Penélope Cruz, who was once nominated for the American Oscars in 2007 for her role in the movie Volver (and didn’t win)finally got her statue in 2009… and we couldn’t be happier!
Not only did she win, but Penélope Cruzmade history when she became the first Spanish (female) actress to win an Oscarfor her role as a crazy wife in the movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Her Vicky Cristina Barcelona co-star, Javier Bardem became the first Spanish (male) actor to win the coveted award last year.
Watch her Oscar speech (subtitled in Spanish):
Penélope’s road to Hollywood success... Penélope Cruz Sánchez was born in Madrid, Spain, on April 28, 1974. Her father, Eduardo, was a retailer, and her mother Encarna, a hairdresser. They named their daughter Penélope after a song of the same name that was written by Spanish singer/composer Joan Manuel Serrat. The couple has two other children, Eduardo Jr. and Mónica, who is a dancer and also an actress and clothes designer for the brand Mango like her sister.
A ravishingly beautiful woman, Cruz established herself before age 26 as Spain's most popular actress of her generation. After years of intensive study in ballet and jazz, she broke into acting in 1992. Winning her country's coveted Goya Award for Best Actress was a powerful indication that Cruz is destined to enjoy the kind of extraordinary career -in Spain and abroad- that no other Spanish actress has ever achieved. Cruz and fellow Spaniard Antonio Banderas once presented the Oscar for best foreign film to Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, for Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother), which coincidentally starred her in one of the most difficult roles of her career. In this film, she plays a nun who falls in love with an AIDS-infected man and then dies from the disease. Her list of Spanish credits also include Jamón, Jamón and the Oscar-winning foreign film Belle Epoque that turned her into Spain's leading female actress.
In addition, she's appeared in Woman on Top, the romantic comedy about a Brazilian chef who becomes a famous TV personality because of her brilliant cooking and on-screen charisma. Penélope Cruz is also seen in Billy Bob Thorton's film, All the Pretty Horses, where she plays an aristocratic Mexican woman who falls in love with an American drifter played by Matt Damon. She also starred with Tom Cruise in Paramount Pictures' Vanilla Sky, a remake of Cruz's 1997 Spanish film Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), Nicolas Cage in Captain Correlli's Mandolin and with Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen’s 2008 film Vicki Cristina Barcelona - the film that garnered her the Oscar in 2009!
Penélope had a romance with Nacho Cano, member of the famous Spanish group Mecano, with whom she lived until they broke up and she moved in with fellow actor Gigi Sarrasola, a short-lived romance. In 2005, she was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." Today, having worked hard to achieve Hollywood success (not easy for a non-English speaker), she is a major Hollywood star who just won her first Oscar and has had the privilege to have dated famous actors such as Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and her current Spanish beau Javier Bardem.
Penélope also speaks four languages: Spanish, Italian, French and English.
The new Office of Information geared towards students of Spanish in Salamanca will begin to provide its services this year in Salamanca’s Plaza Mayor, as soon as the permit paperwork gets approved in 2 months. Itwill be "the first municipal office of that specific character in all of Spain."
Until recently, other offices providing similar services to international students exist in other cities, but they’re wholly dependable of the universities and are geared particularly towards students of exchange programs and those going through academic mobility.
However, this new center of information which will be located in the Casa de Postas just above the Municipal Tourist Office in Plaza Mayor, will provide foreigners who study Spanish in Salamanca (either in the universities, in language schools or private centers), with useful information about the city as well as administrative advice.
The new office will comprise of personnel knowledgeable in several languages who will attend to the doubts of all the students who approach the office, provide them with updated maps and any other specific information.
Foreign students of Spanish will find in this office information regarding the location of municipal and private buildings, hospitals, police stations, libraries, sports complexes, as well as any other place of interest, including a list of monthly cultural programs going on in Salamanca.
The aim of this office is to reinforce the slogan adopted by Salamanca: Ciudad del Español (City of Spanish) and will do anything possible to make its students’ stay as comfortable and informative as possible. Read a previous post on Salamanca becoming the Ciudad del Español.
