13. toukokuuta 2010

Learn Castellano with Anssi, part 1


One of first the things you'll notice in Argentina is the language.

It's Spanish but in the beginning, you'll have hart time realizing it. Forget Los Serranos, most of your Spanish lessons and all the bad words you've learned from your Spanish Erasmus friends. (Btw thank you guys, one day I'll still visit you and get to use them!) ;)

First of all, call the language Castellano (~caste-sshano), in Spain you can speak Spanish (español). Here's some tips how to get along in Argentina.


1. Quick Español --> Castellano transform:

A. Pronounce 'll' and 'y' as 'shh', not as 'jj', for ex.
yo --> ssho (I), playa --> pla-ssha (beach) and calle --> ca-sshe (streat)

B. Change the pronouns 'tu' --> 'vos' (you) and 'vosotros' --> 'ustedes' (you guys). Use the form 'usted'  bit too much, it's a better mistake anyway.

'Ustedes' has the same conjugations as the pronoun 'them', for ex. ustedes tienen (you guys have). Say 'vos sos', not 'tu eres' (you are), otherwise use the learned conjugations. It's not 100% correct, but they'll get it.

C. Don't whisper, there is no "th" sound (as in "the" or "thick") in Castellano. Pronounce 's', 'ci', 'ce' and 'z' like 's'. For ex.
gracias --> 'grasias' (thanks), celcius --> 'selsius' (°C) and pizza --> 'pissa'

D. Tune up your Argentinean small talk:
In Spain                                  In Argentina
¡Hola! *kiss kiss*                      ¡Hola! *kiss*
¿Qué tal? - Bien, ¿y tú?             ¿Cómo andás? - Bien, tranquilo, ¿y vos?
...bla bla...                                      ..che bla bla..
¡Hasta luego!                           ¡Nos vemos!
¡Ciao! *kiss kiss*                      ¡Chau! *kiss*

E. Buy the book ¡Che Boludo! and read it on the plane.

F. When you are there, read the people, be polite and smile when they do. That's how I survived the first years in Berlin before learning German! :D


2. Bit more:

To be correct, the language is called Rio Platense, Argentina and Uruguay share the same language. Because of the history, it has also great influences from Portuguese and Italian. It has an own pronunciation, bunch of vocabulary and and a minor grammatical change. Here are some differences to European Spanish (according to different sources and my own experience):

Vos

The pronoun 'vos' has also its own verb conjugations. The differences are in the simple present and command (imperative) forms. To make the long story short:

a) To form the simple present, change r --> s, forget the diphthongs and mark the accented syllabse to last vocal. 'Sos' (ser) and 'vas' (ir) are the only exceptions.

b) To form the command form, drop the r in the end and mark the accented syllabse to last vocal. 'Se' (ser) and 'andá' (ir/ andar) are the only exceptions.

                               Rioplatense                        Spanish
ir (go)                     vos vas, ¡andá!                      (tu vas, ¡ve!)
ser (be)                   vos sos, ¡se!                            (tu eres, ¡sé!)
estar (be)                vos estás ¡está!                      (tu estas, ¡esta!)
caminar (walk)       vos caminás, ¡caminá!        (tu caminas, ¡camina!)
querer (want)          vos querés, ¡queré!               (tu quieres, ¡quiere!)
tener (have)             vos tenés, ¡tené!                    (tu tienes, ¡ten!)
decir (say)               vos decís, ¡decí!                     (tu dices, ¡diz!)
venir (come)            vos venís, ¡vení!                   (tu vienes, ¡ven!)
etc.

According to one article, you can use the form 'tu'  to address your parents or with a girl who is very close. Obliviously I don't have a clue about it.
                       
Verbs

Spanish has tons of verb inflections. EXCEPT THE SIMPLE PERFECT AND IMPERATIVE FORM, ALL THE CONJUGATIONS AND VERB INFLECTIONS ARE THE SAME! Just forget the pronoun 'vosotros' and address your friends like a groups of clients (ustedes tienen etc.)

According my own experience, there's only one difference in spoken language: the use of the present perfect and the simple past. In Spain they like to use a lot of the present perfect, while here they use simple past.
            hoy he hecho --> (yo) hice hoy

According to wikipedia, the future tense has been replaced by a verbal phrase (ir + a) in the spoken language. It's true, isn't it also in Spain?
            Mañana estudiaré --> Mañana voy a estudiar.

As I said, the correct conjugations are the same. However, in spoken language, the pronoun 'vos' has a few parallel conjugations. In past simple, some speakers tend to add extra s in the end, for ex. perdistes  (you lost). In subjunctivo, it's also possible to use the vosotros form and drop the last i.

