Dulces from Argentina

My friend Maddy and I spent a couple of hours this morning at the home of an Argentine family Maddy knows. Adriana and her daughter Sandra work with Maddy at the hair salon. Maddy’s my hairdresser. Very nice people, as are all the Argentine people I've met - dulces. Maddy and I are having Sandra help us with our Spanish. We’re also learning a bit of Argentine culture while we’re at it. Adriana brought out a tub of dulce de leche and a couple of rounds of dulce de membrillo (quince) and dulce de batata (long discussion about whether this was sweet potato or not). The others sipped maté while I drank regular tea since I haven’t yet acquired a taste for maté – it’s a bit like drinking sweet hay.

Since Maddy gets to practice every day at work, she is much further along with her Spanish and wants to be corrected to perfect her usage. I’m still at the stage where if I can even make myself understood, much less get tenses correct, I think I’m doing pretty good. In the Spanish class I took in the fall, which was conversational, the instructor didn’t correct us when we were speaking unless we asked for help. I think that gave us encouragement to speak without feeling too intimidated. Our instructor used this great method called TPRS, which uses storytelling techniques to learn language.

Anyway, this was our first “lesson” with Sandra and it was fun. For me, it was a great opportunity to begin to feel comfortable having conversations with native speakers, even if I’m mostly listening and asking questions. (Native speakers will also tell you useful things you don’t get in class, like “se tiré un pedo” – s/he farted!) Adriana and I already have had a few conversations about the telenovelas we both watch. I am on my fourth telenovela – unlike soap operas, telenovelas have a beginning, middle and end and they last several months or so. They’re often pretty silly, but they’re a fun way to practice. BTW, here’s a recent good article from the Boston Globe on telenovelas.

¡Hasta luego!

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