There are ONLY 54 verb tenses...

Due to a few computer problems I have listened to today´s class without being able to watch it, and, although I could follow the lesson I have realised how invaluable the Magic Whiteboard actually is! With the whiteboard the class is so easy to follow, and I always know I am getting the correct spelling of some of these crazy Spanish words. I don´t know if programmes like the Rosetta Stone have utilised a whiteboard tool, but Bueno, entonces... has certainly made the most of the idea, because I missed the colour coded words and pictures when I couldn´t see them today.

David seems to be a little ill, (suffering the consequences of the first few weeks of hard and fast living in Buenos Aires I imagine!) so Jimena gives a quick lesson on how to communicate with a doctor, very useful to me, since, if I came down with anysort of sickness I would have absolutly no clue how to descrbe it in Spanish! Every class of Bueno, entonces... has very useful and practial lessons to help with everyday situations, as well as grammar and vocabulary.

BUT, talking of Grammar....I have been terrified by today´s lesson, as I have discovered that there are between EIGHTEEN and FIFTY FOUR verb tenses... what!????!! This is going to be impossible to get my head around...and David seems to feel the same way, although Jimena does not seem overly concerned' but she ALREADY knows them! Ah well, I have faith in Bueno, entonces...'s ability to teach me!

Looking to the future.

Bueno, entonces... Diez.....

And I'll open with a little tale of discovery. Last I was having a little dance in my favourite little bar in Palermo, and I was feeling rather warm, so went outside and declared loudly to my friend and the hunky Argentine she was chtting up 'Estoy muy Caliente!' and felt very proud of my Spanish until the both started laughing at me...before kindly explaining that I was talking about my sexual attractiveness, rather than my temperature....BUT, this is a mistake I have been making for my WHOLE trip in South America...oh dear, I flush when I think about all those poor people on the Inca Trail who had to listen to me brag about my 'hotness' as I marched past them in a sweaty vest and shorts...Ah well, I'm learning!

Often when I do not know a Spanish word I take a stab at adding an 'a' or 'o' to the end and putting on a vaguely Spanish accent, and a big smile, and in todays class, the Bueno, entonces... Prof. gave a little talk on cognates, or more precisely false ones, but I still feel it is always worth a stab in the dark....so until I have abit more vocab under my belt i'll still be speaking this weird form of Spanglish!

I have been only speaking in the present tense up until now, having had no knowledge of the future tense, but Bueno, entonces... really does make learning spanish easy, as, during just this half hour lesson I have now learnt how to speak in the future tense...now I can start looking forward again, rather than living my Spanish life solely in the now!

Que hora es, senor lobo?

Numero 9 of Bueno, entonces... and we are learning tell the time....ok you might think I should already know how to tell the time, but I usually just look at my watch, so I haven't really had to listen to anyone actually TELL it yet... Easier said then done, but Jimena makes things easy because she explains well, and only David could get 3 mintues of masturbation chat into a lesson on the time....don't ask me how!?

The best thing I learnt in today's class? the two meanings of the word esposas: wife.... and handcuffs, how brilliant these romantic Latinos are!

I like sentences with a set pattern and Jimena never fails to deliver, today with the 'de and a' and 'desde and hasta'. I'll now be walking along the street chanting to myself 'de...a....desde....hasta' which may earn me some odd looks, but I do seem to find the street the best place to chant such patterns, must be something to do with the footfall on the pavement....no se!?

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Mate......ummmmmm

Bueno, entonces...ocho and the ritual of Mate.

Mate is something that confuses me as much as it confuses David, and this is one of the things I love about Bueno, entonces... it explains there confusing Argentine customs to me! Like David, when I first arrived and saw everyone, and I mean Everyone, supping a green herby liquid out of a small round cup, through a metal straw I thought; ‘surely that is some sort of drug?’ so it was with great eagerness that I accepted my first offer of Mate, thinking ‘what can it be!?’ only to be hit in the mouth by a scaldingly hot, bitter TEA. (Well, it’s not a tea per se, but near enough!) But the ritual of Mate is really interesting, and I like the way Jimena feels it is necessar to teach it to David, and his reaction is pretty similar to how mine was! It’s a lovely ritual, but I think i’ll stick with my agua sin gas por favor. The synonyms I have learnt for today’s class are going to be particularly useful, because I was getting abit bored of ‘no me gusta’- now I can say ‘Que asco!’ (how gross!) instead.

I am struggling with the irregular verbs...they are explained clearly, but I simply cannot remember them....mas practico!

Oh, and on a quick aside...I love the way typically English names are used in Spanish...well, not as names, but ‘Linda’ means beautiful, and ‘Barbara’ means great...how lovely!

