The importance of learning other languages

By Juan Tutasi

There are different kinds of language in this world and learning more as you can will help you in many ways of your life for example in the job, or meeting people from other countries . Learning another language improves your abilities to use your first language and explore other cultures more succesfully. But trying to learn another language is not always easy, so how much difficult is to learn another language different from our mother tongue?
The answer depends on ther years and dedication you devote learning these languages, but in fact there is another factor that helps us or not learning some types of languages. These are the Family languages:


For example, if our mother tongue is the Spanish or any latin language, we will learn easier and faster another latin languages because they are very similar, and languages like Chinese , Deutsch or others will be more difficult, although they have each other some common words. The most important language nowadays is the English. English began famous since then 1st World War. The United States of American and Britain, were the countries with more colonies, like Australia and many territories of Africa. This is the reason why English has a lot of speakers around the world. English is a obligatory subject in most of schools, highschools and universities of the world. The English is the franc language nowadays and it's very useful because it is talked in every country. But not everybody speaks English, around 75% of the world's population don't speak any word of English.
Learning languages opens doors to other cultures and gives the learner an experience of the world that goes deeper than the average tourist trip. It can also provides a key to the global workplace.

Why is it important for children to learn languages?
·Learning a foreign language makes our minds stronger and more flexible.
-It improves our chances of employment.
-You feel really good when you can speak many different languages.
-Languages connect the world and have the potential to make it a more peaceful place.
-It is used in business and for pleasure of communication.
-It develops a cultural understanding and makes better relationships with others.
-Language learning helps brain power and improves your language skills.

Why is it important employers know languages?
-Research has shown that using language skills in business opens the door to a wide range of economic, social and personal benefits.
- A lot of employers are looking for employ people with conversational language skills
-Customers addressed in their mother tongue are much more likely to do business with you.
-Studying a foreign language improves your oral and written skills in English too, and this also helps to develop key communication skills, that are crucial in the job.
-English, French and German are still the most useful languages, Spanish is increasing his importance around the world

These are some of the reasons why it is important to learn languges. Why don't you try it?

Lucky Diamond Rich 


By Claudia Beltran

Lucky Diamond Rich holds the guiness world record of the most tattooed man in the world. He was born in New Zeland in 1971 and he hold the record in 2006. He is cent percent tatooed, from head to toes including his foreskin, mouth, ears and eyelids. His occupation is perfomance artist  and street performer. He started because when he was young he read about the most tattooed men and woman. His first tattoo were juggling clubs tattooed on his hip. 

Giant GeorgeBy Andrea Parisca


In 2010 Giant George broke the Guiness World Records for being the tallest dog in the world. Giant George is a Great Dane measuring up to 1 meter and 9 centimeters of height. This massive dog is the pride and joy of David Nasser, the owner. David Nasser and Giant George live in Tuscan, Arizona in the United States. Giant Gorge was born on November 17, 2005. He has the privalige of sleeping on a queen-sized bed and enjoys riding in his golf cart around the neighborhood.

So far, this large fellow has made appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Live with Regis and Kelly and The Guiness World Records book. While flying to meet Oprah, George got an entire row of three seats to himself. Unfortunately, George no longer holds the tallest dog in the world record. Zues, another friendly dog, reaches only one inch taller than George, leaving poor George in the shadows of fame. But not to worry, because Giant George will not be forgotten. His owners have created a website and even wrote a book about Giant George. This website offers merchandise featuring Giant George. If your in need of any Giant George reminders you can shop right off of the website, which offers everything from t-shirts to mugs.

Hotel terraces

By Génesis Mendoza

People who live in Barcelona value hotel terraces less than tourists. "Una Vista d’Hotel" was a new initiative which consisted of opening 36 hotel terraces in the city to the local population freely for five days, from 3rd to 7th May. "A Vista Hotel" was the first which began this experience because they think that it is a good way to collect money. This only was for a limited time, because it costs a lot of money. The hotels which participated in it were: the Mandarin Oriental, W Barcelona, ME Barcelona, Casa Fuster, Pulitzer, and the new Barceló Raval Hotel OHLA, among many others.

