What’s the most typical Spanish food?

Tortilla de patatas!

Today we’re sharing a recipe to help you bring Spanish flavors to your table. So get ready, step into the kitchen, and…it’s tortilla time!

Read this article in Spanish

Before we begin, let’s run through the ingredients we’re going to need:

• 700 g (about 25 oz) potatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 6 medium/large eggs
• Olive oil
• Salt

Now that we have the ingredients handy, we can get started.

First, peel and wash the onion and potatoes. Dice the onion and cut the potatoes into thin slices.

When you’ve got that ready, pour a thick layer of oil into a frying pan and heat it up on the stove. Once the oil is hot, turn the heat down to low and fry the potatoes with a bit of salt. This way they will get cooked all the way through without burning. Be patient, this may take 25-30 minutes, depending on how thick you cut the potato slices.

Before the potatoes are done, when they’re just starting to turn golden, add the onion to the frying pan. That way you can cook everything at the same time without burning the onion.

After you add the onion and everything is frying, crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt, and beat the eggs.

When the potatoes and onion are done frying, take them out of the oil, let the excess oil drain off, and add them to the bowl with the eggs, along with a bit more salt.

Mix everything together and let the mixture sit for a few minutes to give the potatoes time to absorb the eggs.

Meanwhile, prepare a frying pan to continue with the second part of the tortilla making process. You can use the same pan as before, just pour out almost all of the olive oil. If you prefer, you can use a clean frying pan and add a tablespoon of oil, moving the pan around so the bottom is completely coated.

Put the frying pan on low heat and pour in the mixture of eggs, potatoes, and onion.

Little by little, you’ll see the egg start to cook and the tortilla will begin to take shape. Make sure it doesn’t stick to the pan by using a spatula around the edges and base of the tortilla. It will probably start sticking to the pan.

Before the egg cooks completely, put a large, flat plate (big enough to cover all or almost all of the frying pan) over the tortilla and flip the pan upside down with the plate underneath. Lift the frying pan off the plate and put it back on the stove, then slide the tortilla (cooked-side up) off the plate and into the frying pan to let the other side cook a few more minutes.

When the tortilla is as cooked or as runny as you like it, turn off the burner and flip the tortilla out of the frying pan once more.

Your tortilla de patatas is ready!

The Spanish schedule is a point of contention which gets noticed in international circles every once in a while. Why do Spaniards go to work at around 9 a.m. and leave as late as 8:00 p.m.?

It's difficult to say, and more so when many of us agree with the critics, and hope for more rational schedules in the future while we read publications like that of the Asociación para la Racionalización de los Horarios Españoles (Association for the rationalization of the Spanish schedules).

A quick way to explain our mismatched schedule is to look back in history. During the Spanish Civil War, and because Spain formed an alliance with Germany and Italy, the rebel side adopted the time zone GMT + 1. What was meant to be a temporary change during wartime stayed put once the conflict ended; meaning today in Madrid  we use the same time as Berlin when geographically we should be using London's time. 

Another factor in the hours we work came post-war. After the war many people had to work more than one job just to survive. That meant finishing one job and starting another right away. Many Spaniards at the time got home practically at dinner time (around 9:30 p.m. in Spain). Today there are not so many people that work multiple jobs to stay afloat, but the long work day culture has prevailed. And this has conditioned much of what is called "post-work" life: restaurants that open at 9:00 p.m., prime time television that starts at 10:00 p.m., bedtimes that start around midnight or later...

Once we know the history it seems like it would be easy to break the habit. But it's not so easy after all. There are many opinions on the subject, but we could summarize them into two big categories: people who think it's necessary, and even more so nowadays, to restructure the schedule; and those who think it's something so ingrained in our culture that any change would cause more chaos than good. Some take exemplary countries like Germany or Sweden into consideration, to which others respond that in Spain, neither the weather, the climate nor the character of the people is the same as in those countries. Others say the schedules is typically Mediterranean, to which others respond that in Italy people go to work at 8:00 a.m. and leave at 6:00 p.m. and that they even have an hour for lunch!

