In your back pocket: "vos" does not equal "vosotros"

The lessons keep getting more interesting and more informative. They are finally starting to make some headway and momentum is moving forward. ¡Más adelante! This lesson started with explaining moods and the difference between tener and estar when referring to your moods. Basically, you use tener when you need something. When you need to sleep it’s “tengo sueño”, but it can also be “estoy consado”. Pretty much just different ways of saying the same thing, and it helps for understanding others when they talk to you. I mostly always say “necesito dormir”, so it was nice to learn some other useful Spanish phrases.

They also quickly went over the difference between estar and ser, which both mean “to be”. Estar is temporary, whereas ser is permanent. “Soy ingles”, because I will always be English; but “estoy hambre”, because I won’t always be hungry. It is a small spec in the grand scheme of things we need to learn, but it is a huge difference linguistically. We also went over some other smaller things that I’m sure will continue to be reinforced later. For example, we learned how some adjectives proceed nouns, like in English, but generally they follow the noun. In Engish we say “beautiful girls”, but in Spanish it would be “girls beautiful” (chicas bonitas). We went over the shortening of nouns, formal and informal uses, and finally were introduced to the ever-important present tense. For practice we used the 3rd person plural (ustedes/ellas/ellos) to distinguish cultures, based on some very rough stereotypes, haha. Nonetheless, it was pretty funny commentary, along with the handing out of golden stars to David (the gringo). They provide a nice break from the class and keep you laughing while learning some stuff that can easily clutter your brain.

In Castellano (Spanish dialect of Argentina) they use “vos” for the “tu” form, which can be confusing. The program does a good job of introducing the form, and showing the way it conjugates formally and informally. It was confusing to me, because in Spain they use “vosotros” for “y’all”, but it isn’t used at all in Latin/South America. Thus, the first time I was in Buenos Aires and a waiter asked me, “vos quierés pollo” (with the double L pronounced as a –sh, instead of a Y) I had no clue what he was talking about. After some time you get used to it though. The class really is only for Buenos Aires slang Spanish, though. It’s different than places in the interior of the country. For example, everywhere else I have been the double L has been pronounced as a J. Apparently there is some animosities and differences between Portaños (people from Buenos Aires) and people from the rest of the country, both in language and culture.

Lastly, we went over comparative words. We learned about the differences between the same, identical, and similar (mismo, identico, parecido), each having its own characteristic. Oppositely, we learned distinct, different, rare, and unique (distinto, diferente, raro, unico), with raro having a more negative connotation that is more similar to “strange” than “rare”.

Again, the story lines provide for some nice and needed entertainment throughout the class. David’s mom is still at his apartment, and you can tell the story is going somewhere. I find it pretty entertaining.