This website and all its resources has been and is designed and maintained by me, michelle, an English teacher in Spain, working for state-run language schools. I pay for talkingpeople.net and talkingpeople.es out of my own pocket and do not charge any fee for sharing this resource. This means I'm supporting a non-profit educational project. And people's contributions are making it really interesting! I'm also part of a larger web project: Mujer Palabra

I try to use US American English, but due to the fact that I live in Europe, the influence of British English is also felt. I suppose I use a kind of international standard which sounds closest to US American English. For more on this check out these FAQ and our section World Englishes (top navigation bar).

The reason why as a teacher I use the communicative / transformative / collaborative methods (see FAQ page 2) and why as an individual I share my resources is because I'm a grassroots social activist, who believes all of us can do something to make this world a better place, starting with keeping busy with learning, thinking and communicating on issues we are interested in, instead of with destroying ourselves or others and using all our time to do things we don't enjoy or like. Also, I believe that the key for a better world is in human communication, because it is related both to thought and human relationships. If we understand the importance of being able to communicate in intelligent, effective, sensitive, nonviolent ways, that'll have direct impact on what our societies are like. Last, my beliefs have all to do with human rights and nothing to do with religion - they are political, they are about this world, not spiritual. I don't know of any religion which has not considered women a second-class human being. I believe religion has done a lot of harm to human intelligence and to us all.

I studied/earned a living in Australia, the USA and in Spain. I worked (as a volunteer activist mainly) in Mexico, in the open war region of Central America in the 1980s and in the UK after that. I have attended pacifist/feminist international meetings in Brazil, Uruguay, Belgium, Germany, Sweden. I have traveled to other countries or in Spain just for the love of traveling. Now I surf the Net, because bodies wear out with time! And it's a priviledge in this violent and unjust world, so I'm really happy about it.

I love painting, though I never became a painter because when I was young I had too many complexes. However, nowadays I don't care about complexes any more, so I paint whenever I find time, and I really enjoy it! Here is my little version of one of Goya's Aquelarre. The title is "The World is a Garden of Wickedness" (El mundo es un jardín de maldad). I think that's what Goya meant with his amazing picture . PS: Don't let the colorful flowers trick you! They are poisenous!