The discussion, at this point, and especially if we were in a bar, would probably lead to "socio-economic" factors: in a country in which the restaurant and hospitality industry is a pillar of the economy, would the famous "menu of the day" and all of the benefits associated with it cease to exist if we only had half an hour for lunch? Conversely, would bars have more clientele if people had more "after-work" hours to enjoy? Many proponents of changing the schedule will tell us that it is precisely the leisure and culture sectors that would benefit the most. Imagine going to the movies on a Tuesday or visiting a museum on a weekday without all the crowds!

But leaving controversy aside, the truth is that more and more people worry about this issue every day. With the current Spanish schedule it is difficult to harmonize work life with family life. Many parents are forced to push their children into Spanish "office hours" with school and then extracurricular activities, because they don't have time to take care of them themselves. In the past, this wasn't as much of a problem because more mothers stayed home or grandparents cared for children during office hours. But since people have begun to move farther from their families and nowadays many grandparents are still working themselves, many people really feel the need for change.

We finish this article without a clear conclusion. Will we will we be able to solve the Spanish schedule problem and make everyone happy one day? Only time, and schedules, will tell.

When we talk about Spanish products, SEAT's cars are definitely among them. In the 1960s, you mainly saw only one type of car on the road, namely the Seat 600, which is why the Seat 600 symbolizes Spanish industrial development.

• The SEAT brand stands for Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo.
• Seat names all of its models after Spanish towns. Examples include the Seat Ibiza, the Marbella and the León.
• The owner of SEAT is Volkswagen Auto Group.

On May 9, 1950, the company ´Sociedad Española de Automóvil de Turismo´ was founded. At that time, dictator Franco was in power, who wanted to encourage motorization within Spain. However, Spain was unable to produce cars on its own, so outside help was needed. Through state-owned company INI, an agreement was made with Italian brand Fiat to manufacture some of their models. A key requirement, however, was that 90% of the production materials would be domestic.

To realize car production, a large factory was built in Zona Franca, just outside Barcelona. On November 13, 1953, the very first car was made there: the Seat 600 made partly from Italian parts. Since 1957, all car parts have come from Spain and the first truly Spanish car was produced. The Seat 600 became a wildly popular car among the Spanish population. Consequently, Seat produced a total of 800,000 cars of it over 16 years. Even today, these cars are still popular because of their nostalgic past.

After the death of dictator Franco, Spain turned into a democracy and sought to join the Western European countries. Seat came up for sale and Fiat seemed the most obvious candidate to take over the company. A negotiation between the two companies resulted in an agreement in 1976. However, Fiat was in dire financial straits at the time and the deal ultimately fell through. INI decided to take over Fiat's deal, so Seat remained a truly Spanish company.

Seat continued to expand over the years, producing its own models such as the Ibiza and the Marbella. Several models later followed, which, like the Ibiza and the Marbella, were all named after Spanish towns such as the Toledo, León and Córdoba.

In 1982, an agreement was made with Volkswagen to produce more Volkswagens in Spain. Over three years later, Volkwagen took over 51% of Seat's shares. This grew to 100% in the following years. Seat thus became part of the Volkswagen Auto Group. Over the years, this also became evident as models came out that were almost identical to the Volkswagen models. A good example of this is the similarities between the VW Sharan & the Seat Alhambra.

Alejandro Amenábar is a widely respected film director and prominent artistic personality in the Spanish speaking world; over the span of his career in the film industry, Amenábar has been the recipient of multiple awards, including a European film award and 8 Goya Awards. His passion for film manifests in the personal edge Amenábar brings to his works, having composed nearly every soundtrack to each of his 6 Spanish films, and having written the screenplays himself in addition.

• Amenábar, one of the most talented and diverse Spanish film directors in modern times, has dual nationality; his mother is Spanish and his father Chilean.
• Between the years 1991 and 1994, Alejandro made 4 short films which laid the foundations for the full length films which were to follow.

