An Action Packed Lesson

There was a lot going on today. But I have to say, I felt as though in general, the class was rather distracting. Subject matter kept changing and I felt as though nothing was really discussed in depth. When I looked over my notes, I couldn't believe how much was presented in such a short time. I was really kept on my toes.

Part of the lesson that I did like related to giving directions. While I know left from right and how to go straight, I never managed to learn (ok, I learned it, I guess I really mean REMEMBERED) turn, continue, cross . . . and some other helpful phrases when giving or getting directions.

In addition to some directions, they also touched on doctor's questions, the different between asking WHERE IS vs WHERE IS THERE (In other words, Dónde hay vs Dónde esta) and imperatives (which I still don't understand) and lot of new vocabulary words. Or was it that they just seemed new because there was so much going on at once??

What I also did like was learning about some very useful verbs in Spanish: QUERER, TENER, and PODER (to want, to have and can/to be able to). OK, who am I kidding, I didn't really LIKE learning about them but knowing these three important verbs can get you a long way until you become more fluent. Although, apparently David and I were thinking alike once again. Both he and I think that verbs are, to quote David, "A load of crap!!". For once I say . . . WELL SAID!!

But I did really like the quizzes. The magic whiteboard would show a question or phrase in English and David (and I) had to repeat it in Spanish. I would pause the video and write down my answers. I guess I can say I am glad we weren't graded!! But instead of info just being thrown at me, it was a more interactive approach to remember these verbs.

But one thing still really confuses me, and I think I will have to discuss it more in depth with someone. The difference between I WANT and I HAVE A DESIRE TO (QUIERO vs. TENGO GANAS DE). I mean really, isn't wanting something the same as desiring it??

So I wonder, which is correct. Quiero aprender español o tengo ganas de aprender español??

Like I said, this wasn't my favorite lesson. I wonder if Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone throw so much at you at once??

Well, tomorrow is the weekly review phone call and maybe some of this will make more sense to me then. Until then . . . chau chau!!

Now That is a Scary Thought!!

Looks like David and I think alike. . . . sometimes!!!

In today's lesson, number 10 (I am offially 1/3 of the way done with Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish), David and Jimena were discussing the different things you buy at the supermercado. We also learned that there is a difference from "hacer las compras" (to do the shopping at the supermarket) vs. "voy al shopping" (I am going to the mall). It was shopping at the supermarket where I noticed a similarity in the way David and I think.

We learned about different types of food shops (for veggies, meat, bread, cold cuts etc.), different types of foods (i.e. canned, jarred, frozen and prepared) as well as the names of different household items. Detergent, soap, tissues, shampoo, paper towels, toilet paper. . . many of your household necessities.

Let me tell you a little story first. Last week while getting a manicure, I needed to use the bathroom. I realized I had finished the roll of toilet paper and wanted to let them know. Not knowing the correct word for toilet paper (and not having my dictionary with me), I gave it my best shot. I said, "Necesitás mas papel de baño". They apparently had no idea what I was talking about. Granted, I figured I might be wrong, but really, you couldn't figure that out?? Anyway, they kept pointing to the paper towels and I really didn't want to give them a demonstration. Thankfully, after exhausting other options . . .they kept saying, "Papel higienico". . .looks like they finally figured me out!!

Well, during class, it appears David's thought process seemed to be pretty similar to mine and called it the exact same thing. OY is all I can say. Let's hope and pray that is only thing we have in common!!

We also learned a little future talking. The phrase "GOING TO" as in "I am going to". Finally everything doesn't have to be the here and now. I had learned this awhile back in my other spanish lessons but had forgotten about it. It definitely will come in handy once I truly, truly remember it. "Voy a aprender español!!!"

Other valuable vocabulary that they discussed were some very useful medical terms. In case anyone could forget, I was laid up with a pinched nerve for almost 3 weeks and saw my share of doctors and nurses. Looks like this medical discussion as well as learning about toilet paper came just a few weeks late for me!! While toilet paper is a necessity and I can promise you I will NEVER forget it, hopefully these medical terms won't need to be used all that often in the future.

