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!

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.

Lesson Three: No Hay Monedas

(photo courtesy of: Buenos Aires Photographer)

In this lesson, David begins by asking Jimena why she didn’t answer her phone the previous night. Now, we’re not sure if Jimena is fibbing when she says she didn’t receive the call (I know never to trust Argentine cell phones) but I felt David’s pain when he told her how he was unable to understand the phone number of his latest Latin lover. I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a club or bar and attempted to take down a number, and have gotten it completely lost in translation. David is quick to recover, though, and there is no doubt in my mind that he will go out and try it all over again.

We also learn about retornables, a concept that I failed to notice on my first trip to Buenos Aires. You pay an extra deposit on your beer, keep the bottle, and you get it back when you go to the same store and buy more beer. Fabulous! David did, however, pay way too much for his beer and did the unthinkable: convert it back into his currency.

Oh, David. You aren’t in your country anymore. Think in pesos, not in pounds! I’ve met lots of travelers that have stayed in BA for a long period of time, and their #1 regret was paying way too much at the beginning of their trip. As we see with David here, it is quite easy to pay too much in pesos when converting everything back to US dollars, Euros, pounds, etc.

If one is coming to BA for a short period of time and money is no object, whatever you do is up to you, I s’pose. I guess one sort of goes a little cost crazy when they are earning pesos (such as yours truly) and will do the unthinkable in order to save a peso and collect/hoard monedas.
Ah, monedas. When one comes to Buenos Aires, one will find that cambio is impossible to make. Try bringing a $100 AR note into just about anywhere, and you will get The Look. The What-on-earth-are-you-thinking-trying-to-change-a-$100-AR-note Look. And the monedas. Don’t even get me started.

No one has coins in Buenos Aires. Or, at least they want you to think that. Every single time I go out to buy something, there is a little back-and-forth played out:

Cashier: $13.25

Me: Tengo $15.

Cashier: 75 centavos tendrás?

Me: No, no tengo monedas.

Cashier: 25 centavos tendrás?

Me: No, no tengo monedas.

Cashier: Mmm, dos pesos?

Grr. I am currently holding up the line, pretending to rummage through my wallet. It’s pretty embarrassing, but if I am really strong, I will hold out. And I am, so I do.

Me: No, no tengo nada.

Cashier: (Eyeroll. She then proceeds to open her cash drawer full of monedas.)

That’s sort of what one finds here in Buenos Aires, and Jimena is very smart to teach David about this early on. It’ll save him tons of trouble when going to a kiosko or panaderia, or trying to take a colectivo or taxi. That’s definitely the beauty of Bueno, entonces... It’s teaching me tricks that I would have killed to know when I first got here.

You don’t learn this stuff in Rosetta Stone, that’s for damn sure.

Who Am I and What Am I Doing?

(Me, looking extremely sure of myself.)


I ask myself that question every single day. And, let me tell you, the answer changes just as often as the question is asked.

Today, I am a US American living in Buenos Aires. Six months ago I was an Oregonian living in New York City. Two years ago I was living in Canada. And Mexico. And Germany. And Brazil.

You get the drift, I'm a nomad. A bohemian. A transient individual. To be honest, it's exhausting. New jobs, new apartments, new roommates, new language, new currency. You think one would get used to this, but I swear I'm just as frazzled as I was the first time I moved. This is why I've decided to settle for awhile...and, I feel I picked the right place to dig in.

Buenos Aires has got to be the coolest place I've ever been. It's the perfect mix of Latin flava and Euro sophistication. If London, Rio, and Paris were to spend a wild evening together, I feel that BsAs would be the resulting lovechild. And, it's cheap.

Apparently not cheap enough, though. I am working a job that pays JUST enough to scoot by, and because I am waiting on my papers w/ migraciones in order to get a job in an Argentine company, I am hesitant to get another full-time expat job. So, I needed something part-time. Something random. And of course, I did what any other smart-minded individual would do: I looked on Craigslist.

And, boy, did I find a schweet gig...and, even better, I got it!

So, what is this part-time, wonderous, fantabulous job, you ask? Well, its not really a job, to be honest. It's learning Spanish! Or, learning it over again. You see, I have just been given what is possibly the most rockin' gig in the world--take a Spanish course for free (that I love already) and get paid to blog about it! Mmmhmmm, lookin' forward to it!

I've take about 234902342 language courses in my lifetime...okay, maybe only 11 or 12, but who's counting? :

1) Spanish at Westview High School in Oregon.
2) Portuguese at Yazigi in Espirito Santo, Brazil.
3) Private Spanish lessons in Mexico.
4) Private German lessons in Mexico (yeah, I know, that was an interesting one).
5) German at Philipps Universitaat in Germany.
6) Spanish and German at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.
7) German with Rosetta Stone.
8) Spanish at the Universidad de Belgrano.
9) Spanish at a language institute called VOS in Buenos Aires.
10) Spanish at IBL in Buenos Aires.
11) Spanish at Portland State University in Oregon.

I'm sort of a language learning addict. In addition to learning at this various places, I also taught English in Mexico, Spanish in Oregon, and currently I am in the process of getting my TEFL certification. Language learning is my thing, and trust me, I know my shit. Or I like to think that I do.

Which is why I am stoked to see how this new program is. It's called Bueno, entonces... and so far, I'm loving it. I'm already pretty fluent in Spanish, but I love love love watching the episodes. Honestly, it's super fun.

I think it's pretty ballsy for Bueno, entonces... to have me do this. They were great in letting me know that wherever I take this blog is totally up to me, and they didn't tell me anything specific to say. Basically, I am not being paid to talk them up; I am being paid to take the course and let the world know that I think. So...brace yo'selves.