School Actually Takes Lots of Time

**News Flash**

School is time consuming. 

I mean, the actual four hours a day isn't incredibly consuming, but add in the review and homework time (plus the additional sleeping time I've been logging due to afternoon classes...) and the result is the blog gets shafted. 

The good news is that I passed last week's test with flying colors and this week began the next level of classes.  The bad news is that the next level is still a really basic level, I have a lot of work to do. 

Wish me luck - I'll find time to write in the upcoming days.....I hope. 

Escuela #2: ECELA

So up to this point we have lived in Argentina for 9 months, I have been taking private language lessons for 8 months and although I'm feeling much more confident in everyday situations, I'm still pretty shaky with my conversational skills.  With this in mind, I decided to shake up my approach, cancel my private lessons and enroll in "full-time" school.  You may remember back in March I took 2 weeks of intensive classes through BASP and although I really liked the change to group classes, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the school.  My friend Anso recommended another school, ECELA, and she speaks incredible Spanish after only 6 weeks of classes so her recommendation seemed pretty sound.  Not only that, but this school is located in Recoleta at the corner of Ayacucho and Arenales, just a few blocks from home - bonus!  With this in mind, I signed up for a month of intensive courses and as of tomorrow, I will be halfway through the month. 

The classes are in small groups, no more than 6 students in a class for 4 hours every day.  The school is quite different than my previous experience with BASP, here is how the schools match up:

ECELA

• To determine skill level, on the first day there is a written exam and a conversation piece with the school's director.
• Classes available starting at 9:00am or 2:00pm.
• Class structure:  1.5 hours class, 30 min break, 50 min class, 10 min break, 1 hour class.  During the breaks there are snacks, tea, coffee and water.
• In addition to classes, they offer an event each night centered around communication practice or a social event that spotlights Argentine culture. 
• Tutoring assistance between 1:00 - 2:00pm each day.
• At the end of 2 weeks there is an exam to determine your next placement level.
• Cost:  $100 one-time enrollment fee, $356.00 for 2 weeks (40 hours) of class.

BASP

• Written entrance exam to determine skill level.
• Classes available starting at 9:00am or 2:00pm.  The school is small, so these times are contingent on other student's availability.
• Class structure:  1.5 hours of grammar in the morning, 30 min break, 2 hours of communication in the afternoon.  There is tea and water available during the breaks.  
• The school doesn't offer any additional entertainment, but offers lots of recommendations for things to do in the city.
• At the end of 2 weeks, you receive a certificate and graduate to the next level.
• Cost:  $10 registration fee, $290.00 for 2 weeks (40 hours) of class.  

All in all, I feel that ECELA is a more professionally run school, but the price is higher to accommodate the additional administrative fees.  BASP is a good school to start at, and I met some really great people there that I remain friends with.  For a more complete experience, ECELA has been a much more complete program, for my money, it's worth the few additional dollars. 

BASP

Anyone who has every moved knows that as soon as you tell your well-meaning friends where you are headed, inevitably, someone knows someone who has been there before, lived there once or has a [insert random-relative here] that talked about going there. This "do-you-know-_____" syndrome only multiplies when you are headed to another country. Don't get me wrong, we relished these connections. We are lucky enough to have had one of these connections actually pan out and we are now happy to say that Kelly, Tabo and their adorable little baby Enzo are great new friends of ours. Kelly has been a wealth of information for me, she knows Castellano, has lived here for quite a while and she's incredibly nice. Needless to say, we have become quick friends. One of her many amazing recommendations was BASP, the Buenos Aires Spanish School. (Side note: I have no idea where the "P" comes from, maybe Portuguese? I believe they have classes for that too.) I have been taking lots of private Castellano lessons, so at first I didn't see the benefit to going to an addition class. When my tutor decided to go on a short vacation, I seized the opportunity to take some additional classes.

