Free Spanish Lesson 32 – Strike! – (¡Huelga!)

Aquí en los Estados Unidos, you hear about huelgas every so often en las noticias. Every few years hay una huelga de professional baseball or basketball players.

Occasionally en el periódico, you hear about other types of huelgas laborales; however, they are nothing compared to the amount of huelgas in certain regions of Latin America.

Government-sponsored universidades seem to get hit the worst. Muchos de ellos have huelgas on a fairly regular basis. Esto puede ser muy difícil for a person trying to get su título in a specific period of time.

Personalmente, it took me about seis años to get my four-year título aquí en los Estados Unidos only because I was running un negocio full-time, working full-time, and a full-time esposo y padre. My wife me sacó una foto at graduation and I had a daughter en cada brazo.

In regions of Latin America, puede tomar this long or longer to graduate from public colleges or universities because of todas las huelgas. It is my understanding that most u niversidades particulares have few to no huelgas, but they also cuestan mucho más and are usually harder to get into.

Huelgas are so prevalent that algunas universidades, like the UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), actually have a “Consejo General de Huelgas” to deal with las huelgas and make information about the strikes disponible a los estudiantes.

Moral of the Historia: Es bueno aprender about the culture of others and las situaciones que enfrentan. This can help us to have more empathy for our amigos internacionales and what they have to go through. It can also be un tema interesante de conversación when meeting people from Latin America.

To all of our subscribers out there, si tienen más información about huelgas in Latin America, especially with universidades, please write in and hágannos saber. Also, as usual with our international subscribers, please hágannos saber what huelgas are like and how long it takes to get through college/university en sus países.

Sneak peek at next week: “How Ugly is Ugly?”

aquí en los Estados Unidos – Here in the U.S.

huelgas – strikes

en las noticias – in the news

hay una huelga de – there’s a strike from

en el periódico – in the newspaper

huelgas laborales – labor strikes

universidades – universities

muchos de ellos – many of them

esto puede ser muy difícil – this can be very difficult

su título – their degree

personalmente – personally

seis años – six years

un negocio – a business

esposo – husband

y – and

padre – father

me sacó una foto – took a picture of me

en cada brazo – in each arm

puede tomar – it can take

todas las huelgas – all the strikes

cuestan mucho más – (they) cost a lot more

algunas universidades – some universities

Consejo General de Huelgas – General Council on Strikes

las huelgas – the strikes

disponible a los estudiantes – available to students

historia – story

es bueno aprender – it’s good to learn

las situaciones – the situations

que enfrentan – (that) they have to deal with (face)

amigos internacionales – international friends

un tema interesante de conversación – an interesting topic of conversation

si tienen más información – if you have more information

hánannos saber – let us know (command form)

en sus países – in your countries

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Written by David S. Clark – President of Visual Link Spanish who says…

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Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.