Something else I learned was about Cognates and False Congates (or Falso Amigos). Words that have a similar origin and mean the same thing in both languages. And then there is the opposite, words that look the same but have a completely different meaning. The one that every guide book seems to tell you about is "embarazada". It DOESN'T mean embarrassed, but rather pregnant. I am sure you can get yourself into quite some trouble that way. Hmmm. . . I am surprised David hasn't already made that mistake with one of his Latina chicas!!


All and all this was a pretty interesting lesson, other than realizing that David and I are just a tad similar.

Has Hell Frozen Over??

Well, I was reviewing my last post and I realized that for the first time since I started Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish and started blogging, that I didn't say ONE nasty thing about David. I was starting to think that he had turned a corner and realized his attempt at a Mr. Suave act with Jimena wasn't going to get him anywhere.

Well, looks like I was wrong.

Today's class looked like it was going to be very, very helpful for me. The major subject matter was telling time. Ever since I was little I have been quite anal about time and being prompt to the point of always being early. I have been wearing a watch since I was 10 and it irks me to no end when people are late. (As you can imagine, I do a lot of waiting around here in BsAs, as apparently I am the only one in town with this trait!!).

Anyway, the class started out well by learning different ways to ask for the time. "Qué hora es?" (What time is it?), "Me decís la hora?" (Can you tell me the hour?), and Sabés la hora?" (Do you know the time?). I have studied time before but I thought this was a really good refresher lesson on time for me.

Things with David starting going a bit down hill from here. After many, many tries over the past few weeks to get Jimena to have dinner with him, or go for a drink or basically do anything with him, he seemed to change his tactic. Jimena asked him to post some questions using the things he just learned about time.

Once again he asked when they could go out etc. To no one's surprise, he gets shot down once again. It was then that decided to try new tactic. He then asked Jimena when she has sex as well as when she masterbates and how often. Yup, you read that right.

I know I have said this before, but what are the odds that Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur or Visual Link would ever even broach that subject, let alone teach it!!

What was then surprising was that Jimena actually gave him answers. While initally taken aback, in her defense, I realized that she was just giving him any answers (another way to reinforce the information he was just taught) rather than answering him with REAL information. I get it now, she realized it was better to just appease him and answer than to just blow him off. Hmm. . .wonder if this will be better approach for everyone. Time will tell.

While no prude, I was just a bit surprised that this was a topic of conversation for a Spanish class. (Not that there is anything wrong with that!!) Just in case you don't believe me, here is a little peak:



Moving on. In addition to time, we also learned some very important words relating to time but in a different way. Mientras, durante, antes, siempre, nunca, ocasionalmente, generalmente, among others. (To translate, while, during, before, always, never, occasionally and generally).

Another hot topic, but also relating to time, are prepositions that are used when relating to a certain time span. Like, "Voy DESDE mi casa HASTA el banco." (I go FROM my house TO the bank.) and "Voy DE la cama AL living."(I go FROM the bed TO the living room.)

All and all I found it to be a very informative and slightly surprising lesson, especially to someone who is as concerned about time as I am.

As for now, I am quite interested to see how Jimena's new tactic will play out over time. Especially since she finally agreed to get some coffee with him after class. Tomorrow should be quite interesting!!

Chau, Chau!!

Mate Anyone??

I couldn't wait to get back to the next class since I knew the subject matter would once again revolve around food. But I had forgotten that David was also going to get a little lesson in mate.

If you know anything about Argentina, you know that drinking mate is a very social event. For the few of you that might not actually know what mate is, according to Wikipedia, "Mate is a traditional South American infused drink. It is prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate in hot water. The drink contains caffeine and has a pungent taste like a cross between green tea and coffee, with hints of tobacco and oak."

But it is so much more than that. No matter where you go in this city you see people, young and old and everything in between, with their mate cups and thermos sharing this time honored tradition with family and friends. Our first meeting with our first Porteño friends Victor and Hernan, was spent drinking mate. While it is an acquired taste, it was something we took too very quickly especially since we had so much fun.



