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When traveling in Latin America, it is sometimes useful to know all the ways you might be addressed by a local.  I mean, you don’t want someone to refer to you as something and not know what it means, right?  Different countries have different names that they call foreigners, but there are a few ‘universal’ terms.  Here’s a quick lesson on all names gringo.

First and foremost, gringo is going to be the most popular name you come across.  Gringo originally comes from the days of the Mexican-American War.  The Americans wore green uniforms, and the Mexicans wanted them to get out of their territory, so they would shout ‘Green Go!’– and voilá!  Gringo!  Pretty neat, huh?  Since then, however, gringo has become a name that is used to refer to North American and European foreigners, despite the origin of the word.

Secondly, huero/a or guero/a is a popular name used to refer to white-skinned, blonde foreigners in Mexico.  However, their perception of what is blonde is a little different from that of what you might be used to.  Blonde means pretty much anything lighter than dark brown.  So if you have hair lighter than dark brown, you can expect to be called a huero/a or guero/a.

Next up, blanco/a.  This pretty much follows the same rules as huero/a and guero/a– refers to white people, but what you consider a white person might be a little different.  If you have even the slightest bit of a pale-ish complexion, you will probably be referred to as blanco/a.

Finally, yanqui.  This is a term used mainly for Americans in Argentina, but we’ve heard it’s used elsewhere, too.  It’s pronounced ’shankee,’ but is their own version of our yankee.  Apparently all Americans are Yankees.  This term is only used in Argentina, though, but you can expect to be called this all the time.

Alright, so there are have it!  Don’t be offended if you are referred to by any of these names– for the most part, they aren’t derogatory, unless they are said in such a manner.

There is a Bueno, entonces… class that includes some information on gringo-terminology, too– see, we’ve covered all important topics!  To check out the program, take a look at the Bueno, entonces… learn Spanish Youtube page, where you can see clips of the Spanish classes. Become a fan on Facebook to learn useful Spanish phrases, get cool info about what’s going on in the Spanish-speaking world, and save $50 off the program!

Mini Lesson Argentina, Latin Culture, learn Spanish, Slang

WARNING: NSFW MATERIAL AHEAD.

A quick note before you continue: if you are easily offended or do not like foul language, don’t bother reading on.  Bueno, entonces… sees learning a language as something that should be fun, entertaining, and useful.  This means that we are willing to teach you things that you might hear on the street, but wouldn’t read in a text book.  If you don’t like our method of teaching, it’s probably best you go learn language from a more formal program like Rosetta Stone.

Okay, onto today’s lesson!

Surely you’ve noticed that we tend to focus on Argentine lunfardo (slang), piropos (pick-up lines), and insultos (insults).  Well, if you 1) don’t plan on going to Argentina anytime soon, 2) are interested in the slang of other countries, or 3) don’t really give a crap either way, today’s your lucky day!  We are going to teach you some of our favorite insultos and slang from various Spanish-speaking countries, so here it goes!

Chupame el pico (Chile) = Suck my dick

Dejáte de güear (Chile) = Stop f*cking around

Malparido (Colombia) = Waste of life (badly born)

Jalame el hule (Costa Rica) = Leave me alone (pull my rubber)

Malfallao (Spain) = Tightass (poorly f*cked)

Araña (Mexico) = Hoochie Mama (spider)

Lameculos (Spain) = Brown-noser (ass-licker)

Hijo de la Verga (Mexico) = Son of a Cock

Alright, so this obviously doesn’t cover all the countries, nor all the necessary phrases, but it at least gives you a bit of a base.  A really useful site for slang is Urban Dictionary (yes, even for Spanish slang), so it might be worth checking if you want to learn a little more about insultos and various slang.  And let us know if you have any others you’d like to add to the list!

Isn’t this a good way to learn Spanish?  1) fun, 2) entertaining, and 3) useful.  What more could you want?  Plus, you’re way more likely to remember and use this stuff than, say, a worksheet of formal conjugations.  If you want to learn more about the Bueno, entonces… program, check out our language learning software website!  We offer over 18 hours of classes that are available on DVD or as a download for your computer, iPod, or iPhone.  And you can get the whole series for as low as $147 - if you’re a Facebook Fan, you get it for $97 (and you’ll learn tons of useful Spanish phrases while you’re at it)!

