los Angeles 2016)

At the end of Jackson’s talk we paid homage to the Canadian singer by singing Take this waltz,

one of his most famous songs.Cohen was a songwriter, musician,

poet, novelist, and painter who pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not launch a music career until 1967, at the age of 33. His work mostly explored re-ligion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships and he had a special bond with our country through Federico García Lorca’s poetry and throu-gh flamenco music.

He first met Lorca in 1949, when he was 15 and found a poem book in a se-cond hand bookshop in Montreal. At the time he was reading many English poets, but only when he read Lorca’s poems in translation was he able to find his own voice. Cohen was very impressed and tried to enter Lorca’s world. He even na-med his first daughter Lorca.

Cohen also learnt to play the guitar thanks to a Spanish flamenco musician who taught him six chords, which be-came the base of all his music. That is

Take this Waltz- Leonard Cohen

Now in Vienna there are ten pretty womenThere’s a shoulder where Death comes to cryThere’s a lobby with nine hundred windows

There’s a tree where the doves go to dieThere’s a piece that was torn from the morning

And it hangs in the Gallery of FrostAy, ay, ay, ay

Take this waltz, take this waltzTake this waltz with the clamp on its jawsThis waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltz

With its very own breath of brandy and DeathDragging its tail in the sea

Oh, I want you, I want you, I want youOn a chair with a dead magazineIn the cave at the tip of the lilly

In some hallway where love’s never beenOn a bed where the moon has been sweating

In a cry filled with footsteps and sandAy, ay, ay, ay

Take this waltz, take this waltzTake its broken waist in your hand

This waltz, this waltz, this waltz, this waltzWith its very own breath of brandy and Death

Dragging its tail in the seaAnd I’ll dance with you in ViennaI’ll be wearing a river’s disguise

The hyacinth wild on my shoulderMy mouth on the dew of your thighsAnd I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook

With the photographs there, and the mossAnd I’ll yield to the flood of your beauty

My cheap violin and my crossAnd you’ll carry me down on your dancing

To the pools that you lift on your wristOh my love, oh my love

Take this waltz, take this waltzIt’s yours now, it’s all that there is

why he is so grateful to our country. In 1986, Cohen participated in the record Poetas in Nueva York, where artists like Lluís Llach, Paco and Pepe de Lucía, George Moustaki or Angelo Branduardi put music to some of Lorca’s poems as an homage to him.

Cohen contributed with “Take this waltz”, adapted from the poem “Peque-ño vals vienés” included in the the book Poeta en Nueva York. It is a surrealist love poem which conveys the rhythm of a waltz. The original poem is not very

altered but Cohen said that he needed 150 sheets to adapt the song to it and that it nearly cost him a depression. The song is included in the record, I’m your man, published in 1988.

Leonard Cohen and Federico Gar-cía Lorca, two universal poets who taught us to fight agains totalitaria-nism. One genius paying homage to another.

L. M.

Ay, ay, ay, ay, take this waltz, take this waltz...!

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Do you Know the Answer?

The Offi cial Language School celebrated the cultural week of modern languages last Fe-

bruary.We, the students of 2nd of in-

termediate and 2nd of advanced of English, participated in a “Quiz”.

Teams of four people were for-med; each team had a name, chosen by the components of the group. My group was called “The Queens”, although it would have been better to call us “The Losers”, because we did not guess any answers.

Each group had to answer a question, which appeared projected on a power point. My team was not lucky because we knew the other teams’ answers, but not ours. Our score was a disaster. The subject of the contest was the media and it was interesting because I did not know anything about the British Press.

I found it to be a good activity, because we were able to interact with students from other courses. I think it is necessary to do this kind of cultural activities because it helps us to get to know each other and you can learn about the culture of the country; learning a language is not only learning the language.

Cristina Molinos2nd Intermediate C

QUIZ

Journalism and the mass media: Their role in society

Related to the leit motiv of the cul-tural week and triggered by the current political situation world-

wide where concepts such as post-truth and alternative facts have become com-mon, we thought it would be a good idea to design a quiz to highlight the paramount importance of independent journalism to get a clear picture of the current aff airs.

The teachers who wanted to parti-cipate prepared four multiple choice questions to do with the mass media, the world of journalism and communi-cation in general. I put all the contribu-tions together, illustrated the questions and gave the presentation its fi nal shape.

The result was a quiz of about 40 questions which covered both serious and lighthearted topics, and whose aim was that the students became familiar with historical facts of the past, that they learnt new vocabulary and expressions and also that they interacted with peo-ple from other levels.

Names such as McCarthysm, Wiki-leaks, Snowden, Assange, the Falciani’s list, the Watergate and other scandals known thanks to the work of research journalists came up in the quiz. Students

also learned what “slander” or “word of mouth” means and revised the new vocabulary of social networking (hash-tag, go viral, vlog, trending topic, feeds). Some gossip questions about lighter topics made us smile.

There were interesting discussions after some of the questions and at the end of the quiz we revised the Ethics of Journalism, twelve points that a good journalist should always take into ac-count.

The participating groups were 2nd Intermediate C (Rebecca) and 2nd Ad-vanced B (Lourdes). There were five mixed teams: “John Lennon”, “The Corner people”, “The Decisive”, “The Queens”... and the “Marvellous Four”. This last group won the competition by just one more correct answer over the John Lennon group.

The prize was the last issue of the Speak Up magazine+CD so that they can go on improving their English at home.

If you want to test yoursef the quiz is available to download in the school website.

Lourdes Miguel2nd Advanced B teacher

Congratulations to Laura, Cristina, Vanessa and Adrián!Congratulations to Laura, Cristina, Vanessa and Adrián!

2nd Intermediate C

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QUIZ

Is reading newspapers good for improving English?

Reading English newspapers can help us learn a lot of vocabulary and gram-matical structures, improve our reading skills and let us know what has ha-ppened in English-speaking countries

Reading a newspaper does not mean that you need to flick through all the contents in the newspapers. First you’d better try to guess the meaning of the words that you don’t understand. Don’t feel frustrated if some words are not familiar to you since these new words will appear several times. Besides, if you do not to look up these unknown words in a dictionary, this will increase your reading speed.

If your guessing is wrong, do not give up. Keep on reading, you will encounter the words several times to become familiar with them and know how to use them in context.

Choosing the right newspaper is the fi rst step. Broadly speaking, there exist two main kinds of newspapers in the UK: tabloids and broadsheets.

What are their diff erences? The fi rst diff erence refers to their size: A tabloid is about the size of a folded broadsheet. However, the key diff erence lies in their content. In the following quiz try to order these features of UK newspapers either in the Tabloids (T) or the Broadsheets (B) column.

(See Key in page 21):

TABLOID

BROADSHEET

TABLOID

BROADSHEET

Complicated vocabulary

Divided into clear sections

Exaggeration for eff ect

Focus on famous people, private lives and scandal

Focus on major national and international events

In-depth coverage and a sober tone in articles and editorials

Less complex vocabulary

Longer sentences

Mix fact and emotion

More fact than emotion

More informal and slangy in their writing style

Readers are often working class residents of big cities. Indeed, many city dwellers prefer tabloids because they are easy to carry and read on the subway or bus.

Readers often tend to be fairly affl uent and educated

Shorter sentences

T Smaller with short articles with short sentences

B Twice the size of a Tabloid.

Unbiased and formal language

Use biased and emotional language (a “cop” instead of a “police offi cer”)

Carlos HermosillaTeacher in Alcañiz

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My name’s Elena Buil, and I have been working as a teacher of English at this Official Language School for more than 20 years.