Apart from enjoying the view or the fresh air, each terrace of Barcelona also has a cultural environment because they offer events and activities, for example, films, book presentations,… Many hotels offered Mediterranean drinks, the most exotic and healthy fruit drinks or cocktails without alcohol. Drinks were different each day and in each terrace. Apart from the different drinks, also people had the pleasure of enjoying a variety of snacks, lunches and dinners accompanied by fine wines, drinks and evening cocktails prepared especially for the occasion. Furthermore, a photo competition was organised for people who took part in these activities. They could win technological gadgets and some nights in a hotel. There were three categories: one for the picture which best illustrates the city from a terrace, another for the best picture of one of the terraces and the third for the picture which best captures the atmosphere of the terrace.

Lorca earthquake

By Andrea Bertrán

Eight people were killed and dozens injured after two earthquakes shook the Murcia town of Lorca on 11th May 2011. Hundreds of people couldn’t come back to their houses and they had to stay at the camps.

Some churches and the castle of the town were affected by the earthquake.

The first, at 5.05pm, measured 4.4 on the Richter scale. It was followed by a stronger one of 5.2 shortly before 7pm.

It hadn't happened an event like that in 30 years time.

All the schools remained closed in Murcia in the following days.

The government will take care of the rebuilding of the affected buildings.

After this tragedy, several entities are arranging positive events to raise money to help the victims.

Osama Bin Laden’s murder

By Pere Cases

Usāma bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Lādin (Osama Bin Laden) was the world’s most searched terrorist, creator of Al-Qaeda terrorist group, the most powerful terrorist group. Bin Laden was responsible for many attacks against the USA and other western countries, including attacks in U.S.A., embassies of Kenya and Tanzania. Before his murder, there was a reward of fifty millions dollars.

On May 1st 2011, it was reported that Osama bin Laden died during a military action. The identity of Bin Laden was confirmed by comparing DNA samples of his lifeless body to his sister's DNA. The body was taken by members of U.S.A. army after the attack and they kept it. That same day President Obama spoke to the nation, after the confirmation from U.S.A. officials that Osama bin Laden had died in a secret operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a city 50 kilometers northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometers east of Peshawar. Obama said the operation was done by a small group who acted under his orders.

Another volcano

By Joana Roig

The clouds of ashes of the Grimsvötn volcano (Island) might arrive today or tomorrow in Ireland and in UK if the metorological conditions don't change.

Nowadays it is possible to do reliable predictions in 48 hours time and know if this cloud will affect other places in Europe, because meteorological conditions are changing all over the day, and because they haven't got a lot of information about the volume and denseness of the ash. There was a meeting of the group of crisis: the airports, the airlines, the national aviation authorities and the Europe Agency for the security in the Aereal navigation.

These advices will establish three zones (red, blue or black) depending on the cloud level. With this information they will decide if it's safe to fly.

The volcano can change the trip of Barça to Wembley if the aerial space is affected by the cloud.

Top Ten

By Alex Santomà

Music: (2nd week of May)

1--> E.T., by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West

2--> Rolling in the deep, by Adele

3--> Just can't get enough, by The Black Eyed Peas

4--> S&M, by Rihanna

5--> Down on me, by Jeremih featuring 50 Cent

6--> The lazy song, by Bruno Mars

7--> On the floor, by Jennifer Lopez featuring Pitbull

8--> Look at me now, by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes

9--> Blow, by Ke$ha

10--> Fuck you (Forget you), by Cee Lo Green

Films: (3/5/11)

1--> Fast Five. Income: $33,200,000

2--> Rio. Income: $92,800,000

3--> Maddea's Big Happy Family. Income: $34,100,000

4--> Water for Elephants. Income $26,000,000

5--> Prom. Income: $1,900,000

6--> Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil. Income: $1,100,000

7--> Insidious. Income: $46,600,000

8--> Soul Surfer. Income: $31,500,000

9--> African Cats. Income: $9,200,000

10--> Scream 4. Income: $34,100,000

Books: (3/5/11)

1--> The Throne of Fire (Kane Chronicles Series #2), by Rick Riordan

2--> Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #11), by Charlaine Harris

3--> The Dukan Diet, by Pierre Dukan

4--> Get Rich Click!, by Marc Ostrofsky

5--> No Fear of Failure, by Gary Burnison

6--> 10th Anniversary (Women's Murder Club Series #10), by James Patterson

7--> Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?, by Steven Tyler

8--> STEAL Team Six, by Howard E. Wasdin

9--> Stories I Only Tell My Friends, by Rob Lowe

10--> Heaven Is for Real, by Todd Burpo

The Royal wedding

By Carlota Pérez

A lot of people in the world watched the wedding of the prince William (son of Diana and Charles of England) with Katherine Middleton. It was he most watched event in United Kingdom and the rest of the world on TV.

