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October 2004 Online Newsletter...sent every other month
Tips and information about learning Spanish and the people who speak it.  Personal attention is what has made Language Link grow, and we value your comments.  If you or a friend would like to be added to our list, email us at info@langlink.com or subscribe through our website.
What's in this edition
Online Lesson, Cocina Cooking, Culture Clips, Language Link's Latest, OJO (special deals), Rhythm & Book Blurbs, Been There, Loved That (reports from recent participants), Likeable Links
Online Lesson
Easy shortcuts are always helpful when you're starting to learn Spanish.  You don't want to stay stuck in them forever, but they allow you to express complex ideas easily.  Perhaps you already know the present tense.  These are two easy ways to get you into the past and future.  For past, use the regular verb acabar de in the present tense plus an infinitive (which means the form in English which starts with "to").  This is the equivalent of "to have just done something".  It expresses a past action without getting into the more complex past tenses.  Acabo de leer el libro. I have just read the book.  Juan acaba de ir al centro.  John just went to town.  For future, use the irregular verb ir (voy, vas, va, vamos, van) plus a plus an infinitive.  Voy a comprar un regalo.  I'm going to buy a present.  Ellos van a viajar a Playa del Carmen.  They're going to travel to Playa del Carmen.  Be certain that in both these constructions you keep the second verb as an infinitive only.  Just look at what you can do when you combine these three ideas.  Acabo de aprender la palabra. (past)  Aprendo muchas palabras de la televisión.  (present) Voy a aprender mucho español en México.
Another easy shortcut is to avoid the subjunctive with impersonal expressions.  You can do this is you avoid a change of subject.  In other words, after an expression such as Es importante - if you put in a subject, you have to use a subjunctive verb.  It's important for HIM to learn Spanish.  Es importante que él aprenda el español.  If you make the statement in a general way, it's important to learn Spanish, you can avoid the need for the subjunctive, use the infinitive,  and simply say, Es importante aprender el español.
There is one idiom in Spanish which is much more complex in English than it is in Spanish.  Look at the complicated English verb structure when you say, How long have you been studying Spanish?  Use the idiom of hace que, and the structure is very simple.  Just use the simple present tense in Spanish.  ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que usted estudia el español?  I have been studying Spanish for six months.  Expressed simply in Spanish, Hace seis meses que estudio el español.  Notice that you put the time period first after hace, include que, then a present tense verb.  This is a very frequent structure.  ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que espera?  How long have you been waiting?  ¿Cuánto tiempo hace que vive en Costa Rica?  How long have you lived in Costa Rica.  Hace dos años que trabajo aquí.  I have been working (or I have worked) here for two years. 

Cocina Cooking
Chilaquiles (serves 10) - It is said that this is the Mexican cook's solution to leftover tortillas.  Traditionally served for breakfast, this also makes a good vegetarian main dish.  1pkg (about 6oz) tortilla chips, 1 large chopped onion, 2T. butter, 2 lightly beaten eggs, 1 c. small curd cottage cheese, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ground cumin, dash pepper, 1 can (4oz.) chopped green chilies, 3 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese, 1 c. sour cream, 1 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese, jalapeño pepper slices for garnish.  Crush enough of the tortilla chips to make a half cup.  Reserve.  Saute onion in butter in small skillet until light brown.  Combine eggs, cottage cheese, salt, cumin, and pepper in small bowl.  Place half of remaining tortilla chips in buttered 12 x 8 baking dish.  Layer with half of the onion, half of the egg mixture, half of the chiles, and half of the Monterrey Jack cheese.  Repeat layers.  Bake covered 25 minutes in 350 degree oven.  Remove from oven.  Spread sour cream over casserole.  Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and reserved tortilla chips.  Bake uncovered 5 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Garnish with jalapeño peppers.

