Buenos Aires Spanish Program

Spanish Class
Originally uploaded by elizajanecurtis

Los dos semanas pasadas, asistí una escuela en Congreso para aprender Español. Me gusta mucho, y quiero sugerir a todos quien quieren aprender castellano en Buenos Aires. I am feeling really excited about how much Spanish I’ve learned, I am still humbled by toddlers who can speak better than I can, but I can actually kinda have conversations instead of just nodding my head and smiling vaguely while I wonder what’s going on.
I liked this school because they let you sign up anytime, for just one week at a time, which works well with my erratic work schedule. It’s cheaper than taking private lessons and it’s fun being in a group class! There are up to 5 people per class, and for around US$100 per week (it’s cheaper if you continue for several weeks), you get 4 hours of class each day: 2 hours of grammar and then 2 hours of conversation. It is also nice that they cover some tenses and grammar used by other countries outside of Argentina, not just the idiosyncratic Rioplatense castellano spoken here. Fun times!!
http://www.baspanish.com/ingles/index1.html

galletitas!

despues de varios semanas locas, cuando yo trabajaba mucho en diseñas para remiras, yo tengo una semana de paz y tranquilidad y este semana cuezo galletitas! es mucho trabajo a traducir la receta a metrica mientras estoy cocinando. despues, traduzco la receta a español tambien, para mi amiga Lili. por favor, no se reír en mi cara porque la traduccion es mal! me dices que es incorrecto.

“TOLL HOUSE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES”
250 grams harina
1 cucharada bicarbonato de sodio
1 cucharada sal
225 grams manteca, templada
170 grams azucar blanco
150 grams azucar moreno
1 cucharada extracto de vainilla
2 huevos
1 grande barra de chocolate. cortar en pedacitos.
calentas el horno a 190.
en un tazon, mezclas harina, bicarbonata de sodio, y sal.
en un tazon grande, batis manteca, azucar blanco, azucar moreno, y extracto de vainilla
añadis huevos. agitas.
poco a poco, añadis mezcla harina a manteca y azugar. agitas mientras añadis.
añadis chocolate. agitas.
con una cuchara, pones masa en la placa para horno.
cada galleta 4 cm a uno del otro.

horneas para 9 – 11 minutos.

disfrutas!!!

Spanish podcast

Murga dancing, Carnaval
Originally uploaded by elizajanecurtis

Here is a podcast to help learn Argentinian Spanish. Translated from the website, “The idea of the Podcast is to allow everyone who’s interested, to learn the vocabulary and most common expressions of Argentina. To be able to understand, it’s necessary to have a previous knowledge of Spanish.”
Even if you can’t understand, it’s a helpful way to become accustomed to hearing the accent and fast rate of Argentinian castellano.
The episodes I have listened to so far, she has answered questions about local phrases for miniskirt, car horn, mama’s boy, and the many meanings of the word “palo”. I listened to the episodes about 4 times in a row to gain this level of understanding.
You can get it as a free podcast from itunes, search for Desde el Bano. She also has videocasts on her website:
http://desdeelbano.blogspot.com/

Spanish

my favorite word of the day: POPCHOCLO! = popcorn.
best misuse of english: a billiard parlor named “NEW MOUSTACHE”
Somebody recently recommended the Coffee Break Spanish podcast and I love it! It’s like those learn-spanish-while-you-drive language cassettes, but it’s funner and it’s MP3′s and it’s from Scotland so they have really cute Glaswegian accents. It’s very basic beginner level, and each week there’s a new 20-minute episode covering new material. You can get it as a free podcast from the apple store, or you can listen from their website. http://coffeebreakspanish.typepad.com/
Tune in and then come visit Buenos Aires to try out your Spanish! Actually the Argentinian Spanish sounds different from Spain or the rest of Latin America, so many of the words taught in Coffee Break Spanish will sound a bit different in Argentina. But it’s still fun and helpful for starting to learn Spanish!