Did you know...? archives - Luis Vives Spanish School

Hello #Vivers! Surely you are tired of deleting advertising or commercial emails that you have never requested, junk emails or more generally known as "spam". Sometimes it becomes an annoying task to which we must dedicate a few minutes a day or at certain intervals. For our part, you can rest assured, since we do not send emails with information about our courses to learn Spanish. Have you ever thought about the true origin of this word? Today in a new entry in our section, did you know what? we tell you...

The word "spam", which does not appear in the DRAE (Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy), arose from the need to give some name to the large amount of spam we often receive over the Internet.

There is a version of the origin of "spam" that suggests that it comes from the acronym for "Short, Pointless, and Annoying Messages."

But the most reliable origin of "spam" is related to the abbreviation of the name of a pork luncheon meat that has been sold by the Hormel company since 1937, SPiced hAM (seasoned or spiced ham).

Popularization of the use of the word

The success of the meaning of the term "spam" became popular with a Monty Python sketch broadcast on his Flying Circus program. In it, a couple enters a cheap restaurant and asks the waitress what dishes are on the menu. The waitress responds “spam with egg, spam with sausage, spam with egg and sausage, spam, spam with canned egg, spam with canned sausage…”, and so on a long succession of combinations. This mechanical repetition of the term "spam" was the inspiration for computer scientists to give this name to this type of computer garbage.

Curious, right? Well, if you are interested in knowing more curiosities like this, be sure to read the Luis Vives' Spanish Blog.

And if you are looking for a course to learn to speak Spanish fluently like a native and improve your grammar, stop by Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They will surely adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in the heart of Madrid!

Hello #Vivers! Madrid residents are very proud of their public transport network and specifically of their metro. Students who come to study Spanish in Madrid soon realize that on the metro they can go practically to all parts of the city without having to use the car. Did you know that the Madrid metro is one of the oldest and largest in the world? If you want to know this and any other curiosity, be sure to read this article in our “Did you know…?” section.

The Madrid metro. Did you know…?

The works to install the metro network in Madrid began on September 19, 1916. Three years later, King Alfonso XIII inaugurated this modern means of transport.
The first Madrid Metro ticket cost 15 cents each way. The hours of operation were from 6:20 in the morning until 2:00 in the morning.
The length of all lines amounts to 324 kilometers, making it the seventh longest metro network in the world behind Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, London, Shanghai and New York.
The station where the most lines converge is at Avenida de América with four in total. The line with the most stations is number 1 with 33 stops, but the one that travels the longest distance is line 12, making a total of 40,96 kilometers.
One of the distinctive features of the Madrid Metro is that its trains run on the left, when most Spanish railway infrastructure runs on the right.
The Alto del Arenal station (line 1) is much more important than it seems, since it is home to the Central Post that controls everything that happens in the Madrid underground.

Learn Spanish language and culture and much more information like this in the Luis Vives Spanish School. If you want to study Spanish in Madrid, take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!