Where to Learn Spanish in Buenos Aires

If you’re going to spend anytime in Argentina it is a great opportunity to study Spanish. Even if you already speak Spanish, you may want to take a couple of classes to learn about the regional use of ‘vos,’ Argentinismos and a bit of Lunfardo, the unique slang used extensively throughout the country, and especially in and around Buenos Aires.

Learning Spanish in Buenos Aires: Public Schools

• Laboratorio de Idiomas, Universidad de Buenos Aires

The University of Buenos Aires Language Laboratory is an obvious option for very inexpensive and high-quality Spanish classes. Here you get a feeling for what its like to be a university student in Argentina — classes are excellent and the bar is set high, but inscription is a bit chaotic, the classrooms have paint falling off the walls, and it’s a miracle if the bathrooms have toilet paper. Students are not given the course material, but in charge of making their own photocopies of the study aids at a nearby copy shop.

Regular courses begin in March and August every year and have four hours of instruction per week for one semester. Their ‘super-intensive’ one-month courses, with 15 hours of instruction per week, are a little more expensive. The university can also provide a certificate confirming that you passed either the basic, intermediate or advance Spanish to provide for school or work.

For those with advanced Spanish they also offer excellent courses in Spanish for foreigners including, ‘Spanish through Cinema,’ ‘Literature of the Rio Plate,’ ‘Culture and Conversation’ and ‘Immigrants in Buenos Aires.’

Language Laboratory of La UBA
25 de Mayo 221
Microcentro
Tel: 4343 1196 / 4334-7512 / 4342-5922

• Instituto de Enseñanza Superior en Lenguas Vivas ‘Juan Ramón Fernández’

Founded in 1904, the Instituto de Enseñanza Superior en Lenguas Vivas, commonly called ‘Lenguas Vivas’ is a school set in a beautiful historic building in the Retiro neighborhood. It functions as a secondary school and provides adult education.

They offer two-month courses with eight hours of instruction per week or four-month courses with four hours of instruction per week. These courses are great for those who speak well enough to get around, but want to keep improving at a steady pace. They also offer more advanced classes than the University of Buenos Aires, which only goes up to ‘level seven’ Spanish.

Their Spanish classes, taught by ex-University of Buenos Aires professors, tend to be slightly less expensive than the university. As with many state institutes, the professors are excellent but the administrative department is a disaster.

Lenguas Vivas
Carlos Pellegrini 1515
Retiro
Tel: 4322-3992 /96/ 98

— Learn Spanish Online! —

Private Schools

Private Spanish schools are a good option for those who don’t want to deal with the bureaucracy of a state school or whose schedules don’t fit with the classes offered at those institutes. Additionally, private schools tend to offer a smaller class size for more personalized instruction, extracurricular activities, and creature comforts such as nice chairs, classrooms with heat and air conditioning and beverages.

• Expanish

There are many private institutes in Buenos Aires. One of them, Expanish is one of Buenos Aires’ most successful and well-known private Spanish schools. The school is located downtown in an historic UNESCO World Heritage building.

Expanish offers an intensive Spanish course of 20 hours per week, an intensive Spanish Plus class, which combines group classes with one-on-one instruction for a total of 30 hours per week and tailor made one-on-one classes.

Other courses include Spanish & Tango and Business Spanish. Class size is small, with a maximum of nine students per class.

Additionally the school has a student lounge, a study room and library, free wifi throughout the building and is fully accessible for wheelchair users. Extra curricular activities include film screenings, city tours, workshops and group excursions. A big bonus is the rooftop terrace with awesome views and a cafeteria to get something to eat and hang out between classes.

The school can also arrange homestays with an Argentine family or a room in shared apartment as well as volunteer opportunities that will allow you to improve your language skills while helping out the community.

Expanish is accredited by The Association of Language Centers (SEA) and follows a curriculum set by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF).

Expanish Spanish School
Tte Gral Juan D Perón 700
Microcentro
Tel: 5252-3040
From abroad: 1-888-EXPANISH

→ Read our guide on how to learn Argentine Spanish online on Wander-Argentina.org

→ also see ‘How to Speak Spanish like an Argentina‘ on Wander-Argentina.org

Do you want your private Spanish school listed here? Get in touch to arrange a visit.

Lunfardo: The Dirty Slang of Buenos Aires

Lunfardo is a jargon of about 5,000 words that emerged among the lower classes in Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. The slang first grew out of cocoliche, a pidgin used by immigrants during the first wave of immigration to Argentina. The Argentine Creole was born out of a need to communicate among people who had different regional dialects of their respective languages, mostly Spanish and Italian.

Lunfardo’s Criminal Roots

Lunfardo is closely tied with the tango culture and has roots in the criminal underbelly — much of the dialect was developed in the prisons as a way for inmates to speak amongst themselves without being understood by guards.

Lunfardo later incorporated smatterings of words from other immigrant groups, the gauchos, or cowboys, of Argentina, the indigenous of the country and African slaves.

Lunfardo is employed in the River Plate region and although it has permeated Argentine culture, the vocabulary is not widely understood in other Spanish-speaking countries with the exception of Uruguay.

noenamorasedeunboludo — ‘How to Not Fall in Love with a Boludo’ —Lunfardo in popular culture

Italy’s Influence on Lunfardo

In addition to Italian words that have been imported directly into the Argentine lingo, such as, ciao (spelled ‘chau’ in Argentina), to bid farewell, there are a plethora of Lunfardo words with easily traceable Italian roots. The word mina, commonly used to refer to a woman, comes from the Italian word ‘femmina,’ the verb ‘laburar,’ meaning ‘to work’ and derived from the word ‘lavorare,’ is frequently used in place of the verb trabajar. Fiaca, used to describe a state of laziness, comes from the Italian word ‘fiacco.’

