New Spanish Pronto Reading Practice Welcome to the New Spanish Pronto Reading Practice! This and future issues will discuss a real Spanish-language article, then suggest 10 useful words from the article for you to learn, depending on your current level of Spanish (beginning, intermediate, or advanced). You can read the full article, in Spanish, at: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/614954.html. ¡Suerte! (Good luck!)

Thursday, July 30, 2009 As schools in the U.S. begin again (Hawai‘i teachers returned July 28 and students start on July 30), teachers looking for work in Mexico are signing up for a national exam that will decide who gets a teaching job and who does not. At 11:00 Central Time, on August 16, teachers in all but two of the United Mexican States will begin taking an 80-question exam that only one third of them are expected to pass. Results will be published on an official website on August 23—seven days after the test, but just one day before classes start. This test is only for teaching positions at the preescolar, primaria, and secundaria levels (preschool, elementary, and junior high), not for the preparatoria level (high school). More information on this exam can be found in the following El Universal article: SEP abre concurso de plazas; evaluará ética de docentes. If you are just beginning to learn Spanish, here are a few terms, appearing in the article, that are common enough for you to learn them already:
julio July agosto August el país the country (or nation) la mañana the morning la escuela the school más more el maestro/la maestra the (male) teacher/the (female) teacher el número the number el examen/los exámenes the exam/the exams mil thousand (2009 = dos mil nueve)
Notice that months are not capitalized in Spanish. Do your best to learn the article ("the": el, la, los, las) along with each new noun you learn. This will be extremely important if you want to understand what other people write and say...and if you want other people to understand what you write and say. (For example, "la mañana" means "the morning," but "el mañana" means "the future." To make things even more interesting, "mañana" by itself [i.e., as an adverb] means "tomorrow.") MOST COMMON OR INTERESTING QUESTION RECEIVED RECENTLY ABOUT AN EARLIER READING PRACTICE: This is the first new reading practice, so no one has asked anything yet. As I am one person and there are potentially tens or even dozens of you : ), I may not be able to respond to your question or may just refer you to http://www.yourdictionaries.com/. Just to make up a question for this time: If "la mañana" is "the morning" and "mañana" is "tomorrow," then how would you say "tomorrow morning"? To say "tomorrow morning," you would say "mañana por la mañana" ("tomorrow in the morning"). If you are an intermediate student of Spanish, you may not yet know these useful terms from the article:
el empleo employment, job a partir de as of, starting el aspirante, la aspirante the candidate (literally, "the one who aspires") -rá, -rán (future tense)* iniciar to begin, to start de tiempo completo full-time por horas hourly, by the hour (part-time) el puesto the position la ética the ethics el docente, la docente the teacher
*evaluará = (it) will evaluate; podrán = (they) will be able to As usual, even advanced students of Spanish will find some words in the article that might be new to them:
el concurso the competition, the examination la plaza the job opening (also "la [plaza] vacante") se dará (it) will take place se aplicarán (they) will be administered la convocatoria the call (for papers, attendance, or participation), the announcement (of a scheduled event or meeting) habilitar to activate (a web page) se informó (it) was reported el plan de estudios the curriculum la normatividad the rules and regulations la formación the training

You can read the full article, in Spanish, at: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/614954.html.

The following books are the best of their kind: The Collins Spanish Unabridged Dictionary is all the Spanish-English/English-Spanish Dictionary you will ever need, but at over 6 pounds, it is quite heavy. The "English Grammar..." and "501 Spanish Verbs" are recommended for beginners. The "Breaking Out..." book is for intermediate students. The "New Reference Grammar" and the "Diccionario Clave" will be most helpful to advanced students (and virtually incomprehensible to meaningless for beginners).

For more Spanish information and resources, see the Spanish Pronto! main page.