Foreign students in BA (article in La Nación)

[Guiller]

This article, written in Spanish, is about students who come to study in Buenos Aires:

http://buscador.lanacion.com.ar/Nota.asp?nota_id=984507

I highlight this paragraph:

"En Europa todo es perfeccionismo, en cambio aquí la gente es más libre y fresca. Se dejan llevar más por las pasiones que por la razón", dijo Pierre Samuel Blanchard, un pianista francés que prefirió vivir en el sur del continente americano para aprender de nuestra cultura y poder sumarlo a su música.

My own's translation is:

"In Europe everything is perfectionism, but here people are freer and fresher. They get carried along by passion rather than reason", said Pierre Samuel Blanchard, a french pianist that choose living in the south of the American continent to learn our culture and to be capable of adding it to his music.

I felt identified with him.

All the best

[Norman Stormin]

In the summer of '06, I enrolled in a four month intensive German course in Berlin. Although considered the most liberal of the Germanic States, I found the "Free" University of Berlin to be better described as a military academy. The first words uttered by our instructor were "I am Frau Professor Schmit. You will address me as Frau Professor. We will address one another in the formal. We will communicate only in 'High' German. You will complete four hours of homework every day." What ensued was a gruelling cram course not unlike the 12 months I spent at the Defense Language Institute. I bot the Professor's lunch several times and even got her drunk one afternoon in a beer garden. Never was I able to crack the barrier of the Berlin wall. I still don't know her first name!

Last year, I enrolled in a four month intensive Spanish couse at the University of Buenos Aires. Our Professor introduced herself only by her first name. All verbal exchanges were in the familiar. English was the common language and 50% of the class was conducted in English even though 85% of the students were not native English speaking. Portanean slang was actually taught. There was never any homework. The second day I invited our instructor for coffee. The fourth day we had lunch. Friday we had dinner and Saturday morning was breakfast at the Y!

Academically, my German improved 10 times over my Spanish. Spiritually, the Portena Professora half my age boosted my ego 10 times over the Prussian! I'll take passion over perfection any day!

[Stan Da Man]

Now that is a great story illustrating the contrast between the two cultures. I take it that you now speak fluent German, but you know Spanish.

[MCSE]

It's like an Audi and an Argentine Fiat Duna! LOL.