A few years ago when you told your friends that you were coming to South America,most of them would have said to you: “You know it’s Dangerous”, “Are you going to be safe?”

Well, we are not going to lie about it, South America has its issues, but who doesn’t? Countries in Latin America have their pros and cons (los pros y los contras), and one of their main pros is that there is a big RISK (Peligro) of  falling in love with the country you visit. Have you ever talked to a Colombian about the civil war in their country, or better yet, read the appropriate articles about the situation and not ONLY the sensationalist press(Prensa Amarillista)? That is the biggest outcome on the image of Latin America in general, it only pops-up on the news every time something bad happens.

But times are changing (Pero los tiempos están cambiando) and in that contient that begins with Colombia and ends in Argentina, holds 371,000,000(Trescientos setenta y un millones) happy enthusiastic souls. Good things happen in Latin America everyday, that’s why they wake up every morning with a smile, because their issues are just a little part of their lives, and they try to overcome them every  day, just like you. When you step a foot in Latin America you will receive a “smile-tan” all over your face, and that would be reflected on your experiences of traveling or living in Latin America. The three things we recommend you are basic, be respectful (respetuoso), comprehensive(comprensivo), and have a positive attitude (actitud positiva) -  the recipe  to a successful experience with the Latinos!

So come to Latin America, read about it, practice your spanish, experience the culture, and try new things! It would be a mind opening, this culture is more than amazing! Here are some useful links for countries in South America!

www.colombia.travel

www.peru.travel

www.ecuador.travel

www.paraguay.travel

www.chile.travel

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Feel like learning Spanish to travel all over South America? Get Bueno, entonces… now and you’ll be speaking and understanding native Spanish in just five weeks! We also have clips of our Spanish classes on Youtube – go check ‘em out and get a taste of our teaching style.

Better yet – you can now get the first 40 minute class for free! Try it out here: http://www.generallinguistics.com

In March 2009, Lisa and Brad La Nasa (along with their then 15-month-old daughter, Geneva) left their home of Minneapolis, MN to live abroad in Montevideo, Uruguay. They’ve been living there ever since, and in our opinion, define the term “entrepreneur”. Lisa is an interior designer and recently launched her new artisan tile company, laNeva Artisan tile. Brad has an adventure travel company, Pangaea Travel, and a travel insurance company, Pangaea Insure.

Here’s what they wrote about Bueno, entonces…Learn Spanish in their blog http://urmovingwhere.com:

The challenge of learning the language  in Uruguay is that you have to use a local tutor, text or program.  Rioplatense is the local dialect of Uruguay and parts of Argentina.  There are some big differences between the Spanish here to that spoken in Mexico or other parts of Central and South America. You cannot learn Rioplatense from the huge online language program Rosetta Stone, or books published for other areas.

We just signed up for a new Rioplatense program called “Bueno, entonces“.  This is in addition to our normal private tutoring in Uruguay.  â€Bueno, entonces” is a completely irreverent, crass, cheeky language program that makes you laugh out loud- along with learning.  They describe themselves as Rosetta Stone meets South Park.  Word of warning: this is not for the easily offended. If you think you may be offended, you probably will be. If you want to check it out, don’t say that I didn’t warn you.

We think it is funny, interesting and certainly will not put you to sleep.  After the first few lessons, we’re hooked and can’t wait to see what happens next.  Kind of like a steamy latino-telenovela: very fun and a surprise at every turn.

Bueno, entonces is available in DVD’s or download to PC/iphone/ipod touch.

If you want to learn more about Rioplatense Spanish, click here.

Thanks for the review, Lisa and Brad – best of luck with your companies (and your Spanish)!

The Latin culture is full of intensity—there is passion in everything from fútbol (soccer or football) to comida (food) to amor (love) to odio (hate). Surely you’ve seen spoofs on Italians and their passion in everyday conversations, complete with yelling and almost-lethal hand gestures. Well, Argentines are very much like that, as most of them a) have ancestry that traces back to Italy, or b) think they have ancestry that traces back to Italy. The Latin culture in general is very passionate, but as the culture in Argentina is so largely influenced by that of Italy, intensifiers are key to everyday conversation.

Intensifiers are words that… well, intensify a concept or thing. They can be used with adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs. Some examples of intensifiers are muy (very), mucho (a lot), and sumamente (extremely). However, our favorite intensifier (and the one that is the most fun to say) is actually a suffix that you stick onto the end of a adjective: -í­simo/-í­sima.

The suffixes -í­simo and –í­sima are common to hear in everyday conversation. Just add them to the end of any adjective and voilí¡, it has infinitely more meaning. Example: El recital estuvo buení­simo! (The concert was great!) or El recital estuvo malí­simo. (The concert completely sucked.)

One more important intensifier to know when in Argentina is re. Re is similar to muy (very), but is the equivalent to English’s ‘so‘—as in I am SO tired (Estoy re cansada). Re is not necessarily used in all Spanish-speaking countries, but it will be understood anywhere you go.

To learn some Argentine gestures to go along with your new intensifiers, visit this site for some cool body language, or visit our Facebook Page to get updates on the Words or Spanish Phrases of the Day! If you want to learn Spanish, it doesn’t have to be boring – check out more clips from our Spanish classes on our Youtube channel and you’ll see how you can go from 0 to bi-lingual in five weeks!

If you know anything about us at all, you probably know that we are big on making the process of learning Spanish as fun and applicable as possible. So today we bring you some celeb gossip–because by reading it in Spanish, you’re really participating in an educational activity.

Right?

Shakira pasea junto a Antonio de la Rúa en Punta del Este

Pasando algún tiempo de calidad con su pareja, Shakira fue captada en Punta del Este, Uruguay, ayer.

