The holiday season in Buenos Aires is a blast, it’s the start of summer, after all. But travelers need to plan ahead, especially those arriving on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, or New Year’s Day. I wrote about Christmas in Buenos Aires last year, so let’s talk New Year’s this time.

New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aires

First off, wear white. It’s summer here and tradition calls for white. But the very best advice I can give you for New Year’s Eve is to stay in the barrio (neighborhood). Transportation is the biggest challenge. Buses will run, but you could find yourself waiting for an hour or more for your bus to pass. Taxis? Forget about it. The ones you see will all be occupied or on their way to pick up another passenger. Last year I tried to reserve one ahead of time for a couple that was checking out on Jan. 1 and was told that no taxis would be running until 8am. You have to try your luck with the ones you find on the street.

So, you’re staying in the barrio, and you want to dine out. Reserve now. It’s common here for restaurants to offer up a special menu for New Year’s Eve with a very special price, too. If you’re in San Telmo, some swanky, fine-dining options are Chila and La Vinería de Gualterio Bolívar. Our favorite restaurant in San Telmo is Cafe San Juan, and next would be Caseros. All great options for a special dinner.

You might not want your asado to look like this, but it makes for a pretty picture.

A better idea for those on a budget would be to stay in and cook . If you’re staying in a vacation rental, take advantage of the kitchen or the parilla, if you have one. Then, after dinner, head over to Puerto Madero for some fireworks and then come back to Plaza Dorrego for the party.

Ni el Loro Queda

Me: “Naty, I want to write a post about New Year’s in Buenos Aires.”
Naty:  ”Ni el loro queda.” (translation,  ”Not even the parrot sticks around.”)

It’s true. The difference between Christmas and New Year’s in Buenos Aires is that by New Year’s Eve, lots of porteños (BA locals) are already at the beach. The city is half full. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, on the contrary. It’s fantastic. Less traffic, more low-key, great photography opportunities, and there’s still plenty to do. Plus, in January the city puts on an awesome outdoor festival La Ciudad al Aire Libre. It’s my second favorite month of the year here (November is my favorite!).

John and Angela in Puerto Madero on New Year's Eve

Advice for New Year’s Day in Buenos Aires

1. Sleep late, very late.
2. If you can’t sleep late, go to church. It’s a cultural experience. And since it’s both a Sunday and New Year’s Day (i.e. most things are going to be closed), why not get cultural?
3. Rent a bike. Ok, I’m not sure the bike rentals will be open, but you could rent it on Saturday for all of Sunday too and ride all over the city without the traffic.
4. Walk the empty streets with your camera, but keep your camera in your bag unless you’re taking a photo. Empty streets are popular with thieves and cameras and cell phones are hot items.
5. Head to a park or the Nature Reserve. It’s summer. Work on your tan. Read a book. Stare out at the river. Make your list of New Year’s resolutions.
6. Go to the San Telmo street fair. There will probably be fewer vendors, but there will be antiques vendors, artisans, street performers, and street food. What a great way to start the year!

Other suggestions I haven’t thought of? Add them below, please. Thanks.

Today is the Day of the Boludo and that give us a chance to talk about Argentinean culture, yet again!

What’s a boludo, you ask? It’s basically an idiot, someone who’s not very bright. But the campaign for Dia del Boludo is doing its best to assert another definition: a boludo is someone who follows the rules. The opposite is a vivo, someone who’s clever and likely a cheat. Vivos look for opportunities to take advantage of others typically by breaking the rules.

Argentina is full of both boludos and vivos. But the culture sometimes seems to respect vivos more than boludos and that’s what the gang over at El Dia del Boludo wants to change. In fact, I pulled most of these quiz questions from their Boludo Testimonials page, which is full of people confessing to being boludos.

Happy Day of the Boludo! Try our quiz (15 questions) and then let us know in the comments whether you’d categorize the three San Francisco hippies in the picture at the top of this post as boludos or vivos????

Boludo or Vivo – A Quiz

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During World Cup matches, this tenth largest city in the world is silent and ghostlike. Want to know why they love it so much? We translate an ad about Argentinean futball and point out the cultural clues that help you understand why soccer is as great a passion as tango.

