Bargain Hunting

El mercado al aire libre en Antigua, Guatemala

Mexico and Latin American countries are notorious for their open air markets or as they say in Spanish, mercados al aire libre. It is the place to find many very good quality products. It is also a great place to find some really good knock-offs. Americans, especially those who live near the border of Mexico, enjoy spending time crossing the border to find little trinkets and treasures at an incredible bargain. What is interesting is that bartering or bargaining is expected south of the border. One would say it is kind of an art form all to its own.

I cannot stress how often I would find Americans shopping in those mercados al aire libre and not getting the best price they possibly can for their money. It is definitely a cultural thing. Americans must be put off or feel ashamed, I guess, for trying to bring down a price of something they want from a vendor who apparently lives life very humbly. In a way, we tend to feel like we are taking advantage of someone who is just trying to make an honest living. Guilt falls into play and before you know it, you are paying more for something you shouldn't be.

Don’t fall into that trap. You earned your money just as hard as they earn their money. Become part of the “art form” of negotiation. There is no reason why you shouldn’t and the vendors really do expect it. So give them what they really want and bargain that price down!

Here is a quick tip I picked up when shopping a lot of those beautiful mercados al aire libre. Really examine the product and look for any minor flaws such as a loose end or fear of inferior quality (even if it looks top notch). Find out from the vendor how much they are asking for it. Take their price and cut it in half. Start your negotiation from that price. Move up slowly, but also keep in mind a price point where you will not budget and go over. Don’t be afraid to put it down and walk away. I can’t tell you how many vendors would chase me after I did that with a product I really wanted. After that, they were more willing to bring the price down further. Once you feel satisfied by pointing out any flaws and product inferiorities, settle on a price and stick to it. One of my favorite tactics is mentioning another vendor's similar products and how wonderful they and their prices are. Both sides (the vendor and you) will feel like you've come to an honest and mutually agreeable price. Best of all, have fun and feel free to chit chat with the vendor more. It’s a great way to get to know them, their life, and the culture. Ask them for suggestions on great places to eat. You may get more in valuable information and products in the transaction.

One final thought before I leave you for now, try bargaining with more than just shop vendors. Taxi cab drivers are great to bargain prices down. Happy shopping! ¡Hasta luego!

When to "Tú" and When to "Usted"

English speakers have some difficulties with the difference between Tú and Usted. They have every right to have difficulties with them. We only use the one word “You” in English. So it becomes a challenge to think of when you should use them. Let me help make it easier for all of you.

Usted, or commonly abbreviated as Vd., is used in the formal sense. For example, I am walking down the street and a man is passing by me. I might ask him how he is doing today. Of course, I would say “You,” but use the formal Usted. The most common way to distinguish when to use it is for people you do not know or have a very brief introduction.

Another aspect is age. Yes, age plays a factor in a lot of things in life and when to use Tú and Usted is one of those times. If I am a young person and I am speaking to an adult I do not know very well or an adult outside my own family, I would use the Usted form. This is simply to show respect.

On the flip side, if I am an adult and I speak to a young person, I would only use the Tú form. As an adult, you can request people to start using the Tú form when talking directly with you. It’s called tutear. It’s a way to break past all of the formalities. Now family members, close friends, co-workers, peers, close neighbors all use the Tú form with each other. For family members, the age factor does fall into play with members outside your immediate family circle. With everyone else, people will use the Usted form.

My recommendation for all new Spanish language learners, use the Usted form with people you do not know out of respect, unless the person is younger than you, a close friend or family member. All other people, stick with the Usted form until the other person tutearle (requests you to use the Tú form with them).

I hope this little explanation helps clarify this distinction better for you.  ¡Hasta luego!

007 Words

They creep in the dead of night. Slither past in the shadows of day. They show their ugly head at the most inopportune moment. What are they? False cognates or what we refer to as false friends.

I have a perfect story that will help drive home what these are to you. Years ago when I was in high school Spanish class, our teacher, Doña (as she liked to be referred), relayed a true story about when she studied for a year in Spain. She lived with a host family as most foreign exchange students do. In her family, it was customary to have dinner together as a family. This time was for people to discuss their day, talk about their plans for the coming days, etc. During one story, she was trying to say how embarrassed she became by uttering the words “Estaba embarazada.”

