To be or not to be.

David didn't have a great deal of enthusiasm at the beginning of today's class, after his disastrous trip to 'Mar Del Plata' (a small case of mistaken identity, ie. the wrong destination...) and I have to confess I did not find this class particularly engaging either, due to the fact that it was primarily committed to the practice of verbs....and I know this is necessary, but I like the more gossipy conversational classes Jimena gives!

However, I know, having talked to other people using Learn Spanish dvd's that Bueno, entonces... is generally much more entertaining and interesting that RosettaStone, so I can forgive it this one slightly less exciting lesson!

And actually, even as I write this I am remembering parts of the class I did enjoy...I like the way Bueno, entonces... imparts some historical information, and as a big history geek I was interested to learn Mar Del Plata was discovered by Sir Francis Drake in the 16th Century, and Jimena has sold a trip to Mar Del Plata to me, becasue she made it sound so attractive in the 'describing cities' section of the class.

But on with the verbs: SER and ESTAR. Vitally important, a little confusing, and typically, there is no discernable pattern for learning when to use which. Both mean TO BE, but SER is used for temporary location, posession and identification, and ESTAR is used for concrete location and mood amongst other things. Things like this are not easy to learn, as it is simply practice, and as Jimena says, it comes 'little by little', but BE uses enough examples and repetas these lessons often enough that by the end of the class I was feeling relatively confident in their usage.

So off I go to practice!