Maestro

Maestro
 

This is a discussion thread for the Daily Spanish Word for July 8, 2009

maestro (masculine noun (el)) — master, teacher. Look up maestro in the dictionary

El maestro me dijo que escribiera una hoja entera.
The teacher told me to write a whole sheet.

Maestro, en España, es sólo para la primera enseñanza (tienen el título de Magisterio). Después son profesores (licenciados).

También existen maestros en otro tipo de enseñanzas, como artísticas o filosóficas.

Sócrates fue maestro de Platón.
Los maestros canteros fueron muy importantes en la Edad Media.

El coductor de la orquestra es maestro en inglés.
¿Es igual en español?

Se le llama director (de orquesta). Cuando se le habla en privado, puede llamársele "maestro" en señal de respeto, pero no todos lo aceptan.

Here Mexico the Maestro is in all the school grades.

As somebody said before, here in Spain maestro is the equivalent to primary school teacher.
The apostles also called Jesus 'Maestro'.
It is also used to refer to some musicians, not necesarily conductors.El Maestro Rodrigo.

Maestro, master (and magistrate) all come from the Latin magister
In UK a Schoolmaster is also a teacher, but not in the primary schools. The term is used in the secondary sector, but mostly in grammar, private and public schools. Our public schools are not public at all. Here they are the most exclusive private schools.

Another way they use maestro in Mexico is as a respectful term of address when talking to certain types of blue-collar workers. I've personally heard it used to address car mechanics, albañiles, and painters.

What does a "blue-collar worker" mean? :thinking: Thanks. :)

A blue collar worker es un trabajador que no puede llevar una camisa blanca porque se ensucia rapidamente. Por ejemplo: albañil, mecánico de autos

Yes, a blue-collar worker does manual labor, such as a factory worker, mechanic, construction worker-- any manual labor, as opposed to an office job (a white-collar job) or a job in the service industry.

Then Blue- collar is a worker in any opposed to office work.

And White- collar is a job where they can do investigations for instance a laboratory.

It's right?

A blue-collar job is manual labor; a white-collar job is an office job. (oversimplification, but fairly accurate)

Thank you for your advance.

Is the colour of the uniform which gives the name to the collar? I mean, here a mechanic, for instance, wears a blue uniform, I guess there is the same. Years before, office workers used to wear white shirts. Maybe the collar name also comes from the old collars which weren't sewed to the shirt.

First, I need to know What does fairly mean?

And Where can I use that word? Please you give me examples.

Now about the commentary of Irmamar. She is right, because currently, I use the white uniform at Monday and well, in the company has rules where we have to swear a kind color in the shirts.


I hope you can understand me.

Yes, originally, that is where the terms came from.

"... oversimplification, but fairly accurate"
"... una simplificación, pero más o menos (medianamente) acertada"

fairly