Lesson Sixteen: Compras, colores, y drogas alucinógenas

David letting Jimena know that he would be happy to accompany her if she needs help lingerie shopping. Jimena, not so happy with David's offer.

Jimena comes to class today very, very excited. She just won a $ 3000 peso shopping spree! Score!

Of course, to go shopping, one must know the proper vocabulary. In my experience, these words are the ones that differ most from country to country. Musculosas, polleras, and buzos are all words that I learned when I came to Argentina—I’d never used them in other Spanish-speaking countries. It’s really helpful, too, to know the correct vocab when walking into a store here in Buenos Aires, because it’s a pretty intimidating situation. Many of the stores on Cordoba, Cabildo, Corrientes, and Santa Fe are small and boutique-like, so there is no avoiding the sales people.

I know it sounds silly, but it is extremely nerve racking going into a place and not knowing how to describe what you want. After months here, I still go in and confuse the hell out of the poor employee. This particular lesson has benefited me the most thus far because we are learning very colloquial, conversational language that I could literally go out and use right now. I promise you, Rosetta Stone (and most other Spanish language programs, for that matter) does not teach you terms like these that you could literally take to the streets.

After learning about clothing, we learn about colors. I learned that there are some colors that change in terms of masculine/feminine, singular/plural, and some do not change at all. Never knew this! Por ejemplo: tengo una camiseta roja/tengo unas camisetas azules/tengo una camiseta de color naranja. (The hallucinogenic drugs fit in somewhere in the color section--guess you'll have to watch to find out!)

We then learn about objetos directos e indirectos. These are nothing short of a nightmare, let me tell you. I don't mean to be discouraging—they are just pretty darn hard to get right. Por ejemplo, if you want to try on a pollera, you say: ¿Puedo probármela? Or, if you wanted to say “Perhaps I will show it to you,” you say, "Quizás te lo demuestre." This is, directly translated, "Maybe you it I will show." The Bueno, entonces... crew obviously realized that this would be a difficult structure to teach, and the color coding that they use throughout is really, really helpful here. The phrase is broken down, so even while the concept is a bit daunting, you are able to see exactly what is going on.


Voilá! Easy peasy. Sort of.

Bueno chicos, eso es todo. Hasta la proxima!