Why not discover Salamanca for yourself with don Quijote? View PHOTOS of our Golden City Watch VIDEOS of our schools and city events Become a FAN of don Quijote's in FaceBook! Request a FREE BROCHURE to be sent to you by post... or DOWNLOAD BROCHUREinstantly! Keep up with Spanish cultural and travel news by subscribing to don Quijote’s MONTHLY NEWSLETTER! (It's free and available in English and in Spanish)
Are you looking for reasons to learn Spanish in Costa Rica? Here's one... Last year, the United States forgave Costa Rica’s debt of $26 million, much rather preferring the country to use the money towards its rainforest preservation and biodiversity conservation over the course of 16 years. And Costa Rica is doing just that.
According to its politics as a pioneer Latin American country in environmental protection, the Costa Rican government declared the Quetzales region as its 28th National Park under environmental protection. The goal is to expand the protection of 0.1% of the planet, which encompasses 3% of the earth’s biodiversity and species.
Costa Rica has more than 160 parks and conservation areas, covering more than 25% of the entire country. An impressive amount of protected land includes all 28 National Parks. Inland you can enjoy rich wetlands, lagoons, forests, hills and volcanoes. Costa Rica is home to such near-extinct (and protected) species such as the Jaguar and the great green Macaw.
Get yourself to Costa Rica and get to know this rich, diverse tropical environmentwhile you enhance your Spanish language skills! On the Caribbean coast you can watch nesting sea turtles, and on the Pacific coast you could surf! Our classes start Mondays year-round for all levels!
American actor Martin Sheen and his actor-director son Emilio Estevez plan to shoot a movie on the ancient pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela, and they hope to employ local actors in the making of the movie. The film’s settings will be Santiago and several areas of the Galician coast.
The statement released by the local Galician government stated that during his meeting with the president of the regional government, Emilio Perez Tourino, the actor expressed his “desire to settle an historical debt with his father’s land and he thought a movie would be the best way to do this.” Tourino consented to the project, acknowledging that 2010 will be the “Holy Year” for Santiago de Compostela – which means that St James's day (25th July) falls on a Sunday, and does not happen quite often.
Martin Sheen was born as Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez to Francisco Estévez, a proud Spanish immigrant father from small-town Parderrubias in Galicia (a rugged fishing region near Portugal) who worked long hours as a punch press operator at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio to support his kids and his Irish wife. Martin Sheen changed his birth name to his current stage name because he expected a better reception for an Irish name than a Hispanic name in those years; his sons, however made different choices: Carlos Irwin Estévez is now known as actor Charlie Sheen, while Emilio Estévez, the director of the film, left his name unchanged hoping to avoid riding his father's coat tails.
The pilgrimage routes of the Way of Saint James or El Camino de Santiago stretch throughout Europe and end at Santiago’s cathedral (at one time the third holiest city in Christianity) and where the faithful believe the remains of St. James the Apostle are buried. The “saint” derives from the Battle of Clavijo in 841 between Ramiro, King of Leon, and the Moors. When the Christians were losing, an armed St James appeared in the field, on a charger horse decorated with scallop shells, slaying 60,000 Moors.
The cathedral today still draws millions of pious travelers from around the world since the Middle Ages. Many who make the journey today still wear the traditional cape, long staff and felt cap adorned with James’ scallop shells, the symbol of the saint which can be found all over the city.
It is a known fact that Japan has been an influential traditional market when it comes to studying Spanish as a foreign language. Learning Spanish in Japan is not as popular as learning English, but despite the economic crisis hitting the world over, the country continues to provide language schools abroad with a stream of students in search of an idiomatic tourism vacation.
Spanish program directors in Japanese universities, primarily those of Tokyo and Osaka, are seeing Spain as an ideal country for students to experience a Spanish language immersion. February 14-21 of 2009 is the scheduled date in Madrid to conduct individual interviews with representatives of more than 30 businesses involved in the Spanish as a foreign language sector. This event is organized by ICEX (Instituto Español de Comercio Exterior) in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo. The program will end with guided tours throughout areas of historical and cultural interest in Madrid and Salamanca.
