Supporting Young Creative People

Antonio Gala’s Foundation launches its annual grant edition (Source)

(Antonio Gala is a Spanish writer.)

“Live for working rather than working for a living” is the motto of the annual grant edition of Antonio Gala’s Foundation for young talents

18 scholarships have been announced for the present edition. They will include accommodation and meals for creators aged between eighteen and twenty-five. Within the foundation, young people work without teachers. They receive visits from established artists who share their experiences. The aim is to enrich one another with the others disciplines. This creative coexistence is what  Antonio Gala defined as “crossed-fertilization”: Young people gather at the end of the day to share progress, concerns, experiences and enrich the writer with the musician, the musician with the sculptor, the painter with the sculptor and so on.

The ultimate goal is to provide these young talents -each in their respective discipline: fiction, poetry, theater, music composition, painting, sculpture …-, with the development of a creative project during the academic year 2016-2017. As a novelty, the Foundation has announced an extraordinary grant for researching on a specific aspect of Antonio Gala work and personality.
The scholarship includes a stay at the headquarters of the Foundation from October 2016 until June 2017, in Cordoba, Spain. There will be holidays during two weeks at Christmas period (December-January) and Easter. Accommodation, meals, as well as the material and the necessary spaces for residents to develop their creative work, will be provided by the organizers.
Applicants from Spain may send their documentation in print -except that which by its nature requires other support-, to the address: “Call for applicants from Antonio Gala Foundation for Young Creators 2016-2017” , C / Ambrosio Morales, No. 20. 14003 Córdoba.
Those from another countries  can be made in the same way, or by submitting all documentation in PDF to “convocatoria@fundacionantoniogala.org” email.
The deadline for submitting applications wil be the 31st March 2016.
The final list of selected candidates will be posted on the web page www.fundacionantoniogala.org throughout the month of June 2016.
Further information, any questions or concerns will be attended at (+34) 957 487 395 or email info@fundacionantoniogala.org

Written by Eurodesk Qualified Multiplier, Instituto Andaluz de la Juventud

Event website:	http://www.fundacionantoniogala.org/
Event email address:	convocatoria@fundacionantoniogala.org

EOI Fuengirola: 25th Birthday! Any Contributions?

This year teachers and students are preparing things for our 25th Anniversary Celebration. Some people are preparing songs, videos, activities of various sorts… And this post is to mention one of them:

The Mag. Before we part in December, for the winter holidays, is the deadline to hand in contributions for a multimedia magazine we will publish towards the end of the course, to celebrate!

And, for instance, we would like to include the post here on “seseo” and “ceceo”, by Melania

I’m also collecting thoughts by students on what it’s meant for you to study a language or languages at this EOI. (And as you know, we need to turn any references to particular teachers, to a general reference to teachers, so it’s best if you sort that out yourselves! 🙂

I also wanted to tell you all that if you are interested in contributing, you can talk to your teacher — or post here, if it’s about topics that we can bring up in Loving Andalucía. For instance, misperceptions or negative generalizations on Andalucía or Spain, so we can help people learn to see reality! 😀

It would be great to have pieces by students on places worth visiting in Andalucía, for instance! You can write an article, or do a more literary piece, or you can record an audio or video!

I’m also going to write a piece on politeness in Spain, so foreigners can learn about our culture and respect it. If you have ideas for this, or things you’ve observed, please, let me know. The piece could be cooperative writing! 🙂

❤

Designing Exams: Dedicated to María Zambrano

This exercise was designed at EOI Fuengirola for the June 2015 final  Básico 1 exam (Elementary) – Part 1: Reading Test. It is dedicated to a Spanish woman philosopher (cross-curricular topic – Coeducación: Desarrollando inteligencia feminista)

You can download here the 2 pdf pages with the exercise & the key or do it online…

Reading Comprehension. Task 1. Questions on a text

Read the text quickly, just to get a general idea (skimming). Next read the questions and underline words that help. After that, read the text carefully (scanning) and choose the best answer. Finally, go through your answers.

MARÍA ZAMBRANO
(From http://www.women-philosophers.com & wikipedia)

María Zambrano Alarcón (22 April 1904, Vélez-Málaga – 6 February 1991, Madrid) was a Spanish essayist and philosopher associated with the Generation of ’36 movement.

In 1907 her family moved to Jaén and then Segovia. Later María Zambrano moved to Madrid to study Philosophy at university. One of her teachers was the essayist and philosopher José Ortega y Gasset. She was politically active during these years.

In 1936 she became a teacher of Metaphysics at Madrid University and she married Alfonso Rodriguez Aldave, who worked at the Spanish Embassy in Santiago, Chile. At the end of the Civil War, she had to go into exile for her own security. She found a job as a professor at the University of Morelea in Mexico. After living in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Italy, France and Switzerland, Zambrano finally returned to Madrid, Spain in 1984.

Highly respected by artists and intellectuals, among her friends were writers Rafael Alberti, Miguel Hernández, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, José Bergamín, Luis Cernuda, and painter Maruja Mallo. Miguel Hernández and María Zambrano went for walks to the Manzanares river in Madrid, to talk about life and love.

Among her books, you can find, Filosofia y poesía (Philosophy and Poetry) (1940), La agonía de Europa (The Agony of Europe) (1945), Persona y democracia (Person and Democracy) (1959), Claros del bosque (1977), or Delirio y destino (written in 1953; published in 1989), translated by Delirium and Destiny: A Spaniard in Her Twenties and published in 1999.

