Visual Link Spanish™ Enhanced Newsletter

This is the New Enhanced Newsletter! ----

Welcome to our New Enhanced Newsletter! We're excited to begin offering this newsletter and hope it helps you in your quest to learn Spanish! Enjoy!

Visit our Website: www.spanishprograms.com

Please e-mail us with any questions at: info@spanishprograms.com

Words of the Week -----
Words taken from Basic Needs, Section 1 of our Complete Course

	English	Spanish
Monday	now	ahora
Monday	later	luego
Tuesday	in an hour	en una hora
Tuesday	in (5) minutes	en (cinco) minutos
Wednesday	it	lo
Wednesday	also	también
Thursday	something	algo
Thursday	I can	(Yo) Puedo
Friday	He can	(El) Puede
Friday	She can	(Ella) Puede
Saturday	You can	(Usted) Puede
Saturday	(to) read	leer
Sunday	the book	el libro
Sunday	the magazine	la revista

Spanish News -----

-Después del reciente ataque terrorista en España y el cambio de gobierno varios países han manifestado la intención de retirar sus tropas de Irak. Estos países son, hasta el momento, España, Republica Dominicana y Bolivia.
-After the recent terrorist attack in Spain and the change in government, various countries have manifested the intention of retiring troops from Iraq. These countries are, up until now, Spain, Dominican Republic, and Bolivia.

-Nos preocupa grandemente el cambio de posición, las razones, y consecuencias que esto pudiese implicar para la coalición, la guerra contra el terrorismo Internacional y la recuperación de Irak.
-The change in position worries us greatly, the reasons, and consequences that this could imply for the coalition, the international war against terrorism and the recovery of Iraq.

Culture ----- El sarcasmo

This week's Vocabulary:

países - countries
o - or
la gente - the people
reacciona - react
muy - very
aquí - here
el sarcasmo - sarcasm
común - common
forma diaria - daily form
por ejemplo - for example
un amigo - a friend
pariente - relative/family member
camisa - shirt
extraño - strange
por supuesto - of course
no están acostumbrados - aren't accustomed
con - with
yo trabajaba - I was working with
suéter muy interesante - very interesting sweater
Yo dije - I said
dijo - he said
con él - with him
El pensaba - he thought
serio - serious
años - years
diferentes países - different countries
nueva actitud - new attitute
pronto - soon
falta de - lack of
me pareció - it seemed to me
más respeto - more respect
entre - among
juntos - together
todos los días - every day
llegado - arrived
idioma - language
cultura - culture
me encontré - I found myself
conmigo - with me
yo encontré - I found
semanas - weeks
anteriormente - previously
algunos de ustedes - some of you
probablemente - probably
algunos de - some of
sarcasticos - sarcastic
la mayoría de los - most of the
que viven - that live
me encantaría - I would love

In all of the Latin American países I've either lived in o visited, la gente reacciona to "el sarcasmo" (sarcasm) muy differently than they do aquí in the U.S.

Here in the U.S., el sarcasmo is very widespread and is used as a común, forma diaria of communication. Por ejemplo, if un amigo or pariente purchased a new camisa that was obviously a little extraño, you could tease them by saying "Nice shirt!" Por supuesto, when you say "Nice camisa!" what you really mean is, "Wow, that camisa is a little wild or extraño".

In Latin America, la gente usually no están acostumbrados to hearing or using sarcasmo con each other. Por ejemplo, yo trabajaba with a native speaker who was wearing a suéter muy interesante. It was definitely out of the ordinary and a little extraño. Yo dije, "Nice sweater!" He looked at me with a thoughtful look and dijo "Thanks". He didn't get the fact that I was using sarcasmo con él. El pensaba I was serio and was giving him a nice compliment about his suéter.

As I lived in Latin America for two consecutive años in diferentes países, I began to get accustomed to this nueva actitud of not using el sarcasmo. It took quite a while, but pronto I didn't use sarcasm at all. Because of the falta de sarcasm in Latin America, me pareció there was generally más respeto between gente.

