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Supreme wines of Argentina: O. Fournier

O. Fournier's story

Spanish winery owner Jose Manuel Ortega has positioned himself in three of the best wine-producing regions in the world: Mendoza, Argentina; Rioja, Spain; and Maula Valley, Chile. The Argentine wines of O. Fournier come from grapes planted in the Valley de Uco, one of the high altitude regions that produce fruit touted to be some of the best in Argentina.

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Music from Spain: Jarabe de Palo

From Barcelona, music group Jarabe de Palo is a great, upbeat Spanish rock band. The world jarabe in Spanish means syrup (in a medicinal sense) while palo means stick. As the saying goes, a naughty child needs a "jarabe de palo" to start acting right. The main indication the band is Spanish is in the singer's accent, Pau Donés, where "z" and "c" sound like "th" in English (corazón, or heart, sounds like corathón).

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Lexical Approach of learning a language

Lexical Approach

In the 1990s, Michael Lewis wrote two books outlining his language learning theory: The English Verb and The Lexical Approach. According to the Lexical Approach, students should learn 'chunks' of language, since language is made up of collocations, idioms, and fixed phrases.

Collocations: are words that 'sound right' together, even though there is no grammatical reason they should be used together:

  • gin & tonic (but never tonic & gin)
  • high probability (but good chance)
  • completely useless (not entirely useless)

Tempus Alba Winery - Preludio Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pleno

One of the more modern wineries in Mendoza, Tempus Alba combines technology with family-run pride, resulting in some delicious and affordable wines. One of the winery's main goals is to make the best Malbec in Argentina, a lofty goal where Malbec is one of the most popular varietals in Argentina. In search of the best Malbec grapes, the winery is testing and researching 370 vines to find ones that will produce a superior Malbec.

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Learning Foreign Languages Important for Success in the Future

Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University, has proposed the theory that learning foreign languages will be increasingly important for job-seekers around the world.

Rather than making the usual arguments - that the world is increasingly globalized, that immigration is increasing, that international trade will be more important in the future - Tyler points out that critical thinking, judgment, and empathy are increasingly important skills in a knowledge economy. In a world where these characteristics are highly valuable, the best investment in your education is not technical, but general: learning to learn instead of learning to do something.

And, in addition to dating a foreign person as a way to gain international insight he also recommends travel and learning a foreign language.

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Top 5 places to visit NOW in the Spanish-speaking world

Has Costa Rica got you down with its tourist explosion? Does Cozumel seem too unoriginal as your next vacation destination? Is Spain too expensive? Here are some recommendations about places you should check out...soon.

Where to Travel in Latin America

Total Physical Response (TPR) Method of Language Learning

The Resurgence of Total Physical Response

Though it was developed in the 1970s by James Asher, TPR is still a very popular method and seems to have been recently rediscovered in the modern language classroom. In this method, the teacher presents a new vocabulary word with an action that students repeat: for example, to teach the verb cry, teacher would pretend to cry while saying the word, which students would then mirror. TPR is often used with teaching children, and the teacher often builds up a story using a series of vocabulary words.

Wines of Séptima

About the winery

In Luján de Cuyo region of Mendoza, Argentina lies the sprawling vineyards of Séptima against the backdrop of the Andes. The winery, surrounded by a selection of its grapes, is one of the bigger Mendoza wineries, and one recognized by Americans because of their large export business. 80% of Séptima wines are destined for export while the remaining 20% remain in Argentina.

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