La frontera final!!

So 5 weeks of learning Spanish comes to a close with Bueno, enotnces and like all good stories we are left with an open ending! This class, as ever for the weekly review, was conducted over the telephone between David and Jimena, but was far less of a review than previous ones and more of a friendly conversation which went a little something like this:

David, our student, whilst attending a family party via Skype, was at home awaiting the arrival of his vecinita for a night of fun and romance, whilst Jimena, who also at home, was being consolled by her family following the breakup of her relationship…..does it get anymore soap operaesque!! Anyway the conversation continued with discussions about their future trips to Bolivia and Bariloche and it became apparent that la vecinita was not to show. Therefore, and with a good deal of hints from Jimena, the fairly obvious, although unthinkable at the beginning of Bueno, entonces occured…..the arrangement of a date between our hapless lovestarved duo!! But wait…..just as they were eagerly preparing to leave, there was a knock at the door……for me to find out who I guess I’ll have to go ahead with the next level of Bueno, entonces and continue to learn Spanish…..and for you to know whose door the knock was at, then you’ll have to get off your arse and purchase this entertaining course!!

So what of my own progress?? Through this course I am happy to say that my Spanish has improved and I’ve been able to grasp the concepts of many grammatical functions. Some aspects are still rather confusing and I would like to have had some extra activities to accompany the classes and perhaps a little more interaction. However, I have been entertained and learnt a good deal of vocabulary and slang particularly focused at living in Argentina. I am by no means fluent, and one will not become so through Bueno, entonces alone, so naturally I, like all us gringos, need to get out there and practice as much as possible with the those close to me and the ever so friendly locals!!

Hasta la proxima y espero que haya disfrutado su estadia!!

Una nueva y la ultima semana!!

How quickly time passes, as I am now into the final weeks classes of the Bueno, entonces program and my attempts at learning Spanish in this way are drawing to an end…..obviously I shall continue to practice and learn the language in other forms!! I must admit that, and in the light of being critical of some classes, today was rather entertaining with the continuing stories of David and Jimena and their decisions to reconquistar their partners…..or hopeful partners in the case of the student. This is value for money entertainment which I am confident can not be matched in either Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur Spanish or other similar such courses and in case you haven’t stumbled upon it before, here is a little comparison chart of Bueno, entonces and its rivals!!

Ok, so on with the lesson. Having laid their claims to reconquistar, the lesson provided a substantial amount of useful phrases for romance and romantic situations. These I have mastered to an art and are of particularly notable importance seeing as I am in a relationship with a porteña. Any gringo on the look out for some Latin American love would be foolish to overlook such useful Spanish phrases!!

Naturally the class included the standard confusing topic, with today being that in Spanish a number of femine nouns carry masculine articles…..el agua, el azúcar (sugar) and el alma (the soul) to name a few! Of course such confusion is a pain in the arse, however no hay que darse por vencido!!

An enjoyable and fun class to begin the final week, heres hoping it continues!

La tercera semana repaso!

Seeing as class 17 was a short one and the fact that these days I am anti work and study at the weekend, I went ahead with the Bueno, entonces weekly review lesson. As all good reviews should be Jimena briefly covered all of the topics which she had attempted to teach to David during the past week……with such topics being, personal descriptions, ropa, colores, adjetivos, meses, estaciones del año, la clima y el verbo gustar! And as appears to be the norm with these reviews the topics were reviewed through the format of games, which make the process of learning Spanish less intense and often somewhat more enjoyable.

Also learnt today, which can be confusing to the learner, that it is the norm to here people referring to the language of Spanish as both Espanol and Castellano, and I was once told by a former student of mine about Castilian language…..however like David on many occasions in today’s class, my mind wandered and I still have no idea of the differences and reasons…..for that I will stand by the simpler Espanol!

In general a good weeks review even though both the student and profesora seemed a little absent minded, perhaps due to Jimena conducting the class from the comfort of her jacuzzi, and should this situation contain any element of truth then I fully understand David’s waywardness. In my eyes the weekend begins Viernes por la tarde so three full days of practising possibilities before restarting on Lunes with the fourth week of Bueno, entonces.