Culture Clips
The first nip in the air and reports of impending snow often create visions of warm weather escapes, many with a beach included.  There are two glorious beach destinations where we offer excellent programs.
     The Riviera Maya is the new catchword phrase describing a 70 mile strip of white beaches and turquoise water.  It is on the easternmost side of Mexico in the state of Quintana Roo.  The main attribute of the Riviera Maya is its diversity.  Not only do you have the usual beach diversions, but you also have access to rain forests, ancient Mayan cities, archaeological treasures and amazing ecological reserves.  The moonlight turns the crystal clear water to silver, and in combination with the warmth and fantasy of the tropics, this destination becomes magical. The Mayan touch is everywhere, and it is helpful to have a  background.  The Maya people were spread out over a territory covering the states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Chiapas and Campeche, as well as Guatemala, Belize, and parts of El Salvador and Honduras.  The evolution of the Maya people is divided into three periods:  Preclassic (1600 BC – 250 A.D.), Classic (250 – 900 A.D.) and Postclassic (900 – 1542 A.D.)  The predominant culture in the Yucatan area is dated in the Postclassic Period.  The major sites include Tulúm, Xel Ha and Chichén Itzá.  A very specific Maya point of interest in this area are the sacred cenotes.  Many of these are located in caves, a beautiful underwater environment.  A natural waterhole. cenote is a corruption by the Spanish of the Maya word dzonot, a large circular sink-hole created by the collapse of limestone caves. The water in cenotes is filtered through limestone and constituted one of the primary sources of drinking water for the Maya. The presence of Mayan artifacts in these wells is not surprising. Nearly every great Mayan city sprang up on or near one of them. Caves were sacred places to the Maya to a degree almost unknown in other cultures. There are many theories about the decline of the Maya.  One of these postulates that the caves were dry at some point while the Maya ruled.  This gives weight to the theory that a devastating drought caused their ultimate demise. Another fascinating mystery connected to the cenotes has already been solved. Over 64 million years ago, more than half the earth’s plant and animal species disappeared, including the dinosaurs. For decades, scientists speculated that a meteorite the size of Manhattan caused the mass extinction, yet no proof was found. The Yucatan cenotes, however, provided the ultimate clue. In 1987, while studying satellite imagery of Mayan water sources, researchers noticed an intriguing pattern. Hundreds of the water-filled sinkholes formed an almost perfect semicircle, which they named the “Ring Cenotes.” The cenotes outlined a buried impact crater measuring 160 miles across. Further research proved that its age, location and size made it the best candidate for the global catastrophic event that occurred many years ago.
     Another beach location is Playa Sámara in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica.  Sámara has a superb coral reef and its own picturesque wooded island in the bay.  It is a popular area for swimmers and windsurfers and has been described as one of the safest and prettiest beaches in the country, the perfect long white sand beach with shallow, gentle waters.  The beach is only one example of the diversity of terrain in Costa Rica, mostly supremely beautiful. You can start walking in a valley, start walking uphill, and you can experience the warmth of a rainforest to an alpine village.  Within a one-hour trip from San José the scenery changes with dramatic effect through dense rainforest, airy cloud forests which surround the slopes of towering volcanoes, to lush sugarcane fields, banana plantations, and rich cattle ranches; and rain-soaked jungle, lagoons, estuaries, and swamps teeming with wildlife. The rainforest spills down the mountains to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, where dozens of inviting white beaches remain unspoiled by footprints and offshore coral reefs open up a world more beautiful than a treasure chest of jewels. Costa Rica's varied ecosystems, particularly its tropical rainforests, are a naturalist's dream. Animals and birds are prolific and relatively easily seen. You can almost feel the vegetation growing around you. The nation's 12 distinct ecological zones are home to an astonishing array of flora and fauna--approximately five percent of all known species on earth in a country that occupies less than three ten-thousandths of its land area--including more butterflies than the whole of Africa, and more than twice the number of bird species than the whole of the United States.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. -St. Augustine

Language Link's Latest
IH Riviera Maya in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, now offers a cooking class which can be added to other classes for three afternoons weekly.  It only adds $45 to your course costs, and you can learn to prepare some of Mexico's most delicious dishes in a beautiful garden kitchen...as well as talk about the food in Spanish!  If you'd rather explore the sea rather than eat what comes out of it, you can also study in combination with a specialized diving school.  There are courses for beginners and advanced, with courses leading to the PADI certificates for dives up to 18 or 30 meters.

