Concessive clauses

I seem to have less time to update this these days. The closer it gets to going home time, the more homework I am doing and more practice essays etc. I have just spent 3 hours doing all the exercises I could find on the imperative. This should be a basic thing (A2/B1 level), but I missed out on it and have never actually studied it. Fortunately, the negative imperative is basically the subjunctive, so that is that taken care of. The affirmative imperative is a bit harder to get your head around, especially when you add direct object and reflexive pronouns into the mix, but I think I have just about worked it out now (after about half an hour lesson and the 3 hours at home). I am determined to work out which grammatical areas I still have blanks for and get these sorted in my remaining private lessons. Isa is very flexible about what we do in those lessons, so I can basically jump around any different things I need to study.

In the conversation class today, we looked at superstitions again. It is an interesting topic and it was fun comparing the superstitions of our various countries, especially when they have slight differences.

***Complicated grammar coming up. If you can understand it, read on... it's good stuff!***

In B2 grammar, we continued with some high-level subjunctive/indicative uses, focusing on oraciones concesivas. I would be extremely surprised if I ever have to teach how using aunque with the subjunctive (see example a) expresses information already known by both parties, whereas the use of aunque with the indicative (see example b) demonstrates that there is new information being given to the interlocutor (yeah, I know!?!?)

Consider: a) Aunque sea inglesa, me gusta hablar otros idiomas.
and b) Aunque soy inglesa, me gusta hablar otros idiomas.

Both translate as "Although I am English, I like to speak other languages" but, in a) both the person talking and the person listening already knew that I am English, whereas in b) the person listening (the interlocutor) didn't know that I was English before I said this. In a), the most useful information is that I speak other languages whereas in b) the most useful information is that I am English.

Subtle, devious, complicated and... bloody brilliant!!!

This usage is most interesting because normally the subjunctive is used over the indicative when there is some element of doubt or hypothesis. In the case of aunque (and a pesar de que (despite) and por más/mucho que (howevermuch)), this is almost turned on its head. I felt mightily proud of myself once I had understood it, especially when you consider that I am concurrently getting to grips with using the past tenses correctly and using the imperative. I love learning!!!


After my private lesson on the imperative, I stayed for the culture class (also with Isa). No-one else is coming this week, but I am fascinated because it is about contemporary Spanish cinema. Today, Isa set the scene by telling me about how Spain came late to free ideas and democracy, post-Franco (ie 1975). I was rather ashamed of how little I know about Spain's political history and have been doing a Wiki* on it. Tomorrow, I will be finding out how the cinema flourished post-Franco.




* my new expression for using Wikipedia to find out information!