jackytoo

We have had lots of discussions on here about speaking spanish...here is the other side of the coin.

66% of people in málaga would not be able to give directions in English if asked. Longish, interesting article. One of the comments below says:

"If you go to London neither do the English know how to give directions in spanish. Why is there so much pre-occupacion here in Spain! Neither do the English living in Spain speak spanish...lets give them classes"

The article states that many of the teachers aren't native English and know very little English themselves. They would be suprised to know that many of the English native teachers aren't even qualified teachers except for a weekend TEFL coursehttp://www.diariosur.es/v/20101031/m...-20101031.html

steviedeluxe

Isn't the article talking about school teachers when stating that many of the teachers aren't native English? Same in the UK (or used to be) often the German or French teacher is/was British.
To be fair the article does talk about academies and private concerns later on, and the business opportunities they give. As for the weekend TEFL course - I fear this is a recent development - it's been a while since I worked in that field. The places I worked at wouldn't have been impressed, and at that time (only a few years ago) the TEFL or CELTA course was a minimum of 1 month. Apart from anything else many Brits needed to know about the structure of language eg what a pronoun or an adjective was, before starting to teach. Having said that, learning on the job is often the best qualification, and I've met some great teachers who never started with TEFL/CELTA courses - but they were educated at a time when knowledge of the English language was properly taught at school.

Btw - kudos to Jacky - it's quite an interesting article.

jackytoo

Edited to say "many of the native English teachers aren't qualified. Some of the better language schools in Spain ask for a UK teaching qualification too.

HBG

Giving directions can be difficult in any language. How many Londoners could give directions to a fellow Brit on how to get to Finchley from the City? I’ve just tried it and get lost on the one-way system at Old Street, a mile away.

I could direct someone from Malaga to Torremolinos, even in Spanish, but I’d be stumped if they wanted to travel to Nerja, the new ring-road wasn’t built when I was down there.

jackytoo

I can't give directions to where I live...in any language, hopeless Think that was just an example though.

jackytoo

21 comments now, this made me smile

let's improve our english. Get some german or chinese or whatever new important language "you must have to succeed". Go to the university. Get a degree or PhD. some time in an Erasmus. maybe a training on CCNA and after that you'll get a Job in which if you're lucky could earn 1500. Then you'll realize that your best investment is english in case you need to get out of the country... O no? eso o invertir en pisos que es lo que de verdad da pasta...

missile

I would suggest in London, few English would be able to give directions in english and those who can are too busy working

jackytoo

True
As a spaniard said on the comments, 80% of andalucians cannot even speak castellano

Lenox

Don't like long words in castellano? Goodness me, you've apparently got hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia, which is, the fear of mis-pronouncing long, complicated or unusual words.

jdr

Si.