Intricacies of Pronunciation

Hola,

I met up last night with the girl I am doing an "intercambio" (language exchange) with. Her name is Mica and she is a very nice girl (pictured above next to the Argentinine bear from the parque). She graduated from school already and is working in an office and studying english on the side. Her english is very good.

It's fascinating to talk about language with her. I learn so much about the english language and of course spanish too. For example, did you realize that we shorten so many of our words in English? I knew this before but never really thought about it fully. People learn in school all these words such as "I am going to" "She would not have" and then they speak with native speakers and we throw at them "Im-gunna" and "She wouldn't'hve" all in what sounds like one word. And on top of all that, we don't even open our mouths that much to say it. That would drive me crazy! So you have to learn all the grammar and such and then separately learn what we actually say.

Another thing we do in English is cut out a million vowels. For example with the word "impossible" which spanish speakers would pronounce how it appears. We would only pronounce "impsbl." Or atleast thats what my friend mica hears, just a bunch of consonants pressed together.

Now with Spanish. I feel so lucky because I can learn a written word and know how the spoken word sounds. But it has been very difficult for my to adapt their pronunciation. I told Mica for example that it is hard for me to pronounce the word "inoportuno" (inopportune) because its hard for me to say their "i" (our tr"ee" sound) and right afterwards their "o" (our "oh" my gosh). When I was telling her that she also pointed out that I say the syllables in english when in spanish they are different. In this word, the syllables are "in-op-por-tune" but in spanish the syllables are "i-no-por-tun-o." My big mistake was that I was starting out with "in" instead of "i." I never though about how the syllables of a word change from one language to another. So whereas it's easier in english to say our "i" vowel right next to the "n," it's easier in spanish to say the n right next to the "o" vowel. fascinating!!! I'm going to be looking for more syllable changes now...

over and out,
Kati

Classroom/Real life blur

So....
I was just evesdropping on my host sister as she talks on the phone with her friend in the room adjacent to mine and she said "blah blah blah era un chupamedias!"

For those who don't know: chupamedias literally means a "sock-sucker" but as I learned in my spanish class the other day, they use it here the way we use "brown-noser."

I just LOVE hearing in real life the things I learn in class! It's so motivating and now I want to try using the word myself. Just love this study abroad stuff....

paz,
Kati

Night in the City

Hola,

One of the things I love about cities is that there are always things going on. Yesterday, aparently, was the 4th of July here. I know it was a day to celebrate San Martin (guy who liberated Argentina from Spanish) but I didn't realize it takes the place of 4th of july to commemorate their independence (which happened years after San Martin liberated them). Anyways, there was a free concert down in the city center. There were maybe 10 groups that played. The first 9 were just constantly changing in between songs. I heard some good ones that I'm going to download and it was fun to be in the middle of a huge crowd singing all the words and trying to sing along. Sometimes they put the lyrics up so we could actually sing along. I went with my friends Caroline, Leo y Ivan. Leo and Ivan (porteños) told us about the songs and why everyone knew the lyrics, or when it was a horrible cover and so and so.


This is, from left to right, Leo, Caroline y Ivan.

The last band was the best and veeery argentine. The music is called Tango-electronico. It was awesome, I can't even describe it. There was a fiddle, drums, guitar, upright base and bandoleon (which is like a squarish accordian that expands a lot more). Everyone was dancin around to the techno tango, jumping, tango steppin etc. It was a really great time. During some really dramatic parts of the song, right before the techno base beat would boom out, the bandoleon player would stand in the center of the stage with his bandoleon up in the air and let out long suspensful sound by dropping one end of his badolean the way people pour water into a glass from 2 meters about the glass. It was so intense looking, and then the booming techno underbeats would hit and everyone would start dancing even harder. It was awesome. Below is a picture of a bandoleon.