The game is on. During World Cup matches, when Argentina is playing, the streets of this massive city are empty and silent. Last Saturday, a friend and I were looking for a place for a coffee, but it seemed nothing (not even in swanky Palermo Soho) was open. The places that were open, were packed with people staring at the screen in silence. The only noise came during a good or bad play. “Ugh” or “Ah” or “Vamos! Vamos, Argentina!”

It’s nothing like watching sports in the States. The next two videos may help to explain why sports fans in Argentina are so different from those in the States.

Two Argentinean Passions in One Video

Fantastico! Seriously, aren’t they amazing? This was shot on Pasaje San Lorenzo right in front of the Casa Minima (which happens to be right up the street from our newest apartment which we’ll be announcing this week).

World Cup Horns

On Thursday morning, the sound of horns woke me up. Thankfully, it wasn’t those horrific vuvuzela horns (which I ranted about on my Facebook page), but I knew that it meant the same thing. Game time. I turned on the radio since I don’t have a TV. But the vuvuzela horns were so loud and annoying that I couldn’t really make out what the announcers were saying. If it hadn’t been a workday, I would have gone to Plaza San Martin to watch the match outdoors to watch the match on the big screen with hordes of others.

Watch the World Cup in San Telmo

If you’re in San Telmo and you want to watch World Cup matches, try Breoghan Bar, also on Pasaje San Lorenzo. We got a table there just before the start of the US – England match last Saturday and a table of Brits came in. When England scored, everyone in the bar cheered, then they looked over at the two girls from the States a bit apologetically. We didn’t expect to win, so the goal didn’t affect us too much. In fact, when the US scored, we weren’t even watching (so unlike Argentinean fans). Replays showed that it wasn’t a great goal, but we’ll take the tie.

Fantastic World Cup Ads

Here’s another World Cup ad that I love. The audio is in several languages with Spanish subtitles when it’s not Spanish. My translations with cultural references are below.  The reason I love these ads (this one and last week’s) is because they illustrate points about Argentinean culture that took me years of living here to figure out (the section below translates both linguistically and culturally the significance of the ad).

Ad from Torneos y Competencia – TyC Sport

It starts with Argentines complaining in a roundabout way about things Argentinean. Which brings us to the first cultural note: Argentines like to complain, but it’s more of a cultural art than a legitimate complaint. It doesn’t mean they don’t like their country, nor that they want to live somewhere else. It may not even mean that they want this thing they are complaining about to change. It’s simply that complaining, or being aware of their own national defects, is an understood, well-accepted part of being Argentine.

Spanish with English Translations

Tipo 1: Si me preguntas a mi esto no tiene arreglo. Escuchame, en Estados Unidos vos pones un pie en la calle y se paran todos. ¿Aca sabes que?

First Guy: If you ask me, this makes no sense. Listen, in the United States, you put one foot in the street and everyone stops. Imagine that here.

Culture: Pedestrians NEVER have the right of way in Argentina.

Taxista: Por ejemplo, en Suiza aunque sigas trabajando cobra la jubilacion igual, hermano.
Pasajero: Europa es Europa.
Taxista: Sí, Europa es Europa… pero aca no ligamos nunca ninguno.

Taxi Driver: For example in Switzerland, even if you keep working, they still give you your pension, brother.
Passenger: Europe is Europe.
Taxi Driver: Yes, Europe is Europe. But here we can’t get one break.

Culture Note 1: Taxi drivers are the best Spanish and culture teachers. They like to talk. They have strong opinions. They tend to talk about important subjects.
Culture Note 2: Everyone is everyone’s “brother” in Argentina. If you want a discount, call the vendor your hermano.

Potro: En España, agarrás una bicicleta, la usas, la dejas, y se la lleva otro.
Asador: Aca tambien se la lleva otro.

Cute Guy: In Spain, you grab a bike, you use it, leave it, and another person comes along to take it.
Grill Guy: The same thing happens here.

Culture Note 1: Don’t leave your bike (even locked up) when in Argentina. It will be stolen. Maybe in Spain bikes are part of the public transportation system. Here, they’d laugh in your face if you suggested that.
Culture Note 2: Sarcasm is alive and well in Argentina.

