Absolutely! I personally started using Busuu about two years ago. I'm now at 85% level and almost ready to take the B2 exams.
In the meantime, I joined a Spanish/English exchange Meetup group. We did weekly sessions talking in Spanish.
I started listening to Spanish podcasts made for beginners. I like the Hoy Hablamos. Started listening to Spanish music, tried to read the lyrics of my favourite songs.
At this point, I'm watching Spanish films in Netflix with Spanish subtitles. I think I'm getting 70% of it, quite a lot I need to pause and translate something or rewind a few times.
I'm definitely nowhere close to being fluid but I'm feeling the progress I made over those two years and I just keep going. I'm not in rush in any way so I'm not pushing my self too hard.
My ultimate goal is to be able to go to Spain and talk fluid Spanish with locals. :)
Interesting to imagine an ex-king in disgrace qnd exile from a European country. Having been born under Elizabeth II and having her hang on so long, I can't imagine a similar circumstance for the Commonwealth.
It was convenient that he could be forced to abdicate over the fact that Wallis Simpson was a divorcee, which prevented the need to ask far more awkward questions about how both of them were Fascist sympathisers. (It was a common view among the English upper class until it became unacceptable once the war started)
Edward’s fascist sympathies were a problem only after he abdicated and determined how he was treated as ex-king. Wallis Simpson was so abhorred by high-class British society that she served as a more than sufficient reason to make him abdicate, the Nazi thing didn’t really play into it in 1935–36.
It's insane that modern society prefers to have living inherited hood ornaments.
Constitutional monarchy can be a peaceful way to democracy, but there is no reason to make it permanent.
If Iran becomes true democracy, maybe they keep Ayatollah as tourist attraction? North Korea could keep Kim-family as well. 200-yers form now Kim-family wold be insignificant royals sitting next to British royals.
I've always liked how many countries separate head of state from head of government, because I see the two as separate roles: one whose job is to be the most excellent person of that nationality, and the other to be the political leader, who may from time to time need to engage in dirty political shenanigans.
It seems an argument can be made for having the former be inherited, so as to avoid the inevitable politicization of the position that happens in countries where a separate head of state is also elected. It's not fair to either the commoners who can ~never be elevated to that position nor to the royals who can ~never leave it, but perhaps better for the country as a whole.
There was an infamous corruption case in the Netherlands called the Lockheed scandal that involved the husband of the Queen in the 1970s.
Won't bore you with the details but it was all swept under the rug by the (socialist!) government to save the country. In fact it only came to light because the US Congress investigated that company at the time.
I am sure there are things going on all the time that never reach the papers. Even in "civilised" countries.
I am willing to bet serious money that none of the members of the elites (royal family, prominent politicians) involved in the scandals will spend a single day in prison.
He went to a women prison, and he was the only male in that prison, in a separate area.
According to the press, EUR 2M were spent before his arrival in the "male area" to properly prepare the accommodations.
His wife's share in the inheritance of the former King, in the range of tens to hundreds of millions, bumped up considerably by a 50% when the current King said he would not accept any inheritance from his father, so probably if he cannot find a job due to his ex-convict status, he'll be well off.
I'm sure it's been a pretty bad experience for him compared to living in Switzerland, but not in the same league of the rest of people convicted in Spain.
Yes, absolutetly. Today in court Villarejo said: "CNI(spy agency) was warned of the risk of an attack in Barcelona". In other country this will trigger a serious investigation.
Nobody wouldn't be so stupid as to advertise their own crimes when involved in several trials. If this is publicity (and could perfectly be a paid history), certainly is not from him.
I am not an specialist from the BBC but all media does, the easier to spot are the health benefit articles regarding some products, interviews to promote books and locations, etc. And then there are the subtle ones.
All journalism is nowadays as closed to a mafia as it can be.
Because it is a case of corruption that is quite irrelevant at the Spanish level, much less at the European level and totally irrelevant at the global level. Villarejo is an ex-policeman who is blackmailing public figures to avoid a long prison sentence for corruption and bribe. He is a very basic blackmailer and the article at BBC is some PR to give some air to his judicial defence. It is certainly not a relevant/interesting/cultural article for HN.
Quite irrelevant at the Spanish level? I don't agree. He is involved in the dirtiest affairs of the Spanish society, from the political parties to the monarchy, including the police force...
But, we agree on that, absolutely irrelevant for HN.
> He is involved in the dirtiest affairs of the Spanish society
... dirtiest affairs of the Spanish _politicians_. Power wars, corruption and how the deep state works routinely under the rug, are in itself pretty interesting themes. Don't made the mistake to thing that this would never happen in your own country (or that is not happening right now).
Spanish society does not have any part to play on this power and lies game but... "Spain is evil, yadah, yadah, we want independence, yadah, yadah, etc". Yep. Obviously elections in Catalonia have started again. We had heard this before.
Irrelevant at the Spanish level? You sound like you consume too much Spanish media if you say that. Of course they don't give this much relevance, as with everything concerning the elites. In any country with decent media, this man and his scandals would make plenty of front pages.
