Was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected ending to the dramatic love story between Jimena, the hot but uptight Portena teacher and David, the feckless, funny young Brit who’s been trying it on for five weeks. Turns out it was Jimena who tried all through this class to close the deal (what’s ‘rebound guy’ in Spanish?!) but at the last minute her plan was foiled (or so it seems) by another woman. Pathetically, it makes me really want to get a hold of level 2 – which isn’t even made yet!! Oh the suspense…

Back in my real life, I’m delighted by the progress I’ve made, but I have to admit, I’ve been studying my notes after each class and that’s made a big difference. I’ve organised for a private teacher three times a week to pick up from here, and It’s great to start with a good solid base already. I have a feeling he won’t be as entertaining as the odd couple I’ve shared the past month with, but hopefully I’ll keep moving at a good pace. Now that I need it more for work and other classes, I have a reason to do my homework! Plus, well, there may be a little love story in the air for me too, with one of the guys from kung fu. We’re going on a date at he end of the week, and he speaks very little English, but he seems to be the only guy in the city with enough sense to play it cool, so I’m interested already! Time to go back through all the going out and small-talk vocab I’ve been learning – I guess you’ll have to be in suspense about what happens, much like the end of this series!!

But if I had to do a little summing-up, it would be this: Buenos Aires is an amazing city, with something for everyone. And although the people (contrary to their reputation) are great, and will speak English to you if they possibly can, having some kind of Spanish ability is so incredibly valuable if you want to get the most out of this place. Indeed, any Spanish-speaking country.

I’ll be honest, there were certain moments where this Spanish program moved too slow, or too fast, or the plot got in the way, or the characters were annoying. But at the end of the day, Bueno entonces is the ONLY Spanish learning system that has kept me interested and entertained enough to stick with it. It’s completely different from anything else out there, and made me laugh more than most ‘hilarious’ films and TV shows I’ve seen. The combination of two likable people, funny animation, colour-coding, spanish immersion, and the whiteboard system means that I have learned more Spanish than I ever expected, and all from sitting in bed with a cup of tea for a half hour every morning! So if you’re considering it, and want to learn Spanish with out being completely bored and frustrated, I’d say buy Bueno, entonces. Really, give it a try – you have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

Good luck, hasta luego!
Jess

I have to admit, I’m going to miss the bumbling old ‘MC Grammar’ too. Here’s a little pic in tribute to him, and a video in remembrance below. Yes, his jokes were really bad, and yes, he did desert us a bit near the end (we didn’t need him as much), but he was like the embarrassing old uncle at a party – kept popping up with dodgy innuendo when you least expected it! Plus, he said it was ok to be completely lost, so I’ll always love him for that.

As for me, I’m still loving BA, but a bit homesick because I got a big care package from my family today! Highlights included tea (because the common black tea here is like ‘dishwater’ as we say in Ireland), organic chocolate (cue two extra sessions with personal trainer), pajamas and fluffy socks (even though it’s getting HOT here now!) and books and magazines (for when I’m not, ahem, reading Borges int he original language). So now I’ve decided, it’s not that I want to go home, but to fly the whole family out here instead. Better send them a copy of Bueno, entonces… Learn Spanish to get ready!!

Anyway, back from that tangent – third last class was cool and really useful for the traveler. We learned about different types of lodging, hotel vocab and role-play (yup, D milked it!) for talking to receptionists and the like. I still feel like there’s too much English going on though – surely by now 90% of the class should be in Spanish, but Jime did reprimand our British troublemaker for that so tomorrow might be better.

We learned how to say ‘go to hell’ – Andé a cagar - which would have been REALLY useful last night. Myself and the girls headed out to Amerika – BA’s biggest and most popular gay club. Thought it might be a welcome night off from the aggressive men in all the other bars, but it was twice as bad! I think that because the place is pretty raunchy (there’s a ‘black tunnel’ where you can go and have…well, whatever you want) that the straight guys who go there think that the girls will be easy. I almost had to break out the kung fu!! Entrance was expensive because there was an open bar, but the drinks were, naturally, abrasive as toilet cleaner, so i couldn’t rely on them to dull the painful electronica music and later, a terrible floorshow that was like ‘The Village People massacre Cirque du Soleil’. Que noche loca!!

