To Be or To Be, That Is a Stupid Question

Class 19 kicked off week four by discussing the basics of "ser vs estar (both meaning to be)." This is Spanish 101 and I am shocked that it took until the fourth week for Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish to cover this material. It isn't such a big deal for me having had formal Spanish instruction in the past, however, I think for people learning Spanish from ground zero this should be the first set of verbs covered in detail. If my memory serves me correctly, Rosetta Stone, spent much of the first unit on these verbs which I think is appropriate. That being said, as I've said before, Rosetta Stone tends to err on the side of overkill. I think Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish does a much better job of giving each essential verb its due early on and revisiting them as needed. I just would have liked to seen the "ser vs estar" discussion happen earlier. Today's class used "ser" and "estar" as jumping off points to discuss how to describe cities - lots of good around-town vocabulary. I learned there are two words for block (street block - manzana (also means apple); block of houses - cuadra). I still can't quite figure out the difference. This is sure to be a point of discussion at my weekly Spanglish class on Thursday.

Even though today's class was mostly review, I did manage to learn a few more intricacies of "ser vs estar" such as using "ser" to discuss the location of events and "estar" to discuss the location of concrete things. I'm sure I've screwed this one up countless times over the past few weeks. Just add it to the list.

I also picked up a new phrase that I would like to put into the daily rotation - "tener poco/mucho/nada que ver con" meaning having little/a lot/nothing to do with. I'm always looking to pick up new phrases that are a bit more complicated than the basic simple Spanish that I speak. This one should make me sound a little bit more like I know what I'm talking about.

Another thing that today's class reminded me of is how Bueno, entonces... Learn Spanish does a wonderful job of sprinkling in Argentine trivia, history, geography, and traditions into many of the classes. Today I learned a little about Mar del Plata, a coastal town about five hours south of B.A. by bus, and it has me a little intrigued to visit. It's nice to get a taste of the place and culture you are visiting while at the same time learning the language. In the past we've learned about such things as maté, tango, and dulce de leche, and the teaser for today is that we are going to discuss B.A.'s sex houses tomorrow.