Culture/News, Mini Lesson Colombia, Costa Rica, Insultos, Latin Culture, Mexico, Slang, Spain

So there’s many ways to woo, but our favorite is through the art of piropos (pick-up lines).  Here, we provide you with yet another piropo to woo the crowds:

Si la felicidad es agua y el amor es fuego, ¡Como me gustaría ser tu bombero!

Alright, so the literal translation for this one is If happiness is water, and love is fire, how I would love to be your fireman! Are you weak in the knees yet?

The form of the verb gustaría might be in a form that you are not familiar with.  This form is called the condicional (conditional), or sometimes referred to as the futuro hipotético (hypothetical future).  It is primarily used in two different situations:

First, the condicional tense is used when asking a formal request.  For example, ¿Me prestarías una lapicera? (Would you lend me a pen?).  You also use the condicional for simple things like ordering a coffee in a café– a safe way to be sure you are not being rude when asking anyone outside your circle of friends for a favor.

Second, the futuro hipotético is used when referring to a ‘would be’ situation.  For example, ¡Como me gustaría ser tu bombero! (Again, how I would love to be your fireman!)  In this situation, you are referring to something in the future that you could or could not happen– it’s all hypothetical.

So there you have it– go out and find your next victi–erm, potential soulmate.

Here at Bueno, entonces… we love piropos to help us learn Spanish, because 1) they keep our loves lives thriving, and 2) they are entertaining, and therefore easier to remember.  Let us know if you have any other favorite tools you use to learn or remember Spanish, or just let us know if you have any comments or suggestions for the blog. You can check out more clips from each Spanish class on Youtube, or become a fan on our Facebook Page and learn some useful Spanish phrases!

Mini Lesson Funny, learn Spanish, Piropos, Slang

La Barra Brava in Argentina is what we like to call hooligans. This term pretty much always goes hand-in-hand with fútbol (soccer) fans, as they are undoubtedly the rowdiest group in the country. When translated, barra brava means wild or fierce bar or block, but hooligans is really the only term we commonly use in English to describe a group like this. In some Spanish-speaking countries this term doesn’t really exist, but rather hinchada or varying slang, depending on the country.

The Barra Brava is the rowdiest subgroup of an hincha for any given team. Hincha is a term meaning group of fans (you could use the term fan club, but that sounds a little too much like boy-crazy teenagers). To say you are a fan of something, you could say soy fanático de… or soy hincha de… Hincha is more commonly used for sports or specific teams, while fanático is used for almost everything else.

Another use of the word hincha is when referring to the group of fans as a whole, such as la hinchada de Boca es muy grande (the group of fans for Boca is very large). Hincha is not used in all Spanish-speaking countries, or at least not in this way. The word hincha comes from the verb hinchar, which literally means to swell or blow up. A swollen ankle, which is often seen in the fútbol world, is a tobillo hinchado. So you might hear of the word in other countries, but they won’t know what you’re talking about if you say you are hincha de River.

Other important terms for fútbol include:

Cancha (not to be confused with concha, as seen in the post ‘La C*ncha y La Kama Sutra’) = Field (for sports)

Estadio = Stadium

Partido = Game or Match (for sports)

Equipo = Team

There you have it. Want to check out more from Bueno, entonces…? Check out the rest of our blog posts and you can compile your own Spanish dictionary of terms - and head to our Facebook to learn useful Spanish phrases. Our language learning software is super unique and formatted to work on almost anything with a screen!

Culture/News, Mini Lesson Latin Culture, Slang, Spanish vocabulary

Here’s an Argentine Internet company commercial to… well, not help you in your language learning endeavors, but it’s still worth a watch.

All you really need to know is ‘Que bolu,’ which is what they sing over and over again in the song. Bolu is short for boludo, which is Argentine slang for something like an idiot. So, the song is essentially saying ‘What an idiot, what an idiot,’ but with much more of a ring to it.

But don’t worry, if someone refers to you as a boludo, as in “Che, boludo!” no need to be offended. Boludo can also mean ‘man,’ as in “Hey, man!”

And believe us when we say this song will be stuck in your head for the next few hours. Catchiest. Tune. Ever.

Sorta makes you want to learn Spanish, huh? We can get you understanding and speaking native Spanish in five weeks! Check out our teaching style and learn some hilarious Spanish phrases on our Facebook Page.

Culture/News Commercials, Funny, learn Spanish, Slang

Here’s a phrase that’ll help you (not) make some new Argentine friends: Andate a la c*ncha de tu madre.