It is estimated the event cost between £20milions and £46millions. This is a huge amount of money for a country which is living an economic crisis, but the people accepted this price and celebrated the big royal wedding.

Before the wedding, the dealers of souvenirs in London (and the rest of the world) worked to make profits of the wedding. We could find tradicional dishes made in China and teatowels. Ticket transports for the tourists of the capital : the "Oyster card", but you could only buy them in a limited edition. The famous cups from the Chinese brand Guandong, where you can see Kate Middleton besides her boyfriend's brother, the prince Harry.

Furthermore, there were strange "creations ": the royal bag recommended for vomiting.

The girl in the photo is Grace, the litle princess, the best commentaries in the royal wedding were for her.

La Vanguardia in Catalan

By Joana Roig

On 3rd May, the first Catalan edition of “La Vanguardia“ was published. “La Vanguardia” is the most read and most bought newspaper in Catalonia and it has the third highest circulation of all Spanish newspapers. It is one hundred and thirty years old and is published by Javier Godó's company. The new Catalan edition is very important for the normalization of the Catalan press. The Catalan edition of La Vanguardia was the newspaper with most subscribers (more than 20,000) before it even appeared on the newsstands.

A cocodrile scapes from the zoo

By Rubén Encinas

A half-ton crocodile escaped from a zoo in Alabama (United States) after Hurricane Ivan struck. It could not be found, and the authorities feared for the safety of the inhabitants in the area. "Chucky", the 4.2-m-long crocodile, had lived in the zoo on the Alabama Gulf Coast for 15 years until Hurricane Ivan destroyed the fence around the pond where he lived. The crocodile left the pond while the zookeeper was busy trying to rescue some stags.

The history of Cacaolat

By Joana Roig

The firm that owns the Cacaolat brand has economic problems and we don't know if this product will disappear. This is why consumers have created a movement with the slogan "Salvem el Cacaolat".

Cacaolat is a drink made with milk and cocoa, pre-prepared by the Letona company. It was created in 1913 and was the first industrial cocoa milkshake in the world. In 1933 the first returnable bottles were produced and Cacaolat became a big success.

Production stopped from 1936 to 1950 because there was not enough quality cocoa in the postwar period.

The mascot for Cacaolat has been the same throughout its history: Pepi (a child carrying a big bottle). Nowadays, Cacaolat is very popular in Catalonia and all over Spain and today there are also Cacaolat strawberry and vanilla milkshakes.

One half of secondary teachers feel stressed at work

By Salomón Díaz

In Seville a study showed that half the teachers in secondary school in Spain suffer from stress at work, most of them women. In all, 1,125 teachers from public and private schools participated in this study. Teachers have a higher stress level than workers in other jobs. The main cause is the behaviour of students. According to the study, 28.80% give this reason, 23.47% mentioned lack of consideration and 25.78% are victims of the school atmosphere, especially when they see students fighting among themselves. Moreover, they also mention the lack of support of the students’ families.

JAPAN: A fragile country at the mercy of nature

By Marson Mesa

The world was shocked to hear the news of the huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, but people there have learnt to expect natural disasters. Hundreds of beer glasses on wooden shelves, shook from side to side, then knocked into each other. The conversation suddenly dimmed, then stopped completely. The faces looked from one to another across the plates of tempura and sushi. It is no coincidence that tsunami is a Japanese word. The native religion, Shinto, is animist - it tells of the divine nature of trees and mountains, of goddesses who emerged from deep clefts in the rocks. The very earth can seem to be alive.

For images visit this page: Japan's Tsunami Images

Josep Pla school on fire

By Silvia Muela

On April 20th 2011, early in the morning, a neighbor called the firemen because the Josep Pla School, at 24-34 Valle de Ordesa street was on fire. The fire burnt a third of the school (600 square meters). The rest of the building was damaged by water and dust. Since Tuesday the school’s 400 students have been going to another school, and will do so until the next academic year. According to Irene Rigau, the Education Minister, the fire came from the outside. The fire service is investigating the causes. The firemen put out the fire in three hours. The building was empty and nobody was injured.

