Learn Spanish with Bueno, entonces... Thanksgiving sale!

Ok, so the guys at General Linguistics have a special offer for Thanksgiving!
Check it out here:
Give the gift of tongue!

Also, here's a clip of one of their classes so you get a grasp of what's all this about:



Happy Thanksgiving everyone or Feliz Día de Acción de gracias as my Spanish speaking friends would say!

Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish on your iPhone - iPod

Bueno, entonces... class 1 covered the areas of greeting someone, introducing oneself, nationalities, the alphabet, basics for learning verbs, masculine/feminine, and a million other things in between. I know, it sounds like a bit much for a first lesson, but I think it works because I genuinely became immersed in the program. Verbs, nouns, fem/masc endings, etc., are all color-coded, and there are arrows that help one remember that the verb is in past/future tense. There is also a little Argentine flag that pops up when the word or term is unique to Argentina. My eyes and ears and kept busy the entire time, and the dialogue between Jimena and David is often interrupted by the little profe guy teaching us something new, so my brain has to keep changing gears and I never zone out.
Read the whole review about this class here!

I just found this to buy Bueno, entonces... Class 1 on the iTunes App Store, check it out:

Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ

Lesson Thirty: QUÉ?!

Here we are, my friends; last day. I felt like I’ve learned a ton of Spanish. Honestly, going into this I thought I’d have a few laughs and enjoy the story, but I didn’t expect to learn much new information.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I now know much more history about Argentina, lots of specifics about customs, and tons of vocabulary that I have never picked up in the months that I have been living here. Bueno, entonces...you are very close to my heart. Or should I say…were close to my heart?

Okay, spoiler alert. Do not read further if you haven’t finished the Bueno, entonces...series.

First of all, Bueno, entonces...production, I am not sure how much I love you anymore, after seeing Episode #30. I mean, talk about leaving us hanging. Cruel!

Second of all, you need to finish level two. At least with True Blood, I know that it will start up again in two months. This whole open-ended thing is downright malicious.



Okay, so this is how Episode #30 goes down, más o menos. Today is David’s repaso, and the Bueno, entonces...crew is at her house partying while David talks to his family on the computer. He is also waiting for Mariana to arrive. Well, she was supposed to arrive over 40 minutes ago, but she hasn’t gotten there yet. David thinks that she stood him up.

Jimena knows, however, that Argentine girls make the guys wait—about forty minutes to an hour. While David is doing something, Caroline comes into the room, and they discuss the fact that basically Jimena has 10 minutes to invite David to dinner—like, on a date—before Mariana gets there.

WHAT?! Okay, not to get all Gossip Girl on you, but…this is pretty massive. After eating, breathing, and sleeping David and Jimena for the past month, them getting together would be colossal.

The suspense kills you. Jimena is being so painfully passive “Bueno, si, tengo ganas de salir. Que vas a hacer, David? Quizás voy a salir, talvez encontrarme con un amigo…” blah blah blah, woman, get to the point!

Finally, she and David decide to go out and meet one another for dinner—at this point, Jimena is quite anxious, as time is running out. We even get to hear her speak (and swear) in English. It is fabulous!


So, they are about to hang up and meet one another….and the doorbell rings.

…

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo. That is what we are left with.

Is there a pre-order for level two?

Lesson Twenty Nine: La Palta Se Fue

So…I haven’t taken a break. I think Bueno, entonces...episodes #28, #29, and #30 need to be watched one after the other. I mean, honestly, after the Jimena jealousy and rant about Martín, how could I stop?

Well, I was right, something DID happen between Jimena and Martín. Se rompieron! The palta left her. Of course, David is shocked, stunned, almost speechless—almost. In they end they agree that it is una buena cosa para Jimena, un paso importante en su vida.

I think something is going to haaaaapppeeeennnnn (!!!!)

So, that’s exciting. Screw True Blood Season finale, I’m all about the Bueno, entonces...big shabang.

Anyway, we learn about Nahuelito, the sea monster in Patagonia. It has the –ito included because it is small, unlike Nessi. Entonces, los argentinos no tienen un Nessi, pero tienen Messi…que también es chiquito. Pero poderoso, el chiquitín. (I just love that word, chiquitín!)

Then Jimena asks what David likes to do on his vacaciones. He liked to go bowling, nadar con antiparras and go snorkeling with his…esnorquel. We talk about traveling in trén, avion, micro, delfín. Yes, David once was on a dolphin’s back and he said that pensamos que el piel es como plástico, pero realmente es como una alfombra. Hm, interesante.

We finish with David giving Jimena relationship advice. Basically, he says that she needs to meditar and then choose David. End of story.

Can't stop now...time for Bueno, entonces... #30!

Lesson Twenty Eight: Martín, Estás Escuchando?

Episode #28 of Bueno, entonces…starts out with David letting us know that his father was able to reconquistar his mom! Hooray!

They went out to a restaurante intimo and then spent a night in the Hyatt Hotel. Hey, if my husband flew across the Atlantic, took me out to an intimate dinner and then had reservations ready at the Hyatt, I’d be swept off my feet, too.