Now, before you go and shout this into the streets, just know that 1) we were being sarcastic about using this phrase to make friends, and 2) this is actually a very, very crude thing to say, so be careful where you use it. However, you can never know too many insults, so here’s another to add to the book.

Literally, andate a la c*ncha de tu madre means go to your mother’s vagina (or a variety of other crude terms that mean the same thing, but for sake of being remotely PC, we’ll stick to ‘vagina‘). Now, you can probably imagine a circumstance or two in which this would appropriate, but hopefully that circumstance comes only once in a blue moon. How about we break the phrase down a bit.

Andáte comes from the verb andar, which means to walk—it’s not as commonly used as caminar, but you’ll definitely hear it every so often in conversation. The te at the end is referring to the person you are talking to (so when you say it, it is in the form of tú or vos). In this case, it is put into imperative form, which is the form used for commands, which is why it is andate instead of vos andás. Essentially, you are commanding or urging the person to go to their mom’s vagina.

Now, if you know know a little Spanish, you’re probably thinking ‘Wow, they use the same word for vagina as they do for fields,’. Actually, COncha is the word for vagina, and cAncha is the word for field. One letter makes a very, very big difference, so be careful with this one. Although, when at the cancha (de fútbol), it is not unusual to hear people say (or yell) ‘concha’. In some other Spanish-speaking nations, concha isn’t even a bad word—in fact, in some places it is the word used for a shell (in English, it’s called a conch shell) and in Mexico it is a type of sweet bread. But we can pretty much guarantee if you say this phrase to anyone in the Spanish-speaking world, you’re not going to get a very friendly response.

Check out Episode 26 of Bueno, entonces…Learn Spanish for Jimena’s and David’s conversation about c*nchas!

If you’re not offended by c*nchas and the Kama Sutra, check out our learn Spanish Facebook Page and learn Spanish online! Check out our other blog entries to learn more Spanish grammar and useful Spanish learning tips.

Video Clips Insultos, learn Spanish, Slang, Video Clips

The translation for the Spanish slang word pedo is fart. As hideous of a word as that is (seriously, just typing it makes me cringe), in Spanish there are a bazillion different uses for it. Which ultimately means that there is no way in hell to avoid the word pedo. Ugh.

While pedo alone means fart, when the word is paired with virtually any preposition and put into any other context, it means something different. Keep in mind that some of these are country-specific, while others can be used in almost any Spanish-speaking country.

Pedo #1: Que pedo. In Mexico this will normally be asked as a question, meaning ‘What’s up?’. In other places it would be said as an exclamation for laziness, as in ‘Wow, how lazy..’

Pedo #2: Al pedo. This is another form dealing with laziness. To be al pedo is to not have anything to do.

Pedo #3: En pedo. To be en pedo is to be totally smashed. Drunk. Plastered. It is most often paired with the verb ponerse. Example: yo me puse en pedo (I got drunk).

Pedo #4: A los pedos. Tengo que ir a los pedos means that you have to rush—you’re in a hurry.

Pedo #5: Hasta los pedos. When you are hasta los pedos, you are super-busy. You could say estoy hasta los pedos.

Pedo #6: Es todo un pedo. It’s all messed up. Similar to es un quilombo, which is another slangy way of saying that it’s a big mess.

Pedo #7: Tener un pedo con alguien. Translation: to have a pedo with someone. In this form, pedo means some sort of an issue. Have a problem with your boss? Tenés un pedo con tu jefe.

Alright, that’s enough pedos for now. But remember that there are loads more ways of using this word, and the usage will vary from country to country, so your best bet is to ask a local if it makes any sense. Part of language learning is asking the questions that make us uncomfortable, right?

If you’re looking for real world Spanish phrases and vocabulary, check out our program. Learn Spanish like they speak it on the street - in five weeks you’ll be speaking and understanding Spanish that you can actually use!

Mini Lesson Funny, learn Spanish, Slang

“Tienes unos ojos que parecen sartenes y cuando te miro se me fríen los huevos.”

This piropo uses one of the most common “doble sentido“  terms in Spanish.

Los huevos.

The word huevo literally means egg, but it can also refer to testicles or balls. It’s heard all over the place here. You suck them, swell them, throw them on a plate. Who knew? We’ve been thinking that maybe we should adopt the term in English.

How does “suck my eggs” sound? Terrible. Wait a second–according to the oh-so-reliable Urban Dictionary, it already exists. What were they thinking?