I was curious as to how David was going to like it. Being a Brit and a tea drinker (is that being stereotypical??) I figured he would love it. But NO. HE HATED IT. He could not get over how much he really did hate it. I think he needs to try it again in a much more social atmosphere. It is something you get to share with your friends and at least for me, has been a very special experience.

After David's mate lesson the class moved on. And to be honest, I felt like it moved all over the place. Let's see. We started with mate, then moved on to some adjectives, and then over to some more food, and then over to some irregular verbs, and then back to some more food, and then a few restaurant tips. My head was spinning. I have to admit that for me, this was not the easiest class to follow. As soon as I would focus on a subject matter, it switched. I felt a bit exhausted when class was done.

But getting back to food. While I knew most of them already, it is always fun to talk about the different types of food at an asado. While I have my favorite cut of meat here (entraña which is skirt steak), being reminded about the rest is always quite tasty. Bife de lomo (tenderloin), bife de chorizo (strip steak), vacio (flank steak) and you can't forget about the achuras (innards). Who doesn't like a good chinchuline (intestine) or morcilla (blood sausage)? I have to be honest, I have tried them both and while I won't eat a lot of them, they are both pretty tasty when done right.



As a matter of fact this will all come in quite handy when my parents come to visit in a few weeks. We will be having an asado at my house in their honor. There will be a great mix of locals and expats with once again a great mix of English, Spanish and Spanglish. As well as steak, steak and more steak, some achuras and definitely some mate and a lot of vino!!

Hmmm. . .maybe I should get my parents to watch some of the Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish videos or maybe listen to some samples of Rosetta Stone before they arrive so they can learn some useful Spanish phrases.

Comete el alfajor!!!

Today was officially my favorite class. Of course the major topic was my favorite subject. COMIDA!!!

When the class first started, David was voicing his frustration over only knowing words in the present. He really wanted to talk about the past, more specifically his date the night before. Jimena did point out that it was only his second week of class and that he should be patient. To calm him down, Jimena did point out some things that you can say in the present, where people will understand that something already took place. For example, Hace una hora - an hour ago.

David apparently got knocked down a peg or two when he was out on his date last night so in today's class he was not his usual obnoxious self. Granted there were a few inappropriate comments but on the whole, I think he behaved himself quite well. But then again, it was a very important class (at least for me!!)

Whenever anyone asks me how my Spanish is, my answer is always the same. "When it comes to food, drink and the bathroom . . . I am good to go!!!" And I can usually say that no matter what country I am in. While my smoker of a husband knows how to say ashtray no matter where we go, I can always get me something to eat and drink.

Granted, I knew most of the food that they talked about but I have to say that I really enjoyed the discussion on alfajors. Jimena was so descriptive that I was truly able to visualize it. I even laughed at David's "alpha + whore" comment. Yup, my friends said the same thing when they came to visit. Besides steak and wine, I do believe that alfajors are my husband's favorite thing about BsAs. And I think his waistline will attest to it!!

But besides the actual food, I learned a lot of very handy Spanish phrases for when dining out. I am really looking forward to surprising my husband when I ask him to "Podría alcanzarme el vino, por favor?" (Can you pass me the wine, please?) When one eats out as often as we do, another question that we ask a lot is: En qué mesa nos sentamos nosotros?



I am pretty confident that neither Visual Link, Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur will give you quite the descriptive as well as helpful food lesson.


In the middle of all this food talk, there were brief lessons regarding among other things, the difference between saber (to know) and conocer (to be familar with/to meet) and reciprocal and reflexive verbs. While not nearly as interesting, they were quite helpful. But then we got right back to more food talk.

It was a class where I never got bored although I did get a bit hungry. Apparently there is more food talk tomorrow. Maybe this time I will have something to eat before I watch the video!!

Even Jimena Needed a Break from David

Well, I think we all know how I feel about David and I had promised myself I wasn't going to bad mouth him again. But really, wondering how long "things last" with Jimena and her boyfriend, just makes you want to call him a CULO all over again. Thankfully Jimena seems to be getting a bit fed up with him too, so hopefully next week she will ream him a new one and whip him into shape.

