Spanish Christmas Traditions

By Lily and Antonia (Year 9)

Spain is a predominantly Roman Catholic country, so many people go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which attracts many people from all around Spain. It earned its fabulous name because the rooster is believed to have crowed the night that Jesus was born. Christmas Eve is called Nochebuena. In the days leading up to Nochebuena, children can take part in ‘piden el aguialdo’ where they sing carols to their neighbours hoping for money.

España es un pais predominamente Catolico, entonces muchas personas van a Misa de Gallo, un evento que atrae muchas personas por toda España. Se gano este nombre fabuloso  porque se cree que un Gallo canto la noche que el Jesus Christo nacio. En los dias antes de Nochebuena (Christmas Eve), niños ‘piden el aguialdo’. Esto significa que cantan para sus vecinos esperando para plata.

Christmas dinner

Most families eat their main Christmas meal on Christmas Eve before the service. The traditional Spanish Christmas dinner was ‘Pavo Trufado de Navidad’ which is Turkey stuffed with truffles (mushrooms) or ‘Pularda asada’ (a roasted young hen), although they are not commonly eaten now. In Galicia (a region in north-west Spain, surrounded by water) the most popular meal for Christmas Eve and for Christmas Day is seafood. This can be all kinds of different seafood, from shellfish and mollusks, to lobster and small edible crabs.

La majoría de familias comen su comida navideña en la Nochebuena antes de la misa. La sena Navideña tradicional en España es Pavo Trufado de Navidad, un pavo rellenado con trufas, o Pularda asada, una gallina joven asada, aunquen no se communamente come ahora. En Galicia, un region en noroeste de España rodeado con agua, la comida mas popular para la Nochebuena y la Navidad son los mariscos. Esto puede ser muchos differentes tipos de mariscos, desde moluscos, hasta langostas y pequeños cangrejos comestibles.

Spanish version of ‘Santa Claus’

In Spain, the three Kings replace what we know as ‘Santa Claus’. There are three main things that children do to welcome the three Kings:

  • They write letters to the Three Kings who then bring them gifts on January 5th/6th
  • They leave their shoes by the door so that they are filled with gifts
  • They leave drinks for the 3 Kings and some snacks for their camels.
  • A key difference is that they do not fill stockings. 

En España, los tres Reyes, reemplacan el ‘Santa Claus’. Ay tres cosas que niños hacen para acojer los Reyes:

  • Escriben letras a los Reyes quen le trayen regalos en el 5/6 de enero
  • Dejan sus sapatos en la puerta para que puedan ser rellenados con dulces
  • Dejan bebidas para Reyes y piscolabis para los camellos
  • Una differencia importante es que los Reyes no reyenan mediyas de Navidad

New Year’s Eve

One of the biggest Spanish New Year’s traditions is to eat a grape on every chime of the last 12 seconds of the year with your family and friends, by the time it strikes midnight, Spaniards will have eaten 12 grapes. Most families will watch the celebrations on TV. 

Nochevieja

Una de las mas grandes traditiones Españolas es comer una uva cada campanilla en los ultimos doze segundos del año nuevo con tu familia y tus amigos, y quando es la medianoche, un Español a comido doze uvas. La grande mayoridad de españoles ven Las celebraciones en la tele. 

What are the links between romance languages and music?

Matilda, Year 13, investigates the links between romance languages and music to discover whether the learning of one can help in the understanding of the other.

Music and language

It is often said that music is the ‘universal language of mankind’, due to its great expressive powers which have the ability to convey sentiments and emotions.

But what are the connections between music and languages?

A romance language is a language derived from Latin and this group of languages has many similarities in both grammar and vocabulary. The 5 most widely spoken romance languages are Spanish (with 470 million speakers), Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian.

There are 3 main connections between languages and music:

 

The first of these is the role of melody in recall:

There is a link between languages and music in remembering words. This is shown in a study where words were better recalled when learned as a song rather than a speech. This is because melody and rhythm give the memory cues to help recall information.[1]

Language, music, and emotion:

The British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist who specialises in primate behaviour, Robin Dunbar, says that music and language help to knit people together in social groups. This is because musicians process music as a language in their heads. Studies have shown the planum temporal in the brain is active in all people whilst listening to music.

However, in non-musicians, the right-hand side was the most active, meanwhile, in musicians, the left side dominated, this is the side believed to control language processing. This shows that musicians understand music as a language in their brain.

In another study, scientists analysed the Broca’s area, which is crucial in language and music comprehension. It is also responsible for our ability to use syntax. Research has shown the in the Broca’s area of the brain, musicians have a greater volume of grey matter, suggesting that it is responsible for both speech and music comprehension.

The relationship between music and languages:

Brain and Languages Both music and languages share the same building blocks as they are compositional. By this, I mean that they are both made of small parts that are meaningless alone but when combined can create something larger and meaningful.