Alejandro Amenábar’s interests in culture and narrative can be traced back to his childhood; it is said he dedicated much of his leisure time to reading stories, writing his own, going to the cinema or composing his own music. These experiences no doubt heightened his thirst for a creative outlet, and sharpened an already expansive imagination. The initial short films Alejandro produced were Himenoptero, La Cabeza and Luna. Indeed, it was one of these short films which sparked a series of events propelling Amenábar onto the landscape of Spanish film; on receiving a copy of the script for Himenoptero, Jose Luis Cuerda became interested in Alejandro’s work, and this quickly led to him taking on the role of producer for the 1996 film Thesis, undoubtedly one of his most famous and iconic films. His next film was Abre los Ojos in 1997, which enjoyed particular success at both the Tokyo film festival and that in Berlin. However, this film is known to most film fans as Vanilla Sky, with Tom Cruise having adapted and produced it after purchasing the rights on noting its potential.

Amenábar showcased his diversity as a film producer when he directed the iconic horror film The Others, which starred internationally renowned actress Nicole Kidman. This film was extremely successful in Spain, being the most watched film of the year, and similarly in the USA, where it remained amongst the top few films at the Box Office for a period of several weeks. The Others had its premiere in 2001 at the Venice Film Festival, winning a grand total of 8 Goya awards, including Best Director and Best Movie. Another of Amenábar’s most famous, and certainly most touching, pieces is known in English as The Sea Inside or Mar Adentro, which narrates the moving story of quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro, and addresses polemical issues including abortion and the film’s most prominent theme: euthanasia. Amongst an extensive list of Goya awards, Mar Adentro also claimed the Academy Award in 2004 for Best Foreign Language Film. 4 years later in 2008, Amenábar released the most expensive piece in Spanish film history, Agora, which had a budget of 50 million Euros. Aside from his own works, Alejandro is also known for his composition of the soundtrack for La lengua de las mariposas or Butterfly’s Tongue. 

Spain is famous for its strong soccer traditions, particularly after its national team clinched the coveted world cup title in 2010. But fútbol isn’t the country’s only sport; Pau Gasol has slam dunked his way to Spanish basketball greatness, Rafa Nadal has brought great attention to Spain via the tennis court, Ogruu is the father of jugger in Spain, and the Barcelona Eagles competed in the 2013 European Quidditch tournament the “Brussels Muscles Invitational”. Indeed, the European Quidditch tournament. Spain’s also got athletes passionately competing in many decidedly off beat and obscure sports, some of which we’ll take a candid look at below.

So without further ado, don thy bubbles, hop aboard thy nimbus 2000s, and grab thy q-tip staffs: game on!  

Bubble Football

Also known in Spain as futbol burbuja, this new sport born just a few years ago in Norway is alive and “kicking” strong in the Iberian Peninsula. Intense on-pitch action here would seem little different than your everyday soccer game were it not that each player competes enshrouded in a giant plastic bubble. Many observers describe it as a safer variety of the traditional game, where slide tackles are virtually impossible (as is any kind of serious ball control).

Muggle Quidditch

We all know that Harry Potter loves playing quidditch. What fewer people know however is that muggles from many countries have adapted their own fun variety of the magical sport (in which players don’t fly). According to the Spanish journal El Mundo, Spain has 140 players who represent 11 from teams around the country with names like Dementors de A Coruña and Bizkaia Boggars. Madrid Lynx, formed in March 2012 is Spain’s oldest team. It’s an exciting game in which players dodge bludgers, pass quaffles and race to capture the golden snitch in an attempt to prove that they’re wizards on the quidditch pitch.

Underwater Hockey

This sport that dates back to 1954 is surprisingly well established around the world. The down side for spectators is that very few pools have underwater viewing ports, so watching live subaqueous action may involve making use of a scuba mask and snorkel. The Spanish national championship was held in Castellón last year and it looks like it will be held there again this September. For more info you can check out the website of the Asociación Española de Hockey Subacuático. Their Facebook page shows Team Spain heading off to compete in the 18^th World Underwater Hockey Championship held in Hungary.

Jugger

Armed with q-tip staffs, swords, shields and chains, jugger players prepare to “get medieval” on opponents in this eccentric sport that recalls intense middle age combat. The sport is played in Europe, Australia, the US, and Costa Rica. The first national jugger tournament in Spain took place in Zaragoza in 2010. Spain currently has over 500 players and 60 teams who play across the country. For more info, take a look at the Spanish Jugger Association’s website.

