Veep

[Victor Steinbok]

 From a random discussion group:

http://goo.gl/Z3mle
> Normalista
>
> I`m having problems finding a translation for the word above. The
> context is below:
>
> En esta muestra participaron dos de la especialidad (historia), tres
> de formación básica y uno procediente de la antigua formación normalista.
>
> History majors, elementary education majors, and another type which is
> now no longer used.
>
> The training consited of training to be a teacher not at the
> university, but starting in highschool. Any ideas or suggestions would
> be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot.
>
> Saludos.

And the confirmation:

http://goo.gl/CW1Rf
> normalista sustantivo masculino y femenino (Col) primary (school) teacher

Don't think this was the context of Joel's original quote.

Nor is this:

http://goo.gl/Ilq8Y
> In this study, we examined the ways in which normalista teachers and
> Mexican American paraprofessionals in a teacher-training program in
> San Antonio, Texas conceptualize culture.

;-)

     VS-)

On 5/4/2012 11:23 AM, Michael Newman wrote:
> There's a common misconception that probably has its origin in elementary Spanish classes that any noun ending in -a is feminine. In fact, -ista words are usually not inherently marked for gender. A man can be un comunista and a woman can be una comunista. There are also a lot of other words that are grammatically masculine but end in -a, such as programa.  There are fewer -o words that are feminine, the most famous being "la mano," but there are also clippings like la moto (cicleta), and a few others. But the -o is a better gender indicator than -a.
>
>
> Michael Newman

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