For example, the words ‘I’, ‘love’ and ‘you,’ do not mean much individually, however, when they are constructed in a sentence, carry a deep sentimental value. This goes the same for music notes, which when combined can create a beautiful, purposeful meaning.

Musical training has been shown to improve language skills.[2] In a study carried out in 2011, developmental psychologists in Germany conducted a study to examine the relationship between development of music and language skills. In the experiment, they separated children aged 4 into 2 groups, 1 of these groups receiving musical training, and one did not.

Later on, they measured their phonological ability (the ability to use and manipulate language) and they discovered the children who had received music lessons were better at this. Therefore, this shows that learning and understanding language can go hand in hand with musical learning and ability.

References: 

[1] See https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2018/mar/14/sound-how-listening-music-hinders-learning-lessons-research
[2] See https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-athletes-way/201806/how-does-musical-training-improve-language-skills

Learning another language: is it important?

Suzanne Stone, teacher of French at Wimbledon High School, considers the importance of learning a foreign language in the lead up to Brexit.

“Now more than ever, languages education matters. In a climate of political uncertainty and with the prospect of social fragmentation and economic instability, our ability and willingness to speak multiple languages and develop intercultural understanding increase in significance and value. Language skills and cultural agility connect us to our past, define our present and have the potential to transform our future.”

Bernardette Holmes MBE, Director of Speak to the Future, the National Campaign for Languages

***

Autumn term is a traditionally busy one for our Sixth Form linguists, with Year 13 considering their post-A level choices and Year 12 embarking on their post-GCSE courses. Elsewhere, negotiations are still underway as to the shape of this country’s post-Brexit future, with much discussion amongst language teachers, policy makers and industry figures as to its impact on language learning in our schools. As a language teacher at WHS, I strongly believe that language teaching is more important than ever for intercultural understanding and for employment prospects for our students after Brexit.

The removal of learning a foreign language from the compulsory curriculum in state schools in 2004 resulted in a national decline in the number of linguists schools produce, together with a reduction in the range of languages offered. Here at WHS, we continue to promote the joy and relevance of learning the languages we teach and consequently enjoy a growing MFL curriculum and buoyant numbers throughout the school. For our students, attitudes to learning foreign languages are positive and levels of motivation high, as the girls understand that operating in a language other than English is not just enjoyable in itself but a useful, and indeed, necessary skill in their preparation for life beyond WHS.

The British Council’s annual report, Language Trends 2018, details the negative impact that leaving the European Union is having on language learning in some schools, as seen through low student motivation levels and parental attitudes questioning the relevance of language learning in the current climate. Ironically, recent articles have discussed how the UK’s lack of language skills could in fact jeopardise our post-Brexit future. Indeed, the House of Lords debated earlier this year the need for MFL skills to be embedded in the Government’s white paper, Industrial Strategy – Building a Britain fit for the future. Within this context, the educational system needs to catch up with the idea that language skills are not only important but in fact crucial in this global marketplace and thus be offered and encouraged at every key stage.

The national decline in pupils taking languages at GCSE and A level is a worrying trend. Language Trends 2018 also reports that the proportion taking a GCSE language dropped from 76% in 2002, to 49% in 2014 and most recently to 47% in 2017. For A level, entries for some modern languages have seen a decline in numbers, but popularity for post-16 language study for our WHS students remains steady. The separation of AS from A level has enabled some students to continue with a foreign language to complement their existing A level choices. Interestingly, current AS students include those wishing to apply for dentistry, PPE, psychology and economics next year. The versatility of A level language subjects is such that, post A level, our students can continue pure language study to degree level or jointly with other disciplines such as Law, Science, Maths and Engineering, as well as more traditional combinations of Geography, History and English.

Reducing foreign language learning to a minority, optional subject particularly at KS4 will have a worrying impact on the quantity and calibre of linguists entering not only our profession but others too, at a time when, as a nation, we are going to need a greater number of English speakers with competence in foreign languages. Luckily, here at WHS our access to and participation in learning languages are bucking these national trends. Prospective parents are impressed by our language offer throughout the school, student involvement in our many and varied trips is high, and our numbers at both AS and A level are healthy. Perhaps the language teachers of tomorrow can be found enjoying French, German, Spanish, Mandarin or Italian here in our modern language classrooms today.