Enjoy.

Una nueva semana y clase 13!!

And once again another week begins in the fine city of Buenos Aires and so another instalment of the Buenos, entonces language classes. Today was fairly hectic and I must say that had I not had previous knowledge of the conjugation and usage of such verbs as gustar then I would definitely need to watch this episode again. In my opinion, for people using these Spanish lessons with no previous experience of the language, this class went a little too fast and at times would therefore be a little confusing for the student. As ever David and Jimena were at their best to make things as simple and easy to follow but I cant help but think that Bueno, entonces users might benefit from some sort of “picture – text” recognition exercises, as are present in the likes of Rosetta Stone……but then of course it would not be possible to complete these via the fully portable audio Ipod option….ups and downs for every scenario!

This aside Bueno, entonces still retains its entertainment value and always comes up trumps with its decision to teach away from the norm and include topics such as slang……with today’s selection of useful phrases/words being caradura (jackass), desfachatada (jerk), cararrota (asshole or broken face for a literal translation) and sinverguenzas (shameless)…..with the latter being by far the more formal of insults!!

We also, today, had a little song from Jimena attempting to teach David the different vowel pronunciations existing within the Spanish alphabet, what seemed like a ton of other verbs which follow the same format as gustar, with encantar and qedar being but a few examples and the lesson also touched on 3 verbs with similar meanings parecer (to seem), pensar (to think) and creer (to believe) which so far to me have appeared as though they can all be interchanged without causing any major issues in a conversation…..although perhaps those on the receiving end of my attempts have just been appeasing me!

A mi me gusta la comida…….homemade milanesa…..just one of many fine Argentina dishes I have come to discover!

Que bueno es el fin de semana!!

Bueno, entonces, it is of course the weekend and naturally I had a few cervezas anoche, therefore for this reason I watched today’s instalment through my Ipod…..sat in the sunshine in a nearby park, in hope that my body would recover. Such a fantastic idea to have this interactive Spanish course available and with you at all times, making it fully portable!! Am pretty sure that this full video option is not available on other such Spanish language courses like Rosetta Stone. Anyway check out this little comparison chart and you can see for yourself the advantages which I am currently benefiting from!!

Today, as I mentioned yesterday, was a review, involving a telephone conversation between David and Jimena, and less intense than the previous 5 days of lessons, vocabulary and grammar issues. However a review is always useful as a reminder to the brain of what has been previously taught. For example, during this first week the lessons have covered greetings, giving personal information, emotional expressions, numbers and ordinal numbers, moods and the conjugation of present tense verbs like ser, estar (both verbs to be), tener (to have) and gustar (to like) to name but a few. Although this may read daunting it has not been so bad!

The underlying question after 1 week has to be, can I learn Spanish with Bueno, entonces?? These Spanish lessons so far have shown a good balance between the teaching of necessities and making the classes enjoyable, therefore maintaining mine and, I imagine, other viewers interest…..and accompanied with the additional vocabulary and grammar review written exercises the course looks set to have the tools to fully immerse the student into the process of learning Spanish!

Time to enjoy the weekend in true Argentine fashion…..carne, vino y mas cerveza!!

Slang…we all want to know!!

So here is an excellent theme that the Bueno, entonces team have decided to touch on…..the use of slang, which we all know has unquestionable value throughout our daily lives and in the case of a language course advances it from being a course of basic Spanish classes to a more comprehensive one……something that the likes of Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur spanish are perhaps unable to offer!!

The story it seems is develpoing into somewhat of a soap opera, or as they are known here; telenovellas, with David, the students mother arrriving in town for a vacation. Apparently she is a rompepelotas….but aren’t they all at times?…..of course in the good sense though (just in case my own mother should ever read this). The storyline is good as it adds extra intrigue, interest and some fun to learning Spanish.

Favourite and most comical words of the day have got to be lolas and tetas, and cola and culo…..I’ll let you search for the translations yourself. For sure I’ll be dropping them into a conversation with the girlfriend at the earliest available moment and if they are received with a slap in the face then my obvious response will be; che, boludo, yo no tengo la culpa!!

Chau, nos vemos!