Primer Tipo: En Alemania, tirás un papelito, y se te acercan y te dicen “Señor, se le cayo esto.”
Segundo Tipo: Es cultural.

First Guy: In Gemany, if say you throw out a piece of paper, they’ll approach you and say, “Sir, you seem to have dropped this.”
Second Guy: It’s cultural.

Culture: Argentines don’t use trash cans. (Ok, that’s not 100% true, but there’s plenty of trash and dog poop dog on the sidewalks and even Argentines, who are used to it, complain about it.) In their defense, they do collect the trash every day except Saturday and there are lots of workers whose job it is to pick up the trash. But it would be nice if the trash wasn’t thrown on the street in the first place.

The next parts are in other languages. Basically, it’s Europeans talking about Argentina, or Argentinean soccer. Since the parts are already subtitled in Spanish, I’ll just write the English translations below.

First German Guy: It’s incredible. They throw millions and millions of papers every time the team comes out on the field.
Second German Guy: It’s cultural.

Culture: Argentinean fans are awesome (have a look at our video of the Boca Juniors match for an idea of just how awesome they are).

Guy (maybe Belgian, I’m not good enough in French to know): It’s just not important there. Whether they are wining or losing, these guys just keep on singing.

Culture: Argentinean fans are loyal to the bone. It’s not that they don’t care if the team is winning or losing; it’s more about loving the team no matter what.

Italian Guy: With a sock. I’ve seen them play with a sock. They grab it, they roll it into a ball, and they play in the street with this sock. It’s something I’ve never seen in my entire life.

Culture: Rich or poor, it doesn’t matter. When it comes to soccer, you play with what you’ve got because you love the game. It doesn’t even matter where you are, you can always find something to use as a soccer ball.

Guy (I have no idea what language he is speaking): His heel was the size of your neck and he played anyway.

Culture: Argentine players may throw themselves on the ground like weaklings after every other play (which I think they may have learned from the Italian immigrants that came here), but that’s just show. Even if they’re hurt, with an elephant-sized swollen heel, they play the game.

British Dude: If they lose, they don’t go to the cinema or to the theater. They do nothing.
Second British Dude: The fans?
British Dude: The fans and all the players.

Culture Note 1: Argentines feel a loss in their bones. They may be loyal fans who cheer whether their team is winning or losing, but if they lose, gloom and doom set in. After all, this is the home of tango, a pretty melancholic music, albeit a beautiful and passionate dance.
Culture Note 2: If you are here during important games, you had better hope that Argentina is winning, so you can go out and celebrate with them. Otherwise, you might want to go to the movies where you are assured you’ll get a great seat.

French Dude: These guys don’t play with their legs. They play with their hearts. With their hearts! I mean think about it, in every great team across the world, there is a great Argentinean player.

Culture Note 1: Ok, ok. Brazil has won five World Cups and Argentina has only won two. But…. but, if you look at the great teams, seriously great teams, around the world, there’s always an Argentine. And, the Argentine is always one of the best players. So, while Argentina may not be able to get it together as a team, they have the best players in the world.
Culture Note 2: We are the best!

There you go. That’s your cultural lesson for the week. Seriously, these ads are giving me such magnificent ways of showing parts of the culture here (even if we all know these are stereotypes and you can find tons of people who’ll dispute them).

What say you? If you have some experience with Argentina, do you think these cultural clues from the ad are accurate or not?

One of the best things about Argentines is their creative use of language. We’ve covered this topic before here and here. And you can find all of our posts about language in the category speak.

The first list below is just the essential words that we’ve already talked about in the last two posts on money: 15 Money Tips and Money in Buenos Aires. The second list covers the slang words dealing in some way or another with money.

Basic Vocabulary

cajero automatico – automated teller machine (or ATM)
banco – bank
billetes – bills (or banknotes)
monedas – coins
cambio – change
cambiar – to change or to exchange
casa de cambio – places that exchange foreign currencies
tarjeta de credito - credit card
efectivo – cash
plata – money (they use this more often than dinero, although they understand dinero)
trucho(a) – fake or false (you can also say falso)

Fun Language

Spanish here in Argentina is called Castellano. We talked about this distinction here. For many travelers who already speak some Spanish, understanding Argentines is way more difficult than they imagined. It’s not just the pronunciation and intonation difference or the fact that lots of things are called by a completely different name here. It’s because Argentines use a ton of slang. Here are some examples that, of course, deal with money.