V is F and V is B.....

Clase siete of Bueno, entonces... and it seems David is not in the best of moods after last nights antics, but then that is only to be expected in Buenos Aires! And in comes Jimena with the great news... ‘we’re going to learn to conjugate the past tense...’ NOOOO!

The thing I often find with Spanish, when I am asking Spanish speaking friends to translate English sentences for me, which is often, they are unable to provide me with a direct translation, because it just does not exist. This frustrates me, because I can’t understand why I have to change what I want to say, and what they tell me to say does not seem to make sense to my English mind, but this is something I am learning to get used to, and today Jimena tells David he must too....easier said then done I’m afraid! For example, to me ‘hace una hora’ (since one hour) is gramatically incorrect, but NO, now one hour ago is incorrect because I am a ‘Spanish speaker’!

When David tells the little story of how he was laughed at in a restaurant I have a flash back of a similar situation- well not the whole outlandish story, but a few times when I have been laughed at, so this section on food is invaluable to save face!

The pronouncation of letters is often suprising in Spanish, especially Argentine Spanish, and the truly correct pronouciation of ‘naranja’ is something I have been struggling with when I order my regular ‘vodka con naranja’ in the famous Sugar Bar- so I am finding the pronouciation lessons in Bueno, entonces... VERY useful. In fact this whole lesson has proved to be useful, as I was trying to describe to my rooms mate what an alfajor was, and suddenly they popped up on the screen- perfect timing! But all this talk of Vodka and Alfajors in whetting my appetite...

Recap...

Classes on a Saturday morning!? Pobre David! But then, a re-cap is always useful for me, because I have such a terrible memory- and David is the one doing the hard work, well, not really because he is not taking things too seriously today!!

I enjoy the games that Jimena makes David play, but seriously? those maths questions were well beyond my numeric capacity even if she was speaking in English, and the riddles were pretty hard! The recap of verb forms and conjugation was most welcome, and the section on posessive adjectives went over my head the first time, but the rewind button was kept warm!

My first week using the learn Spanish dvd has gone really well for me,I have picked up some useful Spanish phrases and I have definitely learnt alot about sentence structure and verb forms etc...before this, when I was attempting to speak Spanish I was usually only using the the 'yo' form...and now at least I'm not going to be taking about myself ALLLL the time, I think all the lovely latino men I was trying to chat up before my newfound Spanish skills were finding me abit self-centred, when really all they want to do is talk about themselves instead!

Jimena...I have a quick question about your sex life...

Clase cinco, and David is getting a bit cheeky, a few sexy time questions are being slipped in there- very risqué (must learn that word in Spanish)!

I was a little worried about using a learn Spanish dvd for just one particular reason, I was concerned that I would have a load of confusion and that I wouldn’t be able to ask the teacher when I had a question, BUT, David always seems to ask the stuff I have in my mind, and also, the most amazing thing about Bueno, entonces... is that, if I don’t understand something, I can simply skip the dvd back, and play it again, and again, and again…until I do understand. This is perfect for those complicated ‘verb ending’ sections which never fail to boggle my mind when I watch them the first time. I think there is a little hole in the dvd because I played the ‘third person plural’ segment until smoke came out of the machine... But really, I think these grammaticisms must confuse everyone, and the soothing voice of the beloved Prof. tells me that I will get it eventually, so I do believe him!

Bueno, entonces... has certainly been really useful so far, I understood someone when they shot off their phone number really quickly in double figures (!!) I now know that anything ending in ‘mente’ ends in ‘ly’ and ‘dolor’ is an ache not a currency. Honestly, these things might sound simple, but THEY ARE NOT when you don’t speak much Spanish and are surrounded by about 13 million people who do, fluently and very quickly!

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Che! Guevara? Buludo!!!

Class four of Bueno, entonces..., and I’m now really finding out how useful these Spanish classes are…I finally know what it means when I hear the Argentine yoof saying ‘Che… Che…. Che!’ every other sentence- is just their way of over-using ‘dude’. There I was thinking they are all budding revolutionaries…

One of my favourite things about Bueno, entonces... so far is the fact that I am learning practical Spanish as well as the verb forms and grammar etc…there is no way I could understand the average Porteno if I only learnt the proper way to speak, there is so much ‘lunfando’ or slang here, so what Jimena is teaching David is really useful to me. This is a much more up-to-date way to learn Spanish than the Rosetta Stone, and it’s pretty fun…my roommates were laughing out loud when they came in to find David and I attempting tongue twisters and practicing rolling our RRRRs- at least they cant see David’s face! And we are all eagerly following the budding relationship between David and Jimena (she’s never going to leave the lindo lawyer!!)

