Dear students and visitors

Queridos alumnos y visitantes

It is with great sorrow that I inform you that  THIS BLOG WILL BE TEMPORARILY INACTIVE as a way of protest against the attack Valencian public institutions,  especially Health and Education are under.

Lamento comunicaros que a partir de ahora ESTE BLOG PERMANECERÁ TEMPORALMENTE INACTIVO como medida de protesta contra al ataque a los servicios públicos de la comunidad valenciana, especialmente a la sanidad y la educación.

Valencian Government have announced new cuts in spending on the public sector which seriously affect Education.  It goes beyond dramatically cutting down teacher’s salaries (in my case nearly 20% less). For example, did you know that at our school we cannot pay for the electricity bill nor can we spend any more money on any kind of resources?.

I know we all have to tighten our belts when there is a crisis. But this is a scam. We are mired in various political corruption scandals, the region has been left cash-strapped and with hulking debts.

Who has led us to be the most indebted Spanish region? Will they pay for their negligence?

If you want to read more

We want Education, not corruption

Public sector financial crisis pushes schools to the brink of closure

Valencia in drive to cut Formula 1 costs

Spanish politician’s 24-metre sculpture prompts accusations of megalomania

El desprestigio político al funcionariado

Miles de ciudadanos se manifiestan por la enseñanza pública

Más asesores que diputados

I was the other day reading a really interesting post, from the other English blog that Marisa owns (Advanced English), and the post was made by XimoM. It was about Ryanair and his new idea: “fly without a seat“.

I know it can be really funny or maybe now you are thinking on a bus, I don’t know; but I am honest that there are a lot of rumors about this new idea. If you are interested, please check this link that brings you to XimoM’s post.

This post made me see a light through the horrible black tunnel of inspiration, and I said to myself: “Why not? Why don’t talk about Ryanair and what Ryanair understands about customer support?”

I am quite sure everybody knows that Ryanair is one of the cheapest low cost airlines companies, and I am also pretty sure that the 90% of you have flown at least once with this company (I did, it was a horrible VLC-MAD flight. The return? Well, I decided to take a MAD-VLC train, so imagine…). So, I’m not lying that all of you know some horrible anecdotes with this company. But do you know what kind of mistakes Ryanair makes? Or in a scale from 1 to 10, where is the customer support?

Well, that is why I have decided to write this and show you a good documentary film about Ryanair. It is from 2006 (I know a little bit old, but it’s worth it!), from a TV programme called “Dispatches” in Channel 4 (UK). Have a look, and tell me what do you think about it. After watching it, I was really terrified and I know I should not believe in everything (As mom said: “TV always lies“), but this time I believe these things happened.

 

]

By the way, let me also tell you that Ryanair was not in silence and decided to write a reply to this video, you can see Ryanair’s reply here.

Hello classmates!

Are you tired of fighting with the new technologies? Well, we all know that new technologies are everywhere and that we must use them (unless if you want to live under a rock); but honestly, sometimes they are really disgusting and stressful… Moments like “But where do I have to make a click?” or “I don’t know what I did but suddenly everything is erased…” can make us having one of the worst feelings in front of the computer and that is why maybe this could help us.

I’ve decided to make two video tutorials: one is about how to use WordPress for our class, something we have already learnt (mostly everybody); and the other one is about how to use Google Docs, something we are going to use in some days or weeks.

This is the video of how to use WordPress:

And this is the other video, about how to use Google Docs:

I hope they will help us, by the way let me explain (I must do it) that these videos are made by myself and are under a Creative Commons License (CC BY 3.0), also I used on them some Creative Commons License music (CC BY 3.0) and they are specified on each video on the Youtube page. Don’t worry, in some days I will write a post about the Creative Commons License (something in my opinion marvelous for the culture, that helps many people every day).

If you want to work there, and if European Union doesn´t disappear, you have to check this web:

http://europa.eu/epso/index_en.htm

There are two kinds of job: civil servant or contract staff.

1.For civil servant, next Outcoming Competions are ASSISTANTS CIRCLE:

17/11/11: Secretarial Assistant (EL/EN/ET/FI/FR/GA/HU/IT)
01/12/11: Assistants (AST3) in various fields

Depends on your background, you can be Administrator, Assistant….

In December, check Indicative Planning for the next year “Competitions 2012” (select Apply here, click Indicative Planning).

It´s a long process, but the job-salary relation is very good. Check:

http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/salary-and-allowances

2. For contract staff/temporary staff (3 years), check:

http://europa.eu/epso/apply/today/temporary_en.htm

It´s a shorter process. On the other hand, Brussels and Luxemburg are very good places to look for a job. Check Monster for example.

Good luck.

Hi everyone!

Today is a really sad day. I don’t know if most of you are riders or not, but for sure all of you have already heard about the fatal crash (and subsequent death) of Marco Simoncelli.

He was a champ and I will entry a future post about his career and his life, but before knowing about that terrible piece of news I initially wanted to explain the also famous “NBA’s lockout”.

Anyway, SuperSic rest in peace, riders we’ll miss you!

As I have said before, I would like to explain a little bit what is happening this season with NBA’s Championship.

First of all I have to say that this isn’t a new situation. Maybe you think you don’t remember last NBA’s lockout, but I’m almost convinced that you have watched this film:

http://t0.gstatic.com/imagesq=tbn:ANd9GcTtagOQy6flAe2o8DlRcrJBrQDraBYTU500lTwuw6JgEKGI7udcOA

Yes, it is Space Jam film. Starring by Michael Jordan and the “Looney Toons” but also with the special guest of Bill Murray, (and the NBA’s players) Larry Bird, Vlade Divac, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Mugsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley.