A slow process of recognition of her work started in Spain in 1966 when J. L. Aranguren wrote his article “Los sueños de María Zambrano” (María Zambrano’s Dreams) and got it published in a very important cultural and scientific magazine, Revista de Occidente, founded by Ortega y Gasset. In 1981 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanities in its first edition, and in 1983 Malaga University named her Doctor honoris causa. In 1988 she became the first woman to be awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize. María querida (Dearest Maria), a film directed by José Luis García Sánchez in 2004, is about her life. In December 2007, when the Málaga-Madrid high speed railway line was opened, the railway company RENFE renamed Málaga Railway Station “María Zambrano”.

Choose the best answer, according to the text.

1. When was María Zambrano’s birthday?

• Her birthday was on the 22^nd of April
• Her birthday was on the 22^nd of April, 1904
• Her birthday was in 22 April

2. In this biography, what information do we get about Zambrano’s marital status?

• She was single
• She was married
• It doesn’t say

3. Why did she travel abroad? (according to the text)

• Because she was an adventurer
• Because she loved travelling
• Because she went into exile

4. What did María Zambrano do (for a living)?

• She didn’t need to work
• She was a teacher
• She was a writer

5. In which award was she the first woman?

• “Los sueños de María Zambrano” (María Zambrano’s Dreams)
• The Prince of Asturias Award
• The Miguel de Cervantes Prize

Why do Spanish people have “tapas”?

Spanish people have “tapas” out of a belief that drinking alcohol without having something to eat is not a good idea. Tapas relate to having drinks and chatting.

Tapas go from a saucer of olives or chips to the most elaborate mini-meals! And they are free. It’s a kindness by the owners of the establishment.

Tapeo means going out for drinks and tapas, and also having tapas instead of a regular meal.

In Autumn, in Fuengirola, bars and restaurants celebrate the Erotic Tapa Tour. For two euros you can get a beer and a tapa. This is fun, delicious and helps locals get by after the summer season.

More reading, in Spanish:

• 8 tapas de Andalucía que te harán morir de placer! by Teresa Medina – some of the most delicious tapas!
• Tapas típicas, La cocina andaluza – history and typical Andalusian tapas.

More questions on being loud (Protest)

Aren’t people in Britain loud when they get together? We all know about how loud people in British pubs are — whether we’ve been to Britain or to a British pub in Spain. Many are also loud when they are on holidays abroad. Locals know a lot about this.

So what’s the problem when local people are loud in bars in Spain? Perhaps it’s rare (not very frequent), because locals are mostly not having drinks with friends, but working, in places where tourism is the source of income. Could it be because they laugh more or louder?

Why do business people exert such tolerance when foreigners are loud and feel free to mimick foreigners’ disgust when locals are loud? The answer is rather sad.

Beyond stereotypes, it seems that groups of friends are loud in many different cultures.

It’s OK one does not like loud people, but it’s not OK to notice other people are loud when you do the same thing.

About the problems of not learning the language of the country where you live

Dear teachers and students,

Today some of us met to celebrate a New House gathering (the first gathering in two years in our hosts’ house), and some foreign residents started shouting at midnight sharp: “Be quiet, please!! We want to sleep!!”. I’d like to communicate some ideas that might help foreign residents who exhibit a lack of knowledge of the culture here think twice before behaving so rudely.

Cultural tips for foreigners living in Costa del Sol

Foreigners living in Costa del Sol seem to have devoted little time to their education, which shows in their lack of appreciation and interest in the culture of the country they live in.

When a Spanish neighbor has guests, and they are celebrating something, and you want them to be silent, don’t be rude and shout you please want to sleep, particularly if your neighbor doesn’t usually have guests. What Spanish people do, to avoid being rude to their neighbours’ guests, is call the hosts and tell them about the problem you have (not being able to sleep because they are having a party). The hosts reply might be: “Sorry for the noise, but we’ve organized this for Saturday night, and we’re celebrating something important, so please, be patient”. Or “OK, sorry. We’ll make less noise.” When the reason for wanting to sleep is an important exam, or a pressing situation, the hosts will probably say, “OK, sorry, we’ll tell people to leave now”. It would be a conversation, communicating – not You informing them and they doing what you want them to do.

Making your neighbors’ guests feel unwelcome is one of the rudest things you can do. It’s aggressive. So the approach is not about Your Rights. The approach is about tolerance, being good neighbors and learning to live together.

Mediterranean cultures are different to cultures in colder countries, and people from colder countries need to learn a bit about the culture of the country where they live, when it’s different to theirs – because the world can be seen and explained in many different ways, as cultural diversity in this planet shows.

So when people live abroad, learning the language is recommended because it helps to learn about the culture, and talk to and respect or even appreciate local people.

Let’s hope this posts helps foreign residents learn something that might help them consider that perhaps their alarm about Spaniards when Spaniards don’t behave like foreigners might just be a misperception due to their ignorance of what is happening and how to intervene in a civilized manner, culturally respectful, and not their idea that it’s Spanish people who are uncivilized and need foreigners’ reprimands.

Celebrating Book Day: Federico García Lorca

When Lorca was murdered by Franquist officials, they burned/burnt his books. They wanted to wipe out any trace of Lorca’s existence. Like many other Spanish people, his body has not been found and is probably in a mass grave.

Audio. MF (teacher) reads out a bio on Lorca at Poets.org, a US American Poetry website, and makes a couple of brief comments. Listen here: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0H612ziPfGy

Articles. Here is a recent article published in British The Guardian newspaper. And another article

Website. Casa-Museo de Lorca. Museum-House

Video

We couldn’t find a video where Lorca’s poems are read with an Andalusian accent. 😦 Please, let us know if you do!