Bossaball

This modern sport played in 15 countries looks like volleyball but with the striking presence of a large trampoline and highflying competitors executing spectacular bicycle kicks. Marbella has just become the home to Spain’s first Bossaball club.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this round up of lesser-known sports in Spain.

Oranges are popular all over the world, but where do the tastiest oranges come from? Spain is a major exporting country of oranges, with the city and region of Valencia in particular. Its Mediterranean climate allows these fruits to be grown here at the right temperatures. The sweet flavors of the perfect-looking Valencian oranges come out best this way. Moreover, different varieties are grown, each with its unique characteristics.

• Vitamin C is one of the most important vitamins for a human being and you can find it in an orange!
• There are even different varieties of the Valencian orange.
• Visit one of the many fields around Valencia to experience the unique taste sensation in the place itself.

That fruit is healthy, everyone knows. But that oranges, especially Valencian oranges, are good for various ailments of the body and your mood? Valencian oranges contain vitamin C, which is the tool to ward off your body from flu, colds and winter weather. On top of that, they are good against digestive disorders, headaches, rheumatism, stress and depression. So with a Valencian orange, you will always be in good spirits! They are used for a variety of purposes. Not only can you simply make juice from it or make it totally come into its own in a summer fruit salad, Valencian oranges are also used for Dutch jam because of its sweet-sweet taste.

Oranges are descended from a citrus fruit. The fact that the orange is related to the lemon is therefore no surprise. This delicious, orange fruit gets its best flavor when cultivated at a temperature averaging 23 degrees Celsius; the perfect place for this is the Valencia area! This is because Spain has a Mediterranean climate in the east of the country, long, hot summers and mild winters. This is perfect for growing oranges. An orange is smaller but sweeter than grapefruit and larger than a tangerine. The smell of an orange is not as strong as that of a tangerine.

There are different varieties of the famous Valencian orange. Not all oranges are round and orange. La Naranja Navelina is medium-sized, often just round but sometimes slightly oval, bright orange in color and has very juicy flesh. The perfect example of a Valencian orange is the Naranja Salustiana, the excellent fruit is very sweet and has lots of juice. Then you have the Naranja Navel lane late and the Navel late, they don't differ much, but just enough to separate them from kind. The Navel late is smaller and less popular because of its elongated shape and less thick but consistent skin. Its color is additionally less pleasant for an orange: light orange. However, this has nothing to do with the taste of an orange. The second perfect example of a Valencian orange is the Naranja Valencia, quite surprisingly.

The fruit is medium-sized, a little oblong and has a fine, thin skin. The taste is to write home about, Naranja Valencia has a very pleasant flavor; nice and sweet with a slight hint of acidity. It is the newest variety grown in Valencia and is considered one of the best. A distinct variety is the Naranja Sanguina. There cannot be much more different about an orange, yet this variety has something special; it differentiates itself from others by its red pigments in the skin as well as in the fruit itself. In addition, it has a little raspberry or cherry flavor in it, making it a unique type of orange.

Valencia has its fields for oranges in the area around the city and some of these can be visited. The orange trees in the city of Valencia are mostly just for ornamental purposes and these fruits do not have the real, distinctive taste of Valencian oranges. It is recommended to go to the largest fish, meat, fruit and vegetable market in Europe in the middle of the city, where you can buy the most delicious oranges!

The US is a multi-lingual country with no official national language, a place where according to the 2011 census report, 20% of the people speak a language other than English at home.  In California that number is 44%. Orange County, located just south of LA, is California’s second most densely populated county, a place that reflects changing language trends across the country.

Legions of TV fans around the world recognize the sunny county from the Fox series The O.C. (2003-2007) which aired in over 50 countries and spawned an anxious flurry of copy shows during the mid 2010’s with promising titles such as The Real Housewives of Orange County, and Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. Despite the excited use of the word “real”, the shows offered a decidedly un-diverse on-screen image of the county compared to statistics from the latest census report.