Although nobody doubts that having a conversation as-sistant is completely necessary for a school of languages, we have been said that, the Education Department is giving more importance to bilingual Primary and Secondary schools than to Language Schools; it means that they have more” points” to be in the list of Educational Centres which apply for an as-sistant, and if nowadays we only have an assistant for 6 hours a week, always shared with a primary school, and not every year, in the near future we won’t even have this, we will have NOTHING.

Can you imagine an official Language School without the help of conversation assistants? I can’t.

I remember each of the language assistants we have had through the years, because each one has been different and has taught us new things and experiences about their Coun-try, their traditions, their culture…

The first year I worked here, 1993, I shared a flat with one of these conversation assistants, her name was Yvonne and she came from Scotland; we learnt a lot about Scotland and we (students and teachers) did a workshop on Scottish dances, it was great !!

She used to spend her weekends with me and my family in Zaragoza, and some years later she even came to my wed-ding. I‘ve visited her and her family many times in Britain; we still keep in touch 20 years later and I imagine our friendship will last forever.

I’ m talking about my personal experience; for me It hasn’t been the same with the rest of assistants, but every year, the teachers and students from Alcañiz have experienced and learned lots of different things about lots of different places where English is spoken. We have had three American assis-tants from three different states:

Valentina, who travelled with us to Ireland on a school trip; Lynda, a Canadian girl , who decided to stay in Alcañiz for 2 years in a row; Kellen, from Tennessee, who made lots of friends in Alcañiz and comes back to visit from time to time, and other British assistants , each one from a different part of the United Kingdom ; we’ve done many activities with them, such as sandwich parties, Thanksgiving Day celebrations, , de-bates, school trips etc.…

This year we are working with Jack, he’s from Texas, USA.

Our students have enjoyed the experience of having an Ame-rican teacher in class, who can help them to speak better English, and overall, to feel more confident about the English language and broaden their cultural knowledge.

Finally I’d like to say that native assistants are important at Primary and Secondary bilingual schools, but they are es-sential at Language Schools, that’s why the Management Team and the teachers from the EOI of Alcañiz, will work and fight together if necessary to carry on being able to enjoy the opportunity of having a conversation assistant in our centre.

Elena Buil PérezTeacher in Acañiz

In the next paragraph, my students write about the experience of having Jack in class:

Hello, we are the 2º intermediate morning students; we have enjoyed our classes with Jack this year.

Jack is from Texas, USA; he lives near Austin, the capital of Texas. Austin is a cosmopolitan city, and has a very famous University.

Texas is as long as Germany or Spain. It is very dry and hot in summer.

“Rodeo” is an important sport in Texas, but Jack doesn’t like it, because he thinks it’s cruel.

The typical food is barbecue; the wood they use comes from a kind of tree which gives meat a special flavour, it is like smoked meat, and it is delicious. They also have a very typical sauce made with red onions, tomatoes, sugar, and hot spices.

Jack has two sisters, the youngest is 18 and is studying at University, and the eldest is a nurse.

His father is a carpenter, he makes handmade wooden fur-niture, and his mother is from Ecuador and works for a charity organization.

Jacks likes playing the guitar and going to concerts, and he is very interested in Japan, he was there for six weeks learning Japanese, and he likes its culture and traditions very much.

We’ve learnt a lot of interesting things about the USA and Japan thanks to him; and he has also learnt about our culture: we had a “churros party “one day in our English class; he loved them!!

Nice to meet you Jack!!

2nd intermediate A morning students.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A CONVERSATION ASSISTANT AT THE EOI OF ALCAÑIZ

Are we going to lose them? Or... are we going to keep them?

Elena and Yvonne : barbecue, summer 2016

Eating churros with Jack, April 2017

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Chapter I

Which treats of the character and pursuits of the famous gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most nights, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income. The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun. He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook. The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering on fifty; he was of a hardy habit, spare, gaunt-featured, a very early riser and a great sportsman. They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada (for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject), although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was ca-lled Quexana. This, however, is of but little importance to our tale; it will be enough not to stray a hair’s breadth from the truth in the telling of it.

Capítulo I

Que trata de la condición y ejercicio del famoso hidalgo D. Quijote de la Mancha

En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme, no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor. Una olla de algo más vaca que carnero, salpicón las más noches, duelos y quebrantos los sábados, lentejas los viernes, algún palomino de añadidura los domingos, consumían las tres partes de su hacienda. El resto della concluían sayo de velarte, calzas de velludo para las fiestas con sus pantuflos de lo mismo, los días de entre semana se honraba con su vellori de lo más fino. Tenía en su casa una ama que pasaba de los cuarenta, y una sobrina que no llegaba a los veinte, y un mozo de campo y plaza, que así ensillaba el rocín como tomaba la podadera. Frisaba la edad de nuestro hidalgo con los cincuenta años, era de complexión recia, seco de carnes, enjuto de rostro; gran madrugador y amigo de la caza. Quieren decir que tenía el sobrenombre de Quijada o Quesada (que en esto hay alguna diferencia en los autores que deste caso escriben), aunque por conjeturas verosímiles se deja entender que se llama Quijana; pero esto importa poco a nuestro cuento; basta que en la narración dél no se salga un punto de la verdad.

International Mother Language Day, 21 February

To celebrate this day we read in class the opening para-graphs of D. Quixote de la Mancha. Reading D. Quixote in English was a further challenge, as the original text

was written more than 400 years ago and Cervantes’s langua-ge is difficult enough for a contemporary Spanish reader.

Nevertheless, it was a funny experience to see how they had translated well-known expressions such as “de cuyo nom-bre no quiero acordarme” (the name of which I have no desire to call to mind), “rocín flaco”. (a lean hack), etc.

In some cases the words chosen in the English translation were easier to understand than the Spanish expression: “velvet breeches” corresponded to “calzas de velludo”. What on earth are those?

We had the chance to see how rich our language is and how difficult it is to make a good translation that captures not only the spirit of the right word for a particular context, but also the atmosphere of the time.

Lourdes Miguel2nd Advanced B teacher

Here are the two versions for you to compare:

TABLOID (T) BROADSHEET (B)

Smaller with short articles with short sentences Twice the size of a Tabloid.

Mix fact and emotion More fact than emotion

More informal and slangy in their writing style In-depth coverage and a sober tone in articles and editorials

Shorter sentences Longer sentences

Use biased and emotional language (a “cop” instead of a “police officer”) Unbiased and formal language

Exaggeration for effect Divided into clear sections

Less complex vocabulary Complicated vocabulary

Focus on famous people, private lives and scandal Focus on major national and international events

Readers are often working class residents of big cities. Indeed, many city dwellers prefer Readers often tend to be fairly affluent and educatedtabloids because they are easy to carry and read on the subway or bus

KEY “Is reading newspapers good for improving English?” (p.19)

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Les communications d’hier à aujourd’huiIl y a 6000 ans AC les hommes écrivaient déjà sur des tablet-

tes, aujourd’hui nous continuons à écrire sur des tablettes. La seule différence c’est que les premières étaient en argile

et les secondes sont tactiles et connec-tées à un réseau mondial.

Que s’est-il passé entre ces deux inventions, c’est ce que nous allons analyser maintenant

Tout d’abord, que signifie le mot “communiquer”?

Communiquer c’est faire con-naître quelque chose à quelqu’un.

Synonymes: transmettre, diffu-ser, propager, divulguer un messa-ge.