1. mango – peso (it’s like using the slang buck for dollar)
2. seco(a) – literally it means dry, here it means broke
   “¿Tenés un mango para prestarme?”
   “No, estoy seco.”
3. guita – money
4. afanar – to steal or rob
   “Ese tipo nos quiere afanar la guita.”
   “They always think foreigners are made of money.”

Cheaters & Swindlers

1. vivo – a person who is sly and not going to give away a penny
   “Ese tipo es un vivo.”
   “Yeah, but he doesn’t know that I lived in Egypt and can haggle with the best of them.”
2. chanta – cheater or swindler
   “Dale, no sea chanta.”
   “Who me? What are you talking about?”
   “Los 100 mangos son truchos.”

Moochers & Penny Pinchers

1. garronear; gorronero(a) – to mooch or always ask for money; a mooch or freeloader
2. manguear; manguero(a) – to mooch or always ask for money; a mooch or freeloader
3. pedigüeño(a) – a mooch or freeloader
4. tacaño – a penny pincher or cheapskate
   “¿Otra vez garronenado un café?” OR  “Pagá una birra no seas tan tacaño.”
   “I promise I’ll get it next time. All the ATMs were out of money today.”

Puro Lunfardo

Lunfardo is a lingo that developed in Buenos Aires and other cities around the Río de la Plata towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. You’ll find a lot of Lunfardo words still commonly used today. Oftentimes, the word in Lunfardo uses the same syllables of the Spanish word but in reverse of in a different order. Look at these two examples.

1. sope – peso (notice the letters are the same, but the syllables are reversed)
2. garpar – to pay (the Spanish word is pagar, so it’s the same syllables but in reverse)
3. laburo – work (this one comes from the Italian word for work which is lavoro)
   “En el laburo no me garparon ni un sope.”
   “I hear ya. They throw me two mangos and nothing more at my job.”

What did I miss? Got any other expressions or words to add to this list?

In May, we posted on the art of the Argentinean asado. Today we’ll look at how you can get your steak cooked to your liking. One would think that here in the land of exquisite meat, a simple medium, medium rare, or well done would do the trick. If only that were the case.

I find that Argentines typically overcook meat. Most people order their steak a punto (which should mean medium), but it comes out bien cocida (well done).

Image Courtesy of Asado Argentina

I like my steak medium rare. Argentine friends have told me to ask for it jugoso (literally meaning juicy which sounds so much better than medium rare). The problem is that there is really no consensus here in Argentina about what the terms mean. When ordering jugoso, I’ve been served anything from rare to well done.

Image Courtesy of Asado Argentina

A few months back, I went to a little-known restaurant I’d been to before with a group of friends. The first time I ate there (back in October when it first opened), I had an amazing risotto with rabbit and vanilla. Strange combination. That’s why I ordered it and it was delicious. Everyone else I was with also raved about what they ordered. So when I had visitors of the sort that want to experience the food and wine here more than anything else, I thought this place would impress them. Wrong.

Three of us ordered medium-rare tenderloins. The waiter and I had this discussion (below), which truthfully should have told me that we shouldn’t order steaks.

Spanish version:

“¿Y que coccíon querés?”

“No, jugoso. Entre sangrante y a punto.”

English version:

“And how would you like it cooked?”

“Medium rare, please.”

“Bloody.”

“No, medium rare. Between bloody and well done.”

One steak came out medium rare. The other two were medium well to well. Imagine, one chef prepares three steaks all ordered jugoso in three different levels of doneness.

The meat here really is amazing, so if you’re like me, you will want it cooked the way you like.

Image Courtesy of Asado Argentina

If your Spanish is strong enough, you might want to try describing how you want it prepared instead of using the terms for doneness. Here are some suggestions.