This year marks the 125^th anniversary of Orange County’s founding way back when a real estate boom in Southern California saw new towns established and communities expand all over the area. It had been covered by vast ranchlands just a few decades earlier. Towns continued growing, but no clearly defined urban center ever developed, and even today the county with over 3 million residents living inside a 790 square mile boundary still reflects its past as a region of many smaller communities that grew together over time within the shadows of Los Angeles. Famous attractions here include Disneyland and Huntington “Surf City USA” Beach.

Orange County is known as a place of staunchly conservative political views which ironically include anti-immigration attitudes; according to a report from the University of Southern California the county scored relatively high on a ranking that analyzed immigrant integration in terms of civic engagement, economic trajectory and other indicators. Despite the famous attitude, immigrants now make up 30% of the population, that’s nearly 1 million people, and as the population has diversified its political leanings have too. Over half of the children here have at least one parent who is from another country.

Half a million Asian American residents live in the county, a community that grew by 41% between 2000 and 2010, making it the third largest Asian American population in America. The county’s Little Saigon area is the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. Bangladeshi residents make up the county’s fastest growing community which grew by 118% during the same decade, followed by Fijans up 108%.

Nearly half of the residents speak a language other than English at home, and over half of these speak Spanish. Over 1 million residents are Latino. Spanish is nothing new here; the region had once belonged to the King of Spain and then to Mexico until 1848, when it was ceded to the US after the end of the Mexican War. California’s original constitution stipulated that “laws and provisions would be published in English and Spanish”. 

The OC Weekly recently published an informative and interactive albeit kind of confusing language map (there are a lot of different colors and if they’re shaded different they mean different things) of Orange County that shows the second most spoken languages in each of the county’s zip codes. The language that appears in most zip codes is unsurprisingly Spanish, followed by Vietnamese, followed by, perhaps most interestingly, English. English is the second most spoken language in 14 Orange County zip codes, and in some zip codes it’s even third behind Spanish and Vietnamese. In most of the zip codes in the county’s capital Santa Ana, over 80% of the residents speak Spanish as their primary language. Chinese, Korean, Persian, and Russian are also all on the map. 40,000 households speak Tagalog.

So how does all this reflect what’s happening in the rest of the country?

Languages in The US

According a 2013 US census report on language, eight languages including Russian and Persian more than doubled in usage nationwide between 1980 and 2010. Vietnamese increased by 599%. There were 24.9 million more Spanish speakers.  The report explained that “Fueled by both long-term historic immigration patterns and more recent ones, the country’s language diversity has increased over the past few decades”.

The numbers frighten some pro-English-only observers. Many say that the increase in rich language diversity compromises communication among Americans. The fears have inspired some of the most active to ban together to create citizens’ actions groups such as U.S. English, Inc. in attempts to assure the passage of English as the official language of the United States. 31 of the 50 states have amended their state constitutions to recognize English as the official language, California is one of them; if the hope was to discourage foreign language use there, the plan seems to be failing.  Ironically, amending the US constitution to define English only as the official national language could eliminate programs designed to help non-English speaking residents learn English, in other words English only initiatives could end up in a certain way promoting the use of other languages. Groups like The American Civil Liberties Union oppose establishing English as an official language, noting that these types of laws compromise the rights of non-English speaking communities. 

 Anyone thinking that legal measures need to be taken to preserve English use in America may also want to keep in mind conclusions from the latest US census report, which show that even as families increasingly speak languages other than English at home, the percentage of Americans who report that they speak English well has remained steady.

The debate over whether or not English should be somehow enforced as America’s only language goes back to the first few years of the country’s founding.

In 1780, during the middle of the American Revolution which sought independence from Britain, a time when the US was establishing itself as a nation, future president John Adams attempted to found an official English Academy but the idea was rejected as it was considered undemocratic.

As early as 1751, Benjamin Franklin complained about the Germans, wondering why “should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our anglifying them, and will never adopt our language or customs…” Needless to say, widespread use of German anywhere in the US was phased out pretty much on its own without much official legislation (I say much because there was actually some legislation: following World War I, some English-only laws were passed in the Midwest to keep people from speaking German, laws that the Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional in 1923).