Aujourd’hui il n’y a rien de plus facile....Avec nos Smartphones, nos tablettes, nos portables, on n’a qu’à appuyer sur quelques petites touches et envoyer le message.

Mais ça n’a pas toujours été si facile. Et oui! l’homme n’a pas toujours eu un appareil connecté au réseau mondial!

L’histoire de la communication est aussi ancienne que l’histoire de notre humanité. Depuis son origine l’homme a eu besoin de communiquer, de transmettre, de véhiculer un message à d’autres personnes.

D’abord la communication a été orale et ensuite les hom-mes ont évolué et ils ont développé de nouvelles façons de communiquer. Paroles, gestes de la main, signaux de fumée, tam tam, document écrit...tout était bon pour que le message circule. Mais surtout l’homme a tenté tout au long de son histoire que son message circule non seulement le plus loin possible mais aussi le plus rapidement possible.

La communication a vu le jour durant la préhistoire lorsque les hommes préhistoriques utilisaient les grognements pour communiquer. Leur langage a ensuite évolué. Il y a 40.000

ans l’homme préhistorique commence à graver, peindre. Il cherche déjà à communiquer, à transmettre un message. À titre d’exemple, nous avons les grottes de Lascaux qui nous

laissent une impression très forte lorsqu’on les visite, comme si l’homme préhisto-

rique avait voulu nous dire quelque chose, nous transmettre sa pensée.

Dans l’Antiquité, ce sont les coureurs, les signaux lumineux, les pigeons voyageurs qui assurent les communications.

Ensuite viendra l’imprimerie en 1448, le courrier postal sous Louis XI en 1464, le sémaphore en 1793, le télégraphe en 1837, le télépho-ne arrive en 1876, la radio en 1887, la télévision en 1926, l’ordinateur en 1946, le téléphone mobile en 1973. le premier email est envoyé en 1977, le SMS en 1992, le MMS en

2002. Vous vous rappelez le temps où internet

n’existait pas? Où quand vous aviez un exposé à faire, vous deviez chercher des infos dans des bouquins? Où quand vous vouliez connaître les actualités, il fallait soit acheter son jour-nal, soit attendre gentiment sur son canapé que les cloches sonnent 20 heures?

Un temps que les jeunes de moins de 20 ans ne peuvent pas connaître.

Aujourd’hui, on ne pourrait plus vivre sans le web et les réseaux sociaux. Pour certains, c’est même devenu notre outil de travail… Les réseaux sociaux sont apparus à partir de 1995. Classmates, MySpace, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest.

Comme vous pouvez le constater nous avons parcouru un long chemin depuis les écritures en Mésopotamie jusqu’à notre tout dernier Smartphone. Il est amusant de voir que l’écriture a commencé sur des tablettes en argile, et continue

aujourd’hui d’exister sur des tablettes tacti-les. La seule différence, c’est qu’aujourd’hui le message peut être transmis à des millions de personnes, aux quatre coins du monde.

8.000 ans après les débuts de la com-munication 1 milliard de personnes sont connectées au réseau de Mark Zuckerberg. Aujourd’hui en 1 mn sur le réseau internet mondial, plus de 204 millions d’emails sont envoyés, 20 millions de photos consultées, 100.000 tweets envoyés, 2 millions de re-cherches Google sont lancées. On estime qu’en 2020 il y aura 50.000.000.000 de péri-phériques connectés.

François Bayrou a dit: “Dans le monde de l’hyper-communication, la communication entre les hommes est réduite à presque rien”

Mais ça, c’est un autre débat.....

Annick Colazet

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Récital de chansons françaisesLa posibilidad de poder pre-

parar un concierto íntegramente en francés para la EOI de Alcañiz fue, desde el primer momento, un reto tentador que no podía dejar pasar.

Mi relación con Francia co-mienza antes de nacer… mis pa-dres emigraron allí en la década de los 60 como otros muchos españoles, en busca de un futuro mejor, poco tiempo después de casarse. Vivieron y trabajaron allí unos ocho años, en dos tempora-das diferentes. En medio de ellas, en un primer regreso de varios años a España, nací yo.

A esta época corresponden dos grandes éxitos interna-cionales de la música en francés que incluí en mi repertorio: Aline (Christophe, 1965) y Champs-Elysées (JoeDassin, 1969).

Tendría yo unos 4 años cuando, por motivos económicos, decidieron volver a emigrar. Inicialmenteme quedé en Alcañiz con mis abuelos pero en una de sus visitas en vacaciones, un par de años después, me incorporé a la expedición. Viví en Chanteloup-les-Vignes, pequeño pueblo próximo al Sena a unos 50 Km al oeste de París.

Estuve escolarizado en la École élémentaire publique “Louis Pasteur” y a un cuaderno de música del colegio clase que con-servo, “Chant et Récitation 2”, corresponde el poupourri de canciones que interpreté: Boris et Natacha (Jean Naty), Dans la Nuit Bien Sombre (Popular Rusa, adaptada), Vous Connaissez le Chemin (Jean Naty), Choeur de Clochettes (Mozart, adaptada), Au Bois Rossignolet (Popular Franche-Compté), Noël Maconnais (Popular Macon) y Qu’on M’Apporte ma Flûte (Popular S.XVII).

En 1972 mis padres decidieron trasladarse definitivamente a Alcañiz. Perdí el contacto directo con el francés. Tan solo algunas canciones que había oído allí y que, muy de vez en cuando, salían en la radio española. Entre ellas Une Belle Histoire (Michel Fugain, 1972) o el gran éxito mundial La Vie en Rose (Edith Piaf, 1947).

Los siguientes contactos con el francés, aparte de algún viaje espo-rádico a Francia o alguna visita de familiares que viven allí, están rela-cionados con el mundo académico tanto en secundaria como en el ba-chillerato.

En honor a esta época de juven-tud y adolescencia corresponde la selección de canciones para el re-pertorio como 17 Ans, Ma Liberté o Le Méthèque (Georges Moustaki), Ne Me Quitte Pas (Jacques Brel, 1959), Mari-nette (Georges Brassens).

Completé el concierto con dos canciones más recientes de las mu-

chas que he ido conociendo a través de la escucha del pro-grama de RNE “L’Hexagone”, de Radio-3 (http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/el-hexagono/): Bruxelles-Toulouse (Leopold Nord / Jean Pierre Mader, 2009) y Je Ne Veux Pas Travailler (Pink Martini, 1997).

Como decía al principio la preparación y desarrollo de este concierto para la E.O.I. de Alcañiz ha sido un agradable reto tenta-dor que me ha llevado a viajar por terrenos musicales que tenía en algunos casos olvidados en un rincón polvoriento del pasa-do y que ha sido un gran placer recuperar. Merci beaucoup.

Carlos Gargallo

Deuxième jour du concert

Carlos et les profs de français, Anabel et Susana Pose à la fin du concert première séance

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Pendant les répétitions

Les élèves du conservatoire ont joué de la guitare, du piano, du violon...

Le concert au conservatoire: “Les choristes”

Les élèves du conservatoire

Les élèves de l’École de langues et ceux du conservatoire ont interprété à merveille deux chansons du fi lm Les

Choristes: «Caresse sur l’océan» et «Vois sur ton Chemin»

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Département d’Allemand: les élèves d’allemand ont récité des poèmes sur l’importance de la communication

ont récité des poèmes sur l’importance de la communication

Rencontres

Comme tous les ans , nous continuons à profiter chaque mois de nos rendez-vous «Rencontres» hors des cours pour prendre un verre et cont inuer à prat iquer la conversation dans une ambiance cool.

