Learn to Speak Spanish, not Spanish Grammar Rules! ----

Most Spanish courses teach a lot of vocabulary and grammar rules but after you've finished the course, you can't actually speak Spanish. Visual Link Spanish™ teaches you to build sentences, ask and answer questions, and truly communicate in Spanish! Click here to purchase.

Another Success Story:

Hello,

Our church had its Annual Yard Give Away and Blood Drive. Our Spanish interpreter was unavailable to help some Hispanics so I was called over to assist them. Although, I couldn't remember how to conjugate some words I was able to get my message across clear enough to answer their questions and help them find what they needed. They were also very helpful and understanding...

Tina B.

E-mail your Visual Link Spanish™ success stories to: dave@spanishprograms.com

Remember our web site: www.spanishprograms.com!!

Words of the Week -----
Words taken from the "Communication" Section of our Complete Course.

	English	Spanish
Monday	I would like	Me gustaría
Tuesday	You would like	Le gustaría
Wednesday	to ask	preguntar(le/s)
Thursday	my/your mom	(a) mi/su mamá
Friday	my/your dad	(a) mi/su papá
Saturday	my/your friend	(a) mi/su amigo(a)
Sunday	the boss	el jefe
Bonus	the people	la gente
Remember to Review!!	Remember to review the words you learn in the Visual Link Spanish™ complete course each week here in our newsletter! Click here if you don't have the Complete Course.

Culture ----- I Need a Pair of Pants!

While in Latin America, I found out there were tailors (people who custom make clothes) that work out of their homes. Many of them, in lower-income areas (small pueblos), worked full time in their career as a tailor and would support their whole family by selling the clothes they made. Their work/office area usually consisted of the front room of their small adobe homes, with a dirt floor and a sewing machine in the middle of the room. Since there were so many power outages, they usually had an old-style treadle sewing machine which required moving a foot pedal up and down to make the machine work; no electricity was required.

I had figured that the sewing machines were antiques passed down from relatives that had deceased. But, when I was in some larger cities, I passed by a few stores that actually sold the "old-style" treadle sewing machines as brand-new models. As mentioned before, the "treadle" style was necessary for small pueblo areas that had frequent power loss.

Now I want to tell you about an interesting experience I had with a tailor ("sastre" in Spanish). Once, I went into a tailor's home/shop with a native friend who was looking to buy a new suit. The tailor gave him the price which sounded very reasonable for a complete suit -- especially for one that was going to be custom-made. I then inquired about a pair of pants ("un par de pantalones") and was very surprised at the price. I tried my "I'm an American, don't give me such a high price" line (talked about in a previous newsletter) but he was set on his price. I couldn't understand how, for a pair of pants, he could charge almost as much as a suit.

We talked back and forth for about 10 minutes about how pants should cost a lot less than a suit because the suit includes the pants, uses much less material, and would take a lot less time to make, but he wouldn't budge on his price. He thought I was off my rocker. Finally, after we were both very frustrated with the situation, it dawned on me what was really going on. In English, or at least in the U.S., when we say "a pair of pants", we are talking about ONE "pants" (I've never been able to figure out why we put an "s" on the end of the word "pants" if there is only one of them). In that region of Latin America, if you just want one "pant", you say "I would like a 'pant'" (Me gustaría un pantalón). The word "pants" means more than one and in turn, a "pair of pants" would mean "four pants" instead of "one". NO WONDER HE WANTED TO CHARGE SO MUCH, I was asking for the price of four pants!! I then asked him how much a "pant" ("un pantalón") was and he gave me a great price.

From this lesson, I hope you can see that cultural and language differences can sometimes cause a little frustration. In a conversation, two people may think they are talking about the same thing but may actually be talking about completely different things. My suggestion is to be patient in communicating and try to learn something from each conversation. It is important just to realize that language and cultural differences exist.

¡Hasta luego! (Until later!)

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

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