Further reading:

https://www.britishcouncil.org/research/language-trends-2018

https://stories.swns.com/news/uks-lack-language-skills-jeopardise-post-brexit-future-94504/

https://www.globalvoices.co.uk/languages/how-will-brexit-affect-the-need-for-languages-in-the-uk/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/03/the-guardian-view-on-languages-and-the-british-brexit-and-an-anglosphere-prison

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/7399d414-80f4-49cc-80a3-e114064735e0?in=17:45:48&out=17:55:20

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strategy-building-a-britain-fit-for-the-future

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/21/european-language-brexit-britain

Lorca’s Women

Federico García Lorca explored the female soul as no other male writer had done before. His vivid presentation of the effects of oppression and the internalisation of emotion that women endure, in the plays Bodas de Sangre, Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba, is unique and profound. Moreover, Lorca was highly influenced by the period of “modernismo” that was ensuing in Spain during his lifetime. He was, indeed, close friends with Cubist painter Salvador Dalí. Modernist writing reflects less on society and more on individuals, thus it gave Lorca the opportunity to delve deeper into the psychological “state” that is womanhood. Bella Gate (Year 12) summarises her findings to tell us more about Lorca’s work.  

When Lorca first published Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) as a complete set he called them Duende: Obras Completas. Whilst “Obras Completas” quite simply means “Complete Plays”, “duende” has a myriad of different possible translation. Its literal translation is “goblin” or “elf”, however, in this case Lorca seems to be referring to the “soul” which some of his characters have and quite notably others don’t. The “soul” that Lorca was most interested in exploring was certainly female as one can see in these plays. 

The theory of Canadian poet and critic Janis Rapoport is that these plays should be seen as a complete set with Bodas de Sangre, Yerma and La Casa de Bernarda Alba being seen as a thesis, antithesis and synthesis, respectively. She sees the women in Bodas de Sangre as being like mirrors due to their ability to make the audience reflect on social conventions. Yerma to her is a prism – a self-contained entity that refracts and distorts the qualities of light and image with both internal and external barriers. In La Casa de Bernarda Alba she sees the women as collectively forming a kaleidoscope as they reflect and refract off each other. She goes so far as to say that the house in the play represents the soul of one individual woman.

In Bodas de Sangre women are bound by their social functions. The characters are not endowed with names, thus they lose a sense of their identity. The principle women are the Bride, Mother and Beggar Woman. Perhaps the most interesting woman to analyse is the Bride. The Bride is continually bound by her circumstances. We see women oppressing women in the form of her servant lady attempting to instil morality into her. For the Bride this acts as an imprisoning ideology which hinders her in her pursuit of sexual fulfilment. However, this pursuit results in tragedy due to the societal expectations of virginity before marriage that are put on the Bride. The Mother, Janis Rapoport notes, is an affected character rather than an affecting one. She is greatly affected by the grief that she feels for her husband and son (and eventually sons). She is continually let down by men and her entire identity is defined by this. The Beggar Woman symbolises one of the play’s more profound themes – the mysteries of life and death – conveying that she is somewhat liberated by old age. However, Lorca highlights how all women are bound throughout the generations in different ways. A young woman’s predicament is centred around her sexuality whereas an older woman’s is centred around the lives of her sons. Lorca uses water imagery to portray a contrast between a free and a controlled woman. The control and oppression of women is very much the central theme of the play.

Yerma’s themes are, perhaps, a little more nuanced. There is again the representation of women of all generations, the eldest being the Pagan Crone who has been long repressed by the requirements of honour and strict morality placed upon her. The middle-aged Dolores represents a dichotomy of faith and the supernatural. She prays frequently yet she practises magic in her fertility rituals with Yerma. Then, there is Yerma herself. Yerma quite literally means “barren” – ostensibly referring to her inability to produce a child with her husband Juan. However, this barrenness is also symptomatic of the psychological and emotional (as well as physical) emptiness of womanhood. One may see Yerma’s quest for a child as a yearning for confirmation of feminine identity. However, like the Mother in Bodas de Sangre, she is, bizarrely, indirectly responsible for the death of her own son. By strangling her husband Juan in the end she essentially ruins all chances of having a child. In both Bodas de Sangre and Yerma women’s passionate sexuality, in the case of the bride, or erotic deficiency, in the case of Yerma, lead to tragedy. Thus, Lorca highlights the lack of agency over their sexuality that women had in rural Spain.

Rapoport puts forward the idea that the house in La Casa de Bernarda Alba, with its “thick walls”, embodies the soul of a single woman. Each of the sisters become fragments of a woman’s soul. Adela is the most significant of the sisters perhaps due to her naïveté. She longs for freedom but does not appreciate that it may result in more oppression under the sexual authority of Pepe El Romano – her lover. Bernarda, despite her tyrannical behaviour, is as much a victim of the patriarchy as her daughters, if not more as she has absorbed such oppressive values into her own psyche. The different views and lives of the women reflect off each other in the play.

Fundamentally, Lorca, remarkably whilst being a man himself, strikingly presents life for women in rural Spain and the psychological and philosophical impact of oppression – perhaps because he, himself, was a homosexual who would later be killed under Franco’s fascist regime.

Twitter: @English_WHS, @SpanTweetsWHS