Tous les élèves du conservatoire qui ont participé à l’activité

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En début de séance, les participants ont donné leurs définitions de La Communication:

Échanger; Partager des sentiments; Mettre en commun; Donner un messa-ge; Faire savoir; Parler et Entendre; Exprimer une idée, un besoin; Informer; Écouter.

Dif férents enjeux peuvent interférer dans une même situation de communication. Nous l’avons vu à l’aide d’une petite expérience collec-tive. Il s’agissait de répon-dre individuellement à une consigne, en apparence sans équivoque : «Ecrivez ce que vous lisez». Sur l’écran une phrase simple (mais comportant une erreur) était écrite à l’intérieur d’un triangle. On interprète différemment la consigne selon que l’on centre la communication sur l’une ou l’autre de ses fonc-tions. En science du langage, il en existe six selon le linguiste Roman Jakobson. Par exemple, certains se sont préoccupés de la fonction métalinguistique du message (du code lui-mê-

me). Ils ont remarqué l’erreur de grammaire et décidé de la corriger où de la reproduire. Des participants ont centré leur lecture sur la forme même du message (sa fonction poétique).

Nous avons eu des lectures qui s’en tenaient à l’aspect référentiel, informatif (con-cernant message lui-mê-me). D’autres ont privilé-gié la fonction expressive (émotive) du message: Ils l’ont interprété avec leurs émotions et ont écrit ce qu’ils ressentaient. Ainsi nous avons eu autant de réponses que de façons d’envisager le message.

A chaque fois que nous sommes en présen-ce d’autrui, avant même d’entamer un dialogue, on envoie et on reçoit tout

Les bruits de la communicationun tas de signes, conscients ou inconscients. L’attitude cor-porelle, les vêtements, les expressions de visages... Tout ceci

constitue le langage non verbal. Lorsque l’on entre en situation de communication à

proprement parler, le langage non verbal constitue un élément

important pour la com-préhension du message transmis. Nous l’avons expérimenté dans un jeu du téléphone arabe. Au moment de trans-

mettre une histoire, il est très pratique de pouvoir

utiliser le langage corporel pour préciser son discours ou

pour se faire mieux comprendre. La reformulation est également très effica-

ce pour éviter des malentendus. Encore plus si nous échangeons dans une langue étrangère.

Lorsque l’on reste sur une imprécision, on interprète en se basant sur ce que l’on sait déjà, ce qui nous est familier. Et, par exemple, si une histoire qu’on nous raconte ressemble à une histoire que l’on connait, on aura tendance à associer des élé-ments de l’une, à l’autre. Si nous n’identifions pas bien un mot, nous allons le remplacer par un autre que nous connaissons.

Pour communiquer il faut interpréter des codes. L’interpré-tation est soumise à tout un tas de références personnelles propres à la culture, l’éducation, l’expérience de chacun. On doit se référer à ce que l’on connait déjà pour comprendre un message. Le fait de parler la même langue ne supprime pas tous les parasitages et obstacles liés à la subjectivité. C’est le prix de la diversité des individus. Des malentendus ou des dé-saccords parfaitement viables, tant que l’on respecte certaines normes de politesse et de courtoisie.

De nombreux problèmes proviennent du fait que l’on con-fond interprétation ou point de vue, et réalité. Prenons le des-sin «La jeune femme et la vieille femme», et des personnes qui ignorent qu’il y a deux femmes dans l’image. Chacun ne voit qu’une des deux femmes, et pas la même que son interlocu-teur. Si chacun s’en tient à son interprétation, il sera impossible de se mettre d’accord sur ce dont on parle. En dialoguant, même dans le cas ou nous ne percevons toujours pas ce que voit l’autre, nous pouvons arriver à admettre que notre point de vue n’est pas la réalité absolue, et qu’il y a peut-être plus à découvrir en allant au-delà d’un jugement hâtif. Accepter la confrontation permet de découvrir de nouvelles perspectives.

Chacun a ses moyens de communication

Pourcentages des eléments de la communication

Six ou neuf?

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Cette année, tous les groupes de français ont élaboré les crêpes et on a invité toute l’École à la dégustation.

Journée crêpes

Et, bien entendu, nous avons parlé de la multitude des mo-yens de communication modernes. Tous ces outils qui nous permettent d’être continuellement en contact les uns avec les autres et leur usage parfois cacophonique. On a tous vécu une situation où l’utilisation intempestive du téléphone nous empêche de communiquer avec la personne qui est en face de nous. On nous vante les moyens de communication mo-dernes : un progrès qui faciliterait les échanges. Or, c’est avant tout de performances techniques dont il s’agit, qui permettent de communiquer plus vite, plus loin, avec plus de personnes. C’est là un fantastique progrès, quantitatif. Mais en multipliant les possibilités de transmettre des messages, on multiplie les possibilités de brouillages et d’erreurs. Utiliser frénétiquement des outils de communication ne veut pas dire communiquer.

Depuis l’explosion de la publicité et des «techniques de com-munication» on confond souvent communiquer avec con-vaincre, séduire ou manipuler. «A mauvais ouvrier il n’y a pas de bons outils» nous alerte l’adage : la qualité de nos échanges dépend toujours de nous-mêmes.

Au-delà de la thématique «El valor de la palabra» qui nous rassemblait, nous étions réunis pour pratiquer le français. Pour cela, il a fallu oser se lancer, et créer une situation de confi an-ce permettant l’échange. Nous avons exprimé des points de vue, échangé des informations et des idées, partagé un rire complice et mis en commun des expériences. Bref, nous avons communiqué.

Pascale Giaj

Les élèves de français et Pascale après la conférence

Élaboration d’une crêpe

Les crêpes étaient fourrées au chocolat et à la confi ture

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Bono personnage engagé avec d’autres causes

Paul David Hewson dit Bono, né le 10 mai 1960 à Dublin (Irlande), est un chanteur, auteur-compositeur-interprè-te et musicien irlandais.

C’est le leader et occasionnellement guitariste du groupe irlandais U2.

En 1983, il chante avec le groupe U2 la célèbre chanson Sunday Bloody Sunday dénonçant les troubles politiques de l’Irlande, son pays de naissance.

Depuis 1999, il prend une part active à la campagne visant à annuler la dette des pays du tiers monde. En mai 2002 il emmène le secrétaire du trésor des États-Unis, Paul O’Neill, dans quatre pays d’Afrique. Cette même année, il crée une organisation appelée «DATA» (pour Debt, Aids, Trade in Africa) dont le but est d’informer sur les dettes des pays d’Afrique, l’épidémie du SIDA et les règles de commerces inéquitables.

Pierre Rabhi et l’association «Colibris»

L’enfance et jeuneuse de Pierre Rabhi se tiennent en son Algérie natale. Après la mort de sa mère, Il est confié, à l’âge de 5 ans, à un couple de Français, un ingénieur

et une institutrice, venus travai-ller là.

Des années plus tard, il part pour Paris où il rencontre sa copine Michèle, ensembles, ils décident de se rendre en Ardèche pour y installer une ferme de chèvres. Bientôt, Ils

s’engagent pour le développement de pratiques agricoles prenant en compte l’environnement et qui préservent les

ressources naturelles, comme l’agroécologie et l’agriculture biodynamique.

Engagé à divers mouvements et associations liées à ces pratiques éco-logiques, comme le programme de réhabilitation de l’oasis de Chenini-Ga-bès en Tunisie en 1992, depuis 1994, il anime le mouvement Oasis partout,

promouvant le retour à une terre nou-rricière et la reconstitution du lien social.