1. rare – rojo intenso y sangrante en el centro
2. medium rare – rosado con y bien jugoso
3. medium – a punto pero todavia jugoso
4. well done – bien cocida

We’d like to thank Asado Argentina for giving us permission to use these beautiful photos. Buen Provecho!

Yes, this post is long overdue. Let’s switch things around this time and start off with some expressions for entertainment. And, since we’ve had a lot of demonstrations (peaceful pot banging mostly), strikes (the ongoing farmers strike), and disagreements (the decidedly inept government of the Kirchners), we’ll use that as the theme. 

First off, our title. The ubiquitous che! Che can come at the beginning or the end of a sentence as a simple interjection, or to avoid saying a person’s name. It’s like calling them “mate” or “dude.” But it is often used as a filler, a meaningless interjection just thrown in there.

1. che – hey, hey you, man, dude, mate.
   “Che, que esta pasando?”
   “Looks like there’s another demonstration.”         

    “Man, Cristina has really dropped the ball.”
   “Te parece, che?”

2. quilombo – a mess, chaos, commotion.
   “Che, que quilombo.”
   “No kidding. I’m heading out to the streets to bang pots with the protesters. Wanna come?”
   “Ni en pedo.”
    
3. enquilombado – a complicated situation
   “Estamos enquilombados!”
   “You said it. The whole thing’s a complete mess.”
    
4. quilombero(a) – a person who creates a mess
   “Ella es una quilombera total!”
   “Well, either she is or her husband is. Either way, it ain’t pretty.”
    
5. piquetero(a) – protesters
   “Viste cuantos piqueteros habian?”
   “I saw them and heard them. Pots were banging all night!”
    
6. ponerse las pilas – (literally, put in your batteries) get a move on, take charge
   “Can she solve the problem?”
   “Si, si se pone las pilas.”

There are some great sites covering Argentinean slang. Try the Argentine Spanish Slang Dictionary, El Castellano’s Dictionary, or Wally’s Dictionary. The last two also have sound files.  

Pronunciation: ll and y

The second most important aspect of Argentine Spanish to learn before you get here is the pronunciation of the ll (as in calle) and y (as in yo). Typically, they are both pronounced like a y in other Spanish dialects. 

Standard Pronunciation 

• calle -street (click here to download the mp3 file and listen to the standard pronunciation)
• yo – the pronoun I (click here to download the mp3 file and listen to the standard pronunciation)

The pronunciation of both the ll and the y change depending on which part of the country the speaker is from. We’ll look at how the porteños pronounce them, since most people will be visiting Buenos Aires and this pronunciation is the one that confuses.

ll and y are both pronounced as “sh” (for example, shop). So, the word calle becomes “cashe” and yo becomes “sho.”

Argentinean Pronunciation

• calle – street (click here to download the mp3 file and listen to the Argentinean pronunciation)
• yo – the pronoun I (click here to download the mp3 file and listen to the Argentinean pronunciation)

Here’s a short dialog to get you used to it. Click here to download the mp3 file of this dialog and listen to the Argentinean pronunciation of ll and y.

• A:     Te llame ayer.
• B:     Yo tambien te llame, pero me tuve que ir a la calle Ayacucho.
• A:     ¿Para que?
• B:     Un juego de llaves.

Translation:

• A:     I called you yesterday.
• B:     I called you too, but I had to go to Ayacucho Street.
• A:     What for?
• B:     A copy of my keys.

So you’ve been listening to your Spanish lessons as you drive to work or as you exercise at the gym. You practice rolling your r’s in the mirror every morning. You’ve stuck stick-it notes on the items in your house to help build your vocabulary.  As you open the refrigerator, you mouth out the items: leche, agua, huevos, queso, jamon, yogur, uvas, manzanas. You make it a point to say “Hola” and “gracias” to your Latino neighbors. And then you land in Buenos Aires and realize they don’t speak Spanish here. 

It’s Castellano, or Rioplatense Spanish, a dialect of Spanish spoken in the areas of the River Plate, and it can be quite different. Mostly the pronunciation is different, but there are different words too. To me, Castellano has an Italian rhythm with a Brazilian Portuguese softness. Overly romanticized? That’s very possible, after all, we are talking about language, which ranks up there in my top three favorite topics.

