My Friend Against the World: Friendship, Opinions and Empathy in Spanish
A good friend with a difficult outlook
“Tengo un amigo que es muy buena persona y siempre ha sido un gran amigo para mí.”
The opening is warm and direct.
Before telling us anything difficult about his friend, the narrator establishes what matters: this is someone he values.
They have been friends since they were twelve.
Now they are both fifty.
One lives in Hong Kong and the other in Madrid, but they speak almost every week.
The narrator enjoys their conversations and appreciates the friendship.
Then the description changes:
“Sin embargo, mi amigo parece estar enfadado con el mundo.”
That contrast is the starting point for our new A2–B1 Spanish programme, designed with IGCSE Spanish and IB Spanish Ab Initio learners in mind.
Describing someone beyond a single adjective
The friend complains about traffic, politics, football, young people and adults.
He does not simply express dissatisfaction. He also tends to argue when something bothers him.
Yet the narrator continues to describe him as an excellent friend.
These details invite students to explore two ideas at once:
A person can be difficult in some situations.
That same person can be caring and dependable within a particular relationship.
The task is not to decide whether the character is entirely “good” or “bad.” It is to describe what the text actually tells us.
Students can begin with a sentence frame:
“Es una persona…, pero también…”
They can then develop a more detailed description:
“Tiene una visión negativa del mundo, pero el narrador valora mucho su amistad.”
Present and present perfect in context
The text uses the present to describe current circumstances and habits:
“Hablamos casi todas las semanas.”
“Trabaja como taxista.”
“Tiende a discutir.”
These examples answer questions such as:
What does he do? What is he like? What happens regularly?
The present perfect introduces experiences connected to the present:
“Siempre ha sido un gran amigo para mí.”
“Su vida no ha sido fácil.”
“Ha trabajado mucho.”
Here, the narrator looks back at the friendship and his friend’s life while describing how he sees him now.
Students practise this distinction through two prompts:
“Actualmente…”
“A lo largo de su vida…”
Their answers help build a fuller character description rather than a disconnected list of grammar examples.
A friendship that began in the past and continues today
One particularly useful sentence is:
“Somos amigos desde los doce años.”
Although the friendship began years ago, Spanish uses the present here because the situation continues.
Learners can adapt the structure:
“Somos amigos desde la escuela.”
“Conozco a mi mejor amigo desde hace cinco años.”
“Vivimos en ciudades diferentes desde 2020.”
The activity can focus on fictional characters if students prefer not to discuss their personal relationships.
How contrast shapes the narrator’s message
Three connectors are central to the text:
Aunque
“Aunque yo vivo en Hong Kong y él vive en Madrid, hablamos casi todas las semanas.”
Distance might make regular contact more difficult, but the friendship continues.
Sin embargo
After describing the friendship positively, the narrator introduces an unexpected difficulty: his friend seems angry with the world.
Pero
“Tiene una visión bastante negativa del mundo, pero conmigo es un amigo excelente.”
The narrator recognises a difficult quality without allowing it to become the entire description.
Students then combine short sentences using these connectors.
The goal is not merely to insert a linking word, but to explain the relationship between the ideas.
Understanding is not the same as agreeing
Towards the end, the narrator describes his friend’s difficult circumstances.
According to the text, he has worked hard, lacked sufficient time and money to enjoy life, and spends more than sixteen hours a day in a taxi.
These details provide context.
They do not prove that work is the sole cause of his outlook, nor do they establish that every argument is justified.
The narrator’s conclusion is carefully balanced:
“No estoy de acuerdo con todas sus opiniones, pero intento comprender cómo se siente.”
This becomes the central discussion point.
Students consider the difference between:
Agreeing with an opinion.
Understanding someone’s feelings.
Accepting how someone behaves.
Choosing to maintain a friendship.
They do not need to reach the same conclusion. They need to explain their view respectfully and support it with reasons.
Reading closely: evidence or interpretation?
The programme also asks learners to examine what is stated and what they might be assuming.
For example:
“They have been friends since they were twelve.”
This is supported.
“They first met when they were twelve.”
This is possible, but not established.
They could have met earlier.
Similarly, the text describes the friend as negative about many things, but it does not say he is unkind to the narrator.
These distinctions encourage careful reading without reducing the character to a label.
A final task: appreciation, disagreement and a boundary
To finish, students write a short message to the friend.
Their message must include:
Something they appreciate.
Something they find difficult.
A suggestion for future conversations.
A supported example might begin:
“Valoro mucho nuestra amistad y me gusta hablar contigo. Sin embargo, me resulta difícil cuando todas nuestras conversaciones terminan en una discusión…”
Learners complete the message in their own words.
The aim is not to solve the character’s life. It is to practise expressing care and disagreement clearly.
More than a description of a friend
The programme follows seven activities:
Warm-up → Story → Flashcards → Why Is It False? → Grammar → Ask Me → Debate
Together, they give students opportunities to describe relationships, compare time frames, connect opposing ideas and justify opinions.
The final question remains open:
¿Podemos comprender a un amigo sin compartir su manera de ver el mundo?
Explore My Friend Against the World with Teacher Miguel at Spanish Super Tutor.
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