Visual Link Spanish Newsletter (V:1; I:30)

Read What the Experts Say about Our Course!-----

Dr. David L. Nielson, Ph.D. has reviewed Spanish software professionally for approximately the past ten years. Here is what he said about our course. "The U.S. Institute's course and CD-ROM's are one of the very best and most effective that I have seen... [they] enable the motivated and serious student to immediately utilize the target language with meaningful phrases and sentences."

Click here to buy the Spanish course that really works - Visual Link Spanish™!!

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

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

	English	Spanish
Monday	You can (You are able to)	Usted puede
Tuesday	to sign	firmar
Wednesday	to leave (something)	dejar
Thursday	the contract	el contrato
Friday	the fax	el fax
Saturday	the paper	el papel
Sunday	something	algo
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 to learn Spanish.

Spanish Culture ----- The fun of "el regateo"

The Spanish culture has a wonderful system of shopping that I think everyone should experience. It is called "regateo" [reh-gaw-tay-oh] or in English "bargaining". Not only is "regateo" fun to do, but it earns you a cheaper price, and is actually expected as part of their culture. You can bargain at any small shop or market but usually at larger grocery stores or department stores bargaining is not done. This is a great way for you to speak Spanish with a native speaker.

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to go into a small shop or open-air market and bargain with the people for a lower price. It is very fun!

Let me give you an example of my personal technique. Feel free to use some or all of these phrases the next time you go shopping in Mexico or Latin America.

Let's say that I wanted to purchase a new watch.

First I would start out by saying, "¿A cuánto está?" [ah quan-toe ess-taw?] (How much is it?) or "¿Cuánto cuesta?" [quan-toe cwes-taw] (How much does it cost?)

Sometimes, just because I'm a gringo (foreigner) they will give me some ridiculously high price. If they do, I say "¡Soy gringo, pero no soy tonto!" [Soy green-go peh-row no soy tone-toe] (I'm a gringo but I'm not a fool). Then I immediately and resolutely start walking towards the door as if to leave. Then they will usually say "wait", "wait", "wait", and proceed to give me a lower price (they know that "gringos" usually aren't poor).

With this new lower price, I will look at the clerk as if he is crazy and say "¡Demasiado, Ni hablar!" [deh-mas-ee(ah)-though knee aw-blar] (Too much, no way!). Then I say "¿Cuál es el precio de verdad?" [kwal es el preh-see(oh) de bear-thath] (What is the real price?).

Then they'll give me a price that is even lower. Then the series continues with me saying "Too much!" (¡Demasiado!) and him lowering the price three or four times.

Finally when I see he's gone down in price quite a bit, I will look directly at him and say "Usted cobra demasiado, lo siento." [oo-stead co-braw deh-mas-ee(ah)-though, low see(en) toe] which means, "You charge too much, I'm sorry". Then I will start to leave again and the clerk will usually give me one final offer to keep me in the store. I usually accept this final offer.

To me, the funnest part of bargaining is seeing how low I can get the clerk to go. After doing it a few times, it becomes almost like a sport. It really makes learning Spanish even more fun!

Always remember, never feel bad about asking for a lower price, it is expected in their culture.

Until next week and...good shopping!

 

Click here to learn Spanish with free Spanish lessons.

¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)


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