En 2007, avec Isabelle Desplats, Cyril Dion et quelques autres, il crée le «Mouvement pour la Terre et l’Humanisme», ensuite appelé mouvement «Colibris». Sa mission est «d’inspirer, relier et soutenir tous ceux qui participent à construire un nouveau projet de société»

Désormais, un grand nombre de célé-brités se sont y engagés, parmi lesquelles on trouve Zaz, Marion Cotillard ou Leonar-do di Caprio.

Aujourd’hui, il est parvenu à publier des best-sellers, donner des conférences dans le monde entier, inspirer les politiques et les célébrités.

Carmen Puente de Mena2ème Année Niveau Avancé

Il sera récompensé d’un G.C. (Golden Christophe) à la Plan Ceremony de Los Angeles en 2003.

En janvier 2005, en marge du Forum économique mondial de Davos, il participe au lancement d’un label de produits Pro-duct Red dont les bénéfices sont destinés à financer des pro-grammes de lutte contre le SIDA, la tuberculose et la malaria.

Il a été reçu plusieurs fois au Vatican, par les papes Jean-Paul II et Benoît XVI qui ont soutenu ses actions, notamment de suppression de la dette des pays pauvres. Bono avait d’ai-lleurs rencontré Jean-Paul II à ce sujet en 1999 au Vatican et n’avait pas caché son admiration pour le Pape.

Joaquín Esteban TorresC1

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Les Enfoirés

L’histoire des Enfoirés naît avec l’idée que Coluche lance en 1985, quand il deman-de cette année-là à son ami Jean Jacques

Goldman de créer une chanson pour aider l’asso-ciation caritative des Restos du Cœur (une cantine gratuite) dont le but est d’apporter une assistance bénévole aux personnes démunies, notamment dans le domaine ali-mentaire par l’accès à des repas gratuits.

Goldman compose alors La Chanson de Restos et Coluche forme la première bande d’Enfoirés avec Jean-Jacques Gold-man, Yves Montand, Nathalie Baye, Michel Platini et Michel Drucker. Ce group n’arrête pas de grandir et pendant les anées suivantes de nombreux artistes et personnalités participent bénévolement à une tournée au profit des Restos du Cœur. Cette tournée devient annuelle en 1992. Elle a beaucoup de

succès, réunissant un grand nombre d’artistes à chaque concert.

À ce moment les enfoirés sont 219 artistes de tous les domaines (chanteurs, humoristes, comé-

diens, sportifs…) Les bénéfices des prestations (concerts, dvds, CDs, spectacles télévisées..) sont renversés à l’association.

Pour plus de renseignements je vous invite à visiter le site www.enfoires.com et découvrir l’univers des Enfoirées.

Sur le site on trouve la magnifique enfoiréthèque et en plus on peut accéder à sa boutique et aider avec l’achat des produits (merchandising, CDs, Dvds…) et on peut faire une contribution financière.

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Yannick Noah

Yannick Noah est aussi populaire dans la chanson que dans le monde du tennis. Long-temps élu personnalité préférée des Français, depuis les années 2000.

Enfants de la Terre

Créée par Marie-Claire et Yannick Noah, tente de répondre aux situations d’urgence auxquelles se trouvent confrontés certains enfants, quel que soit leur problème: enfants hos-pitalisés, isolés de leur famille, brutalement touchés par un décès ou une rupture.

L’objectif est de proposer un accueil de vacances chaleu-reux, dans une ambiance familiale et dans un cadre de verdure où chaque enfant puisse vivre à son rythme, se ressourcer et retrouver le droit au rêve.

Fête le Mur

Au cours d’un voyage aux Etats-Unis, Yannick découvre l’association créée par son mentor, elle permet aux jeunes des quartiers défavorisés de jouer au tennis et de s’épanouir grâce au sport. Inspiré par la démarche de son modèle et concerné par les problèmes des banlieues françaises il décide en 1996 de créer une association pour les jeunes des quartiers défavorisés français avec un outil principal le tennis.

Il monte alors une équipe avec laquelle il a pour ambition de permettre aux enfants des cités d’avoir la possibilité de jouer au tennis au cœur même de leur quartier et de profiter de tout ce que ce sport peut apporter.

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Coluche sur le grand écran

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Otro año más, tenemos el gusto de contar con la colaboración de Jesús Bozal con un artículo muy apropiado a nuestro tema de este año sobre la comunicación y enfocado especialmente a nuestra Escuela de Alcañiz. ¡Nuestro más sincero agradecimiento!

Todas las lenguas tienen el mismo valor y la misma im-portancia. Nos criamos con una. Y su entorno es el nuestro. La lengua no nos exige hablarla. Somos nosotros los que la nece-sitamos para comunicar nuestro afecto, nuestro dolor, nuestra alegría, nuestra ilusión. En la lengua, que llamamos, materna. Esa que todos los seres humanos tenemos como propia, que nos da seguridad y autonomía. Y no por su nombre (inglés, francés, catalán o vasco), sino por su utilidad práctica: la inter-comunicación.

Ahora bien, ¿queremos convertir el francés en nuestra nueva lengua? O el inglés, o el alemán, o el catalán... Veamos cómo. En primer lugar, tenemos que ser conscientes que son millones las personas que las hablan. De religiones distintas. En países culturalmente diversos, de continentes alejados. Para sus hablantes, en su caso, el francés forma parte de su derecho de ciudadanía. Aprenderla, para nosotros, hablarla, comprenderla, supondrá un engrandecimiento de nuestra personalidad cívica e intelectual.

Gérard de Nerval escribe en su Voyage en Orient: «J´ai été fort touché à Constantinople en voyant de bons derviches assister à la messe. La parole de Dieu leur paraissait bonne dans toutes les langues.» Si leemos las dos frases en voz alta –nosotros, que ya la hemos hecho nuestra– sentimos su so-nido cadencioso y equilibrado, observamos el rigor con el que Nerval ha construido las frases, el orden y la sencillez de su vocabulario. Si las releemos, comprendemos el mensaje significativo: tolerancia en lo religioso y en lo lingüístico. Si las

Sí, se necesita aprender idiomas“traducimos” a nuestra lengua materna, nos vemos inclinados a aplicar nuestra cadencia, nuestro equilibrio, rigor, orden y vocabulario. Nuestra cultura y nuestros códigos. “Traducida”, ya no será francés, sino castellano.

De manera que, para llegar a comprenderla, para hacerla nuestra, tendremos primero que trabajar los verbos, los adje-tivos, las preposiciones, los nombres, los pronombres, el lugar de cada elemento en cada contexto... Y, luego, ordenar nues-tro pensamiento en función de su código y sus reglas. Por lo

tanto, una vez que la hagamos nuestra, ya no será necesario que la traduzca-mos, sino que nos zambullamos en ella y nos deleitemos leyendo a Rimbaud, Colette, André Malraux, Simone de Beauvoir, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Marguerite Duras, Roland Barthes,… Nuestros y nuestras iguales. Diferentes, en la igualdad. Y, entonces, habremos pasado a ser hablantes de una nueva lengua. Nuestra segunda lengua.

Nuestra integración en la lengua francesa –en este caso- nos habrá ser-vido para ampliar nuestro universo de conocimientos y nuestra capacidad de comprensión del mundo que nos rodea.