Then, after two años of living entre the natives and adopting this new mentality, I met up con an American. We were put on a project where we would have to work juntos todos los días for a month or so. He had just llegado in Latin America and wasn't used to the idioma or cultura (without el sarcasmo). Quite a few times, me encontré getting offended when he used el sarcasmo conmigo. I had become so immersed into the Latin culture that yo encontré his sarcasmo offensive. It took me a few semanas to get back into the swing of things and realize that he wasn't actually trying to be rude or mean. He was just using a similar type of sarcasmo that I had used anteriormente when living in the U.S.

Now, algunos de ustedes may be saying, "I know some Latin people in the U.S. that are sarcasticos". If you do, it's probablemente because they have already begun to adopt algunos de our cultural behaviors. Just remember that la mayoría de los native speakers que viven in Latin America itself usually aren't sarcasticos.

Me encantaría to hear from you (newsletter subscribers) in different countries to find out if you use sarcasm in your countries.

Moral of the Story: When visiting Latin America, for business or pleasure, it's important to know about their mentality on el sarcasmo. On the other hand, even though many Latin people living in the U.S. may have adopted el sarcasmo and use it frequently, be careful when talking to them, sarcasm still may offend them. Although a world without el sarcasmo was very different to live in and get used to, I grew to love it and found the gente to be very respectful towards each other.

Sneak peek at next week: "Rest Homes in Latin America?"

¡Hasta luego! (Until later!)

David S. Clark -- President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com
866-9SPANISH

Response from Past Newsletters:

Hola Dave:

I love the new news letter. I will definitely subscribe to the new new-letter. I love to read two languages mixed up. Sometime what ends up happening I start reading Spanish even the words that are in English and that make me realize how natural it feels to read Spanish.

Any way here is a little something that I have learned while growing up in Mexico.

Respect
Generally the Hispanic people are very respectful to all the people around them, especially to their own family members. A friend of mine (Hispanic) once told me that it is very, very important to love and respect your family because they are your flesh and blood. He went on to explain: "You have to be respectful to all the people you deal with but nothing is as important as to show respect to your own family." The reason why we got into this subject was because at his workplace (here in Canada) there was some racisms going on and he felt very offended and not only that, he felt hurt by some of the comments some Whites had said about his kind of people. I felt very bad for him because I had learned that already when I was growing up how important it is to Hispanic people not to say negative things about another person.

Looking out for their neighborhood...
In Mexico (at least where I grew up) if you would go to a pueblito or a town and knock on somebody's door and ask them if they knew this or that person; or if you would ask them where a certain person lives, you would almost never get it out of them. They would just apologize and say, "I can't help you" or "Sorry. I do not know anybody by that name". It could be their relative, neighbor, or best friend and still they would not easily tell you where to find them unless if they would know and trust you, or you had a very good reason why you would look for them.

To greater your chance of them telling you where to find who you are looking for, you have to fully introduce yourself and give a very proper explanation why you are looking for that specific person.

They will give you an idea where to look, and then tell you to come back if your search was unsuccessful. In the meantime if at all possible they will contact the person being searched for and tell him or her that there is such or such a person looking for you. "Do you want them to find you or not?"

When you come back to them for more help then they will either give you a much better direction or they will tell you. "¿Ah, sabes que?" "Ya me acuerdo de esta persona. Pero ya no vive en este pueblito. Sé movió hace pocas semanas"

When you ask where did the move to, they will most likely say "No me acuerdo." or “No se!”

The reason why they are like that is because they will not lead an unwanted visitor to the next person's door.

Now that is respect! Don’t you think?

I just thought this would kind of tie in with the, "Saluda a tu mami" or "papi"

Hasta luego,

Anna Reimer

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©2004 U.S. Institute of Languages

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