People have spoken a rich variety of languages in America since long before the drafting of the US constitution (according to Marriam-Webster, before 1492, people spoke over 300 languages north of Mexico). Places like Orange County suggest that language use will continue to diversify with or without laws attempting to guarantee the use of the language of the country America successfully gained independence from over 200 years ago. And that’s a closer look at the real Orange County, a closer look at the united languages of America.

Spanish as a Second Language

British students are increasingly choosing to study Spanish as a second language.

In the last ten years the number of British students choosing Spanish as their second language when taking the General Certificate of Secondary Education exam has risen by 50%.  The vice-president of one UK exam board has attributed the phenomenon to the popularity of Spanish speaking personalities such as FC Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, who is often celebrated as the world’s greatest footballer (soccer player). There has been a clear “Messi effect” she has stated. Another exam board exec has asserted that it was only a matter time “as to when the most popular language taught in the UK is Spanish”.

As of four years ago, more UK students are already opting to take the exam in Spanish than in German, and it is expected to overtake French in the near future also.

Messi, who is from Argentina, won the coveted FIFA Ballon d’Or award an unprecedented 4 years in a row. Just to give you an idea of Messi’s popularity, consider his 50 million Facebook followers. He has also been featured in Time magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world.

Many observers also attribute the recent success of Spanish in schools to the popularity of vacation destinations; Brits have been flocking to Spain’s Mediterranean coast for years to spend their vacation time there. Others point out that now students have a choice of which language they want to study while in the past French and German were assigned to students. Students with a choice are opting for Spanish, the second most spoken language in the world in terms of native speakers (after Mandarin Chinese).

Britain’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, the British Council, has announced in a report they published last year that Spanish is the most important language for British people to learn, citing indicators such as emerging markets and the value of the language in terms of British business activities.

Messi may be the biggest star of the world’s biggest sport, but he is relatively unknown in the US. According to Forbes magazine, he was known by less than 20% of US consumers in 2012. Although soccer is gaining in popularity in the US, many American football and basketball fans seem to remain quite uninterested in the world’s most popular sport.

Spanish is by far the most studied second language in the US, where over half of all university students studying a foreign language are enrolled in Spanish. It makes sense in a country where 37 million residents 5 years and older speak the language, that’s over 12% of the entire population. In fact it is expected that by the year 2050, the United States will be the country with the largest population of Spanish speakers.

Britannic World Data estimates that by 2030, 7.5% of the world population will speak Spanish, and it comes as no surprise that Spanish study is gaining in popularity around the globe. The Cervantes Institute estimates that some 20 million students study Spanish as a foreign language. Aside from the statistics, Spanish speaking stars such as Lionel Messi will also continue influencing students’ decision when choosing a foreign language to study.

Soccer in South America is just as important as soccer in Europe. Almost all countries participate in it intensively. For example, there are two, very famous, leagues of South America and two more famous national leagues of the great and soccer-powerful countries Argentina and Brazil.

The most important soccer tournament in Latin America is similar to the European Champions League and is called "Copa Libertadores". Its literal translation would be "Cup of Liberators of the Americas." It is an annual tournament set up by Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL), the soccer federation of South America. All South American countries except Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana, which are members of CONCACAF in North America, are members of CONMEBOL. The tournament is played with the national South American soccer clubs. The countries participating are: Chile, Brazil, México, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and last but not least Argentina. Each country provides a number of clubs to compete in this cup competition. Argentina and Brazil are the biggest countries in this, they provide 5 clubs where the rest of the countries provide 3. The current champion of this tournament is the Brazilian club 'Corinthians', they won the final from Argentina's 'Boca Juniors' in 2012.

In addition to the soccer tournament specific to Latin America, South America also has another popular tournament. Since 1916, CONMEBOL has organized the "Copa América. This tournament can be compared to the Africa Cup and the European Football Championship, among others. The participating countries are the members of CONMEBOL (as mentioned above) with, starting in 1993, two host countries from other continents each time. To date, México has hosted 7 times, but Costa Rica, the United States and Japan have also participated in the tournament.