It does very often, it used to be a common political weapon, but a blackmailer can only take that long in the news, and as pointed out it was just basic blackmailing. Politically it is interesting to keep the attention on such things for people interested on sell bad image, the same as any other country.
Great, thanks for the clarification, I edited my original comment because I guess it was out of place the way the question was made. Personally, I've seen way less interesting articles here on HN though...
Me too, but come to think of it, it is such a big story that it makes sense that it makes some international noise. And HN has had already its share of spies and similar exposes discussed.
Spain is a country with huge problems. But it is not a failed state. You should try Venezuela if you want to get the flavour of failure. In any case, Spain is very corrupt, including Catalonia (where I live), but many other EU countries are corrupt too. I think about France and all the corruption cases about weapons procurement contracts (Taiwan frigates, etc.). We can also think about the US ...
Start with The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas. It provides good context on what led the country to civil war in 1936, and many of the problems unfortunately prevail nowadays.
EDIT: I see I'm being downvoted, but I stand by my words. I'll provide more context though. The Spanish Civil War is the pivotal moment in Spanish history in the 20th century and explains a lot of what Spain is nowadays - from the state of autonomías (autonomous regions), to the bitter divide between Left and Right, or the total inability to reach national agreements on education and other strategic matters. Aside from that it's an authoritative and engrossing read.
It's not, really, I've been living through most of Europe and Spain's quality of life is way above average, there's literally no homeless (except for people with mental health issues or foreigners) low/middle class people buy properties, there's development in every industry, etc.
Edit: Downvoter care to explain? Please check this [1] NUTS 2 official data, half of Spain is above half of Germany
Maybe because those things don't directly have anything to do with country being corrupt, which was the question? There could be some indirect connection, but corruption and quality of life are not exactly the same things.
A corrupt enough country would not be able to protect people as Spain does.
Public services are paid with public money, if there is no money there are no services and as far as I know there is still public health and education and equal opportunitieas for (almost) everybody.
But if you want something interesting I will name 3 interesting cases that have shown up in the last few years.
ERE case andalucia, essentially EREs are just the spanish name for furlough but it also includes things like early retirement. Well in Andalucia since 2001 until 2009 a case of local politicians managed to corruptly send up to 680 million to themselves and family members. This is the largest corruption case in Spanish history in terms of money.
Equally news worthy, the opposite political party (we mostly have two) had a case themselves where the tresurer Luis Barcenas was found to have 40 million on a Swiss account which he claimed he used to pay political leaders in Spain bonuses and that the money came from big companies that would bride them to give them public contracts. Essentially the american lobbying but in a country were its illegal.
And lastly there is the case of the Cajas. Cajas are a spanish version of savings banks. They are meant to be small, local, have low risk accounts for worker savings etc. Problem was many had politicians in their boards who would make the requirements for credit much lower, so they could finance public pharaonic architecture that would get them reelected. (Due to this Spain has several unused, someone built them and no plane every landed or took off from them). This opened the gates not only for those politicians but for everyone to get credit incredibly easy which is one of the reasons Spain was incredibly hardly hit in 2008, and one of the reasons it's one of the few countries that has not recovered the loans given to banks.
Perhaps it isn't failed, but it is pretty corrupt, and it is not in good condition. I wouldn't call it "such a ridiculous claim", just good, old exaggeration.
I am spaniard and am painfully aware of Spain's problems. And maybe spaniards being so critical of Spain could be something positive (instead of complacency or nationalism).
But honestly? The negativity is pointless and exhausting. Pointless because these are rarely informed opinions putting data into context. Exhausting, because uplifting news need to have an angle that to make them negative.
PS: And yes, I am not denying that there is a lot of corruption enabled by politicians in Spain. And it's a problem. But that doesn't make Spain a failed state. Or how is all of this true:
- Loss of control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein
- Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions
- Inability to provide public services
- Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community
please point what level of the spanish state you believe its clear without corruption, i can point cases from bottom (trash collection) to top (chief of state)
You are exaggerating facts to justify your belief of living in a failed state. A failed state doesn't have the rule of law, education and health care that Spain enjoys. And I say this as a Venezuelan expat living in Spain since 2003.
Any sources to support that "failed state" claim? Every country has corruption yet on the internet I only see spanish people saying their country is awful.
There's a point where the onus is perhaps on the reader of the comment to check about the claim?
It seems to me that many people questioning this in this thread have not read anything about Spain, at all.
I'll bite and give you a few examples of why one could consider Spain a failed state:
- Consistently has one of the highest unemployment rates of the OECD. 10% was normal pre-2008, 15-25% has been the new normal ever since. Rates for young people in the 20-30 age group are typically between 40-50%, leading many to speak of a "lost generation".
- About half of the Catalans want to secede. Basques are right now at an uneasy peace thanks to favorable tax treatments, but before the defeat of terrorist group ETA about a decade ago, more than a thousand people were murdered in the name of Basque secession. Though violence is unlikely to return right now (hopefully), the Basque situation could become similar to Cataluña in a moment's notice. There is also a clear rise of nationalism in other regions where this was barely a problem (eg, Comunitat Valenciana or Baleares)
- The two main national parties have been part of massive corruption scandals, going from the national down to the local level (the article alludes to this). We're talking embezzlement in the billions, Roman-decadence levels of squandering (every town wanted its own airport), and intrigues that could be pulled off out of a cheap LeCarré knock-off.