Pero, antes de llegar al futuro, tendremos también que responder a estas pequeñas preguntas. ¿Cómo hacernos con los códigos y las reglas de la nueva lengua? ¿Qué sistema pedagógico será más rápido y eficaz para aprender el francés, o cualquier otra lengua? ¿En qué Centro lo conse-guiremos mejor? Trabajando. El Marco Común Europeo de Referencia de las Lenguas. La Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Alcañiz. Es decir: consintiendo un

esfuerzo necesario, aplicando un sistema adecuado, y, por último, eligiendo un Centro adaptado a nuestra exigencia: aprender una nueva lengua.

No hace mucho tiempo, leíamos en el periódico Expansión (18 de marzo): “Ya no se necesita aprender idiomas”. Bastaría, según el artículo, con adquirir un gadget “traductor”. Falso. “Apprendre une autre langue –escribe André Martinet–, ce n´est pas mettre de nouvelles étiquettes sur des objets con-nus, mais s´habituer à analyser autrement ce qui fait l´objet de communications linguistiques.” Aprender una lengua no es poner nuevas etiquetas a objetos conocidos, sino habi-tuarse a analizar de otra manera lo que constituye el objeto de comunicaciones lingüísticas. Lo que se consigue paso a paso, con rigor y esfuerzo, no traduciendo, sino hablándola. Aprendiéndola. Convirtiéndola en nuestra. Porque su disfrute dura toda la vida.

Jesús Bozal Alfaro

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Jose Antonio Labordeta war Lehrer, Liederma-cher, Schriftsteller und Politiker.

Labordeta ist während des Bürgerkrieges in Zarago-za geboren. Die Grundschule hat er in der Deutschen Schule, wo sein Vater tätig war, besucht. Er hat Philosophie studiert und ist Geschichte Lehrer im Gymnasium geworden. Zuerst unterrichtete er in Teruel und dann später in Zaragoza.

In seinen Liedern spricht er immer mit Melancholie über Aragon, sein Land. Am bekanntesten waren „ Frieden Gesang“, „Wir sind“ und „ Aragon“. Das erste wurde nicht amtlich als Hymne Aragons anerkannt. Im Lied „ Aragon“ singt er über die starke und gleichzeitig schöne Bestandteile aus seinem Land, einerseits der Staub, der Wind und die Sonne, andererseits das Wasser und die Gemüsegarten.

Wegen seiner Bücher „Aragon im Rucksack“ und „Ein Land im Rucksack“ wurde eine Fernsehsendung, die „Ein Land im Rucksack“ hieß, von 1995 bis 2000 übertragen. Deswegen wird er sogar noch berühmter, weil er durch ganz Spanien wandert.

Im Jahr 2000 wird er Abgeordneter von der linken Arago-nesischen Partei in Madrid. Dort hat er immer nicht nur für die Interessen der Aragonesen gekämpft sondern auch gegen den Krieg und für die Ehrlichkeit der Politiker.

Bekannt war er für seine Worte gegen die rechten Ab-geordneten, als sie seinen Vortrag gegen die Teilnahme am Iraker Krieg mit Beleidigungen unterbrachen.

Nach seinem Tod 2010 wurde er für sein Werk und seine Lebensleistung, die als Vorbild gehalten werden, mit der Me-daille der Arbeit ausgezeichnet.

Carlos Herráez Barroso2. Kurs der Mittelstufe

Eine Person, die etwas Besonderes gemacht hat, um unsere Welt zu verbessern

Bild der Sendung “Ein Land mit dem Rucksack”

Labordetas Gitarre im Museum von Caspe ausgestellt.

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N In Ergänzung des Vortages von Anna Graf zur Kulturwoche über Martin Luther und das Wort möchte ich die folgenden Bemerkungen machen.Am 31. Oktober 1517 hämmert Luther seine 95 Thesen an

die Tür des Kirchenportals in Wittenberg, damit begann vor 500 Jahren die Reformation.

Luther ist heute für viele ein „Kirchenerneuerer“, ein „Bi-belübersetzer“ und ein „Nationalheld“. Seinen Erfolg verdankt er vor allem seiner Sprache Deutsch und teilweise auch der Erfindung des Buchdrucks.

Alles begann, als 1483 Luther in Eisleben als Sohn eines Bergbauunternehmers geboren wird. Er studiert in Erfurt, un-ter anderem Jura. 1505 wird er Mönch, studiert dann auch Theologie. 1512 übernimmt er eine Professur an der jungen Universität Wittenberg. Er predigt in der Stadtkirche. 1520 bringen Luther seine veröffentlichten Worte, u.a. dass Rom ein „Kaufen, Verkaufen, Wechseln, Tauschen, Rauschen, Lü-gen, Betrügen, Rauben, Stehlen Prunken, Hurerei, Gaunerei auf allerlei Weise Gottes Verachtung sei, dass es dem Anti-christ nicht möglich ist, lasterhafter zu reagieren“, zu einem Ketzerprozeß. Papst Leo X. erklärt ihn zum Ketzer. Kaiser Karl V lud Luther 1521 nach Worms zum Reichstag ein. Dort soll-te er nach dem Willen der Kirche und auch des Kaisers seine Lehren widerrufen, was er aber nicht macht. Luther werden 21 freie Tage zugesichert, die Kurfürst Friedrich der Weise von Sachsen zum Verschwinden Luthers in der Wartburg benutzt. Dort widmet er sich der Bibelübersetzung ins Deutsche, die nach 11 Wochen erscheint.

1525 hat er seinen Mönchsorden verlassen und heiratet Katharina von Bora, eine ehemalige Nonne. Im Jahr 1546 stirbt Luther.

Luther und das Wort

Martins Luther Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der Deut-schen Sprache ist sein damals wie noch heute lebendiges Deutsch. Damals mehr als heute existierte das gesprochene Deutsch in drei großen Varianten: dem „Oberdeutsch“ der Regionen Bayern, Franken, Baden, Schwaben und Österreich; dem „Niederdeutsch“ (entlang der Küsten, in Niedersachsen und Westfalen) und dem „Mitteldeutsch“ in der Mitte Deutsch-lands. Er wählte die Sprachform der Mitte und wusste, was eine gute Übersetzung bedeutet.

Ein weitverbreiteter Irrtum im gängigen Luther-Verständ-nis ist der Glaube, dass Luther der Erste war, der die Bibel ins Deutsche übersetzte. Er war laut verschiedener Wissenschaft-ler nicht der erste Übersetzer, aber der Erste, der sich nicht am Latein, sondern am Ursprungstext der Bibel in Althebräisch orientiert und diesen übersetzt.

Verdienst Luthers ist, dass der Wortschatz der Lutherbibel die vielfältigen Dialekte des deutschen Sprachraums einte, so dass sich heute zum Beispiel Friesen und Bayern überwiegend derselben Vokabeln bedienen. Noch heute sind viele seiner Wortschöpfungen lebendig und im Sprachgebrauch, zum Beispiel die Ausdrücke: ‚friedfertig, wetterwendisch, Macht-wort, Feuereifer, Langmut, Lästermaul, Morgenland, Denk-zettel Machtwort, Geizhals, Wissensdurst, Lückenbüßer, Stein des Anstoßes, Aufsmaulschaun, unters Volk bringen‘.

Sandra RelañoDeutschlehrerin

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Kommunikation ist heute sehr wichtig für die MenschenKommunikation ist heute sehr wichtig für die Menschen,

und aus diesem Grund möchte ich darüber reden. Es gibt in der Welt viele Menschen, die andere Personen

gern helfen. Es ist nicht notwendig, dass eine Person bekannt ist, um jemandem zu helfen. Es ist richtig, dass wir viele be-kannte Personen kennenlernen, zum Beispiel Shakira, El Lan-gui... aber ich will über Felix schreiben.