Photos and cancer

By Joana Roig Borrell

In the Vanguardia I found an interesting article about teenagers who had cancer or had suffered this from illness and took photos about their world. A group of experienced monitors, aged over eighteen, helped these teenagers in photography workshops, where they shared a lot of experiences and interacted with them. The teenagers talked about their experiences in hospital or the beginning of their current life after the illness. These photographs are collected in the book called "A través de mi cámara", presented a day before the International Children’s Cancer Day. The photos are accompanied by short texts about the sick teenagers’ thoughts, questions and hopes, and those of their parents and the professionals who treated them. The book shows real pictures of the pain, but also of the joy and hope, with the objective of communicating emotions, as the workshop co-ordinator Mario Rodríguez said. We think that these initiatives are useful in order for society to become aware of this illness, and they also they show that a lot of teenager and childhood cancers can be cured.

La Sagrada Familia

By Jonathan Holguín

In November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the "Sagrada Familia" a Minor Basilica.

The building is located in the city centre, and over the years it has become one of the most universal symbols of the identity of both the city and the country. Every year it is visited by millions of people.

Since its beginnings, the Temple has been built by means of donations. This is because Gaudi said that this work was in the hands of God and the will of the people. Nowadays its construction is continuing and will be finished during the first third of this century.

In 1882 the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901) began the construction of “La Sagrada Familia". In 1883 Gaudí took over the building work and changed the original project in his characteristic style; he pursued the task until his death in 1926,. Since then, several architects have continued the construction, in keeping with Gaudí’s project.

Russian Fires

By Leon Buengel

In summer 2010 since the fires in Russia started, the death rate increased in the capital Moscow about more the 50 %. More than 5000 people than normal died in the months of the terrific fire. The reason for this is as simple as terrible. As a result of the fires there had been so much smoke that the people in town just could see ten meters wide. Everything was smoky. A Russian journalist said that the people had two opportunities when they wanted to sleep. Either they close the window. But then it would be too hot in the room, or they could open the window. But then the heat came into the room. Heat was everywhere. The people were afraid to go out of house because the probabiility to get ill was so high. You just could go out with a mask or with a wet thirt in front of your mouth and face. It was horrible. But not just the econnomy had a problem with these fires. After a while first consulates closed in Moscow. An other problem is that the fires went near to nuclear laboratories. The Russians were afraid of an explosion like there had been one in Tschernobil. There had been such an explosion that a cloud of nuclear dirt got into the atmosphere. Many people died right at the moment of the explosion or tight after it. Even now you can see what illneses there had been after the accident. The Russians were afraid these could happen with their country, too. There were about 600 fires in Russia, most of them near Moscow.

Gusts of wind struck Spain

By Baniel Belvis

This weekend terrible storms struck all Spain and 'ruined' the "Puente del Pilar", a 4 days long weekend to pay tribute to the 'Virgen del Pilar'.

The effects of the storms were sensible in all the country during all the weekend. For example, in Roses, where the strong gusts of wind above the mediterranian sea caused high waves, above 8 meters. Yesterday, the 12th of October 2010, the wind fell down a tree in Rubí, my hometown. The tree destroyed 5 cars in his path. In Barcelona the wind moved down motorcycles and crashed cars. Wind gusts reached over 70 kms/h. In the roads, it was also a terrific weekend. There were 26 deaths caused by the strong rains and wet roads.

Weird news

By Daniel Belvis

Lightning strikes a preacher

A preacher who asked God for a sign was struck by a lightning in Forest, Ohio. The lightning went through the microphone and surrounded the preacher, who was unhurt. The church had to be evacuated because it was on fire.

Coke worker fired for drinking Pepsi

A Coca-Cola truckdriver, who had been working in the company for 12 years in the USA, was fired because someone reported to his boss that he was drinking Pepsi and was thus supporting the rival firm.

Barcelona, the third happiest city in the world

By Pol Berbel Arqués

Forbes and the market research company GfK Roper City Brands published a list of the 10 happiest cities in the world. Barcelona was in third position, after Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. Barcelona also came 15th in a survey made by the ONU in 2009 on cities’ standards of living.

The happiness list is the result of a study based on the opinions of 10,000 people who have probably never visited the cities in question. A staff member from Oh-Barcelona asked his work mates about this in order to find out what Barcelona’s citizens really think.

People who were born in Barcelona say that the city’s position on the list is justified because of its mild climate, its geographical location and its cultural and night life. Although the opinion of foreigners who live here is similar, they add that Catalans are quite reserved.