Lesson Thirteen: A Ella Le Gusta La Gasolina (y a Mi Me Gusta Ahorrar Plata)

Today we learn about the verb gustar with a little help from Daddy Yankee. This is one of those tricky verbs, because you have to pay attention to what you are going to say afterwards. Por ejemplo, me gusta la cerveza. The conjugation of gustar has to agree with the word that is following it. If it is plural, you need to add the ‘n’ at the end, and if you are talking about a noun, you need to article. Gustar is an indirect verb, meaning that you really aren’t saying ‘I like beer’, rather ‘The beer appeals to me’. To make it even more complicated, if someone says, 'Me gusta la cerveza. Vos?' you can’t say 'Yo tambien.' You have to say, 'A mi tambien.' It's one of those things that you only learn through practice, and a term that if you translate, does not make sense at all.

Speaking of beer and Spanish practice, I have to discuss something that happened to me this week at a little expat get-together I attended.

There were these two expats who were asking how I learned Spanish. Was it a certain class? A teacher? Did I buy Rosetta Stone and somehow magically learn to speak perfect Argentine Spanish?

Uh, no. It took lots and lots of practice. And lots and lots of beer.

Hate to break it to you, but Spanish doesn’t just “come to you”. I didn’t learn it with a magic program or from a teacher who told me all of the tricks. It’s a language, people. It takes time, sweat, blood, tears. Okay, well, hopefully not blood, but you get what I am saying.

While I can definitely recommend Bueno, entonces... over Rosetta Stone , content-wise, I can also recommend it to you in terms of cost. My advice? Never fork over hundreds of dollars for a program, because in my experience, there is no one program that will teach you everything you need to know.





Sorta speaks for itself. I did Rosetta Stone and didn’t really like it. Nothing was terribly stimulating, nothing kept me coming back. I certainly didn’t laugh. Now, I’m not saying it’s not great for some people—I’m sure it is. Again, though, there is not one single program that will teach you everything you need to know. What you don't want to do is buy an expensive program, just because you think that the extra $300 will teach you more. The price you pay and the amount you learn are not in direct correlation with one another.

So, how about you buy Bueno, entonces..., have fun while you learn, save that money that you would have spent on Rosetta Stone, put it toward a travel fund, and come down here for a little immersion?

Geniuuuus.