The little facts that pop up in Bueno, entonces... are really interesting and useful, this class taught me a little about the history of Tango, and then jumped into discussing the usage of ‘Buldito’ meaning… well, actually, I’m not telling you, you’re going to have to watch it to find out!

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Learning to count was not this hard the first time!

Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish clase numero tres, and we have been studying numbers. But before I continue with that I would just like to compliment david on his choice of check shirt, very fetching! So, I can defenitelly empathise with some of the problems David has been having, for example getting confused when he tried to get a girls number in a bar...I just hold out the pen or phone whenever I need to get a name or number!! And David’s desire to find a beautiful Argentine to practice his Spanish with, I want one too! Best way to learn apparently....but for now Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish is fine!

Today Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish taught me abit about money in South American countries, and some other useful stuff, i.e ALWAYS have monetas (change) for the buses in Buenos Aires- and there is a huge shortage of change here, so as well as being a great way to learn spanish i’m getting abit of a cultural low-down, perfect!

But my favourite part of these classes is the Professor...brilliant! I feel like he is a souped up version of the Rosetta Stone Professor- Plummy English accent, but actually not taking himself too seriously...so he’s a bit cool, and I also learn alot from him- granted it is the ‘boring’ stuff but I like him so much I forget it’s boring, and he talks nice and slowly so I actually follow what he is on about! Regular verbs, Irregular verbs, made easy with The Prof.!

I like the way David makes mistakes, like any student in a lesson would, and Jimena corrects him, this drums the correction into my head. Sometimes Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish is so realistic I really feel like I am eavesdropping on a conversation rather than watching a learn spanish dvd, perhaps I shouldn’t be hearing some of David’s cringey attempts to get Jimena’s approval!!

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Talking posh

Lesson two and David and Jimena seem to be getting on well, shame she has a boyfriend, but I imagine her Argentine Lawyer novio is abit sexier and more exotic than good old David from Inglaterra...

Jimena is a good teacher too, she is easy to follow, hearing Argentines speaking slowly is unusual here in Buenos Aires, people live fast lives, and conversations usually follow the same pace!

The section of the lesson dedicated to formal greetings is great, because the circle of friends I have here do not really go in for formalities, so it might have been something that passed me by. Que tal? just would not cut it with the immigration officials when I try to cross borders for example!

I’m learning the main lessons that Jimena is trying to drill into David, but I think i’m benefiting most from their casual conversation style and that banter that is passing between them. The screens that pop up showing vocabulary and how to string togetehr sentences are great, but quite fast paced, so it is ideal that I can pause the white board screen and rewind- you certainly can’t do that with a human teacher...well, not so often! I love the guessing games Jimena makes David play, I feel this is a good way to learn spanish and shows learning can be fun, or perhaps that’s just my inner child?! But it is way better than the ‘game’ you play on Rosetta Stone clicking on a picture when you hear the word....huuummm.

Poor David, it seems he met some ‘linda chicas’ in a bar, but they found it amusing to teach him the opposite meaning....oh I can’t even begin to count the number of times I have heard of this happening, and it’s probably happened to me too, I expect I will have a moment of realisation at some point in this course of Bueno, entonces... lessons!

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And so it begins......

Entonces.....Before coming to South America I had a million people telling me the best way to learn Spanish, from 'you should listen to a language cd in your sleep, it really does go in' to 'get a spanish speaking boyfriend, then it REEAAALLLY does go in' (much more tempting!) But I have never been the best at learning languages, and when I checked out the Rosetta Stone website and listened to that plummy English man saying boring things about clicking on words and pictures I rather lost interest. But I was excited to give Bueno, entonces... a try because I heard it’s a new approach to an aged model, and the best way to learn spanish (also the girls in the Minature Studios office described it as ‘spicey’ and I like a bit of spice soooo...)

First impressions- real time thought process: Ha! David is a desperate flirt! Oh god it’s going abit fast...... I like the the Pizarra Magica (magic whiteboard)....getting used to the speed now.....can’t read, write and think......agaaggaahhhh...

This is going to be good, I prefer Dorky David and Jimena, the flirty teacher, to the Rosetta Stone dullard, I like the format, and the writing on the white board really helps me follow to chat. I have been in Spanish speaking countries for a little while now, so already know some basics, but the class has been really useful to re-cap some things, I picked up some useful spanish phrases, and the writing on the screen has really helped me with spelling, because often I just write any old thing down in a vaguely phonetic way! I have been hearing people say things while I have been out and about in BA, and obviously not understood them, but a few of them popped up in the lesson, so it has been useful already!