I came across these people striking at the National Bank this week. More info here (in French).
Category Archives: in english
Náhuatl at school?
Looking for some related information I found this news article about the drive by the Mexico City government of teaching Náhuatl, the Aztec language, at local schools. In principle, I would think it actually is a good idea. At least in theory there should be no problem with the ability of pupils to learn another language besides English and Spanish (I mean, in some countries of Europe it is common to learn three or more languages in high school). In my case specifically, I find it rather sad that I can now more or less babble in up to eight languages, but I know only a few words of the languages my ancestors used.
However, as an engineer would say, the problem is implementation. We all know that in general Mexican education is not of the highest quality at the moment, and the addition of another subject would further complicate things. Furthermore, I'm rather suspicious of the political motivations behind this move, as it would seem to pander to that part of the population that would rather look inward than ride the wave of globalisation. Whereas I am absolutely for the preservation of indigenous languages, I don't think that precludes the mastering of other languages such as English or Spanish. Multilingualism is not a bad thing! I truly think that the more, the merrier.
Phrase for the day
"Obstacles are there to test your resolve."
But, man, I've had plenty this week. Could it just stop? 😉
Mexican league semifinals: Chivas 0(0)-(2)1 América
Chivas lost for the 3rd time this year against our most bitter enemy. América's goalkeeper Ochoa has definitely developed, and this time around their tactical execution was much better than ours (that the refereeing was awful didn't help much).
Chiva Congelado suffers…
In other news, Mexicans Ricardo Osorio and Pável Pardo have become Bundesliga Champions with Stuttgart. They join the likes of Carlos Salcido, who just won the Eredivisie with PSV. We hope that Rafael Márquez of Barcelona also wins, with three matches to go.
Mexico City Rockers take on the World
Another article in the Rock en Español series.
You may remember that I touched this subject before here.
The whole article in the New York Times (and also in my picture in Flickr, if you view it large).
Europe & good beef don’t go in the same sentence
Have you ever wondered, after trying Argentine, Brazilian, American or Australian beef why, oh why, is beef in Europe usually so bad???
French & Belgians
I have had very nice French co-workers in Finland, but I was surprised, after living in Brussels, how different is the Parisian temperament to that prevalent here.
First of all, the service tends to be very rude (which is, of course, something I'm sure you've heard before). However, the good news was that I didn't have many problems speaking French. Either my pronunciation has improved or they have gotten more used to foreigners badly mangling their language.
I was also really surprised, given that my co-workers were so easy-going, to confirm that Parisians tend to be rather proud. That is quite a difference from Brussels, where people tend to be really easy-going, and a little bit on the humble side.
Report from Paris
As readers of this blog know, I spent the last 3 nights in Paris. Even though I really like the city, this time around I was slightly disappointed by the state is seems to be in. Of course, in all the tourist areas everything is as pristine and glorious as only Paris can be, but just walking a little bit away from that you find out that the city is dirtier than I remembered.
The contrast is even starker given that 5 months ago I spent a week in London. Even though both are very beautiful cities with monumental architecture, the British capital is much better preserved. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the British economy is doing much better than the French one. Maybe it is related to the British having embraced globalisation, whereas large swathes of French society don’t know what to do with it/about it.
Furthermore, another detail that caught my attention is not really the amount of foreigners in the city, but the fact that they don’t seem to be economically integrated. Even though of course this is purely anecdotical, and it was a long weekend, I didn’t see a lot of middle-class Frenchmen of non-European descent around their city.
Gotan Project
"Tango and Electronica?" I said to myself when I first heard about these guys, and therefore I missed a concert they gave here in Brussels a couple of weeks ago.
After listening to the songs below, I frankly regret it. Funnily enough, they reminded me of Nortec Collective.
More samples from YouTube, of course.
O-o-o
Dear 4 readers:
I'll be spending a long weekend in Paris from tomorrow, so most probably won't be able to post until Sunday. I'm sure I'll be full of new insights and experiences to share with you when I'm back.
In the meantime, you might want to browse the archive, starting from September 2006, or by tags.
Enjoy!