I will survive in spanish or will i?
The British have a reputation for being bad at learning languages, but is it really true? I work for a newspaper which was doing a series of articles about this. As an experiment, they asked me to try and learn a completely new language for one month. Then I had to go to the country and do some ‘tests’ to see if I could ‘survive’ in different situations. I decided to learn Spanish because I would like to visit Spain and Latin America in the future. If I go, I don’t want to be the typical Brit who expects everyone else to speak English.
I did a one-month intensive course in Spanish at a language school in London. I was a complete beginner but I soon found that some Spanish words are very similar to English ones. For example, ‘hola’ isn’t very different from ‘hello’ and ‘inglés’ is very similar to ‘English’. But other things were more difficult, for example the verbs in Spanish change for each person and that means you have to learn a lot of different endings. My biggest problem was the pronunciation. I found it very difficult to pronounce some letters in Spanish, especially ‘r’ and ‘j’. I downloaded sentences in Spanish onto my phone and I listened and repeated them again and again.
When my course finished I went to Madrid for the weekend to do my tests. A Spanish teacher called Paula came with me and gave me a mark out of 10 for each test and then a final mark for everything.
These were the tests and the rules:
Tests
You have to…
1 order a drink and a sandwich in a bar, ask how
much it is, and understand the price.
2 ask for directions in the street (and follow them).
3 get a taxi to a famous place in Madrid.
4 leave a message on somebody’s voicemail.
Rules
– you mustn’t use a dictionary or phrase book
– you mustn’t speak English at any time
– you mustn’t use your hands or mime or write
anything down
profession nanny
this profession can rightly be considered one of the oldest, and the work of a nanny is similar to the work of a teacher. the nanny teaches, monitors the daily routine and nutrition, is responsible for the moral, mental and physical health of his ward.
consider the main types of nannies:
• daytime, working with children from morning to evening. she takes the child to school, groups, takes him out of class, deals with him, can cook food. if such a nanny is invited to a preschooler, then her duties include walking for hours, organizing proper nutrition, developing games and activities;
• night, which will be with the child from 8 pm until the morning. such a babysitter can be invited for the whole night or for a few hours;
• a nanny living in an employer's apartment provides round-the-clock child care;
• a housekeeper who combines childcare with housekeeping.
we can single out a seasonal nanny who works with the child during the holidays, and an evening babe who will pick up the child from school, staying with him until her parents return from work. a separate category is to include nurse guards, who in addition to education are responsible for ensuring the security of their ward.
Hello, (friend's name)! In my last letter, I wrote to you about how I spent my summer. Summer is over, school days have begun. My first day at school was spent at home, since no one goes to school now, everyone studies remotely. All lessons were held in the app for learning. We were given tasks and we did them. There weren't many lessons, because we were just starting to learn. In all the lessons, we repeated the topics from last year. That's how my first day of school went. I'm sorry, but I have to stop writing because school has started and I have to get ready for class. It was your pen friend. Bye!
(your name)