Continuing with the "wishing I had know that before I got here" theme, today's class discussed the difference between "castellano" and "español." The former being how Spanish is referred to here in Buenos Aires and the latter being the terminology I learned in school. For example, instead of saying "hablo español (I speak Spanish)" in Buenos Aires, they say "hablo castellano." At a friend's birthday party shortly after we arrived here, I was asked if I'd rather talk in "castellano o inglés." I replied, "en español," as I assumed "castellano" meant Spanish but I didn't quite here the word. It was a little embarrassing and my wife later apologized to me for not mentioning that "they call it castellano here." This is just another example of how Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish is tailored to those planning on spending time in Argentina in particular - it prevents a lot of those awkward moments caused by not knowing the peculiarities of Argentine Spanish (castellano). So here is the more detailed explanation: "castellano" refers to the language while "español" refers to the nationality.
As a review class, I don't think this one did a particularly good job reinforcing the high points of the past week. Most of the weeks' material was glossed over to make time for the usual sexual tension-charged banter between David and Jimena. I did, however, learn the word for couch (sillón) which would have come in handy yesterday when we had a friend over to my apartment and, when offering her a seat, I motioned over to the couch and said "there."
One other small detail that I like about the classes is the teaser at the end of each class. The narrator always ends the class by giving you a snippet about what the next class will cover. It helps keep my interest and gives me something to look forward to. Tomorrow, we will apparently cover "ser vs estar (two forms of to be)" - basic stuff in the present tense, but still confusing to me otherwise.
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