The school is located in Plaza Congreso, which is literally in the heart of the city. To compare, it's like The Mall in DC. I have gotten comfortable with the bus system here, so I commuted each day by bus - making it really feel like school. BASP has a number of programs, but I decided to enroll in their 2-week long small group sessions, which run 4 hours per day, 5 days a week for US$280 (total for 2 weeks, $7 per hour - not too bad, right?). The correspondent to the school sent me a written test via email to complete and send back so that they were aware of my learning level. This was a source of pride for me, although I was not able to answer the whole test, I was placed in a class above "Knows-Nothing". My class had a total of 3 students, myself, a girl from Austria and a guy from Australia. We held class everyday from 11:30am - 1:30pm, took a 30 minute break, and then had an afternoon session from 2:00 - 4:00pm. We had a different native Spanish speaking teacher for each 2 hour session, breaking the class into AM - grammar and PM - speaking. I thought it was great. We were forced to speak and use the information we learned in the morning and we were kept interested by the change in teaching style. They also give you a spiffy certificate when you complete the course. Hooray for me!

A couple pointers about the program, it seems to be geared toward the "traveling student" demographic. Not to say that they were the only folks there, but all of the literature they handed out had plenty of information on hostels and "cheap travels". Also, the teachers were not consistent during my 2 weeks. The same teacher was present during the morning sessions, but the afternoon sessions were taught by 3 different teachers, and I definitely had a preference among the 3.

All in all, great recommendation that I pass along to anyone else looking for a few weeks of Spanish lessons. I will try to return at some point when I have another 2 weeks to devote to such intense lessons.

Japanese Gardens - Jardin Japonés

A while back in my Castellano Lessons post I mentioned taking lessons from my tutor, Irene. I've been taking lessons now for 9 hours a week since December and although I can speak much better now than I could back then, it gets a bit monotonous just sitting in my house studying Spanish all that time. Just like when you were really good in school, a few weeks ago we were able to change the pace a little and took a field trip to the Japanese Gardens instead of our normal lesson. Irene has another student that I've met a few times, Marcia, so we all decided to go together on a beautiful Friday morning.





(Pictured: Marcia, me, Irene: the fabulous teacher. This photo makes me look super-model-tall and I promise, this is not the case.) The Japanese Gardens are located in Palermo, an easy 20 blocks from where we live (Ave Casares 2966). The entrance fee is $5 pesos, and worth the approximate dollar I paid. The gardens are a nice, quiet getaway in between two of the biggest streets in the city, Ave del Libertador and Ave Pres Figueroa Alcorta. There is a nice walking path with a couple bridges and fountains that make for a great place to study or read or just get away from the city noise for a bit. There is a sushi restaurant that serves expensive tea in the morning, and according to people that have eaten there, it has good sushi. I can't confirm this since their breakfast service extends past noon which is when we went in, they were still closed for lunch. One of the main reasons that I may return to the Japonese Gardens, other than to get some tranquility, is because they have a pretty decent greenhouse that sells plants and potted trees. The great thing about Buenos Aires weather is that it almost never freezes here, even in the middle of "winter", so almost everything grows with little to no effort. This is promising for a person like me, who at one time my mom fondly referred to my house as "where plants go to die". Literally, I give lots of TLC to my plants and they all kick the bucket sooner or later. So, I may use the Gardens greenhouse as another attempt to green my thumb.

The field trip was a nice reprieve from our normal lessons, although now that I am older and wiser I will use field trips more wisely. Just like in school, not nearly as much actual learning gets done when you're out of the classroom, so for the sake of my Spanish and my sanity, I should substitute one for the other only when necessary.

Castellano Lessons

One of our combined goals while moving down here was to learn Spanish. I have to say that I was secretly excited because learning Spanish was one of those items on my "if I ever have time" to-do list. Well, I have quit my job and moved to a place where I know very few people and a country where everyone speaks Spanish, so now seems like a good time to cross this item off of the list. A note on Spanish, according to wikipedia, the language is called Spanish or Castilian in English, español or castellano in Spanish. According to everyone here, Castellano is the spoken language and in BsAs it's pronounced "cast-a-jaan-o".