But still a few more days to go before I’m done with my basic course. Today’s class was good, with a little history lesson on the liberation of South America from Spanish colonizers, but it seems to me like David is speaking more and more English. It’s mostly stuff to do with the storyline (his parents, her boyfriend, his trying to get into her knickers), which sometimes seems to overshadow the actual Spanish learning, but they use it to flow smoothly from theme to theme, and to practice the new vocab. Let’s hope that he gets a second wind for the last three lessons – we’ve learned so much David, time to start using it – open your wings and fly!!

It’s undeniable now that I’m using more and more Spanish – with the girls at home, with the guys in Wing Chun, with the dancers at Tango. The real test will be when Erick arrives next week. He’s an old friend from Costa Rica, and I’ve instructed him to only speak in Spanish when he comes to visit. He was a bit surprised because last time we saw each other a few months ago I had zero Spanish, so I hope I’m gonna surprise him (no, not with the prepositions…!!) Plus, he’s from Central America so whenever he says something I don’t understand or I say something ridiculous, I can just say nonchalantly, “oh, that’s the Porteno dialect…”

So, not much else to write today. I’m pretty pleased with my language skills, and a bit sad that the classes are almost over. They’ll have to make a Bueno, entonces… intermediate, so we don’t suffer withdrawal symptoms. Hey, maybe they could find a hot Porteno and I could be the cheeky student. So much potential for prepositions…..!

So today was a bit of verb conjugations, which was more pleasant than it sounds, and I’m delighted to have learned how to say “I have the desire to give you cuddles” – I can’t begin to tell you how often I have needed that phrase here (ok, none, but now I’m well equipped for the future. In case I meet a bunny, or a granny or something).

The storyline of the lessons seems to be taking up a lot of the time these days, but they’re throwing in new words and phrases all the time so it’s useful if a bit surreal (you have to check out the series for yourself – her boyfriend is cheating on her with a hotdog, his mother is sleeping with an underage tanguero) We learned good vocab to do with relationships and being hearbroken, so I’ve got everything I need for a quick fling and the painful aftermath, should I so need it!

And I really am using my Spanish a lot more now. The other night I went to my first Argentinian hen party (nope, sadly no strippers) and managed to chat to the Portenas about all kinds of stuff. Well, they talked and I threw in a phrase here and there, but I definitely wasn’t as lost as I would have been four weeks ago. I feel like I started out as a 1.5/10 in Spanish, and now I’m a good solid 4. Maybe if I go back over my notes a bit and concentrate hard this week, I might even finish feeling like a five. And that’s pretty good for a few weeks of laughing at a computer program! Tomorrow is going to be a typical day of shooting class, personal trainer, wing chun and then tango. Thank God these nifty Spanish classes are only half an hour or I’d never fit them in!

Which is why today’s lesson on transport was so helpful! (see what I did there? Smooth…) Really though, good stuff for buying tickets and taking buses and the like. Also, more head-frying info on when to use ‘take’ and ‘bring’ and ‘come’ and ‘go’. Hell, I don’t even know how to use the former properly in English!!

But there is one thing which has been bugging me for a while – there’s these other two characters – a guy and a girl – who occasionally fly across the screen with grammer essentials, but I have no idea who they are! They were never introduced properly at the beginning, and there seems to be a kind of parallel love-hate relationship going on between them but it takes like half the series to catch up on it, because you have no idea that they’re connected, or indeed talking about eachother! Then at the end of one of the lessons recently the narrator says “So, something happening there between Laura and Manuel” and you’re like “who’s…? – ahhhhh”. Anyway, that’s just a sidenote.

So a review and one week left – I’m wondering if we’ll get to do the past tense before our adventure together comes to a close. It would be pretty useful for when people say “Wow, what great Spanish you have!” and I have to explain that I studied with Bueno, entonces… Learn Spanish and that I watched a lesson every day etc. Also, if I happen to meet anyone who speaks Spanish when I get home, I can say that I lived in Buenos Aires, I danced lots of tango, the food was great, but the men were a serious disappointment!

I’m already starting to panic about what I’m going to do when the Bueno, entonces… Learn Spanish series is over… Only eight lessons to go! Aw, I’m gonna miss these guys