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Spanish, culture and everyday life.
Articles on language, literature, history, exams and life in Madrid, written by the people who teach here.
Featured · exam guide
Practice for the CCSE with the 2026 facts
The format, pass mark, dates, price and official practice materials, checked against the current information.
- How the 25 questions are organised
- The 15-answer pass mark and €85 fee
- 2026 dates and the materials to use
The reading room
Choose a question, not a category.
Language changes when people move, write, argue and remember. These articles begin with one concrete question and follow it properly.
Language · Mexico
There is no single Mexican Spanish
North, centre, coast and Yucatán: four areas, four histories and more variation than a label can hold.
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History of Spanish
Latin American Spanish was not settled in 1500
Population, contact and parallel change on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Language · Address
The vos of El Cid and the vos of Mafalda
The pronoun that once addressed a king and now addresses a husband.
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Poetry · Madrid
Gloria Fuertes, the poet Spain thought it knew
Behind the television figure: postismo, dissent and a serious poetic voice.
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Literature · Identity
Signing with another name: three stories
Three writers, three pen names and three different reasons for choosing them.
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Culture · The 1920s
Nine years and a photograph: the women of 1927
From a photograph with no women to the 1936 banquet: what changed, and what did not.
Read the article →Exam · Nationality
DELE A2 and the Spanish nationality file
The four papers, the diploma usually required and what changes the preparation time.
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