Afterwards, we went with Ivan, his friend Nico, and leo to Jose's house. I had met Jose at some party way back when and so now we got to see his apartment and meet all his friends. Turns out Jose is from San Martin de los Andes! Where I went just a couple weeks ago. about 6 of the people at this gathering of 10 or so were from there too. So I told them about my trip and I got to here the natives perspective of the town. It was about half and half in terms of liking the town and not. Its funny becuase there is one club in the whole town, and oen guy was complaining that its boring to go to the same one club all the time and that everytime he goes "shes always there" (pointing to the girl next to him. Its really like living with just the kids from your high school class.

We chatted it up late into the night with the people. They were really nice and friendly (like all the argentinians I meet). I find that language makes for great conversation in these situations. The love it when we yankees point out the frases and filler words they always say. They like ot hear us imitate them and talk about there accent. Then we talked about other accents in South America and they had a great time imitating all of those. Then they wanted us to do British accents and Irish accents and they loved that. We had a great night of speaking LOTS of spanish, learning lots of new words, practicing our filler words and colloquial phrases and just hanging out with this bunch. It was a fun night.

Hasta luego,
Kati

Language todbits - Animal associations

Hola!

I'm taking this Spanish class that is just great. We are using a book that is "the highest level spanish book" that exists (according to the professor.) The book goes far beyond the regular old grammar stuff, and gets down to the good stuff; the things one needs to know in order to master a language. I thought I'd share here some interesting language tidbits:

Animals
I didn't realize it, but in english we have certain ideas associated with certain animals. For example: "She's fat as a caw" "Eats like a pig" "Sly as a fox" "Here comes the stork" etc. Now here are some Spanish associations:

Vibora (snake) - this is spanish's fox. Someone double faced, sly and plotting is a snake
vaca - means fat just like in english.
hormiguita - a litte ant is a hard worker
zorro - a fox is someone very smart in their field
ciñuega - a stork is also associated with bringing babies
cabra - a goat is someone who is crazy
gallina - they also so you're a chicken when you're scared to do something
foca - seals are assicated with being fat
ráton de biblioteca - a library rat is our bookworm
una fiera - this is like saying someones a "beast" at something, its the noun form of fierce (which we don't have in english)

Pavo - turkey in SM de los Andes
Vaca - cow hangin out at the base of a mountain in SM de los Andes
Ovejas - sheep in SM de los Andes

How to Learn Spanish

Hola,

When learning a language, people often hit a barrier at a certain point. I think it usually happens at a pretty advanced point and it has been happening to my friends and me here. There's a point were you say to yourself "I've been trying hard for so long, why am I not better at this?"

If you consider two people who both want to become "fluent" in a language, but one is starting from scratch and one has been studying the language for 9 years, I think person starting from scratch is going to feel more "successful" at learning the language. Consider a single day of studying, where a beginner reads 5 pages of a book and learns 30 new words. The person who has been studying the language for 9 years might read 50 pages of a book and learn 10 new words. The beginner feels great, like he or she is making lots of progress. The later feels like, "great, I know 10 new words, why am I still not fluent? Even if I did this everyday for a year, would I still not be fluent? probably."

What I'm noting here is that once you have learned the grammar, some basic vocab etc. you have to change your strategy for learning the language otherwise you slow down your progress and feel frusterated. I've been feeling this way lately. I learned the beginning material (hola, como estás etc.) I learned the grammar (even complicated subjunctive, pluscuamperfecto etc.) I even know how to say fancy words like meticulous (minucioso) or obscure words like mud flap (guardabarros). If I want to be fluent now, I need to change my focus (not leave altogether, but shift focus) from vocabulary and grammar, to conversation and practice. I need to actively listen to the words that natives use (the equivalents to "like." "um," "ok") and start using them myself. I need to listen to the letters in the words that they pronounce here and imitate that. I need to listen to the inflection of their voices while speaking certain phrases or sentences. I need to see what is uniform accross the board in terms of how they speak, and what changes as a result of personal style o emphasis. I don't know what else, but these are the things I'm thinking about these days. I'm trying to figure out what I can focus my efforts towards so that I can keep making process towards beginning "fluent." PS I don't like that word, I think its vague and means different things all the time, but what I'm refering to is the point where people listen to me with ease and maybe, just maybe, might mistake me for a hispanohablante from ANY country. :) Veremos si logro eso.

