spaces, automator, and international help

Hello everyone. I am a new Mac user, so far its a great experience.

I bought the macbook and it has a program called SPACES. Anyone know what it does, what its for and how to use it? Same goes for Automator.

Furthermore, I added a language to the computer, and every time I turn on the mac the key shortcut to move between languages doesnt work. I have to uncheck the language box and recheck it for the shortcut (cmnd+space) to work again. Could the all mighty mac have a bug?

Thanks for the help. This is a great forum.

Spaces, creates separate desktops and application groups
Apple - Mac OS X Leopard - Features - Spaces

Automator is a simple drag and drop scripting system to automate common tasks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automator_(software)