One of the enormous benefits to being an expat is that we have the benefit of a company that helps get us settled in this new country. (Side note: I have a new found appreciation for anyone who voluntarily moves abroad and gets everything done on their own. This is a challenge like I can not imagine, my hat is off to you.) Exxon works with a company called S.E.I.P.E. that has a fleet of tutors that the coordinator/owner chooses from to pair with each student. I'm not sure the exact selection process criteria but I would imagine that it includes desired hours per week, location of lessons, and personality style. Jon and I work with different tutors. Jon's tutor works with him two times a week for 1.5 hours per session. He divides it by having one morning session at work and one evening session at our house. I wouldn't say that Jon looks forward to his lessons each week, but he's definitely improving so they are well worth the time.

I work with Irene Samowerskyj (no, that extra "j" is not a typo) three times a week for three hours each. We meet at my apartment, which I was nervous about at first (do I serve food, what if the phone rings, do I want to be with a stranger in my dining room 9 hours a week?!) but she is comfortable, casual and extremely nice. She is a great teacher, and insanely good at languages. She is from Ukraine and speaks Ukrainian, but she also speaks perfect English and she has lived in Argentina for almost her entire life so her daily language is Castellano. Aside from being a great teacher, Irene works as a "host" for tourists that need help translating during their site-seeing. She goes with people shopping or on tours to help them get the most out of their time in the city and ease the language barrier during their stay. She has helped me with muchas mas cosas (many more things - see, I'm getting better!) than a tutor would normally do. Some examples - Dr appointments, retrieving voice mail messages from my Spanish-speaking cellphone, explaining the grocery store checkout line, arranging for newspaper delivery like our new weekly paper, Clarin.


I think it's safe to say that we are both pleased with our lessons, teachers and progress so far. I still get insanely frustrated when I am not able to communicate something, which is a lot of the time, but I'm learning to deal. And we've gotten really good at sign language. If nothing else, it has created something in my and Jon's relationship that we haven't ever experienced before. It's a constant struggle, but you feel each others pain. I mean, what's more bonding than looking stupid in front of each other, then being able to laugh about it later?

Lost in Translation - Movie Titles

To expand on my TV Show post, one of the first things that we realized when turning on TV was that Argentina loves movies. Whereas only some of the TV shows titles have been translated, nearly all of the movies titles have been. This now makes for hours of hilarity as we turn on the TV and use the guide to piece together the actors, year and what we can understand of the plot - then realize the movie's actual name. I have asked many of our friends here about their thoughts on translated movie titles and it seems as though most of them think it's just as funny as we do. Our friend Juan claims that the guy translating movie titles into Spanish thinks that everyone here must be simple-minded because of all of the obvious information that gets included in the Spanish title. For example, Cloverfield is translated as Cloverfield, The Monster. Anyone who has seen this movie realizes that there is some kind of monster or alien involved, does it really need to be reiterated in the title? Whatever your thoughts on how or why movie titles are translated, here are some that Jon and I find particularly amusing:

• Que Paso Ayer (What Happened Yesterday): The Hangover
• Secreto en la Montaña (Secret in the Mountain): Brokeback Mountain
• Mi Novia Polly (My Girlfriend Polly): Along Came Polly
• Viviendo Con Mi Ex (Living With My Ex): The Breakup
• Expiación, Deseo y Pecado (Atonement, Desire and Sin): Atonement
• Un Lugar Llamado Notting Hill (A Place Called Notting Hill): Notting Hill
• Mi Mascota Es Un Monstruo (My Pet is a Monster): The Waterhorse - Legend of the Deep
• Enamorándome De Mi Ex (I'm in Love With My Ex): It's Complicated
• Amor Sin Escalas (Love Without Layover): Up in the Air
  