Hasta luego,
Katie

Social/Political Problems in BA

Last night I went to my internship class. Since the internship is categorized as "Service Learning" we talk about Poverty in Buenos Aires and Argentina. It's interesting not only to learn about their political system and ways of dealing with poverty and other social problems, but then to think about how it is in the US. One friend said that he never appreciated stability until he got to Argentina. Of course the systems in the US are not nearly perfect, but there are some very fundamental steps we have taken that I am now starting to appreciate: we generally follow rules. (I'll get back to this)

What I found out:
- There are 4000 kids (5-17) that enter Buenos Aires everyday. A large number of them in situations of poverty (without parents, hungry, taken advantage of, etc.)

-There are lists and lists of parents who would like to adopt these kids, but the beaurocracy takes 7 or 8 years to get through in order to successfully adopt, by which point the family no longer wants the child. (Um, this seems very clear to me, there is way to much beaurocracy and something has to be done. The first thing I would do in office is slash the beaurocracy and stop shooting myself in the foot with this poverty situation, claro no?)

-Since adopting a child is nearly impossible, there is a black market trafficking of children in Misiones (north near Catarratas) where some families go to get kids.

-Raping of children is a major problem partly as a result of the machismo culture

-Buenos Aires is known as a "turist" destination for undereage prostitution

-Abortion is illegal.

-The only time a child may have an abortion is if he/she is violated and is "mentally unable" to raise the child. In this situation, a court judge must give the person permission for the abortion. In a famous case in one province of Argentina, the family helped the child go through all this process legally to get the abortion, and the judge took 7 months to finish teh case. At this point an abortion was impossible.

-Many people die from "abortos caseros" shady abortions out of a hospital.

-In the past, starving children were sentenced by a judge to a jail where they were locked up and given food. These kids were put in the same place where kids who murdered and commited crimes were put. A new law changed the rules, so that kids aren't put in jail with murderers when there only problem is that they don't have food, BUT no one created a new place to put them, so the kids are still going to jail...


There's more, but I'll stop at that. The crazy thing is that we were learning about all the laws that make changes for the better but nothing changes in reality. Our teachers (we have two, that work in social organizations in BA) explained to us that Argentina's laws are that of a very developed country, but nothing happens in reality. The discrepency between what the rules are and how people act is astonishing.

I then starting thinking about why we follow laws in the US (some of us, but a decent percent compared to Argentina) and why someone wouldn't follow laws. One component I came up with is that in the US we live in a culture full of rules (often times, in my opinion, too many). Many kids in the US grow up in families that are encouraged to give their kids boundries, (I see kids here apeshit on the subway or in public spaces, eating off the floor, licking cans in the grocery store, meanwhile their parents look on and don't say a thing) and schools that are chock-full of rules. Not only are there rules, there are consequences; detention, lower grades, missing recess, time-out, etc. Somehow this socialization makes many of us rule-conscious.

In argentina, from my short experience here so far, there don't seem to be as many rules. I don't know about lower levels of school, but UBA, the university I go to, is a free-for-all. It's my little hypothesis that this free-for-all culture has something to do wit hthe fact that this country has developed laws that few people care to follow. I'm sure there are millinos of other factors and influences, but I think this is an important cultural one.

Hasta luego,
Kati

P.S. There are pros and cons of everything- I don't mean to bash on the rule-less culture here, I find it often times liberating in contrast with the stressful structured life of the US.

Jugando Fútbol

Hola!

