Spanish Tuition by Reyes

💃🏽 Last night I watched a wonderful, intimate Flamenco show in High Wycombe that took me back to Spain for a couple of hours 🇪🇸 ☀️ . Daniel and his Flamenco Company are fabulous: the energy, the passion and the genuine talent is amazing. This is my second time watching his show. in touring the UK. If they are coming to a venue near you, don’t miss them. You can buy his music at his concerts and that supports them directly: Art of Believing and Andalucía. OLÉ, OLÉ y OLÉ 💃🏽 : PURO DUENDE. (Daniel’s music is not on streaming channels so I chose a different track for this post)

¡Feliz Domingo de Pascua! 🐣 Happy Easter Sunday.

Did you know that in Spain at Easter you can watch religious processions in all towns and cities? Although less than 50% of the population of Spain is Catholic nowadays, Easter remains a very popular religious celebration, regardless of whether you are a Catholic, Christian or not.

The processions have “capirotes”: they are nothing to do with the K*K! This is just an ancient tradition to keep the identity of the person private. “Capirotes” belong to close knit groups and communities, they are not just random people! They may have made a promise to the Virgin Mary or the are giving thanks for something personal that has happened to them… some processions have drums and trumpet music, but all solemn and sad.

Easter in Spain is definitely not a happy festival. It’s a time for reflection.

Las Fallas: this is a UNESCO protected festival, that means that there is nothing like it in the world and we need to preserve it for the good of humanity. It happens every year in the Valencia region in the middle of March.

The impressive figures are works of art made of papier mache and wood and decorated BY HAND with graffiti-style sprays. The themes are usually social and political issues that have happened in Spain and the world.

These figures take a year to come to life. The figures are exposed in the streets for a week and thousands upon thousands of people visit this open air museum of art. The pinnacle is LA NIT DE LA CREMÀ (“the night of fire” in Valencian language) on the 19th March, where ALL these figures are burnt to ashes. All… but one: “el ninot indultat” (the forgiven figure that is spared from the flames 🔥).

There is a beautiful museum in Valencia where you can visit all of the spared figures.

I have family in Valencia and many of my younger years were spent at the Fallas. Valencia and its people are simply beautiful. ❤️

Duolingo is “okay”, everything you do (listening to music, watching films, etc will help) but Duolingo will never get you fully speaking or understanding a foreign language on its own

"My goal was never to initiate conversations with Italians; I just wanted to know if they were saying bad things about me"

Today it is International Women’s Day across the globe 🌎

🇪🇸 Today I celebrate that one of my adult students has successfully passed his A1 official exam in Spanish as a foreign language (DELE) by the Instituto Cervantes London. It is a tough exam, with 4 components: reading comprehension, listening, writing and speaking. And he did it with an exceptional score! 💪🏻
These exams (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2) are accepted worldwide as an official grading of a language and contribute towards the requirements for citizenship of Spain. They are hosted by the internationally renowned Instituto Cervantes and are held in hundreds of venues worldwide 🌎. Not a mean feat! 🥰