macgirl

Does anybody know if in the public bilingüal schools in Madrid they hire English teachers? Or are they Spanish teachers teaching bad English??

jojojojojo

From the little I know there are a mixture of TEFL english and other nationalities and bilingual Spanish/English teachers. I dont know about teaching bad english??? I doubt if they werent qualified, they wouldnt stay long

Jo xxx

paintermujer

My daughters english teacher called a butterfly a mantequilla mosca!!!!!!!

Rosemary

Sounds absolutely delicious!!!!!!

Rosemary

paintermujer

...........and one of her conocemiento textbooks translates head as cranium,the stop sign as obligation,men at work as danger and train as locomotive to mention a few.

Not that they are wrong just badly translated and confusing for the child I think.

paintermujer

UMMM!!!!!!!!!! Pan fried flies in butter. Weve all probably eaten some of those.Lol.

Jur

That´s probably true.

paintermujer

Yes probably but on spanish signs it says obras so whats the difference.

Jur

Came across a sign the other day which said:

"obras"

and the translation:

"it is working"

macgirl

I studied English with Spanish teachers.... at the Secondary School and at the Official Language School. When I ended, I got my "certificate" and I couldn't mantain a conversation in English. That is why I said "bad English". I should have written "not English at all"... But that was many years ago. Maybe Esperanza Aguirre, in Madrid, who is very anglophile, is doing things right!

lynnxa

it's because they teach the grammar, the spelling, but very often not the pronunciation or very much actual speaking - at least that's the way in the schools here

I have been told tha the English teacher in the port school is (or was a couple of years ago) Argentinian - can you imagine the accent

my dds probably know more English grammar than any English adult I know - which can only be a good thing

of course, because we speak english at home, their pronunciation is fine



a few years ago I was teaching English in a language school & I had a young man from Madrid come for some intensive help in the summer

he was actually in his final year studying to teach English - he was just having trouble with the 'listening comprehension' part of his finals

he could no more hold a conversation in English than I can in Mandarin - & his pronunciation was frightening!!

he only had to pass that one last exam - & I bet he's teaching English now.....

macgirl

Yes, that's what happens... We study a lot of grammar. But we don't do any pronunciation! So we can't talk! But that is because of the spanish/argentinian teachers

JLFS

I thought it translated into "Irish ladies undergarments"

jdr

Lynn R

I don't think that is so very different from the teaching of foreign languages in British schools. I studied French to 'A' level, taught by a British teacher (although we did have a French assistant for a small amount of conversation practice, and a language laboratory to listen to spoken French and reply to questions) and I couldn't sustain a conversation in French either, apart from very basic stuff like asking directions or buying something - but I couldn't understand the replies in rapid French! I could read and understand French pretty well, though, and still can although I've never used it apart from a couple of short breaks in France.

Of course things may have changed as it's a long time since I left school, too. Almost 40 years, in fact - scary!