Remember that Youtube video by Federico Alvarez that we wrote about earlier?

Well, over the weekend Yours truly was on holiday and while channel surfing, this vid popped up on Much Music. Big metal robot aliens attacking Montevideo sort of catches one’s attention, and we soon realized that the Uruguayan rock band, Snake, had worked with Fede and used his video as the backdrop for their song. Here’s a bit about the video, taken from the band’s site:

En Noviembre de 2009 Snake lanza el video clip de la cancií³n “Ataque de Pí¡nico”, el cual a los pocos dí­as y mediante Youtube recorre el mundo y es comentado y promocionado en noticieros y medios de comunicacií³n de Argentina, España, USA, Londres y capta la atencií³n de la opinií³n publica mundial. En Uruguay el video de Ataque de Pí¡nico rí¡pidamente es catalogado como el mejor video clip de la historia del rock nacional.

Vamos, Uruguay!

We’re waiting for the casting call.

Even though we may be sunbathing and having asados for Christmas here in South America, it doesn”t mean that we”ve lost our holiday spirit! Things are a bit different down South–but we could say the exact same thing from household to household up North.

Back home, oftentimes the presents are opened on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas morning; some families have elaborate dinner while others eat Dim sum; and some decorate their house to the max while others go for a more sparse look. In my experience, because of the widespread Catholicism in the Spanish-speaking countries, the holiday is more religious and less about presents. Generally there is a large dinner on Christmas Eve and another large lunch on Christmas Day, but the hooplah that exists up North is absent here. There are decorations, though, and the image of Papí¡ Noel does exist—people just kid about how he wears less clothing.

In the Spanish-speaking world, each country (and family) has different traditions (dinner, when to open presents, etc.), but the vocabulary stays the same. Here are some useful vocabulary terms that you can use to show off your Spanish skills this holiday season!:

Nochebuena = Christmas Eve

Dí­a de Navidad = Christmas Day

(el) regalo = present

(el) muí©rdago = mistletoe

(el) í¡rbol de navidad = Christmas tree

¿Quí© te regalaron para Navidad? =What did you get for Christmas? (What did they give you for Christmas?)

Año Nuevo = New Year

Nochevieja = New Year”s Eve

El dí­a de año nuevo = New Year”s Day

Túrron = A typical Spanish sweet eaten during the holidays, made of almonds, nougat, and sometimes rice or chocolate

Una rosca de reyes = a bread eaten on the 6th of January (stay tuned for a more in-depth post about this day in the New Year)

There you have it. Now, spike some eggnog, grab some muí©rdago, and make this holiday season an unforgettable one!

Felices fiestas from Bueno, entonces…!

It”s that time of year again.

Oh, you know you love it. Being stuck in traffic for hours? Waiting in line for ages at the airport? Nothing says happy holidays like a delayed flight.

We thought we”d take this opportunity to help you brush up on your transportation vocab—we know you”ll need it! While the post is a vintage one and is a bit focused on Buenos Aires transportation in particular, the vocab can be used anywhere you go. We know that an insultos post would also be appropriate at this time, but you”ll have to wait for that:

Driving in Buenos Aires is a total and complete nightmare.  It’s as if lanes don’t exist, and there is no right-of-way for anyone– it’s all fair game.  Heck, crossing streets as a pedestrian feels like you’re putting your life at risk.  But that’s besides the point, the point being that public transportation is very, very important here.

However, Buenos Aires residents are all-too-familiar with having to find alternative transportation on a regular basis.  Why is that?  Because public transportation workers have a tendency to strike.  A lot.  If it’s not the trains, it’s the buses, if it’s not the buses, it’s the subway… In fact, these past few weeks the subways have been shut down on random days due to huelgas (strikes).  Which leads us to our next item of business: transportation vocabulary!

So, like we mentioned, there are various ways to get around in the city.  First, there are coches (cars–can also be called carros or autos), which can come in the form of personal coches, taxis (same in English), and remises (private cars for hire).  Next, you have the colectivos (buses).  A slang term for buses in Argentina is bondi, but you might hear someone refer to a bus as a micro, too.  A bondi and colectivo are for short-distance buses (inner-city) and micro is for long-distance buses (between cities).

Next up, we have the trenes (trains).  First, there is the actual tren, which can also be referred to as the ferrocarril (but this is an old-fashion term– you will see it written, but not often spoken, like railway).  Then, there is the underground train, better knows as the subte (subway).  Subte is short for subterrí¡neo (underground).

To buy boletos (tickets) on the colectivo or bondi, you need monedas (coins), but on the other modes of transportation, you can use billetes (bills).  On the subte or the tren, you wait in an estacií³n (station), but on a bondi or colectivo, you wait at a parada (stop).

The vocabulary regarding transportation varies from country to country, but for the most part, auto, taxi, colectivo, tren, and subte will be understood everywhere in the Spanish-speaking world.  Lastly, if you are trying to find your way around in Buenos Aires, treat yourself to a five-peso Guí­a-T– this is the public transportation Bible.  Every zona (zone), every bondi, everything you need to know to get around the city.