The two largest countries in South America are Brazil and Argentina, so it is not surprising that they both have their own league; a national league. Brazil is a large country with many strong soccer teams. The best clubs are "Santos," "Palmeiras" and "São Paulo. Leagues are held from May through December among the 20 national clubs. There are home and away matches for each club. The national league used to be divided into state championships. Not because they did not know of each other's existence, but because at that time travel was difficult in such a large country like Brazil. Nowadays, of course, this is easier and all clubs can play against each other. Nevertheless, Brazilian state championships are still important because of tradition and local rivalries.

Not only Brazil has its own competitions, Argentina is also a big country with strong teams and has its own league. In Argentina, they have "Primera División. In this there are two leagues: the Torneo Final and the Torneo Inicial. There used to be the Apertura and the Clausura, but from these it was not clear who the real champion was. You will not see this system easily in Europe, but it does occur in other countries in South America. This newer format of the Torneo Inicial and the Torneo Final resulted in one winner instead of two. The champions of Inicial and Final would then compete for the title. In the end, the Argentine federation AFA still found it difficult to declare one winner and the winners of Inicial as well as Final are considered champions. However, it gets even crazier; the winner of the final between Inicial and Final can call himself the big winner of Argentina and so it seems that the AFA does not want to opt for the new system quite yet and so there are three champions every year.

After reading an article in the Wall Street Journal, an interesting dilemma has come forth for the North American viewer of the World Cup. Is it a better soccer experience watching the game with commentary in a language you may (or may not) know better than English?

Curiously, during the 2010 World Cup, Univision, the Spanish language broadcaster in the US, received consistently higher ratings versus their English-speaking counterparts ESPN and ABC. It wasn't until the final that ABC was able to receive higher marks: 13 million viewers vs. 8.3 million for Univision. In any case, 8.3 million viewers is a hefty number of viewers for a sporting event and a total of 21 million viewers for a soccer final is downright great.

Knowing that there is a demand that viewers apparently desire a more exciting and partisan commentary for their soccer game viewing, Univision is taking on the big broadcasters on their own turf—with English language commentary. For many people, listening to the game with the emotion that normally isn't transmitted in the American English-language broadcast adds an element of entertainment that they want to hear and experience—even  though they may not understand anything that is being said!

The World Cup 2014!

For this year's World Cup, Univision will continue to maintain and reinforce their emotive announcing style while also trying to appeal more to the non-Spanish speaking viewer. This year they will provide more bilingual commentary and their on-air personalities will tweet continuously in Spanish and English. Univision has also hired commentators like ex-Team USA defender Marcelo Balboa, Italian World Cup winner Mauro Camoranesi and ex-Barcelona FC and Bulgarian soccer legend, Hristo Stoichkov.

These commentators will easily move between English and Spanish and their Soccer (or is it football?) credentials are unquestionable. Their insight and experience will be key for the American viewer better understand and appreciate the little details that make soccer the world's most popular sport.

As an American in Spain, I must admit that I really had no clue about this sport when I arrived. Over the years I have slowly come to appreciate the appeal of this sport and how entertaining it can be; living In a country with one of the best soccer leagues in the world also helps a little. But one thing I have noticed here is the completely partisan approach in the transmission of international sports events. From F1 to Soccer there is an unashamed Spanish-centric approach to sports commentating that can be frustrating at times to downright funny.

For a quadrennial global championship where a country's national pride and honor goes on the line, I vote to hear sports commentary where the emotion reflects this urgency and anxiety. We're not talking about a tennis match or a chess game—this is the WORLD CUP! Also, if I had a choice of watching a game in German or Italian (both languages I don't speak but I've seen their soccer coverage) I would take the red-blooded Italian commentary over the German's cold insightfulness any day.

Fortunately for me, in Spain I understand the local commentary and I will enjoy every scream, yell and collective "UFFF". If you're in North America you'll have a viewing choice of two contrasting styles—take a look and pick the one that works for you. You're World Cup experience will depend on your choice.