Boy, did it get quiet around the dinner table. The host mom starts off very upset and begins raising her voice with lots of hand gestures. As any American in a new country could relate, nothing made any sense. Finally after the commotion settled down, she caught on that embarazada meant that she had gotten herself pregnant. Of course, her host mom was worried and upset that Doña had been so careless under her care. When she clarified things, they all had a good laugh about it, but it drove home the point that not every word in Spanish has a similar meaning in English and vice versa.

Now this story is not verbatim as my memory is not all that great when it comes to stories that old. But it does serve to demonstrate that you need to be careful with words in Spanish. Now there are a lot of Latinos in the U.S. who have blended English and Spanish to create Spanglish words. These are mixture of Spanish-sounding words that are close to how the English word is and means the same thing. El carro to mean the car is a good example. Over many years of use, this is now the meaning in Spanish.

Another good example is the Spanish word billón and the English word for billion. In Spanish, billón actually is a trillion. There are many words like this in Spanish and I won’t bore you by putting them in this blog posting, but I will refer you to a few sites that have good comparisons. Feel free to study these words and lock in those meanings. You never know when you’ll need to compromise and keep saying that you want to promise instead. Here are some of those websites:

Surviving Yucatan 

eLearning Spanish Language

About.com

Have any of you come across or encountered false friends? Do you know anyone who has? Please comment below and share your story. Don't worry. We all make these mistakes when learning a new language. Have fun with it and help others learn from our mistakes.

 ¡Hasta luego!

K.I.S.S.

Constructing simple sentences is the way to establish a firm foundation. Without them, we cannot create more complex ones. The words are the building blocks and the order is the mortar. This week, let’s focus a bit on setting up simple Spanish sentences.

First off, what is a sentence? Well, the basic sentence has two things: a subject and a predicate. It takes you back to grammar school, I know. But the subject is who is doing the action. Therefore, the predicate is what is being done by the subject. For example:

I speak.

I = the subject; speak = what the subject is doing

Spanish does the same thing. Let’s use the same example. The Spanish verb for “to speak” is hablar. The word for “I” is yo. I will conjugate this verb to create the simple sentence “I speak”: Yo hablo.

This is pretty easy so far, huh?

Now let’s try some other verbs to create the same simple sentences:

beber = to drink > Yo bebo. = I drink.

vivir = to live > Yo vivo. = I live.

There are two other aspects I would like to point out with simple sentences. The first is that in Spanish, you do not need to use the word “Yo” to mean “I.” The simple reason is because the verb conveys that information by how you conjugate it. We use to be able to do this in very old Anglo Saxon which becomes our current, modern English language we use today. Each subject: I, you, he, she, we, they, it – all had a different way of sounding and appearing. But over the centuries, we lost those parts of the verb, thus depending on using separate words to show the subject. Spanish kept this aspect of their verbs. Will time tell when Spanish goes the way of old Anglo Saxon to current, modern English? I suppose only time will tell on that one. As of right now, you do not need to use a word to convey the subject in Spanish as the verb will do that for you. People use it to add emphasis or really clarify who they are talking about when it is used. Beginners speaking Spanish, I encourage to use the subject words as it may help when thinking of the conjugation of the verb you want to use.

The second aspect of simple sentences is the different verb conjugations. In Spanish, there are three verb types: those ending with -ar, -er, and -ir. Here they are in a handy table to help you visualize them better. I will use the three verbs mentioned in today’s post.

English Subject	Spanish Subject	-AR Conjugation	-ER Conjugation	-IR Conjugation
I	Yo	hablo	bebo	vivo
You (familiar)	Tú	hablas	bebes	vives
S/He, You (formal)	Ella/Él, Usted (Vd.)	habla	bebe	vive
We	Nosotros or Nosotras	hablamos	bebemos	vivimos
They (familiar)	Vosotros or Vosotras	habláis	bebéis	vivís
They (formal)	Ellas, Ellos, Ustedes (Vds.)	hablan	beben	viven

I will get into more on this last aspect of simple sentences later. But for now, I think this is enough. Practice, practice, practice! If you have questions, please do not hesitate to post a comment below. Hasta luego.