Visual Link Learn Spanish Newsletter (V:1; I:13)

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

	English	Spanish
Monday	yes	sí
Tuesday	no	no
Wednesday	or	o
Thursday	but	pero
Friday	to cook	cocinar
Saturday	meat	carne
Sunday	fruit	fruta
Bonus	nothing	nada
Note	The Complete Course contains the pronunciation of all the words in the newsletters and teaches you how to put them together into sentences and form questions and answers. The Complete Course is available on the web site for only $149.95.

Learn Spanish Culture ----- No mucho

This week I'm going to talk about another phrase that Americans, and English speakers in general (for you readers outside of the U.S.) usually say incorrectly. If you use this phrase, you will definitely sound like a Gringo or foriegner (we'll talk about the exact definition of "Gringo" next week).

I am talking about the phrase "Not mucho." Many native English speakers will say "Nada mucho" for "Not much", this is simply wrong, wrong, wrong! The problem is that now I've told you the phrase you will have a tendency to remember and say it. Don't! It's incorrect! -- you need to remember the correct phrase "No mucho" [no moo-choh]. Let's repeat it a few times to help you remember it "No mucho" . . . "No mucho". Now say it out loud -- "No mucho". Now yell it for emphasis "¡¡NO MUCHO!!". If people look at you funny for saying it out loud and yelling it, just tell them you are learning Spanish and your teacher (me - Dave Clark) told you to do it.

To show you how funny this incorrect phrase sounds to native Spanish speakers, I'm going to tell you about a TV commercial in the Dominican Republic about 10 years ago. It was a shampoo commercial where an American is shampooing his hair when some Dominicans ask him "What's happening" or "¿Qué pasa?" [Kay paw-saw]. The American, with a very "Gringo" accent says "Nada mucho" and all the Dominicans laugh because not only did he say the phrase with a "Gringo" accent, but because it's incorrect. I didn't quite see how the commercial sold shampoo, but I guess it must have worked.

The reason I knew so much about this commercial was when I was walking around the streets of the Dominican Republic, at least once or twice a day groups of teenage Dominican boys would come up to me and say "Qué pasa" . . . "¿Nada mucho?". Then they would all die laughing histerically. At first, it would drive me crazy, but then I would go up to them and start talking to them in Spanish. They were amazed that I could speak fluently and correctly and it would quiet them down somewhat, but the next day it would happen all over again.

Let's give ourselves a good name and reputation as English speakers learning Spanish and instead of saying "Nada mucho", say "No mucho". Why don't you say it one last time just to help you remember . . ."No mucho".

¡Hasta la próxima semana! (Until next week!)


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