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El País

GRA 345.1 - Blog #11

Meet a couple of my students!!



Even in the classes that I teach in the elementary school, I have noticed how much the children are influenced by American media. Little girls had pencil cases, pencils, necklaces, shirts, shoes, backpacks, lunchboxes, notebooks and agenda books with either the Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, Shrek or SpongeBob’s face on it.

Everyone, including the teachers, asked me whether I know Hannah Montana when I told them my name. Boys and girls sang Lady Gaga songs while working on class activities. One teacher also had one class sing a Beatles song to me (even though they come from English media).

I noticed that silly bands (colourful elastic bracelets that come in all different shapes) have come from the United States into Spain. It is hugeeeeeee here. There have been several times while I was teaching and the other professor had to take the silly bands away from the students. During breakfast break, girls and boys sit in circles trading silly bands with each other. Although they may be disruptive to the kids, I have found it a good tool to teach kids the names of the animals, instruments or whatever else the silly bands may be in English. I also learned from the students as well while playing with the silly bands. Lagartija = lizard!

My Senora loves the Beatles and raved about them when we were talking about music. She also told my roommate and me about how much she loves Frank Sinatra and Whitney Houston. When she was doing laundry, I put Frank Sinatra on my iTunes for about an hour and she was so happy! Even some bars and discotecas go the entire night only playing American songs! The Spanish television has quite a few American shows dubbed in Spanish. On Sunday, Senora and I watched American movies all day. It is crazy to see that Spain is trying to, in a way, catch up to American media and become as fast-paced and up-to-date with the newest trends and fads. Spanish media seems to try to imitate American media in order to jump on the bandwagon.

SpongeBob in Sol! Mickey Mouse in Plaza Mayor AND Parque de Retiro!

GRA 345.1 - Blog #10

I was walking around Sol one day and stumbled upon a small movie theatre. They had several film selections, but it was weird to see that most of them were American films. To add on to that, they all had Spanish titles and some were translated poorly or written in a way that made it sound silly. The one movie that most of my peers in my Mare Nostrum group in Spain pointed out, and made fun of, was Zac Efron´s movie “Charlie St. Cloud” because its Spanish name was “Siempre a mi lado.”

I went to my first movie theatre in Spain this past weekend near my house, which was near the Metro stop Concha Espina. There, I bumped into one of my eight year old students that I teach at Colegio Pintor Rosales. I ask him and his little buddies what movie they were going to watch. They replied, ¨¡GRU, mi villano favorito!¨ I had just seen that film at a drive-in movie right before coming to Spain and wondered to myself, at that moment, whether I would still understand or find the movie as funny if I had seen it in Spanish. My friends and I laughed at that name just because it was so unexpected. It is far from its American name, “Despicable Me.”

At the theatre, we watched a Spanish film called “Didi.” While watching it, I really enjoyed it because the scenes were captivating. I wanted to know what would happen next to this girl who left her life in Spain to become an actress in the United States. I REALLY liked the movie…until my friends and I walked out of the movie theatre and we all asked ourselves and each other what that movie was about. None of us had any idea what the point of that movie was at all. The movie showed a girl´s life journey, but it did not have any substance nor meaning. The movie wasn´t really about anything nor did it have a point. If it were to have a point, however, it would probably be that the only way for a girl to have a successful career is to sleep with old, rich men. Also, there was probably a nude or sex scene every other few minutes. Usually in the United States, films limit such scenes to a minimum. Anyway, now, I can kind of understand why not many people enjoy Spanish movies. They tend to convey dark themes (the movie had a really sad and depressing ending) and may not successfully present it in a way that keeps the audience intrigued the entire time. Whenever Spanish cinema comes up at our dinner table conversation, my Senora never fails to repeat how much more she enjoys American films than Spanish ones.

When we first went into the movie theatre on a Saturday evening, there were only four other audience members. Most of them were around their late fifties to sixties years of age. I cringed a little because my friends would not stop talking during the movie, and speaking loudly and eating their food loudly, jaja. When the movie was over, I was surprised to see how many more people were waiting outside than when we first arrived. The main demographic included families and younger kids in elementary or early middle school age. I am sure that most of them were there to see one of the American movies, whether it was “Despicable Me”, “Letters to Julia” or “Social Network.”