Spending some quality time with her partner, Shakira was captured in Punta del Este, Uruguay, yesterday.
Shakira paseaba por la playa con Antonio de la Rúa, atrayendo la atencií³n de los paparazzi casi instantí¡neamente.

Shakira walks along the beach with Antonio de la Rúa, attracting the attention of the paparazzi almost instantly.

Despuí©s de que habí­an tenido su racií³n de sol, Shakira y Antonio se detuvieron en un bar para tomar algunas  bebidas antes de salir a la ciudad.

After they had share (ration) of sun, Shakira and Antonio stopped in a bar to drink some drinks before leaving to the city.

Ella lucí­a linda y casual en un negro polo de Led Zeppelin con pantalones deportivos, lentes de sol y botas negras.

She looked beautiful and casual in a black Led Zeppelin polo and sport pants, sunglasses, and black boots.

-Original article from NetJoven

While we can’t give you hips that don’t lie, we can give you something else that’ll up your hotness factor: become bi-lingual!  Check out the Bueno, entonces… program and join Shakira (and Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, Salma Hayek …) in the World’s sexiest club: the bi-lingual one. Start now.

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.

Felicitaciones, Fede!

Check out this article that appeared in BBC News about Uruguayan producer, Fede Alvarez, and his Youtube video, “Ataque de Pí¡nico”:

YouTube video leads to Hollywood contract

A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.

The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films.

Fede Alvarez’s short film “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack!) featured giant robots invading and destroying Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.

It is 4 mins 48 seconds long and was made on a budget of $300 (£186).

So far it has had more than 1.5 million views on YouTube.

“I uploaded (Panic Attack!) on a Thursday and on Monday my inbox was totally full of e-mails from Hollywood studios,” he told the BBC’s Latin American service BBC Mundo.

“It was amazing, we were all shocked.”

The movie Mr Alvarez has been asked to produce is a sci-fi film to be shot in Uruguay and Argentina. He says he intends to start from scratch and develop a new story for the project.

“If some director from some country can achieve this just uploading a video to YouTube, it obviously means that anyone could do it,” he added.

YouTube recently revealed the most watched videos of 2009. Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle topped the chart with more than 120 million views worldwide of her debut on the show.

Click here to see more of the article on the BBC News website.

Feeling spunky? Read it in Spanish!

Can’t understand it in Spanish? Then we recommend you buy whole Bueno, entonces…learn Spanish program. We also have clips of our Spanish classes on Youtube – go check ‘em out and get a taste of our style. Become a fan of Bueno, entonces… on Facebook to interact with other users in our Spanish-learning community and learn cool Spanish phrases!

Image taken from foodnetwork.com

What are ñoquis del 29? Well, in some South American countries, it is a tradition to eat ñoquis (gnocchis—they are potato-filled pasta balls) on the 29^th of every month. Not only that, but the ñoquis are meant to be eaten with either a banknote or a one peso coin under the plate in order to bring prosperity in the month to come.

Seems a little random, doesn’t it? Well, there’s actually reason behind it. You see, when the tradition started, people used to get paid at the end of every month (so either the 30^th or the 31^st of each month, with the exception of February). This means that by the end of the month, they were at their poorest, especially on the 29^th, as it would have been the last day before getting paid. í‘oquis are one of the cheapest foods you can buy, as they are literally made out of pasta and potatoes—two of the starchiest, most filling foods you can combine, hence, everyone ate ñoquis as their last dinner before payday.

The exact tradition varies slightly from place to place, but the concept of ñoquis del 29 exists in most of the South American countries that have a strong Italian influence, including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Enjoy your ñoquis, y que tengas mucha prosperidad en el mes que viene (we wish you lots of prosperity in the next month)!

Start Bueno, entonces…Learn Spanish now and you’ll be speaking and understanding native Spanish in just five weeks! We also have clips of our Spanish classes on Youtube – go check ‘em out and get a taste of our style. Become a fan of Bueno, entonces… on Facebook to interact with other users in our Spanish-learning community and learn useful Spanish phrases!

Alright, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the tango culture, this music video will not only help you with your Spanish, but it will act as your Tango 101 class, too.

First and foremost, tango is not just a dance.  Tango is a type of music, too, and the most popular tango singer of all time is, without a doubt, Carlos Gardel.  As you probably imagined, Carlos Gardel was Argentine, and lived most of his life in Buenos Aires.  However, he was originally born in either Uruguay or France in 1887 or 1890 (his birthdate and place is still disputed), and died a tragic death in a plane crash in Medellí­n, Colombia at about the age of 45.  His legend is still very much alive, especially in Buenos Aires, which is why we chose one of his songs to put up on the Pizarra Mí¡gica (Magic Whiteboard).

The particular song that we chose is called ‘Por una cabeza,’ which means ‘By a head (of a horse)‘.  Ya, it sounds strange, but the song is about a man who is a horse track gambler, which is a hugely popular sport in Argentina, even today.  In the song, he compares his addiction to horses to his attraction to women.  This song is incredibly famous and has been used in loads of modern films and television shows, so don’t be surprised if you recognize it.

Take it away, Carlos!

You might have noticed that this song is full of unusual words that you might have never heard before.  Example:  Timba (a gamble). That’s because a lot of them are either lunfardo (Argentine slang that originated from tango) or particular to horse-racing– so not to worry, you’ll get around just fine without knowing these words.  Unless you happen to be a fanatic of horse races, that is…

Like this way of learning Spanish?  Check our more clips from our Spanish classes on Youtube.   And don’t forget to visit the Bueno, entonces…learn Spanish to find over 18 hours of Spanish lessons that will actually keep your attention!  The whole series is available as a download for your iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, etc…, and all for $147 – Facebook Fans also get an extra $50 off!