We have also gone to a number of movies in the theater, the theater closest to us is really nice, all of the seats are assigned. This is MUCH better than our normal routine at home which is generally to get in line at Tyson's Corner mall among every 14 year old roaming the food court hours before the movie starts, then as soon as the velvet ropes open we run to the theater and pray that someone isn't trying to save a row of seats for their 20 closest friends. The downside to movies in BA - no online ticket sales. You have to wait in a ticket counter line (which is ALWAYS longer than it should be) and then memorize the Spanish title of the movie you want to see. Last weekend we saw An Education (great acting but we wouldn't really recommend) which is called Ensenanza La Vida (Teaching Life). We could not remember these words to save our lives. Not to mention that Jon, the king of online ticket sales, cannot fathom why anyone would prefer the wait-in-line method to pre-purchasing online. The funniest part to me is that we tend to go to the movies "early" here, in the 8:00 - 10:00pm range, so we have been the youngest people in the entire theater by at least 30 years every time we've gone. Last weekend the movie actually started late because the crowd from the movie before ours took so long to leave the theater. The average age of the people we saw was easily 85. God love them for still getting out to the movies, but Jon had me in tears laughing at the pace of everyone leaving the theater, one was slower than the next.

South American TV Recap

When Jon first arrived, we weren't sure what the TV situation would be. We had no idea what to expect, and as self-proclaimed TV-addicts, we were really nervous to see what BA TV had in store. Jon's biggest concern was watching live sporting events, my biggest concern was quitting my job and having only Telemundo to fill up my days. We did as much preparation as possible to be prepared for the worst (For this entire post I will use the word "we" liberally. Clearly Jon did all of the preparations, I have no clue when it comes to this sort of thing) we setup a SlingBox at Jon's parents house, bought a laptop-to-television cord to watch shows online but have them broadcast on the TV, bought a serious transformer that would convert the 220v power to the 110v that we have in the US, and got a DVD player with a USB port so that we could download shows online and watch them through the DVD player. All of our preparations have come in handy, but we have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of familiar shows that broadcast here.

• Sports - We have ESPN and Fox Sports, but soccer is the main attraction. During the regular football season we got most Monday night games and most of the playoffs. The SuperBowl was on here, but we did not get any of the US commercials (much to my dismay).
  
• News/Entertainment News - We have CNNesp, (CNN in espanol) and 4-5 local networks. We get the main award shows like the Grammys, Emmys, and the Golden Globes.
  
• Sitcoms - Argentina loves sitcoms. The funny thing is that we get lots of sitcoms in English, but they are normally years old. Felicity is on everyday, Will & Grace, Fraiser, Mad About You, Simpsons (the early, funny seasons), original 90210 episodes and, of course, Seinfeld. Some of the other shows that I don't normally watch that are on: According to Jim, The Big Bang Theory, The New Adventures of Old Christine and Everybody Loves Raymond.
  
• Dramas - These shows seem to be on a few weeks after they air in the US. Lost (thank goodness!), Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, Rescue Me, Nurse Jackie to name a few.
  
• Reality TV - All of these shows are airing really early seasons compared to the US. Project Runway, Top Model and Real Housewives are a few that I've noticed. I'm definitely missing my Bravo! fix - I love the marathon weekends where you can see the whole season of a show in one day. I'm a sucker for crappy reality TV.

Lucky for us, the shows that originated in the US are aired in English with Spanish subtitles. Here are a few other shows that for some reason the titles have been "translated" into Spanish while the rest of the show stays in English. The hilarious thing is that only some shows are translated and most of them are a reiteration of what you already know:

El Senor Monk (The Man Monk) = Monk
Dr. House = House
La Lay y El Orden (The Law and the Order) = Law and Order
La Lay y El Orden, U.V.E. = Law and Order SVU
E.R. Emergencias = ER
Padre de Familia (Father of Family) = Family Guy
Bob esponja (Bob Sponge) = SpongeBob Squarepants

That's all for now. I'll add to this list if I can think of more. Stay tuned for the hilarity of movie translated titles.