Visual Link Learn Spanish Newsletter (V:1; I:10)

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Learn Spanish Words of the Week -----
Words taken from Basic Needs, Section 1 of our Complete Course

	English	Spanish
Monday	I want	(Yo) Quiero
Tuesday	He wants	(El) Quiere
Wednesday	She wants	(Ella) Quiere
Thursday	You want	(Usted) Quiere
Friday	to buy	comprar
Saturday	meat	carne
Sunday	fruit	fruta
Bonus	cookies/crackers	galletas

Learn Spanish Culture ----- How's your sweet tooth?

As seen above in the Learn Spanish Words of the Week, the Spanish word "galletas" means both "cookies" and "crackers". It is my firm belief that this is so because of the amount of sugar put in Latin American cookies.

Let me explain what I mean -- I personally have a huge sweet tooth. I usually eat at least one and sometimes two desserts after dinner. Because of this practice, "Tengo que hacer mucho ejercicio" (I have to do a lot of exercise) to keep the pounds off. When I lived in different parts of Latin America for an extended period of time, I would have such a craving for good homemade cookies that I would sometimes have relatives or friends send them to me because the cookies there are so different.

The first time I had a taste of a Latin American cookie, I was shocked. I thought someone had forgotten to add most of the sugar. They also tasted a little bland like someone had left out most of the salt. With a desire to be polite, I didn't say anything but simply made my face look like I was enjoying the cookies. I felt bad for the poor cook who must have been embarrassed after leaving out most of the sugar and salt.

The next time I ate cookies at someone's house the same thing happened again. This is when my craving for sweets began to grow. Soon I was desperate for sweet cookies! I immediately went to a pastry shop (which had exquisite bread, by the way) and ordered three or four different kinds of cookies hoping that at least one of them would be sweet. To my dissapointment, they were all the same.

It was then that I realized why the word for cookies and crackers is the same -- they both have the same LOW amount of sugar!

The next time you go on a trip to Latin America, if you have a real sweet tooth for cookies like I do, here are some suggestions.

1. Just avoid cookies alltogether and maybe just eat candy or pie.
2. Bring packages of Kool Aid. (Maybe Kool Aid will pay us for advertising their name in our newsletter!!)
3. Have friends or relatives send you cookies from home. (We'll talk about how to send things to Latin America by mail in a later issue.)
4. Get a hotel room with a kitchenette. (This way you can make your own cookies.)
   

¡Les deseo mucha suerte! (I wish you all good luck!)

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