Anyway . . . .in the world of Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish, today is Saturday so today's class was a re-cap of this past week. Jimena called David at home (even she couldn't stand to see him again ;-) ) and they reviewed a lot of what was learned during the past 5 classes.

By the way, for those that were wondering, this is Jimena.

Jimena decided to play a few games with David to review his numbers, family members, moods, a few greetings, as well as conjugating some verbs in the present tense. All and all, quite the informative lesson.

In addition, there are some practice exercises for me to do in the support material that came with the Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish learn Spanish DVD. A great way to really reinforce what Jimena has been teaching us.

As I am being taught more and more new things (from what I had learned in previous Spanish classes), I find myself pausing the video more often to jot down more notes . . . new vocabulary words and useful Spanish phrases. It is nice to see my notebook filling up, ever so slowly.

I still find myself looking all over the screen at all the colors and all the words (both English and Spanish), all the while, trying to listen to Jimena. So at times I feel a bit distracted by doing so many things at once.

During all my previous Spanish classes (both private lessons and Visual Link), I found that I started to excel in writing and reading while I really lagged behind in speaking and understanding other speakers. I am really hoping that listening to Jimena, who ONLY speaks Spanish (no matter how much David exhausts her) will really help boost my listening (and understanding) and speaking skills.

One thing that was new today was Reflexive Verbs. I have been taught them many times in the past and while it all makes sense when it is explained to you, being a native English speaker, it is still hard to grasp. All a reflexive verb is one where the action is done to yourself. For example, ducharse (to shower one self) vs. in English one would say I am showering. (I hope I got that right.) The little professor popped up and did a great job of explaining it. Let's hope that this time it sticks.

This is a video that I might repeat again before I move on to Class 7 just to make sure that I am not too far behind Señor David since he really seems to be grasping the Spanish language. (My one and only attempt to say something nice about David).

Well, there may be a day off for David, it is Monday for me (and I already took the weekend off) so I will be back, bright eyed and bushy tailed mañana!! Chau Chau para ahora!!

Why Is She Laughing At Me?

That is what David asked in class today. And my answer to him . . .

"porqué sos un culo"

(did I get that right???) Thanks to the last class, I learned what a "culo" was (for those that don't know, it's an ASS.)

Well, enough about David for the moment. I decided to take the weekend off and took a little break between classes 4 and 5. I went to an asado on Friday night with a mixed group of both locals and ex-pats and was able to share all the new words I learned in class that day. I must say, while no one was offended, they were all pretty surprised at how graphic some of the slang words were that were taught. After many bottles of wine my friends were able to teach me some more slang Spanish as well (although I don't think I will share those!!)

I really enjoyed today's class (with the exception of David of course!!). Today was the day we learned "estados de ánimos" or moods. With all that has been going on with my neck (and to add insult to injury, my husband has come down with some sort of stomach virus within the past 36 hours), the moods in my house have varied quite a bit lately.

I actually took a lot of notes today and paused the tape frequently to jot down things that were of interest and might come in handy some day. In addition, they did mention something that I thought was quite amusing and quite appropriate for me (that is, before I moved to BsAs and started eating every steak in sight and drinking so much wine):

Hace tanto tiempo qué estoy a dieta! (It has been so long that I am on a diet!)

I am starting to wonder who Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish is really geared to. In today's class, for example, I think just a bit too much time was spent on "pedo". While pedo apparently means quite a few things, the end result was getting Jimena to admit that it also meant fart. I was beginning to feel as though I eavesdropped on a conversation between my husband and some of his idiot friends after many cervezas!! Now let me think, do they do this in Rosetta Stone?? Pimsleur?? Just curious!!

Overall I really enjoyed today's class since I was able to add quite a few new vocabulary words to my repertoire.

Apparently, since David's mother is still in town there might be some surprises in store for us. Guess I will find out soon enough.