It was shot during the NBA’s lockout of 1996, by the way I love this film and its soundtrack, specially “Space Jam” and ” I believe I can fly” (one of the prettiest songs ever, link below)

Lockout is an special legal situation typical from the Anglo-saxon countries, and it will mean something similar to “cierre patronal”. People from latin countries don’t have this type of strike’s right. But in Anglo-saxon countries is very usual, and not only employees have strike’s right, even employers have it.

NBA League, it is composed of players’ trade union and NBA’s Franchises owners, and they deal for a variable number of years (usually ten), and when this contract expires they have to negotiate again, which is what is happening right now.

If both parts don’t reach an agreement any of them can stop the Championship until they reach an agreement again.

Nowadays the owners say they are losing huge amounts of money, on the other hand players say that is not true and they want to earn more money because they are really the show.

From my point of view, this situation will end very soon, because owners are very rich men, with lots of companies to earn money but not all the NBA’s players can remain without playing for a year because of their affluent lifestyle.

In the mean time I hope you will enjoy this clip:

See you!

You’ll all be pretty busy writing your CV so here go a few more interesting tips. Hope you find them useful.

What is Europass

Your next task now will be to write your CV and send it to me by email before the 15th November. Did you know that there is a European Curriculum Vitae?

When I first wrote mine it used to be called European CV, now it is called EUROPASS CV and it is somewhat different.

I have copied here just an introduction to the CV from http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/, but you can actually create your Europass online here.

You should also fill in the form for your European Language Passport here

cv templates
completed CV

Whether you are planning to enrol in an education or training programme, looking for a job, or getting experience abroad, it is important to be able to make your skills and competences clearly understood.

Europass is a new way of helping people to:

• make their skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe (European Union, EFTA/EEA and candidate countries);
• move anywhere in Europe.

Europass consists of five documents:

• two documents (Europass curriculum vitae (CV) and Europass Language Passport) you can fill in yourself; and
• three other documents (Europass Certificate Supplement, Europass Diploma Supplement and Europass Mobility) filled in and issued by competent organisations.

Europass is supported by a network of National Europass Centres.

Europass has been established by the Decision No 2241/2004/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 15 December 2004 on a single transparency framework for qualifications and competences.

Between the end of the 16th century and the begining of the 17th century thousands of women around Europe were accused of making a pact with the devil and were burned at the stake. Paradoxically most of them hadn’t commited any demonstrable crime. What’s more, some of them didn’t even know what they were charged with. It means that it was one of the numerous imaginary crimes that have led people to death in the History of the world.

Anonymous accusations, under pressure examinations and torture were accepted in order to bring the supposed witches to the stake. What’s even worse, executions usually turned into  “moralizing“shows as the Church would say that flames wouldn’t only destroy the prisoners bodies, but also their sins.

The prisoners were forced to admit that they had renounced their faith and copulated with the Devil. The condemned women who regreted were strangulated before the burning while those whose behaviour was considered to be impertinent were mutilated and their members were exhibited.

Of course those crimes took place many years ago, but unfortunately the problem hasn’t disappeared. Aren’t there countries where innocent women or men are executed for crimes they haven’t commited? Is it fair to kill someone even if he’s a proven criminal? And what about the violence and the cruelty against prisoners? Watching the news these days it is easy to see that the problem of death penalty and torture is unsolved.

Since the day our teacher said that we should create a post for the blog, I was continuously struggling  about which kind of topic I should or can create.

At first, I was brainstorming and speaking with myself:

Right cerebral hemisphere (RCH): – “What can I write about? Let’s see. Let’s write about the last travel I have made!”

Left cerebral hemisphere (LCH): – “Yes, sure… About Chulilla, isn’t it?” (Peronal annotation: I really liked Chulilla, but I think it is not a quite good post to create, and it is not completely related with business).

RCH: – “Ok, Ok, then let’s write about some news I read on the newspapers.”

LCH: – “No please, no more disasters or tragedies, we have had enough!”

RCH: – “Ehm, then, maybe I can write about something related to business.”

LCH: – “Can you be a little bit more specific? Because business involves many things.”

RCH: – “It’s true, let me think…”

Some hours or days later:

RCH: – “Already I don’t know what to write for the post!”

That is the Fear of white sheet (literal and surely bad translated from the Spanish Pánico a la hoja en blanco), this fear is very common in students and writers. To explain it, it is when you have to write and you have with you a pen and a white sheet of paper; you start being nervous and sweating thinking about what can you write,  time continues going on and the paper is still white without a simple word or line. For me, it is like the sheet of paper literally bites you and swallows you… Something really hysterical, I know, but it has happened to me several times; and, as you can obviously see, also for this post I have the same problem…

Maybe you can ask: “But this is the Internet, here there is no sheet of paper, everything is on the computer!” Well that is why I have decided to name this post “The fear of white sheet 2.0“, because the “2.0” makes this fear related to the Internet (Funny, isn’t it?).

This problem is very common, and makes you have a lot of problems when you are in a company or trying to find a job. It is like another fear I know that makes you have also a lot of problems in the company or at least makes more difficult the opportunity to have a job. I am talking about a fear where you are frightened to talk to the audience or classmates or whatever, I think it is called stage fright.

Just imagine: you are there, alone, with maybe 70 classmates or workers; so that means 140 eyes because, 70 classmates, times 2 eyes that has each classmate, equals 140 eyes (Did I count the teacher or boss? I think I didn’t, but also the teacher’s/boss’ eyes are involved in this situation). 142 eyes watching at you, like those eyes were nails and you were the voodoo puppet… Yes, yes, I know what are you now thinking and you are on the right, I also have that problem…

Nice personal skills, aren’t they? 😦