Major life development coming up. I'll keep you all posted.

Bariloche

Looking back, I kind of wish I would have went to Patagonia while I was in Argentina. I was so close to such a magnificent location. However, I'm also happy I didn't go, because it gives me even more reason to go back.

The Most Popular Post

It's really fun to look at my Google Analytics and see how everyone finds my blog. It turns out that an old post, "The Drinks of Argentina" has been the #1 visited page on my blog. Check it out!

In the days to come, I'm going to create a list of all the most popular pages so that you can more easily read the best posts.

Who's Really Fluent?

So I'm going to graduate from college in May. Pretty exciting stuff. However, as I get closer to graduation, something has started to bother me.

I've been working on my resume a lot lately, and in my resume class, under the "languages" section, everyone feels that they can put "Spanish" if they've taken one year of Spanish in college.

I'm sorry but no!

Whenever I'm talking to someone about languages, or I overhear someone in class say they have "Spanish" on their resume, I immediately start talking to them in Spanish. Just plain conversational stuff, nothing difficult. The answer, in English, is always the same, "Oh, I haven't taken Spanish in a couple years, I'm really rusty."

If you get flustered when someone comes up and makes simple conversation with you in Spanish, how in the world can you put that you speak Spanish on your resume. You speak English! Knowing "Hola" "Como estas?" and "Muy bien" does not make you fluent.

Life Update

So I got the urge to write a little update on my life since this past summer, where knowing spanish has gotten me, and some of my thoughts on studying abroad. Stay tuned. Should be up in a day or so.

Anabel is Coming!

I'm not really sure how many people read this blog anymore, but here's the newest update.

Anabel got her tourist visa today and is coming to visit me in Minneapolis next week! I'll be seeing my my sister Holly, who is coming home from El Salvador, for the first time in over a year. We're going on a true family vacation, Mom, Dad, Holly, Lindsay, Adrian (Lindsay's husband), Anabel, and myself, to see my mom's family in northern Minnesota. After that, we're going to head to Chilton, my hometown, and maybe swing through Chicago so Anabel can see the city.

The summer has been going really well and it just keeps getting better.

Patrick

The Accent and the cooks

Hey,
So, life in Minneapolis is going pretty well. I'm living with 9 other people in a huge campus house. It's a pretty fun situation, with everyone adding something to the unique mix of people. Work is going well, and I hopefully will become a salsa bartender before the end of the summer. I was recommended by a current salsa bartender because she is looking to cut back on her shifts. They want someone young, good-looking, with bartending experience and spanish speaking to take over for her shifts. I fit the bill.

However, this post is about something else, the Porteño accent and the cooks from work.

I was really worried that the cooks from work wouldn't respect me because of the Argentine accent that I speak with. It's a well-known fact, throughout the Spanish speaking world, that the Porteño accent is the cockiest, most arrogant accent to have. The reasons behind that are a whole other post, but either way, it's just a very well-known accent.

Well, all my fears were completely unfounded. The cooks at work are so cool with me. I've become "El Argentino" when they want to get my attention or talk to me. They make light jokes about my accent, to which I rebuttle with jokes about their use of "Oye guey!" and "Chinga (fill in the blank)." They also respect the fact that , a year ago, I left the restaurant speaking horrible gringo spanish and I came back speaking almost like a native. These guys, the majority of which arrived in the US with absolutely no english experience, know how difficult it is to learn a foreign langauge. Lastly, I actually have real conversation with them. So many people just know spanish swear words or other vulgar phrases that they think are funny to use. I'm sure the cooks get sick of always hearing these gringo-ed phrases and enjoy having a real conversation once in awhile.

It's pretty cool.