Want to improve your Spanish even more?  Visit the Bueno, entonces… Learn Spanish website, where you can find over 18 hours of fun, interesting Spanish classes on DVD or as downloads for your computer, ipod, or iphone, all for as little as $147!

Other vocab not mentioned in the post include: el avií³n (the airplane), el vuelo (the flight), and el barco (the boat, ship).

Suerte y felices fiestas!

Some have their morning coffee and New York Times–we here at Bueno, entonces… have our mate and Google Alerts.

Today we stumbled upon a really great article about how to learn languages without breaking the bank. Even though we aren’t mentioned, we cannot agree more with the philosophy.

Start-ups aim to help you learn a language without breaking the bank

By Scott Kirsner Globe Columnist / December 20, 2009

Lingt Language Inc. is a Cambridge start-up run by two MIT alums, Justin Cannon and Chris Varenhorst, that offers online instruction in Mandarin Chinese at no charge. Lingt plans to expand to other languages and eventually will begin charging a small annual subscription fee – perhaps $30 – to language learners who enjoy the system and who want to continue using it beyond a trial period, Cannon says. “We think a lot of embassy employees and corporations are looking for cheaper solutions than Berlitz and Rosetta Stone,” he says. “There’s a real vacuum.”

Along with losing 20 pounds, learning to parlare Italiano or sprechen Deutsch is apparently high on the list of New Year’s resolutions for many people.

“Learning a language is kind of like getting a gym membership or a NordicTrack,” says Christopher O’Donnell, director of product management for Transparent Language Inc. “Jan. 1 is our biggest sales day of the year. But let’s just say there’s more impetus to start learning a language than to continue doing it.”

Transparent, based in Nashua, is part of a cluster of companies around New England that aim to reinvigorate how we learn foreign languages, using iPhone applications, Twitter “word-of-the-day” messages, Facebook groups, virtual worlds, videos, Web-based games, and speech recognition technology. They’re taking on established giants in language instruction such as Berlitz International Inc. (founded in 1878 in Providence) and Virginia-based Rosetta Stone Inc., which went public earlier this year.

Also part of the language learning cluster are two companies, Woburn-based 8D World Inc. and EnglishCentral Inc. of Lexington, which have raised venture capital for sites that teach English to nonnative speakers in Asia.

As with many businesses mov ing from the physical world to the virtual, there’s a cloud of confusion hovering over price: How much should it cost to become fluent in French? Berlitz charges $499 a year for its eBerlitz Fusion program, introduced last April, which includes online exercises and live group review sessions run by an instructor over the Web. Rosetta Stone, best known for its CD sets sold at mall kiosks and in airports, introduced TOTALe in July. It combines independent exercises, review sessions, and an online community of fellow learners: Unlimited access is $999 per year.

But start-ups and companies such as Transparent, which has 75 employees, theorize that a much bigger market of language learners exists – if the price is right.

Transparent built its business on selling language learning software (priced at $89.95) to diplomats, executives, and the armed services. But the company is now trying to find customers through social media, using its Byki subbrand: You can join Facebook groups (like Facebook.com/learn.Norwegian) or follow the @Frenchlanguage account on Twitter, which serves up a new vocabulary word daily. At Apple’s iTunes Store, you can find $7.99 downloadable applications that associate vocabulary words with pictures, in such languages as Arabic and Tagalog. (There’s also a free application, with a limited amount of content in 15 languages. Just search for “Byki” to find all of Transparent’s apps.)

Now, while we can’t vouch for the fun factor in each of the programs listed, we can say that we definitely agree with the accessibility to language-learning factor. Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Bueno, entonces… team has had their New Year’s resolution for some time now. Trust us, you’ll love it! Stay tuned throughout the holidays to see some majorly cool things take place!

We all have that obnoxious, unbearable friend. We love him, but he’s sort of a jackass.

We admit that the Spanish in this commercial is a bit difficult to understand, but you’ll see some examples of how a friend can be imbancable:

-Tells the punchline of your chiste (joke)

-Takes your food (or here, romper tu huevo frito [fried egg]) sin preguntarte (without asking you)

-Is obnoxious in the cine (movie theatre)

-Hits on your madre (mom)

-Knows all of your secretos (secrets) and uses them as blackmail

The commercial ends with a phrase “Es como somos, amigos.” This roughly translates to“It’s the way we are, friends.” Because in the end, we all love el imbancable. No one knows why, but we do.

They speak like a mile a minute, right? Well, if you want to be able to understand everything they’re saying, we recommend you buy whole Bueno, entonces…learn Spanish program. We also have clips of our Spanish classes on Youtube – go check it out and get a taste of our style. Become a fan of Bueno, entonces… on Facebook to interact with other users in our online Spanish-learning community and learn hilarious Spanish phrases!

Remember Jeff? The guy that blogged about Bueno, entonces...?

Well, he wasn’t alone! Cody also did some blogging for us, and today we’ve chosen to highlight his review of Learn Spanish Class 1. Enjoy!