So how can you prepare? Maybe we can help.

Vos vs Tú 

In most Spanish-speaking countries, the pronoun for you (informal) is tú. In Argentina, they use vos. Whether the vos comes from Brazil’s você or from Spain’s vosotros isn’t clear, but don’t worry if you use tú, Argentines will still understand you. You only need to know that when they use vos, they’re talking to you.

Conjugating with Vos

It would be much easier if all one had to do to speak Castellano were change the tú to vos. But as luck would have it, the verbs are also different. For example, in most Spanish-speaking countries to ask where a person is from you would say “¿De donde eres tu?” In Castellano it’s “¿De donde sos vos?” Notice that the two verbs–eres and sos–are completely different. 

There aren’t too many verbs that change so drastically. In most cases, it’s the accent and maybe a missing vowel that accounts for the difference between tú verb forms and vos verb forms. Actually, the vos verb forms are easier. Drop the final -r on the verb, add an -s, and put the accent on the final syllable. Simple.

Verb                                           Vos                                           Tú

ser (to be)                                   vos sos                                     tú eres

estar (to be)                                vos estás                                  tú estás

tener (to have)                            vos tenés                                  tú tienes

querer (to want)                          vos querés                               tú quieres

venir (to come)                           vos venís                                  tú vienes

decir (to say)                              vos decís                                  tú dices

pensar (to think)                        vos pensás                               tú piensas

Castellano a los Pedos

In our next blog post will cover the major pronunciation differences, but to have a little fun before getting serious again, let’s talk about the colloquialisms. 

Argentines have a very particular slang and they absolutely love to use it. Slang makes for some hilarious misunderstandings and that’s half the fun of learning another language. 

For example, a friend of mine got a new job. I called her after her first day to see how it went. She said it was fine, she spent the entire day al pedo. Pedo literally means fart. I had an image of my friend sitting at her new desk with nothing to do and farting all day. People would walk in and think, “boy, the new girl really stinks” or “I wonder what she had for dinner last night.” 

She’s a close friend, so felt I could ask her if her job was so dull that she spent the day forcing farts out to make the time pass faster. She explained that al pedo means something was a waste of time or effort. I still kind of like the image of her there in her new job farting away. In the end, I wasn’t that far off.

Other Pedo Expressions

1. ni en pedo – no way
   “Hey, want to come with me to the laundromat?”
   “Ni en pedo.”
2. de pedo – by chance
   “So how did a guy like that get a girl like her?”
   “De pedo.”
3. a los pedos – very fast (literally it means to the farts which gives a nice visual)
   “He’s a crazy driver.”
   “Siempre a los pedos.”
4. cagar a pedos – to lecture or chew out (literally it means to shit farts, another visual but not so nice)
   “Did he yell at you when he fired you for farting all day?”
   “Si, me cago a pedos.”
5. al pedo – something that is a waste of time, money or effort
   “That guy just doesn’t get that you aren’t into him. What’s up with all the gifts?”
   “Si, el está al pedo.” 

   “Want to come with me to Uruguay tomorrow?”
   “Si, se estoy al pedo.” 

Restaurant customs are different all over the world. For example, in Egypt, waiters tend to take your plates and drinks before you’ve finished. This always annoyed my ex-pat friends. I think they felt like we were being asked to leave. But you can stay at a table in Egypt as long as you like and you’ll rarely be bothered by the wait staff to order something else or free up the table.

Here in Buenos Aires, wait staff always ask if they can take your plate. There may be nothing at all left, but still they ask “Puedo tirar los platos?” Then they’ll come back to see if you want dessert or coffee. 

To an American,  when you decline dessert it’s obvious you’ve finished and the waiter will likely bring the check to the table. Here you have to ask for the check. It’s similar to Egypt, you’re welcome to linger at the table just as long as you like even if you don’t order another thing.

These differences are sometimes frustrating to foreigners who might think, “geez, how come they haven’t brought the check yet?” But until you request it, “la cuenta, por favor,” you won’t see a check. Sometimes tracking them down for the check takes effort. They aren’t eyeing you like a hawk, waiting for those diners to get up so another tip can come in.