Day 10: Straying from the gringo trail

What else would you be doing on a fresh spring day in Buenos Aires but a Vietnamese cooking class?! I spent a very cool three hours today soaking noodles, rolling spring rolls, and licking hoy sin sauce from a wooden spoon....mmmm Unfortunately, (ok, secretly I'm glad) it was all in English, so I didn't get to put any of today's new phrases to use. But I did feel quietly smug when talking to a couple of Americans who are paying a lot to learn Spanish in group lessons here and seem to be pretty bored with the classes. (I'm pretty sure they haven't learned "bullshit" and "Naughty" like I did today!) I'm not saying it's a bad idea to learn Spanish here in BA, but I think that using a program like this first to get a grasp of the basics is such a good investment because then, if you want, you can start the live lessons at intermediate stage and really get your money's worth.

Anyway, speaking of the programme, i'm one third of the way through today and feeling pretty good. I still need more people to force me to speak Spanish in real life, because listening to the classes is so not enough, but I've realised that I'm writing less and less in the little notebook I keep beside me, because a lot of words are becoming more familiar. And with the "magic whiteboard" (take a look here), I find myself now watching the Spanish words more than the English translation. Progress!

So all's good. Well, except for the fact that twice now, when the word 'England' comes up in a sentence, they show a map with all of Great Britain AND Ireland highlighted in red. Ok, I know this lnguage series isn't the most politically correct but come on people! Ireland is a SEPARATE COUNTRY. It's just ignorant! It's like saying 'Belgium' and then highlighting Belgium, Switzerland, and Luxembourg on the map!! Sigh.... We're small, but we're a bloody republic.

Actually, I really need to learn how to say that in Spanish.