The Official 'Ask Dave' Section ----

Question

I'm really enjoying this course! My husband speaks Spanish, but has never had the patience to teach me. Still, I have a friend straight from Mexicali who lets me practice with him. Question: he adds an "s" to verbs when speaking to me. Ex: instead of "Adónde va", he says "Adónde vas". Is that just more informal? Maybe you explain that in your course and I haven't reached that point yet.

Gracias y adiós!

Julie

Answer

Hola Jule,

You are very perceptive. In your Level I course, the first few sections teach the formal way of speaking – where Group 1 words don’t have an “s” when talking to “you”. You pretty much won’t go wrong as far as offending people if you learned to speak only this way.

However, as you will learn in Section 7 in your course, if you are on a first-name basis with someone, you can then use the “informal” way of speaking and put an “s” on the end of all Group 1 words when talking to “you”. I like to call it the “friendly s”. When you get to know someone better and don’t use a title anymore with them (Mr. Mrs. etc.), you can then use the “friendly s”. Also, instead of using "usted" (the formal "you"), you can call them by "tú" (the informal "you).

If any of you subscribers don't have the complete Visual Link Spanish™ course, Click here and order it today!

Hopefully this answers your question.

Gracias,

Dave

Words of the Week -----
Taken from our complete CD-ROM course. (Click for a discount)

Weekly Spanish Lesson ----

This week's lesson comes from the complete Visual Link Spanish™ course. Click below for Part II of your fun, interactive lesson Sentence Building Lessons.

To check it out, click here: www.learnspanishtoday.com/learn/spanish_sentence.htm

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Culture ----- Don't Waste Your Food - All Parts of the Cow!!?

In many of the lower-income pueblos in Latin America, resources to buy food can be scarce. Most of Latin America consists of developing or so called third-world countries. Because of their low economic resources, Latin people usually don't waste food. In-fact, many will go to extremes to eat a lot of interesting parts of the cow, pig and other animals that most Americans have never thought of eating.

After living in Latin America for two years and becoming accustomed to their way of life, I was shocked when I returned to the U.S. and had dinner with my family the first night back. It was like reverse culture shock for me. I couldn't believe how much food they wasted. If they couldn't or didn't want to eat all of their food, they just left it on their plates and it all went down the hungry and ever-ready food disposal never to be seen again. The interesting thing is that I used to do the same thing at mealtime before spending two years of my life living among the Latin people. In Latin America, because of economic conditions and lifestyle, they usually eat every bit of their food.

In a way, I wish everyone from more developed countries could have the chance to visit Latin America and live with the people of the poor pueblos. If they did, I believe we would have a changed world. I think people would be less greedy and appreciate what they have a lot more. I think people would also develop more compassion for the less-fortunate. The mentality of not wasting food has now become part of my life. Sometimes I'll be eating with my wife and when she is finished, there will still be some food left on her plate. I usually eat it for her because, after living in Latin America, it's hard for me to see food go to waste. (I have to exercise a lot to burn off all of the extra calories from eating her food as well as mine - I have an indoor bike I ride frequently.)

In certain areas of Latin America, I saw little children crawling around on dirt floors, putting rocks and dirt in their mouths hoping it was food. I saw some literally starving to death. What a heart wrenching experience it is to see real people and little children dying because of the lack of food. I can't even explain what it does to you to see someone in that condition.

My life has been changed forever after being with people living in this type of situation. When I was a little boy, my mom always told me to eat all of my food because there were children starving in China. I never realized the full extent of her seemingly "nagging" phrase until I actually saw children dying of starvation in third-world countries.

Please give me feedback and let me know your thoughts. I may not be able to publish all of your responses, but I would love to hear from you. Write to dave@learnspanishtoday.com.

Moral of the Story: What should we do? There are humanitarian aid programs we can donate to which help children who lack food to survive. Most of us have plenty, or we probably wouldn't be on the Internet reading this e-mail, and it can mean so much to give to those less-fortunate than us. I would love to hear from you if you decide to donate to a humanitarian aid organization or even your local food bank. If you need a suggestion of humanitarian aid associations, let me know and I can recommend one or two that give a very high percentage directly to those in need.

Sneak peek at next week: "All Parts of the Cow!!? - Part II"

¡Hasta luego! ("Until later!")

David S. Clark -- President / Director
Visual Link Spanish™
Fun, Interactive Spanish Courses
http://www.learnspanishtoday.com
dave@learnspanishtoday.com

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Responses to Past Newsletters:



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Hi Dave,

We have a nursery rhyme here in the UK. (I don't know if you have it in the US as well) and it goes like this:

Ring a ring o' roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down

It originates, supposedly, from the time of the Great Plague. The ring of roses referred to the red rash on the neck that was a symptom of the plague. The posies referred to the bundle of herbs and spices that people would carry to ward off the plague. A-tishoo, of course is the sneezing, before the victim finally falls down dead.

'Bless you' does indeed refer to a religious blessing because, as you can see from the nursery rhyme, if you were sneezing it meant you were soon to die from the plague - so of course you would bless people in this way before they make their final journey.

That's my understanding of it anyway.

Kindest regards to you - I always enjoy your newsletter,

Rachel

Response #2

hola dave! i am sylvia from the philippines. what i would share about what the filipinos say to someone who sneezes is also somehow funny. though it's not like in latin america in which they would say salud, dinero and amor. in this contemporary period, we somehow use the "bless you" since the u.s.a controlled our country before. but for a filipino touch, when someone sneezes in front of you, you would say "aba, kaliligo ko lang" meaning "hey, i already took a bath"! and in the other way around, the person who sneezed would probably say to the person infront is "hoy, maligo ka na nga,kaya ako napabahing eh" meaning "hey, you should take a bath now,thats why i sneezed because you haven't taken a bath yet". i dont know if everybody would find it funny but we filipinos are humor loving people that is why even in sneezing, we find something to say to make people smile and laugh somehow.

gracias for reading this letter of mine and more power!

sylvia

manila,philippines

Response #3

Hi Dave:

Just thought you might want to know that the term, "bless you" in English, was originally, "God Blessed You". This was said because it was believed that when you sneezed your heart stopped beating for those few seconds. If you were still alive after the sneeze then, "God Blessed You".

Dee

Response #4

Hey Dave,

To answer your question, in French, we would say: "To your wishes" or/then "to your love".

Chris

Response #5

dear dave

hi.how are you ?wish you and your team best time.
sneezing once in my country iran means patience.you should be paitent.also means mercy and grace of god.and another person when you sneez ask your forgivness and both of you say prise be to god.second sneez same but if you sneez third it means best and people belive surely you wiill be succes at your job or intend.and all god,s mercies contain you.but more than 3 sneez is a alarm for your health.heheheh i love your newsletter and hope more about spanish culture and language there. i found latin culture very close to persian culture and most of point you say about latin culture we also do same.
good work

take care and be happy

ali.iran

Response #6

Hola desde Rumania, Dave!
My name is Veronica , tengo 16 anos, and i must tell you i found this week's newsletter extremely interesting (because i didn't know about it, of course!): it appears there is a common expression between my country and Latinos,in the event that another person sneezes. We, in Romania, also wish "Sanatate!" which means "Salud!" and i definitely think it makes more sense to wish that person better health times.

Hasta la proxima y mucha suerte!

Vero

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