Life in La Unión

Every month there is a survey about the things which most concern ordinary Spaniards. Recently corruption has been up there in the top three usually just behind unemployment. Over the past few years there have been several high profile corruption cases and, because the Spanish justice system still hasn't bought many computers and is notoriously slow, most of them are still current news stories. Anyway there are new scandals almost on a weekly basis. The King's son in law is in court on corruption charges and the Infanta, a Princess in British terms, has to declare in court tomorrow. The ex treasurer of the governing right of centre Partido Popular is currently on remand accused of handing over wads of money in brown envelopes to lots of prominent people - one name on his payment list is that of the President. Everybody seems to be in on it from prominent business people and heads of regional government through bankers to town mayors and even to the unions who are accused of...

Lots of people have asked me if I'm OK living alone. I'm fine and surprisingly I'm having no problem feeding myself. Being alone has lots of disadvantages but there are advantages too. More space in the bed, complete control of the telly remote and no need to go around the house turning off uselessly burning lights. I'm having no problem at all filling my time, in fact I am short of time. I've always been a list writer and my current lists are full; household things to do, books to read, work to prepare alongside the ongoing and time consuming task of trying to crack Spanish even though, as Maggie unkindly reminded me in one of our Skype conversations, I never will. Work is an obvious routine. As well as trying to correct the same errors in all of my students over and over again - "Can you please repeat that?" rather than "Can you repeat?" or the constant battle with some sounds; shhhhe not sea, shhhhow not sew - there is the simple time rout...

I presume you know I earn a living by teaching English. I shouldn't be writing this. I should be planning next week's lessons but I'm putting it off. I don't have to start work till 5pm tomorrow and that leaves me all morning to get myself sorted out. Plenty of time. The place I work has a system. Students work with interactive teaching materials backed up by a grammar and a book of exercises. The English is basically taught using a number of key expressions or structures with the grammar and vocabulary being built up around those expressions and structures. Students work alone on the computers and books. Teachers are used to answer queries and in three sorts of classes. Firstly, there is an assessment after each unit which is done as a class. Group size is no more than four people and usually it's just one or two students. Secondly and thirdly there are group sessions. One is a converation class and the other is a structured class built around the key phr...