Ranting in the rain.

Well, we had planned on getting an old friend of ours out cycling today. No such luck. So far – around 12.30 – the rain is still falling. Autumn seems to have arrived with a vengeance! I seem to remember Septembers full of sunshine when I was still a sixth form college teacher. It was almost a given that as soon as term started the weather would improve considerably and all the new students would discover the joys of the overheated language laboratory without proper blinds and certainly without air-conditioning. This year I suspect they need to put the heating on already.

No such problems in Madrid apparently, not from the photos in Spanish papers of the little Infantas Leonor and Sofia on their first day at school anyway. This link contains a video of them walking through the sunshine with Mamá and Papá. The little princesses are going to the school their father attended, the private Colegio Nuestra Señora de los Rosales.

Despite the obvious religious connotations of its name the school is described as laico, aunque si los padres lo desean imparte formación religiosa. Interesting! They don’t actually say whether the royal children will get the formación religiosa but the Príncipes de Asturias can appear very modern and liberal. I notice that they have had no problem finding a place for their children, unlike some friends of ours in Vigo who have had immense difficulty finding a place for their five year old.

In other parts of Galicia they appear to be having school problems of a different kind. What was described as un rebaño de cabras invaded a school playground in Baiona, causing consternation to parents, pupils and teachers. Reading further into the article, I discovered that it was a matter of three goats. Their owner seems to be a local crank who lets them wander around and then plays deaf when challenged to remove them from wherever they have ended up. I did wonder whether three goats really constitute a flock (do you have a flock or a herd of goats?) but I suppose it sounds more impressive to say that a flock of goats invaded the playground rather than a mere tres cabras.

On the subject of threes, the gallego actor Luis Tosar, he of the impressive eyebrows, is to be congratulated for being nominated for Oscars for three of his recent films: Celda 211, Lope and También la Lluvia.

Maybe his success and his usually very good films can encourage more Britons to learn Spanish. I mention this because I’ve just been listening to another stage of an ongoing debate, this time on the radio, about the state of language teaching and learning in this country. Spanish friends often tell me that the Spanish are rubbish at learning languages whereupon I have to reply that I know many English speakers who say the same about themselves.

The main conclusion of the debate I heard today is that while no-one will actually admit that it is more difficult to pass exams in modern foreign languages than in other subjects, they do reluctantly agree that there is what they call “an issue”. However, some involved in the discussion were expressing pleasure at the increased percentage of high grade passes in French/German/Spanish exams at GCSE, the exams taken at age 16. Well, that’s not really evidence of anything except that since the government decided in its wisdom to make language study optional after the age of 14, only the brightest pupils take language exams.

And some of those bright pupils opt not to do so because they can’t guarantee the highest grades. The general feeling is that marking is more rigorous for modern language exams, giving rise to a belief, probably justified, that languages are hard, even as hard as Maths, for example. Language teachers on the other hand would like their exams to be seen as being as easy as Maths.

Then there is the question of the oral exam: 15 minutes of stress for the student. So the new exams are changing this to a different form of ongoing assessment. Now, I ask you, is it possible to assess language progress without an oral test? Well, come to think of it, I have heard of that happening in Spain and Italy.

That’s enough of a rant for today. I’m still waiting for the rain to stop but I will finish by wishing Princess Letizia a happy 38th birthday. May the sun continue to shine on her today.