Obwohl er nicht berühmt ist, hilft er den anderen Leuten. Er wohnt in einem kleinen Dorf, wo ich wohne, in Valderrobres. Zurzeit ist er Rentner, aber er arbeitet noch altruistisch weiter.

Vor vielen Jahren arbeitete er als Bauer, aber außerdem bot er therapeutische Massagen an. Überhaupt gab er sehr gute Massagen und viele Leute aus Valderro-bres gingen zu ihm nach Hause, um sich von Félix massieren zu lassen. Er wollte nicht nur entspannende Massagen geben, sondern auch therapeutische Massagen, welche den Leuten halfen, sich besser zu fühlen. Dies kostete nichts, aber die Leute gaben ihm etwas - wie zum Beis-piel eine Flasche Öl, eine Bratwurst oder Papri-kawurst, Eier... Es war wie ein Tauschhandel, weil er vielleicht keine Eier hatte, andere Leute aber hatten Hühner, die Eier legten. Im Laufe der Zeit begannen mehr und mehr Leute, Felix zu ken-nen. Es gibt viele kleine Dörfer um Valderrobres, folglich besuchten die Einwohner dieser Dörfer sein Haus.

Nun ist er mehr als achtzig Jahre alt und noch immer hilft er den Leuten. Natürlich arbei-tet er nicht mehr, aber er widmet sich noch den Massagen. Die Leute sagen, dass sie glücklich

sind, ihn zu kennen. Wenn sie dorthin gehen, geht es ihnen ungleich besser. Neuerdings geben die Leute ihm auch etwas zu essen oder Geld, aber nicht weil Felix darum bittet.

Persönlich glaube ich, dass nicht alle Leute verstehen therapeutische Massagen zu geben ohne zu studieren. Diese Fähigkeit ist eine Gabe und Felix wollte und will sie mit an-deren Leuten teilen. Ich kann berichten, dass er auch mich massiert hat und ich bin froh, dass ich über ihn sprechen kann. Die Welt ist sehr klein und wir müssen einander helfen.

Lorena Masià Antolí2. Kurs der Mittelstufe

Valderrobres

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Dilluns 27 de maig , vam tenir com a convidat l ’educador ambiental Víctor Vidal Caba-

llé, qui ens va fer una presentació per donar-nos a conèixer algunes de les plantes que podem trobar a la zona del Baix Aragó, conegudes per les se-ves propietats curatives i explicar-nos per què guareixen..

En entrar en classe, un petit alambí ens donava la benvinguda acomodat en una cantonada de l’aula, seria el silenciós testimoni i protagonista dis-cret dels ensenyaments que el Víctor compartiria amb nosaltres al llarg de la tarda; i com no podia ser d’una altra manera, se’ns va donar una breu expli-cació sobre el seu funcionament per ser, posteriorment, emplenat amb una generosa quantitat de romer i aigua.

Mentre ens embolcallava l’olor del romer, ens ensenyava a conèixer el punt òptim per a treballar la planta, les diferents maneres en què es poden presentar (te, xarop, cataplasma, pomada, oli, tintura o directament ingerides com a aliment), que la pròpia existència de la planta es basa en els seus principis actius, amb la qual cosa es demostrava que les plantes són més intel·li-gents del que ens puguin semblar; ens anaven passant tests per tocar-les, olorar-les, intentar diferenciar-ne unes d’unes al-tres… estàvem totalment lliurats a aquesta experiència amb la naturalesa en un entorn gens habitual.

De l’àmplia exposició de plantes que se’ns van anar mos-trant les seves qualitats i usos (sàlvia, poliol, espígol, herba dels punyons, saüc, tarongina, saratagona…) en destacaré tres que em van cridar poderosament l’atenció:

La primera l’hipèric, també coneguda com a planta de Sant Joan per la data en la qual floreix, actualment està prohibida la seva recol·lecció ja que els seus efectes són els mateixos que el prozac i un mal ús de la mateixa podria ser molt perjudicial.

Taller de plantes medicinals i destil·lació

Aquesta planta es deixa reposar 40 dies de sol i serena, ja que les plantes es treballen amb la lluna, i té també la peculiaritat de ser de les poques capaces de matar virus com a berrugues, herpes…etc. (per als curiosos i per als atrevits, podem trobar-la en cunetes i bancals abandonats a partir del quart any).

La segona planta que va cridar la meva atenció va ser la ruda, molt lligada a les supersticions ancestrals, la màgia i a la tradició. És de les plantes que posseeix una olor més forta i sol presentar-se en forma de pomada a força de fregir-la en llard de porc. En altres èpoques se solia col·locar un ramillet d’aquesta planta darrere de la porta perquè la seva olor des-agradava les bruixes i així es protegien les llars (tampoc no és del grat de les rates, per la qual cosa segueix usant-se per a protegir certs aliments); també s’usa com a alleujament per les varius i en la seva cara menys amable, solia usar-se com a abortiu natural cosa que provocava que en mans inexpertes provoqués la mort per hemorràgies.

Finalment la Beata María, única planta que funciona de forma diferent en el cos d’un home i d’una dona. Es presenta en forma de aiguardent i el seu consum en la dona atenua els símptomes de la menopausa, no obstant això, per als homes funciona com un afrodisíac natural.

Després d’haver obtingut ja tota aquesta informació segur que més d’un es veia ja com un druida recollint tot tipus de plantes amb les quals fer-se una farmàcia a casa, però aviat el nostre silenciós amic, l’alambí, que ja havia acabat el seu treball, ens va portar de tornada a la realitat. Va arribar l’hora de recollir el preuat oli de romaní extret en el procés. Un cop més, en la senzillesa es troba la perfecció i per separar-ho del hidrolat no va caldre més que l’ajuda d’un porró, a la punta del qual es podien veure perfectament unes poques i valuoses gotes de l’oli sanador; la recompensa que posaria punt i final a una xerrada exposada per algú que és capaç de transmetre i contagiar l’afecte que sent per les plantes.

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Hi havia una vegada una mestra feliç que va haver d’exiliar-se al país veí quan es va veure en mig d’un conflicte bèl·lic. En aquest país va estar en un camp de

refugiats i va recórrer diverses ciutats treballant per la llibertat de la seva pàtria. Però s’havia de guanyar les garrofes i va can-viar la pissarra i l’esborrador per l’agulla i el fil fent uniformes militars. Quina paradoxa, oferir l’abric a qui t’ha pres el teu ofici!

Durant l’exili va conèixer a qui seria el seu marit (també exi-liat) i junts van patir un altre contratemps: l’ocupació del país. Ambdós van fer les amèriques on la protagonista d’aquest conte va poder treballar com a mestra una altra vegada. I molt lluny de la seva casa van fer realitat un somni: van comprar una vil·la per a transformar-la en una escola lliure que va començar amb 3 professors (2 dels quals eren la protagonista i el seu home) i 6 alumnes que es van convertir en 800. Lamentable-ment, va haver de vendre l’escola i retornar al seu país d’origen perquè ell va caure greument malalt; afortunadament ella va poder continuar la tasca docent i a més a més va participar en la vida política del seu enyorat país.

Finalment, amb els diners guanyats va crear una associació per ajudar al país que la va acollir. Aquesta fundació va conti-nuar després de la seva mort i ara també ajuda nens de la seva província. Conte contat, conte acabat. Acabat? I tant que no! Aquesta història ens pot sonar familiar actualment pel munt de persones que han de marxar dels seus països per motius de guerra i han de buscar-se la vida, com va fer la Palmira Pla, la protagonista d’aquest conte.