                                    Spanish                   Rioplatense
the past simple           tu perdiste                 vos perdiste/ perdistes
the subjunctivo           Lo que quieras          Lo que quieras/ querás

Pronunciation

The pronunciation makes it's difficult. I found this compact list in the Argentina travel guide, I have nothing to change or to add so it's a direct quotation. The second one is really true, they learn in school to write with the correct letter, b is known as "big v".
  • In Argentina, "ll" = "y", and it's pronounced between "sh" (shop) and "s" (pleasure). Effect known as "yeísmo", nowadays, "yeismo" is becoming "zeismo", with the increasingly use of the "zh" instead "sh", almost an English 'j'.
  • The "v" = "b" = In some Spanish-speaking countries the "v" is like the English sound (as in "very"). In Argentina, this rule is not full-filed, with one exception: when someone is spelling a word they may pronounce it as in "very" for clarification.
  • There is no "th" sound (as in "thick") in Argentinian Spanish.
  • The "j" and "g" (before an "e" or "i") can also be pronounced like a German "ch" in "ich".
  • "s", in the end of a word, before a consonant, is uttered with a sound like the "h" in Hardware, except at the end of a word before a pause or a vowel.
  • "cua" is pronounced as in "quantum".
  • "qu" is uttered like the "c" in cat;
  • "z" sounds like "s".

Vocalbury

There are thousands of unique words in Rioplatense not used elsewhere. Usually they have a European counterpart and/or double meaning. However as foreign, it's not so dangerous. You can get nice laughs by collecting shells at the beach or by catching the bus, but who cares?:) Anyway here are some everyday words:

Rioplatense          English                   Spanish
acá                              here                          (aquí)
allá                              there                         (allí)
el auto                         a car                         (el coche)
el boliche                    a club                                    
el celular                     a mobile                   (el móvil)
el chorro                     a thief                       (el ladrón)
la computator            a computer               (el ordenador) 
  - el notebook            a laptop
ese                              this one                     (esté)
la heladera                 a refrigerator                       
lindo/a                        beautiful                   (bonito/a, quapo/a)
manejar                      to drive                     (conducir)
el micro/ colectivo      a bus                         (el eutobús)
la nafta                       gasoline                    (la gasolina)
el pancho                   a hotdog                    (el perrito)
la papa                       a potato                     (la patata)
papas fritas                fries                           (patatas fritas)
la pileta                      a pool                        (la piscina) 
la plata                      money                        (el dinero)
la remera                   a t-shirt                      (la camiseta)
el suéter                     a sweater                  (el jersey)

And the last but not least, 'che' does not mean anything. You can use it with a name to address somebody (¡che amigo!) or just as a meaningless interjection, almost like 'mate' in English. In addition in spoken language, 're' means 'really', you can use it to strengthen the adjective (¡re lindo!).

Bad language

And now it gets funny. Argentines communicate directly and use tons of bad language. Apparently there aren’t a lot of taboos with language. I won't advise you to use the language, but you have to know some words to follow normal conversation (especially at night out). According to my empirical research, the words above you'll here the most. Get the book ¡Che Boludo! to learn more.

Rioplatense                   English
el boludo                            Somebody who has big balls, can be highly
                                            negative or like comma in an informal chat.
  - ¡che boludo!                     - Hey mate!
  - ¡qué boludo!                     - What a cocksucker!
la bola                                a ball; a testicle
  - romper las bolas              - Break one's balls
borracho                            drunked
el capo/ copado                 a well liked person                       
cojer                                   to fuck   (*in Spain: to pick, to catch)
la concha                           a pussy  (*in Spain: a shell)
  - ¡la concha de                    - used like ¡hijo de puta!
     tu madre!                
el culo                                an ass
  - ¡qué culo!                         - what a luck!
gagar                                 to shit; to break (for ex. a deck)
la mierda                            shit
  - ¡es una mierda!                - it's pain in the ass
  - hecho mierda                   - broken
la mina                               a woman, lacks respect
el pelutudo                         used like 'boludo', always negatige
el pedo                                a fart
  - ¡ni en pedo!                      - no way!
la puta                                a slut, bitch
  - ¡hijo de puta!                    - a son of a bitch!, used like in the States
el puto                                a gay (insult)

* The words have entirely different meaning oversea.

Surf & Skate

Here are still some useful words on a board holiday.

andar skate           to skate
buenaso                 something really nice (~buenisima)
la cola                    tail (of board)
el cornalo               a holiday surfer/ a beginner
la ola                      a wave
la parafina             wax
la pileta                  a pool
la rampa                a ramp/ miniramp
la punta                 nose (of board)
remar                     to paddle
la quilla                  a fin
el suel                    swell
la tabla                  a deck; a shorboard (others funboard etc.)
el traje                   a wetsuit; a suit
el truco                  a trick

Sources:
Santillana - Gramática y Ortografía de la Lengua Castellana
About.com
wikipedia

Why you should learn Castellano? 
- That's simple, to meet the people, they're amazing! :)
   And the country doesn't look so bad either, 
   here's one example of my home beach!


