Carta di ringrazziamento Caro Petro, Tantissime grazie per il tuo invito: sei tanto gentile, invitandomi ad andare a casa tua per le feste! Lo sai, che sempre ho apprezzato la tua famiglia (a proposito, come stanno i tuoi genitori?). Comunque, devo dire che no: non posso accettare l'invito perché ho già dei programmi per Natale. O più concretamente, Rogelia, la mia ragazza ha già organizzato qualcosa per me: passeremo le feste dalla sua famiglia. Ti telefonerò presto per raccontarte le novità. Baci, D.

Le feste di due coppie Nel libro ci raccontano come passeranno le feste due coppie: la prima è quella di Ugo e Angela, la seconda la intergrano Aldo e Stefania. Tutte le due coppie andranno via per Natale, ma le loro destinazioni sono diverse: Ugo e Angela visiteranno prima la Spagna e il Portogallo, piu concretamente le città di Madrid e Lisbona, e doppo, a Capodanno, saranno a Parigi, in Francia. Ugo ha già prenotatto tutto, ma Angela non lo sa, sarà una bella sorpresa. D'altra parte, Aldo e Stefania non hanno ancora deciso da dove andranno: all'inizio avevano pensato di andare a Zurigo, ma poi Stefania ha preferito organizzare una visita ai suoi genitori, che abitano a Venezia. L'ultimo dell'anno possibilmente festeggiaranno con alcuni amici in casa loro, ma ancora non è sicuro.

Computing and education in the 21st Century In the past two decades, the incredible advance of computing science has affected each and every aspect of human life, from the way we approach theoretical knowledge, to the smallest moves in our day-to-day life. Education is not –or should not be– an exception to this. Nowadays no-one is unaware of the fact that platforms such as the Internet offer almost unlimited opportunities for formation, without even the need of actually being present in a teaching institution. This seems to contrast with our insistance in keeping schools and universities more or less the same way the used to be fifty or one hundred years ago. It is out of question that these educational centres need to be preserved, firstly because they are the depositary of a long tradition, but more importantly because they play a role that goes beyond the simple transmission of contents to the student. This said, it is undeniable that the necessity of an update is urgent. The ways computers are already beginning to be used in education are many and manifold. They range from pre-programmed systems with no human intervention at all, the so-called ‘e-learning’, to the inclusion of new technologies in a more traditional teacher-conducted class. Both tendencies are bound to increase in years to come: reputed universities both in America and in Europe are investing a fair amount of resources in their e-learning profiles, offering their courses in sites like Coursera.com or their own websites. More often than not, their programs include a certain form of tutoring, be it direct —by a teacher— or indirect —by creating forums in which student collaborate in discussing the contents of the course, with punctual interventions by a teacher—. It is undoubtedly an excellent method, since it satisfies the modern requirements of flexibility for the learner and the motivation provided by the contact with your fellow students and teacher.

Le vacanze A me piace trascorrere le vacanze nella stessa città dove abito, non mi piace tanto andare via, a dei paesi lontani oppure esotici. Questa cosa, che oggi non è tanto solita, si deve al fatto che la mia città si trova su una isola bellissima, di cui sono veramente innamorato e che si chiama Corfù. Di solito con il lavoro nella scuola dove insegno lo spagnolo non ho il tempo da fare delle attività che considero interessantissime e importanti, come leggere, scrivere ed imparare delle lingue. Anche sedere in bar con dei amici oppure bere un caffè con tranquilità in alcuna delle piazze del centro istorico della città. Non e che sto contro i viaggi, ma da quando sono venuto qua, preferisco godere della quotidianità, che è tanto bella!

Things I want to achieve in the next ten years Things I want to achieve in the next ten years Mickey el Ratón - Spanish teacher It certainly is a tradition of ours to set goals. As it seems, we are all programmed from our earliest childhood to have a plan. The reader could try to stretch his memory to the very first time he was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up –he won’t be able to recall it. So tender his age was. Reading the articles of this series that have been published in the past few weeks, one comes to a bitter realisation. Our society forces us into deep schism and unsatisfaction in an utterly unnecessary way. Many of the authors of those pages expressed their thoughts regarding the alledged opposition between real life and their dreams, often sweetened with an optimistic note to the end. They all seem to conclude: ‘Even though life is hard, and nothing but too often reality comes into your dreams’ way, you can aspire to find a balance between need and will, and then hope for the best’. Fair enough. What I would like to achieve in the next ten years is actually sort of an anti-goal. I intend not to worry at all about personal achievements, and –as the good old saying goes– let my self go with the flow. This of course is no easy task to fulfil. One needs to be alert, and develop the all too rare ability to genuinely hear his own will. A whole life of new year resolutions, plans and programs for the future can indeed make you quite deaf to your actual desires and inclinations. We have all been trained to believe that we want to do what we are supposed to do, and at a certain point of the way it is easy to lose perspective and be unable to discern whether we enjoy what we do or not. I firmly believe that, by following my true impulses ans passions, I will undoubtedly be happy in the years to come. And impulses are not to be planned.

Typeface application My name is Daniel Estrada. I studied Translation and Interpreting and I really would like to take part in this project by translating the texts into Spanish. I am a passionate book lover and writer, and this has led me to interest myself in typography as well as in typeface design. My experience regarding typeface design comes from a personal literary work, which involved the creation of a writing system for an artificial language (see attached image). I used FontLab Studio for it. I am not a professional designer, so the results might be mediocre, but this experience certainly made me familiar with many of the specific terms and concepts of the field, both in English and in Spanish (I regularly follow the blog http://www.unostiposduros.com/). I am strongly motivated to take part in this project. Needless to say, I am wordperfect in Spanish, and extremely careful to provide a highly natural Spanish goal text.

Cover letter My name is D. E. and I have been working as a Spanish teacher for almost a decade. My experience includes intensive courses with a very communicative approach, private tuition on commercial Spanish and advanced field-specific lessons to University students, such as Spanish phonetics, dialectology and others. I have experience in online learning both as a teacher and as a student. I find that programs such as Skype are particularly useful for the development of speaking and listening skills, since they can be easily used to promote an interaction-driven class, helping to build the student's confidence in the language quickly. For any clarifications, do not hesitate to contact me.

overview My educational background consists of translation and language technologies studies (Degree in Translation and Interpreting, Universidad de Granada and Master’s Degree on Natural Language Processing, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona). I have a genuine interest for linguistics and teaching. My work experience includes lexicography (I compiled a dialectal dictionary of the region of Cantabria, Spain) and about ten years of teaching Spanish in private schools in Spain as well as abroad (United Kingdom, Portugal, Greece). I am acquainted with various educational methods, from the traditional grammar-centred systems to the more modern communicative approach. I like to tend to each student’s individual needs.