Today I played soccer with a team from a local university. It reminded me a lot of the good ol' days playing league soccer. It's fun to play with these team because girls soccer is not that big here so if you are in shape and want to work hard, you really stand out. I think the coach really likes us americans (there are three of us playing) because we play hard and it pushes the other girls to play hard as well. They were so-so in the pass acording to the players, but so far they have one 3 games (including the one we won today) and things are looking up! Today we won 3-1, and i scored 2 goals... :) It ws fun to be out there in shinguards, cleats, and a uniform playing with a team.

After the game, we went out to eat pizza together. I got to practice my spanish a bit and they taught me some new words such as estribillo (refrain of a song) hamoca (hammock) etc. It's fun to hang out with them because since we have practice twice a week and games on the weekend, we have lots of time to get to know each other and become friends. I've only been to two practices and a game but I think it will get better and better. I'm be sure to take pictures at some point in the season to post here. It's fun to get to know people over a common goal or purpose and then let things develop from there. Plus I'm getting lots of excercise! En fin, its good stuff.

I'm attaching a picture of the applecake tomas and I made at our hostel in San Martin de los Andes because tengo hambre ahora... We gave half to Santiago, the cool hostel owner who helped us find all those excursions. This is one of my favorite cakes ever! Its sooo easy to make too; 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 2-3 eggs, 6 or 7 granny smith apples. You put the apples, cut up in rough pieces about 1 inch by one inch in the bottom of caserole dish and pour the other ingredients that have been mixed together on top. Then in the oven (que sé yo, 350?) until its golden brown. We even used an oven that didn't have tempature markings on it and it still came out perfectly! Great recipe.


hasta luego,
Katie

Vacation in San Martin de los Andes

Hola, tanto tiempo eh?

I just recently went on vacation with Tomas to San Martin de los Andes in Patagonia. Its in the northern part of Patagonia near 7 huge lakes (sort of like the great lakes of Argentina). When we first arrived we realized pretty quickly that the city was out of season. There were hardly any people there except for some natives. We went to the tourist office to ask about what there was to do, but the two girls working there sort of conveyed the message "Why are you here? There's not much to do out of season..."

We waked to our hostel in the fresh mountain air and unpacked. We thought about taking a bus to Bariloche if we ran out of things to do in San Martin which seemed more likely all the time. That's when we met... Santiago!

Santiago was the owner of the hostel we stayed at. What an energetic fun guy. He built our hostel himself, and designed it according to ideas he thought of while traveling in other hostels. There was a huge spacious kitchen and sitting area when we walked in. The rooms were comfortable spacious and clean. Santiago also built his house, which was behind the hostel, where he lives with his wife and 2 kids. So far he seems like an active, great father, but theres more.... he's also a tour guide! This is what made the difference for Tomas and I because everyday Santiago had some fun adventure planned for us. Since the weren't many buses running during the off season and many of the excursions just ended or were pretty pricey, we were worried that we would only have the few shorts hikes near the city to do. Santiago proposed some other ideas and had us off hiking to the top of mountains and riding horses.

The first day we went to the Cerro Colorado and hiked through a range of environments (forests, snow, rock, sandy shrubs...) to get to the top. I don't think I've ever been in a windier place in my life. Someone had built a wall of rocks at the top to block the wind and I was nearly knocked over trying to reach it. Tomas and I hid and rested behind the wall, enjoying the spectacular view and then ventured back down.

The next day we went to the Cerro Faulkner which was much taller. Again we hiked through various climates, at times so hot that we had to be in t-shirts and at times to cold for just our jackets scarves and fleeces. We also had to maneuver around cows during thsi hike. They also liked to hike up the mountain side and we didn't want to piss them off. But besides the cows up there, Tomas and I were the ONLY ones around. So we made sure to scream at the top of our lungs when we got to the top of the mountain.

The last day, we rode horses around the mountains. Tomas apparently is really good at riding horses. There was a group of 5 of us with the guide, and we all stayed conservatively on the path, slowing walking along. Tomas on the other hand was off galloping through the pastures, giving his horse some real excercise. Who knew he was so good at riding horses....

So those are the highlights from the trip!

Hasta luego,
Kati