Who's open during the December holidays?  Antigua in Guatemala, Cuernavaca and Oaxaca in Mexico, San Jose in Costa Rica, Quito in Ecuador, Cusco in Peru (special Christmas course), Buenos Aires in Argentina, Santiago in Chile, Barcelona, Madrid, and Vejer (special Christmas course) in Spain.  It's quite nice to study Spanish and experience holiday traditions of another country at the same time.

Chances are very good that we will be offering a new location soon - Panama!  This will be a sister school to the excellent program of ILISA in San Jose, Costa Rica.

OJO (Special Deals)
A nice little perk from CLIC of Seville - register before October 31 (you still have a few days left) for classes on any date, and you will receive a free weekend excursion.  We already have had many students take advantage of this offer.

If you've ever considered studying at ILISA in San Jose, Costa Rica, prices there for 2005 will be slightly lower than in 2004.  The 2005 prices will soon be available on our website.

The following programs all have price increases in 2005, but if you register for a 2005 date by November 15, Language Link can get you the 2004 prices - El Bosque del Caribe of Cancun, Amauta of Cusco, Becari of Oaxaca.

We are still continuing our contest for two free weeks of study and lodging at beautiful CLIC of Seville, Spain.  This is one of our strongest programs, and our evaluations from there are always exceptional.  All you have to do is enter your name and email through the contest box on our website and give us a brief comment.  The entries are rolling in, but your odds are still quite good.  Don't pass this up!

Rhythm & Book Blurbs
Waiting for Snow in Havana - Confessions of a Cuban Boy, by Carlos Eire, is a passionate memoir which aims to document the social life and customs of a Cuban childhood.  It has been described as the cheapest trip to sunshine between two covers, a wistful glimpse of a shattered world.

Paulina Rubio's music is considered the Latin pop for the new milennium.  Although she does have a crossover album "Boarder Girl," this golden girl's albums all in Spanish include "Paulina", the #1 Latin album of 2001, "Paulatina", and "Planeta Paulina".  Born in 1973 of a Mexican actress, she appeared in Pasión y Poder, a Mexican soap opera, as well as others.

Been There, Loved That

• Your newsletter always teaches me something new and interesting.  I look forward to seeing it in my mailbox!  Dolores Schroeder, Chicago, IL
• Antigua, Guatemala.  I studied Spanish at a local university but it never truly came alive for me until I studied in Guatemala.  That experience breathed life into the words.  It was incredible!  Jackie Loasching, WI
• Heredia, Costa Rica.  I just retured from studying at Intercultura in Costa Rica, and just wated to tell you how absolutely fabulous it was and to say thanks.  Nicole McNew, Student, IL
• Oaxaca, Mexico.  The school was well organized and the administrators were very pleasant to work with.  The instructors were excellent.  Tina Daalderop, ESL Teacher, Ontario, Canada
• Cancun, Mexico and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  Excellent and professional teachers.  Everything was perfect, you took care of every detail for us, thank you.  Marjolaine Rainville, French and Spanish Teacher, NH
• Cuernavaca, Mexico.  The instructors in SLI were very professional and competent.  I enjoyed my classes immensely.  The homestay was the best part.  My hosts were two of the kindest, warmest, and most interesting people I have ever met.  Lynn Cook, Health Educator, MD
  

Likeable Links
http://www.rivieramaya.com
A general website on the Riviera Maya including information on activities, attractions, the beaches, and the ecoparks.
http://www.cancun.com/Maya_Ruins/
Information on the Mayan Ruins in the Riviera Maya
http://www.locogringo.com/research/eco-parks.html
Great information on the Eco parks in the Riviera Maya
http://samarabeach.com/about.htm
Good info on Samara Beach in Costa Rica
http://www.costaricareisen.com/naturpur/straende_eng.htm
Short description of all beaches in Costa Rica
http://playadelcarmeninfo.com/playa-del-carmen-info-read-more-menu.html
Information on Playa del Carmen, Mexico

We hope you enjoyed our news.  Please visit us at www.langlink.com , or if you would like a human voice, call us at 800.552.2051.  We're on Central Standard Time with office hours 9-5.

Kay G. Rafool - Executive Director, Christina Henderson - Asst. Director.
Language Link, POB 3006, Peoria, IL 61612, USA, fax:309.692.2926, world telephone: 309.692.2961, toll free: 800.552.2051, email: info@langlink.com  

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