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Yippeee · Joined: 02 Mar 2006 Posts: 2

Greetings all!

I plan on moving to Argentina in a few months, and am curious about the weather. Should I bring a winter jacket for June, July and August? It's a big down-filled one that keeps me quite warm in the Canadian winters.

Also, I know beginners Spanish, should I try to upgrade? Is there anyone there who doesnt know Spanish and is still able to get by? What do you think?

Thanks,
Leslie

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

1. yes, bring a coat. it's not freezing cold but can get pretty chilly.

2. well, duh. possibly the stupidest question yet to appear on this forum (and there have been some real crackers).

Yippeee · Joined: 02 Mar 2006 Posts: 2

While I appreciate your answer to my first question, I think you were unnecessarily harsh when answering my second question. If you disliked it so much, you didn�t have to answer it. It made me wonder if you are always this grumpy, or perhaps you just had a bad day. I�d also like to point out that when you arrived in Argentina, you had to rely on your Chilean girlfriend to interpret things for you. Maybe if you had of asked a stupid question before leaving, you could better look after yourself.

veggieboy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Buenos Aires

Who says he had to rely on his girlfriend? Did I miss something? Maybe he did, I don't know. But maybe he already spoke Spanish. Some people do.

In any case, I can't imagine any other answer to your second question than "of course." I think there are a lot of reasons you might want to improve beyond basic Spanish.

One of them is entirely selfish: No matter how many people might or might not speak English here, it's definitely not all of them. So it would behoove you to be able to speak Spanish as well as you can for your own sake, if only so that YOU can get what YOU want and aren't constantly relying on others.

I think it's also a little courteous to make as much of an effort as possible to learn the language of the country you're going to be in, and to do it as soon as possible. And the longer you plan to stay here, the more true that becomes. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to dedicate your life to it if you're only going to be here a few months. But I just can't imagine any drawbacks to knowing more Spanish.

Oh, and bring a coat. It won't snow in BsAs or anything, but it will get nippy. I got away without a down-filled megacoat last winter. I just had sort-of heavy jacket and I was fine 95% of the time. If you leave Buenos Aires (to Mendoza, Patagonia), then you may really want the coat.

blendergasket · Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 7:51 pm Post subject:

if you don�t want to feel like a ghost learn spanish.

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile

Well...er...no. I had to rely on my Chilean girlfriend to cold call scheming, lying real estate agents, not to interpret things. I had already made the effort to learn conversational Spanish and arrived in Argentina before meeting my girlfriend in Chile. I don't think the thought "Well, i'm off to a Spanish speaking country; should i try to learn Spanish?" ever ran through my head.

YanquiQuilme�o · Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 122 Location: Quilmes, Argentina

I can't believe someone just asked, "Should I learn Spanish?"

That's the funniest thread I've read here in months ...

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

I don't know. I've heard of people living in countries for years and not speaking the language. I just meet a guy who lived in Hong Kong for 30 years, so I asked him, your Cantonese must be very good. No, just enough to get by. I haven't really made an effort. Everyone I work with speaks English
So there you go. I think that's the secret. You have to make an effort to learn the langauge. it isn't necessary, at least that's what some people think. I however, can't imagine living in a country and not learning the langague.