Take care, enjoy the spring!

Chau
Anssi

6. toukokuuta 2010

The first weeks at home!



Yep "at home", I finally got a flat and left the hostel behind. :)

After couple months of frustration of Argentinean rental market, I got what I was looking for! I wanted a reasonable flat here in the dirscrit Alem and didn't want to live alone, the closer to the playa grande better and hopefully a one with sea view. (hehe you know me, I'm not easy to satisfy..) Anyway, I'm happy that I didn't throw in the towel.

I ended up renting a private flat with Charlie, a friend of mine from Buenos Aires. And we surely bet it right! Vital statistics: one block to the playa grande, one to McD, one to Alem L.n. (tons of nightlife) and a bus stop across the street, with colectivos carrying to the University every 10min!

The flat itself has 2 bedrooms and a living, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a dining room. I've the smaller bedroom; thought the dining is nice office. It is in the first floor and thus has not a much view, but with a rent and expenses less than 250€! (It's that cheap cause the contract is only till the end of year, in the summer they squeeze the every single penny out of tourist.) Anyway I won't miss the view, from the roof you can see almost whole city. In the morning I like to sip my mate up there. If the swell doesn't look so good, I can just sit down and enjoy the early sun. :)

AND the most important, it has a heating. It's not a certainty here! Combined to the poor isolation, I can only imagine how it's in the winter! I mean it's already getting cold here. Trees begin to drop the leaves and water feels colder every single time! Thought, it's still warm enough for t-shirt, in the evening you have to a hoodie or jacket.

Renting a flat differ a bit from Finland or Germany. The prices for the students should be more or less like in West Germany. However, they tend to swindle foreigners a lot! Take care, there's a lot of bullshit out there. If you are planning to come here, take a hostel and wait till you find a proper one. It is possible to find a flat online (for ex. wikiad or craigslist), but I wouldn’t recommend it. In many cases they just change the currency from pesos to dollars (4x). In addition, you have no idea of the neighborhood and logistics.

However, here they also they'll heard your foreign accent and try to get every penny out of you. Use the common sense and listen to your friends. In these couple months, I've seen tons of housing offices and private landlords. After a while, you will learn recognize the mosquitoes and the real prices.

My flatmate, homiest and hoods ;)
Behind there's playa grande and the skate park, Alem L.n. one block out of the pic
Living
Kitchen and my office
The master bedroom..

Another great progress is the studies. I promised not to write about it, but I’m just so happy of the first exam. I thought I would mess it up totally but I passed it! What's more, I got quite proper grade 7!:P The grades are between 1 and 10, you need 4 to pass the test (parcial) and 6 of all the tests to skip the final exam (final).

My Spanish is also getting better little by little.:) It's a slow process and you don't really notice it, but there's already a huge different compared to the past. In the first weeks it was quite horrible. I just copied the foils and hoped the prof not to ask anything. Now I can already focus on the lesson and don't mind the questions! (Although I wouldn’t begin a thread, it's not THAT sure yet..)

The first one done!
And the economics..


The last weeks have been horrible for surf. There hasn't been hardly any waves at all. When I came here, there was a good swell almost every day! I dunno what's wrong but the next week is still going to be pretty bad. Luckily there's a quite decent skatepark next to te beach. And the best thing, it's almost empty in the week. Here's some photos of last thuesday, another flat day. My friend Mati behind the camera.

Crook (a local nuthead did a fs rodeo in the same qp!)
Another
Fs rock
5-0
Feeble
A local hero
A 4-years-old?!

The hostel has been still like 2nd home. We don't have a internet yet in the flat, so I've been hangin out there almost every evening. I can warmly recommend the hostel,  great staff and nice location! Anyway, these photos are of my last evening there. A truly Argentinien parilla, delicious! :)


Carne (beaf) and chorizos (sausages)
getto getto
Why you should visit Argentina? 1. the people 2. th efood :)

Fortunately, Windguru is wrong always once in a while. Last thursday we got finally some waves and decided to head out south (with a nice swell playa grande gets really crowded). Finally the best waves were at light house, next to the Waikiki. A beautiful, sunny day without lectures and decent waves, what else you can aks for? 

Is this legal here? Sure
An Argentinian woudn't leave house without mate :)
They're coming!
A cold wetsuit, it never gets any better..
Bowsing
Cornaleando..
Evening sun
The Argentinian roads, you never know what happens.

The Cru, a local studentenclub
No-swell activities 1: 
Photoshop and a nice underflip of my friend Antti
No-swell activities 2

Chau
Anssi