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Visual Link Spanish™
Newsletter
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Words of the Week
Words are taken from the Locations section of our Visual Link Spanish™ course -----
| | English | Spanish |
| Monday | Go... | Vaya... |
| Tuesday | Continue... | Siga... |
| Wednesday | for 7 blocks | por siete cuadras |
| Thursday | past the park
| pasando el parque |
| Friday | until you get to the mall
| hasta el centro comercial
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| Saturday | to the right
| a la derecha
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| Sunday | to the left | a la izquierda |
| Spanish Review | Be sure to use these weekly newsletters to review the words you have learned from our complete Visual Link Spanish™ course. |
Culture ----- Hand Gestures Part III - The "Someone's in Trouble" Gesture
Now for the final hand gesture in our series. This is my favorite of all the Latin American hand gestures. Being an American, it took me a while to perfect it, but it's fun and very expressive. As you can see by the title, I like to call it the "Someone's in Trouble" gesture.
To make this gesture, put your hand in snapping position (thumb touching middle finger and palm turned sideways). Now, make sure your index finger is loose and raise your hand about 8 inches. Then, throw your hand down while rotating it counterclockwise, and quickly raise it again. It is similar to the movement of cracking a whip. If you do it correctly, your index finger will snap against your middle finger and make a noise. The noise let's you know you've done the movement correctly; however, sometimes Latin people make this gesture without a noise. This movement is usually repeated three or four times.
If any of you (newsletter readers) have never seen this gesture and are able to figure it out by the instructions above, I will consider this week's issue a success! Please e-mail me if you figure it out.
Learning to do this gesture is fun, but learning how and when to do it is even more fun. For example, let's say Juan is planning to invite the guys over to his house to watch a soccer game (Remember, in Latin America, they don't watch "football" games, they watch "soccer" games). Anyway, Juan's wife tells him that he can only watch the game with his friends if he straightens the house first. Since Juan's wife is going to be gone for a while, he decides to invite the guys over anyway without cleaning the house. Suddenly, Juan's wife gets home early, sees the house a mess, and yells "JUAN"!! Juan would probably then make the "Someone's in Trouble" gesture and have a look on his face that says, "Oh no, I'm in trouble". Some of his friends would probably also make the gesture with a similar expression on their faces.
On a different note, if you still can't picture how this gesture is made, I suggest watching a Spanish TV channel for an hour or two. Chances are that during this time you will probably see it used.
Moral of the Story: Learning this gesture gets you more immersed in the wonderful Latin culture. Also, if you are prone to getting into trouble a lot and plan to visit Latin America, this is a GREAT gesture for you! If you work with Latin people, watch for this gesture and you will probably start noticing it.
Sneak peek at next week: Variations in Spanish in different countries - serious and humorous
¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until Next Week!)
David S. Clark -- President / Director
U.S. Institute of Languages
dave@spanishprograms.com
http://www.spanishprograms.com
866-9SPANISH
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