So, David was pleased, to say the least—in addition to his parents getting back together, he got the house all to himself and was able to caminar por la casa totalmente desnudo. And, obviously, anything involving nudity is a treat for David.

After a little outburst from Jimena (we’ll get to that later) we learn about different types of alojamiento, or lodging. We have hotel, hostal (remember, silent ‘h’!), and hosteria (inn), albergue juvenil (youth hostel), cabaña, y habitaciones en casa de familia. We also learn words like cama doble, cama matrimonial, sábanas, media pension, pension completa, pileta, gimnasio, baño privado, baño compartido, etc.



We then get into a little role play action, where David uses his vocabulario de alojamiento to call Jimena, who works for the hotel. She takes down the reservation, and then…well, sort of stumbles when David said the reserva was in the name of ‘David and Mariana’. David says that she is celosa, and she doesn’t exactly come out and say that she isn’t. Hmmm..

Bueno, during the last class, Jimena brought some torta for David to try and he said it was delicious. Jimena didn’t believe him, and when David brought up her cooking during this class, she flipped. Really, really sensitive in that department apparently. She even told Martin that he can andá a cagar…which is a pretty strong term for sweet Jimena to say.

I’m intrigued and I think I need to find out what happens ya! I see a Bueno, entonces…marathon in the very near future.

Lesson Twenty Seven: Resacas y Tacaños

David’s dad got to Buenos Aires last night, and had a night on the town—hence we learn the term resaca (hangover).

David wants to help his father plan a romantic outing with his mom, so he asks Jimena for some tips. Jimena gets excited and decides to aprovechar de la situación by learning como hacer invitaciones. She also points out that David is terrible at making invitaciones, considering she has not accepted a single one of them.

Before we do the invitation making, however, we sort of jump to the history of San Martín: el padre de la patria (father of the homeland). Basically every other street, town, and city in Argentina, Chile and Peru are named San Martín, so you see the name around quite a bit. Makes sense, since they owe each of their independences to him.

After San Martín, we go into a little bit of a repaso de la actividades de tiempo libre. We also learn some new vocab, like parque de diversiones (amusement park), montaña rusa (Roller coaster), arte, cinema, etc. All of these are included in the ideas for a romantic date night for David’s parents.

We learn the proper respuestas to invitaciones: sí, dale, buenísimo, perdón, and me encantaría, (which is generally followed by pero..., so it is negative). Oh yeah, we also talk about despedidas de soltero/soltera: where the women and men disfrazan, act crazy en la media de la calle, van a la calle en ropa interior, and well, have a jolly good time on their last night of soltería.

We finish with some tener que…vocab, and then we learn the word tacaño (tightwad--I think it was mentioned before, as well), amarrete (stingy), avaro, and miserable (which are nicer ways of saying tightwad). Jimena also tells David that Porteños tap their elbow when they talk about someone cheap. I´ve definitely seen this here a few times!

We finish up with Jimena letting David try some of her torta that she brought from home. He loves it, but she thinks he is lying and she sorta flips. Hmm...qué onda, Jime?

Lesson Twenty Six: Que Lindos Recuerdos Te Trae La Mesa

David started his kamasutra class—apparently he’s a natural. He already knows everything they are teaching. He’s a profesional en la cama, and Mariana dice todas mentiras.

Okay, David.

Jimena talks about her cooking class as well, and she is not afraid to admit that she still has a lot to learn. David suggests that they get together and have una clase de comida afrodíasca. Jimena humors him and says no es una mala idea. But, she seems sort of down today. Qué pasa Jimena?

Well, está cansada. Jimena is super type-A and was up all night arranging her muebles. From here we segway into learning about the ambientes de la casa, muebles and the adjetivos we use to describe muebles.

Por ejemplo: el sillón es mollido (the sofa is springy), está silla es de diseño (this chair is designer), la cama está rota (the bed is broken), la mesa falta una pata (the table is missing a leg), etc. Oh yeah, and apparently a coffee table is called a mesa ratona, which is weird because raton is a big rat. Who knew?

After learning about indefinite and definite articles, Jimena decides to study the Spanish vocabulary for furniture. “What, no game?” says David. “Bueno, a ver…” says Jimena. "I have an idea," says David. "How about we say if we’ve ever done cosas intimas in any of the muebles?" "Um, ok," says Jimena.

It’s a very interesting and inappropriate game, in true Bueno, entonces… fashion. Obvio.

We end the class with talking the “tener que…” phrases and then about conchas…of oysters, that is. Concha is a slang term for female genitalia, more like an insult,(something tells me that one doesn't think learn about this in Rosetta Stone) but it is also a word for shell. So, cuidado con esa palabra. Unless you’re David, in which case you not only use it, but you use it with énfasis—during this lesson, anyway. He tells Jimena that you have to smash the concha of the ostra, and the creature runs out and dies. Then you have to have sex in the spot where it died or you will never have babies.

Mmm..okay, David.