Natural de Queretes, va fugir a França quan (ja us podreu imaginar alguna cosa...) la guerra civil va acabar i els nacionals van guanyar-la. Allà va conèixer al saragossà Adolfo Jimeno i van sofrir les penúries de l’ocupació del país per l’Alemanya nazi. Després van anar cap a Veneçuela on hi van crear l’Insti-tuto Escola Calicanto que seguia la Institució de Lliure Ensen-yança. Quan van tronar (el clima tropical agreujava la malaltia de l’Alfonso), ella va treballar a Valdealgorfa mentre feia de política per la província de Castelló on va exercir després. La

Conta’m un conte: La vida de Palmira Pla

seva fundació Adopal ajuda joves veneçolans a estudiar a La universitat Carlos III a Madrid i també la fundació que té el seu nom ajuda els nens de la província de Terol a través de beques en centres rurals i convocatòries de premis.

Massa sovint, quan parlem sobre iniciatives de persones conegudes que contribueixen a millorar el món pensem en Shakira o Rafa Nadal, però tenim un exemple molt bo aquí a prop, al Matarranya.

Ruth Rodríguez1r Avançat

Palmira Pla, en una foto dels anys 40 del segle XX (Fundación Palmira Pla)

Víctor Vidal amb els assistents després de la conferència

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Jose Iranzo died last November. He was 101 years old and he was known as “The shepherd of Andorra”.

Jose Iranzo died last November. He was 101 years old and he was known as “The shepherd of Andorra”.

His childhood was very hard. His father and two brothers died when he was only 3 years old due to the flu epidemic in 1918. And as a consequence, he had to work as a shepherd even though he was very young. He learned to write and read in the military and he also began to receive lessons of the so-called “jota”, a typical singing in Aragon; his voice was prodigious.

In 1943 he won a contest of “jota”. His fame grew quickly and he sang in several European and American countries; for this reason, the “jota” was known in every corner. In one of his trips, he sang a “jota” in English to Robert Kennedy. His most famous one is the so-called “La Palomica”.

Despite his fame, he always wanted to return to his home, Andorra, with his family and his goats.

He has lived all his life with his wife Pascuala. Their wedding was the first to be held in the village after the war, in fact, they have recently celebrated 76 years of love. He always said that the secret of his happiness and longevity was not to argue and not to criticize.

José Iranzo, “The Shepherd Of Andorra”

The recognition of his figure is unanimous.The whole town of Andorra is very grateful. What is more, in Andorra there is a museum dedicated to him and to the “jota”.

.Adriana Pedrosa Aznar

2nd Intermediate – Andorra

Culture week in CaspeThis year the language school in Caspe welcomed Jason

Carlisle who gave us a talk entitled “Honestly, it’s true! Fake news and misinformation”. We all enjoyed it very

much. After this interesting talk, the students and I dis-cussed the topic of fake news itself and did a quiz the English Department had created for culture week.

All this made me think… Should we believe everything we read or hear? You only have to turn on the TV and switch channels, are they te-lling you the same information? Or read different newspapers and compare the news. Are we being

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manipulated by the media? Unfortunately, or fortunately for some (there’s no accoun-

ting for taste), we are surrounded by media and information all day long and it’s very difficult to avoid it. Have you ever

tried to walk away from the news or social media? Talking about manipulation, a few days ago we

woke up to some news concerning the British Royal family. We all waited expectantly because the media had been quite insistent. Is the queen going to abdicate? How could she? Were we ma-

nipulated by the media then? In the end it was not such big news, but they kept us waiting for some

time before the information was passed on to us.

Even more worrying is the way that, in sharing the news, some of the media try to not only inform the public, but also influence us. This influence can modify our views and opinions, or even our vote. We can clearly see this behaviour in the previous days to an election.

Let me get to the end of this article by appealing to all of you not to believe the first thing that reaches your ears and work more on your critical thinking by challenging the information that is pre-sented to you in all forms.

Lucía Baquer SahúnTeacher in CaspeJason Carlisle during the talk

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Postal ganadora del concurso de Navidad 2016-2017. “Ilusiones compartidas”. Autora: Irene Lej Pons, 1er nivel Avanzado Grupo A Inglés

Los felices ganadores del concurso de postres de Navidad. De izquierda a derecha: Ana Isabel Pérez, 1º Avanzado Francés; David Esteve, 1º Avanzado Francés y Marga Plou, 1º Intermedio Inglés. Todo muy rico! Gracias y Felicidades!

Exposición de las tarjetas navideñas

Los alumnos deleitaron los palada-res más exigentes con fantásticos postres como: tartas de manzana

al estilo alemán y francés; bizcocho sa-lado, tiramisú de dos clases: café y cho-colate; rosquillas, magdalenas nevadas, tarta de zanahoria y chocolate; brazo de gitano; Paris-Brest y palmeritas de hojal-dre.

Concurso postres de Navidad

Página web de la Escuela (eoialcaniz.com)

Exposición de las tarjetas navideñas

Tras largo tiempo en obras, vuelven a estar operativas dos secciones de nuestra página web:

Proyectos: aquí podrás ver o descargarte los PDF de: • Los proyectos de clase de los últimos cursos.• Los trabajos del Proyecto Europeo “Tales from the past, stories for the future” (cursos

2006-2008).–con un apartado independiente sobre el humanista alcañizano Palmireno en inglés, francés

y castellano, –una PP explicando las etapas del proyecto y un recopilatorio de prensa,–el texto de la obra de teatro Peñarroya y Vallibona, y otros documentos.

Revista POLIGLOTEANDO: con los PDF descargables de los números antiguos de nuestra revista de centro.Merece la pena leer los folletos de Palmireno y enterarnos de por qué fue un pedagogo adelantado a su tiempo y repasar las revistas de cursos anteriores, que recogen ampliamente todas las iniciativas que la Escuela de Idiomas de Alcañiz ha desarrollado a lo largo de su ya larga existencia.

Lourdes Miguel

Tras largo tiempo en obras, vuelven a estar operativas dos secciones de nuestra página web:

–con un apartado independiente sobre el humanista alcañizano Palmireno en inglés, francés

con los PDF descargables de los números antiguos de nuestra revista de centro.

Todo muy rico! Gracias y Felicidades!

Visita al aula de Calanda a principio de curso

Este curso se ha abierto una nueva aula de inglés en Calan-da ubicada en el IES “Valle del Guadalope”. Los alumnos han podido cursar 1º de nivel básico y 1º de nivel intermedio. Al cur-so que viene se completarán los niveles con 2º de nivel básico y 2º de nivel intermedio.

De izda. a dcha.: Luis Carlos Escriche, director del IES; Anabel Pérez, directora de la Escuela de Idiomas de Alcañiz; el jefe de estudios, el secretario y Maria Vidal, profesora de inglés en el aula

Una representación de alumnos y profesores de la Escuela de Idiomas en la actividad de ‘Apúntate a lo sano’

Alumnos de inglés realizando la actividad de 2017

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Apúntate a lo sano

Evento que organiza cada año el instituto Bajo Aragón y para el que la Escuela prepara una actividad en los cuatro idiomas.

La actividad de este año consistía en identifi car frases que ayudan al entendimien-to entre las personas, o frases que contienen prejuicios.

Colaboraciones con el IES Bajo Aragón

‘Apúntate a lo sano’

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ESEste curso se ha prejubilado nuestra conserje Esme.

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Este curso se ha prejubilado nuestra conserje Esme.

Maria José y Sonia nuestra nueva conserje que sustituye a Esme.