Thursday 28 January 2010

Interviewing a Foreigner:

Hello! Could I ask you a few questions?




1. Where do you come from? ________________________________________________________________

2. What did you think of Spain before your visit? (Have you been deceived or not?) ________________________________________________________________

3. How long have you been in Spain?/ How long have you planned to stay here? ________________________________________________________________

4. Why are you here in Spain? Why did you choose Spain? What things did you know about Spanish life, culture, sports… before coming? ________________________________________________________________

5. Who are you here with? ________________________________________________________________

6. What places have you already been to?/ What place do you already know about? ________________________________________________________________

7. What do you like most of Spain (from your experience or from your previous data)? ________________________________________________________________

8. What is the food that you enjoyed most (or you would like to try)? ________________________________________________________________

9. Are Spaniards too different to the people in your country? Which way? ________________________________________________________________

10. What do you think about bullfighting? ________________________________________________________________

11. What do you miss from your country? (food, people, landscape…) ________________________________________________________________

12. Are you planning to stay, would you visit Spain again? Why? ________________________________________________________________

13. What do people think in your country about Spain? ________________________________________________________________

14. Would you live here? Why? ________________________________________________________________



Thanks for your time!!!

Tuesday 26 January 2010

What can Spain offer to a tourist?

Weather
While the famous Mediterranean climate exerts its influence over much of the peninsula, the landmass of Spain and Portugal gives it a continental climate, i.e., extremes of temperature, hot summers and cold winters, with short spring and autumn. Western Andalusia and the Algarve are warmed by the Gulf Stream, and in summer south winds from the Sahara can be suffocating. Portugal's west coast and Galicia, though also bathed by the Gulf Stream, face the Atlantic and can be cold and rainy. The Cantabrian regions of Spain (Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country) have a temperate climate with a great deal of rainfall. The Levante (Castellon, Valencia and Alicante) often suffers from tremendous rainstorms, usually in autumn, which can cause a great deal of material damage. In the Pyrenees, too, flash floods can be a hazard. The peninsula as a whole, though, is extremely dry, especially in those long, hot summers which are its main attraction for many tourists.

Fiestas and Traditions
All Spanish towns and cities have their own special celebrations, as well as the national holidays such as Christmas, Easter Week, All Saints Day etc. The way in which the national events are celebrated also varies from place to place. Most festivities are of religious base, mainly Catholic. See our full listing of holidays.

Food, art, culture, fun, beaches... Anything else???

www.spain.info

Sunday 24 January 2010

Interview- Noe y Raquel

What would you ask a foreigner coming to visit Spain?

Make your comments:

Hello! Can I do some questions?

1.Where are you from?
2.How much time have you been in Spain?
3.Do you like Spain?
4.What did you like more of Spain?
5.What have you eaten in Spain?
6.What is the food that you have enjoyed most?
7.What do you prefer: the food of you country or the food of Spain?
8.What did you visited in Spain?
9.What places would you like visit?
10.Do you appear interesting our museum...?
11.What are the difference with you country?
12.What is the thing that most impress when you came to Spain?
13.What did you think of Spain before of visit? Have you deceived or you have like more?
14. where there is more party in your country or in Spain?
15.would you come to Madrid or you visit other city of Spain?

Interview -- R. Dorel , M. Claudio

Interview To A Foreigner
  1. Hello, Can I make you some cuestions about my country ?
  2. Where are you from ?
  3. Do you speak spanish ?
  4. It's a difficult language ?
  5. How old are you ?
  6. When did you come to our country ?
  7. For how long are you going to stay ?
  8. Do you have family here ?
  9. If you had a children they will go here to live and to school ?
  10. What do you like most about spanish food : Paella, Spanish Omlette, or both ?
  11. What did or do you like this kind of food ?
  12. Does you family like this kind of food ?
  13. Do you like spanish people ?
  14. What do you like about it ?
  15. Are the spanish people like people in your country ? or are they look like most of people from your country ?
  16. Talking about sports, what kind of sports do you like ? (he like football)
  17. What team do you like ? (Liverpool)
  18. What do you think about they new player "Maxi" who come from Athletico de Madrid ?
  19. What do you think about Real Madrid ? And Barcelona ?
  20. Talking about your visit to our country, what are you going to visit ?
  21. Which city would you like to visit ?
  22. Are you satisfied with our country ? (Yes i like it very much )
  23. Are you going to visit our country again ?
  24. Thanks for your amability and your patience.
  25. ( For nothing thanks you to ) Good Bye
  26. Bye Bye

Friday 15 January 2010

History of the English Language

History of the English Language

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc - from which the words England and English are derived.

Old English (450-1100 AD)
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

Middle English (1100-1500)
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period there was a kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.

Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many peoples from around the world. This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was published.

Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English is vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of the earth's surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many countries.
Varieties of English
From around 1600, the English colonization of North America resulted in the creation of a distinct American variety of English. Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain (for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up, was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies). Spanish also had an influence on American English (and subsequently British English), with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West. French words (through Louisiana) and West African words (through the slave trade) also influenced American English (and so, to an extent, British English).
Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology (including the Internet). But there are many other varieties of English around the world, including for example Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English, Indian English and Caribbean English


A brief chronology of English

BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.Local inhabitants speak Celtish
BC 43 Roman invasion and occupation. Beginning of Roman rule of Britain.
436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.
449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins
450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions. Old English
1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.
c1150 Earliest surviving manuscripts in Middle English. Middle English
1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.
1362 English replaces French as the language of law,it's used in Parliament.
c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.
c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.
1476 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press.
1564 Shakespeare is born.
1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.
1607 The first English settlement in the New World (Jamestown) is established.
1616 Shakespeare dies.
1623 Shakespeare's First Folio is published
1702 The first daily English-language newspaper is published in London.
1755 Samuel Johnson publishes his English dictionary.
1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the American Declaration of Independence.
1782 Britain abandons its American colonies.
1828 Webster publishes his American English dictionary.
1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation is founded.
1928 The Oxford English Dictionary is published

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Designing a questionnaire

Questionnaires are an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents. Often they are the only feasible way to reach a number of reviewers large enough to allow statistically analysis of the results. A well-designed questionnaire that is used effectively can gather information on both the overall performance of the test system as well as information on specific components of the system. If the questionnaire includes demographic questions on the participants, they can be used to correlate performance and satisfaction with the test system among different groups of users.

It is important to remember that a questionnaire should be viewed as a multi-stage process beginning with definition of the aspects to be examined and ending with interpretation of the results. Every step needs to be designed carefully because the final results are only as good as the weakest link in the questionnaire process. Although questionnaires may be cheap to administer compared to other data collection methods, they are every bit as expensive in terms of design time and interpretation.

The steps required to design and administer a questionnaire include:

Defining the Objectives of the survey
Determining the Sampling Group
Writing the Questionnaire
Administering the Questionnaire
Interpretation of the Results

Please check this web page: http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_winter/Topics/quest-design/