Anyway, let’s break down the piropo:

Tienes = You have (Tener=verb ‘to have‘)

unos = Some (uno = one, unos/as = some)

ojos = Eyes (masculine noun)

que = That (que can mean various things depending on the context)

parecen = Look like/Are like (Parecer=verb ‘to look like‘)

sartenes = Frying pans (noun ‘sartén‘ is frying pan. When we make it plural, we add an ‘es‘ and throw out the accent mark)

y = and

cuando = when

te miro = I look at you (mirar=verb ‘to look at’, te=direct object)

se me fríen los huevos. = my eggs fry (screw trying to explain this; it’s Level III stuff)

There you have it. Now, never repeat what you just read. Ever.

Or, do–just don’t give us credit. What you can give us credit for is setting you up with an the language learning software on the market. We teach you to speak like locals and you’ll learn Spanish phrases and idioms that people say on the street. If you don’t believe us, read the reviews - over 30,000 people have been learning Spanish with Bueno, entonces…!

You’re not doing anything productive on Facebook, anyway.

Mini Lesson Funny, learn Spanish, Mini Lesson, Slang

Our first bit has to do with the language, er, sort of language spoken amongst Spanish adolescents. Let’s just say there’s a reason why we often teach insultos along with Spanish phrases on our Facebook page.

From our experience, the severity of insultos or malas palabras here in the Southern Cone is not the same as it is back home. For example, it isn’t too rare for an old woman to scream “hijo de p*ta!” which literally means “son of a b*tch!”. Back home, that’d be a little…out of the ordinary, right? It’s good to know what’s going on–not necessarily to recreate it, but to see how different Spanish can be, linguistically and culturally.

We’d recommend staying away from the insultos until you have some friends that understand/can deal with  you. These words can definitely be taken the wrong way, and no one wants to be the Gringo with a broken nose.

In our language learning software program we’re careful to show you what is acceptable and what’s not. We don’t teach you to speak like a history book nor do we teach you to speak like a teenage boy (which is what one sounds like when they learn in a more informal setting). Because the program was created by both English speakers and Spanish speakers that have lived abroad, questions that pop up in your head are magically answered in the episodes. Pretty cool, right? Check our some more clips of our Spanish classes on our Youtube Page!

Video Clips Insultos, learn Spanish, Slang, Video Clips

Image taken from zazzle.com

When traveling in Latin America, it is sometimes useful to know all the ways you might be addressed by a local.  I mean, you don’t want someone to refer to you as something and not know what it means, right?  Different countries have different names that they call foreigners, but there are a few ‘universal’ terms.  Here’s a quick lesson on all names gringo.

First and foremost, gringo is going to be the most popular name you come across.  Gringo originally comes from the days of the Mexican-American War.  The Americans wore green uniforms, and the Mexicans wanted them to get out of their territory, so they would shout ‘Green Go!’– and voilá!  Gringo!  Pretty neat, huh?  Since then, however, gringo has become a name that is used to refer to North American and European foreigners, despite the origin of the word.

Secondly, huero/a or guero/a is a popular name used to refer to white-skinned, blonde foreigners in Mexico.  However, their perception of what is blonde is a little different from that of what you might be used to.  Blonde means pretty much anything lighter than dark brown.  So if you have hair lighter than dark brown, you can expect to be called a huero/a or guero/a.

Next up, blanco/a.  This pretty much follows the same rules as huero/a and guero/a– refers to white people, but what you consider a white person might be a little different.  If you have even the slightest bit of a pale-ish complexion, you will probably be referred to as blanco/a.

Finally, yanqui.  This is a term used mainly for Americans in Argentina, but we’ve heard it’s used elsewhere, too.  It’s pronounced ’shankee,’ but is their own version of our yankee.  Apparently all Americans are Yankees.  This term is only used in Argentina, though, but you can expect to be called this all the time.

Alright, so there are have it!  Don’t be offended if you are referred to by any of these names– for the most part, they aren’t derogatory, unless they are said in such a manner.

There is a Bueno, entonces… class that includes some information on gringo-terminology, too– see, we’ve covered all important topics!  To check out the program, take a look at the Bueno, entonces… learn Spanish Youtube page, where you can see clips of the Spanish classes. Become a fan on Facebook to learn useful Spanish phrases, get cool info about what’s going on in the Spanish-speaking world, and save $50 off the program!

Mini Lesson Latin Culture, learn Spanish, Slang, Spanish vocabulary