GRA 345.1 - Blog #9

It is 12:18 A.M. on a Friday night and I am currently sitting next to my Señora on the couch watching talk shows. These are so…tacky! They seem to be really cheesy andsilly, but, at the same time, they appear to be a lot of fun.

During dinner, we watched a program that had gossip about celebrities as well as news about the world. The most recent story just on the show was about how Michelle Obama's wardrobe is starting a trend all around the world. I saw similar stories about her in the United States before coming to Spain. Just like in the United States, the host was an attractive female with long hair and a very nice fitting red dress, who is very outgoing and playful. The backgrounds of the set are bright, colorful and very attention grabbing.

I think the previous show was a Spanish talk show similar to Jerry Springer in the United States. It had women trying to figure out who the fathers of their babies were. There was lots of yelling/screaming, physical fighting, crying and tension, just like in talk shows in the United States. Within 2 minutes, the women may have dropped the word “puta” at least five or six times, haha. Again, this comes down to the lack of censorship inSpanish media. Nobody is afraid of offending anyone. If the women trying to figure out their babies’ daddies were in English, I think half the conversation would have been bleeped out. The Spanish show we are watching now is asking people a certain series of questions and giving them a Lie-Detector test, which is how Jerry Springer figured out whether the fathersof the babies cheated on thewives or not and vice versa.

A difference I did see between talk shows in the United States and in Spain is that Spanish television seems to be more relaxed and less formal. Although serious shows do exist on Spanish television, the talk shows have hosts dancing, singing, talking on their cell phones while on air and doing whatever else they pleased. It seems that the Spanish hosts really don’t care what they do or what the talk about. They do not worry about being politically correct as in the United States. In the United States, everybody fears being politically incorrect in chance of being sued, losing viewership or receiving negative reviews. I also saw Spain’s MTV version of College Spring Break and students going crazy while on vacation.

Something odd that I noticed was that all the commercials have people and announcers speaking Spanish, but all the background songs are in English! This was the same for one of the gossip/news programs because it played English songs while airing clips of the Principes de Asturias. Of all the authors, doctors, journalists and what not who won, the fútbol players still received a lot more air time than the king, queen, prince or princess who were there handing out the awards.

My Señora loves the serious political debates on television as well as English movies on televsion all throughout Saturdays and Sundays. She keeps telling me how bad Latin American telenovelas and movies are, though.

GRA 345.1 - Blog #8

Whenever my roommate and I finish dinner with our Señora and host sister, who is 28 years old and also speaks English, we talk about our days and whatever other topics come up in conversation. Last night, we shared YouTube videos with each other. YouTube is a huge sensation and a very effective way of reaching people all around the world. A lot of people post videos and become famous (such as pop singer Justin Beiber) or people who post videos to share with family (Charlie Bit My Finger). I asked her abouta video one of the teachers I teach with told me about – La he liao parda. I did not understand a lick of it until my hostsister explained it phrase by phrase. THEN Ithought it was hilarious! My roommate and I then showed our host family videos suchas Charlie Bit My Finger, Scarlet Takes a Tumble and Old Man Gets Hit By Bike.

La he liao parda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICQrvG6jfOA

Charlie Bit My Finger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

Scarlet Takes a Tumble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIwTYL1fwJk

Old Man Gets Hit By Bike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghs3Cr2gWTQ

I think it’s awesome how it does not matter what language YouTube videos are in because people can understand enough/get a general idea through the occurring actions. It is still the same thing that makes people laugh such as in Video 1, the manner in which people speak and their facial expressions. Video 2, little kid gets hurt and then laughs again. Video 3, someone falling and getting hurt. Video 4, another person getting hurt.

Some things are universal – like a smile or a laugh. No matter where people are in theworld, we all experience the same emotions. I have seen here that people in Spain behave more or less the same as people in the United States. At Colegio Pintor Rosales, where I teach, the kids ages three to twelve are no different from any in the United States, except for the language they speak and maybe sports they play. They still cry, scream, hit each other, laugh, jump, run, have too much energy, rebellious and are loud and are learning. We may have different laws, rules and fashion, but we still all deal with happiness, sadness, anger, pain, grief, love, etc. We even have economic crises in common!