Blog #Don Pablo

How many times was I told "my son / daughter is fluent" by proud mums and dads at Parents' Evenings when I was a languages teacher back in the day? These children certainly were NOT fluent as they were only doing CSE / O-level / GCSE at the time. So, what does "fluent" mean?

From the end of the Civil War in 1939 through to the demise of Franco's fascist dictatorship on his death in 1975, Spain was most definitely a 3rd-world country. Following Spain's return to being a monarchy in 1975 and, from 1977, a constitutional democracy, there was hope that things would improve. The borders opened and from 1986 Spain became a member of the European Union.

In a similar manner, “Mazón lunched while Valencia flooded”. Regional president Carlos Mazón enjoyed a three-hour lunch with a female journalist while floods were laying waste to the Valencia region. In a piece in the HuffPost journalist Rodrigo Carretero highlights the main points of an article in the Financial Times.