An interesting approach keeping in mind there are about 60,000 students of Spanish in Japan.
Quien quiera combinar formación y descanso durante las vacaciones, puede elegir como lugar de destino Salamanca. Se recomienda, por ejemplo, el colegio de español don Quijote, situado en el centro del casco antiguo. El colegio en sí, es un bonito edicifio del S. XVI, que en su día fue un convento.
Después de un test de nivel y de una entrevista personal con el jefe de estudios, Jesús Baz, tiene lugar una visita turística guiada por la ciudad para los nuevos estudiantes. Al finalizar dicha visita, comienzan las clases en distintos grupos, que tienen de 5 a 8 estudiantes. El estudiante que piense que el nivel del grupo que le ha sido asignado es demasiado bajo o demasiado alto para él, se puede cambiar al día siguiente a otro grupo.
Hay que tener en cuenta que estudiar mucha grámatica o mucho vocabulario no implica saber español. Por lo menos eso es lo que dice Julia Hormigo Espés, que lleva trabajando en el colegio don Quijote más de 10 años como profesora. "La lengua cojea", dice Julia, "si sólo se aprende el idioma en los libros". Por este motivo, don Quijote ofrece distintas actividades extra, como películas, exposiciones de distintos temas y música; todo es voluntario y sin coste adicional para el estudiante. El consejo de Julia es que, cada uno por su cuenta, una vez finalizadas las clases, intente descubrir nuevos aspectos de la ciudad y así poder practiar todo lo aprendido durante el día.
El resultado después de una semana de curso de 25 horas de clase y alojamiento con una familia española sería: - Resultado académico: alto nivel de aprendizaje. - Nivel de ocio y entretenimiento: alto.
Auch die Sprachschule don Quijote ist in hübschen Gemäuern untergebracht: in einem ehemaligen Kloster aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Nach dem Einstufungstest und einem persönlichen Gespräch mit dem Schulleiter Jesús Baz steht für die Neuankömmlinge eine Stadtführung auf dem Programm. Danach beginnt der Unterricht in verschiedenen Klassen mit fünf bis acht Studenten. Wer vom Sprachniveau seiner Klasse über- oder unterfordert ist, kann am nächsten Tag die Gruppe wechseln.
Das sagt zumindest Julia Hormigo Espés, die seit über zehn Jahren als Spanischlehrerin im Don Quijote Institut arbeitet. "La lengua cojea", sagt Julia, wenn man nur aus Büchern lernt. Deshalb stehen bei Don Quijote auch zahlreiche Angebote zu Geschichte und Landeskunde auf dem Stundenplan wie Filme, Vorträge und Musikstunden – alles freiwillig und kostenlos.
Fazit nach einer Woche Sprachurlaub mit 25 Unterrichtsstunden mit Unterbringung in der Gastfamilie in Salamanca: Lernfaktor: hoch Spaßfaktor: hoch
Este escrito nace como un canto de unión de pueblos, razas y países en una época en la que, por desgracia, asistimos a continuos episodios xenófobos y de intolerancia, en un mundo, el nuestro, que se supone abierto, comprensivo y tolerante.
Os propongo que me ayudéis a completar un diccionario especial para decir "te quiero" en todos los idiomas. Ingles: I love you, Alemán: Ich liebe dich, Bosnio: Volim te, Chino: Wo ai ni ...more»
This is the moment Spain has been waiting for...
Penélope had a romance with Nacho Cano, member of the famous Spanish group Mecano, with whom she lived until they broke up and she moved in with fellow actor Gigi Sarrasola, a short-lived romance. In 2005, she was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World." Today, having worked hard to achieve Hollywood success (not easy for a non-English speaker), she is a major Hollywood star who just won her first Oscar and has had the privilege to have dated famous actors such as Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey and her current Spanish beau Javier Bardem.
View 
Recent Comments
Month Archive