- Education is quite poor, if not abysmal. Massive dropout rates in secondary education, really bad comparative performance in PISA reports, and barely any university makes it into top-200 institutions worldwide. Politicians keep changing the agenda every four years instead of trying to agree to a national pact to get us out of this hole.
These are just things off the top of my mind, but I could go on for a while.
Maybe the fact that you only see Spanish people talk poorly about the country is a reflection of us being the primary subjects of its blatant problems, and of the fact that few outsiders care?
Let me just mark that I know no spaniard outside government doing paid overtime. Literally. Everyone is doing overtime and it is not paid. That is huge corruption wise, it prevents jobs from being created, money is being stolen from workers and taxes are not paid.
Yes we have crooked politicians and public officials, but everyone is crooked and corrupt in the best case. At worst we are crooked and corrupt throwing our lives and money away.
This gets no reflection on official statistics.
Spain is a developing, quasi-feudalistic country and no amount of european money is going to change that at the root.
This sort of negativity is misleading. Someone who has been to actual failed states will see how Spain turned out pretty successful, and only thinks of itself as inferior because of psychological reasons.
Corruption is of the same nature as in any other developed country, inside trusted circles of crooks. Try bribing any policeman in Spain and see how that goes. We regularly convict criminals for embezzlement and related crimes, including a relative of the last Spanish king (Iñaki Urdangarín).
Structural problems will need to be resolved (employment and entrepreneurship we can never foster enough). But we can't keep kicking ourselves down, that seems to be the national pastime.
After reading this whole thread, it has become clear that everyone has their own definition of a failed state. As for me, I don’t believe that Spain qualifies as a failed state. History that precedes it may have done so at some points, but every country comes with its own ‘baggage’.
We are quite hard on us. This is a nasty cultural trait of Spain, because this hinders our work. I work in science and I think we would do much better if we didn't have this inferiority complex.
I think, it also hinders you from holding your government (on all levels) accountable. Cases of corruption or incompetence don't seem to me quite as reflected in elections as it should. The excuse always seems to me, that people claim the other side is just as bad. Not denying that, but with that level of expectation there is no need to clean up your act.
Exactly, seriously why is everyone in Spain like this? Spain is a wonderful and advanced country in most ways. Although I think having an inferiority complex is probably good for the country because it's the only way to improve.
National identity is a social construct. Spain has always been the sum of several national identities. This has of course created frictions, but there wasn't the push that order countries had to eradicate those identities when the birth of most modern states happened.
Franco tried to change that (as well as eliminating a sizeable part of Spain that didn't fit with his values). To this day, many spaniards identify the spanish national identity with those Franco's values (despite being fairliy minoritary and Spain a very socially progressive country).
After the transition to democracy, regional governments had a lot of incentives to create or reinforce their own identities to gain economic leverage against the central government. This has always been extremely transparent and it's no coincidence that the two richest regions have the strongest independentist movement.
So yeah, there is a lot of self-hatred or internalised inferiority complex... But also dishonesty. Many of the comments you will read online are self-interested (catalonian independentists) or even straight propaganda from the catalonian government. Not that it would be hard to find any other spaniard to rage about how Spain is, actually, a 3rd world country.
Nah, not everyone. You will see all this people singing proud "I'm spanish!, spanish!, spanish!..." in the next UEFA champions league. I assume that we are just a little drama queens sometimes, but in the end we all are very similar to you. You will find exactly the same frolicking behavior in any basketball league.
Being young adults and trying to thrive in a big city is not easy of course, but this is not a problem exclusive from Spain
As a latin-american, I never understood why spain could not capitalize on their relationship and cultural ties with Latin America, like England did with the commonwealth. We speak the exact language across a really vast territory across two continents, some potential there must have been!
It is really austonding that there only a loose integration between spanish-speaking countries, despite sharing very similar (good and not so good) cultural values.
There is no "us" in Spain. There's castillian imperialists and people living in occupied territories. The only possible "us" right now for many Spanish passport-holders is Europe.
> There's castillian imperialists and people living in occupied territories
Sorry but the constitution grants to every citizen the right to work and live peacefully anywhere they wish inside the country boundaries.
I'm pleased to inform you that this includes the grant for YOU to live in MY place without being tagged as "invasive imperialist" or harassed by me to quit the area. That would be simply illegal (the words idiotic and ludicrous would be also good adjectives); but don't worry, we never would do that to your family.
in short, haters gonna hate... Anybody can go and create their own Cat-anon and rewrite the history to fit into their delusions if they want (Is a free country after all), but they only lie to themselves and the reality will hit like a ton of bricks eventually
It’s very frustrating that people are so vocal with extreme opinions such as this one. Whenever the topic of Spain comes up, someone will try to make it as if they have been conquered 10 years ago, trying hard to distort history that’s quite similar to most of the other countries.