An Argentina making ñoquis (gnoccis) at home in Argentina — Making ñoquis on the 29th of the month

Similarly, ñoquis is the Argentine version of the Italian ‘gnocci.’ Besides describing the pasta dish that has become common to eat on the 29^th of each month when money is tight, the term can also make reference to the size of genitalia or be applied to someone who gets paid for a job they don’t do.

Another term almost as ubiquitous as ‘che,’ despite its rather impolite implications is the word boludo/a, used incessantly by teenagers, much to the torment of teachers and well-meaning parents. Although literally referring to the size of someone’s testis (yes, references to genitalia are abundant in Lunfardo) it takes on the meaning of ‘idiot’ or ‘jerk’ and is used by friends to playfully address each other or as an insult in a heated conversation. Synonymous with boludo is the word pelotudo/a, although this word usually has harsher implications.

African influences in Lunfardo can be heard with the use of quilombo, a heavily colloquial term that has found its way into everyday use. Originally, a quilombo was a gathering place for slaves, and in some areas referred to a brothel, but over time the word took on a meaning more synonymous to a ‘total mess’ or ‘disaster.’

Another word that sounds so pretty but can turn out ugly is chamuyo. This can be innocent sweet talk from a guy trying to score with a girl or out-right scheming and scamming. The verb for the word is chamuyar and a person who does it is called a chamuyero. A worker who talks about what a great job he’ll do while dollar signs are rolling in his eyes, an acquaintance who swears they’ll do a favor and then evades phone calls, or a guy who swears he’ll love a girl forever and then abandons her after she’s knocked up –- all fall within the chamuyero spectrum.

Vesre in Lunfardo

Fundamental to Lunfardo, and characteristic of the wordplay it is recognized for, is vesre. Vesre is a feature of Lunfardo that can be likened to Pig Latin for adults, formed by switching around the syllable of the words, similar to the verlan of French. An example is the word vesre itself – switch it up and it becomes revés, meaning ‘reverse.’ Suddenly the reason this slang is named vesre is no mystery. Thus in Lunfardo, café (coffee) becomes feca, mujer (woman)/ jermu, amigo (friend)/ gomía, pizza /zapi (also the name of a major Argentine pizza chain), pagar (to pay)/gapar, abajo (down)/ajoba, tango/gotán (providing the origin of the name of the well-known musical group, Gotán Project.)

Some other vesre terms, such as bolonqui (quilombo) maintain their significance while others such as telo/hotel, take on a slightly different meaning when reversed. A telo is a hotel for couples to escape to for a night or just a few hours specifically to have sex –- useful to know in case a chamuyero invites you to one when you’re in a boliche (club).

Understanding Lunfardo may take some time — even those who have perfect Spanish skills have trouble following Lunfardo-laced conversations, especially when the colloquial banter includes vesre.

While Lunfardo adds a unique and sometimes plebeian flare to the already unique identity of Argentina, it also contributes a dynamic twist to everyday life. Slang is constantly influencing speech and vesre makes the creation of new — although not official — words endless.

Although purists believe that a word cannot be considered Lunfardo unless tied to its tango or immigrant roots, Argentines are taking liberties with the vernacular, making it a challenge to ever really get a strong handle on the lingo — and that’s half the fun.

— by Jenna Frisch with Ande Wanderer
(← cont. from Argentinismos)

Italians & La Dolce Vita in Argentina

They say that Argentines are Italians who happen to speak Spanish. With several waves of immigrants arriving from the boot-shaped nation since Argentina won independence from Spain, it seems every second person here has an Italian surname, and of those who don’t, most will have an uncle or a grandmother hailing from Genoa, Sicily, Friuli or thereabouts. You can notice the family resemblance as you try to avoid the flailing arms of an animated conversation on any of the narrow sidewalks of downtown Buenos Aires.

These Italian descendants refer to themselves proudly as ‘tanos,’ Lunfardo slang for ‘Italianos.’ Even Pope Frances’ father was from Italy and he grew up speaking Italian.

Argentina may have been colonized by the Spanish originally, but it is fair to say that the Italians had an equal, if not even greater influence, over many areas of Argentine life, such as politics, food, fashion and language.

Italian Influence on Argentine Spanish

Italian speakers in Argentina are said to number about 1.5 million, one of the largest concentrations outside of Italy itself.

Due to the fact that most arriving immigrants spoke regional dialects of Italian and found it just as easy to communicate in Spanish, Italian never truly became the country’s second language. Instead the local version of Spanish, Castellano, is spoken with a recognizably Italian flair.

Aside from borrowing many words, Argentine Castellano also takes its particular accent and rhythm from several Italian dialects. There are various examples of slightly bastardized Italian being used in everyday speech, such as the casual goodbye, ‘chau!’ that Argentines use, which is pronounced in the same way as the Italian ‘ciao!’ and has no relation whatsoever to traditional Spanish.

The similarity is particularly apparent in Buenos Aires, and especially in certain neighborhoods of the capital, where Italian communities established themselves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the portside neighborhood of La Boca, long-time residents use a local slang that borrows heavily from the Genoese dialect, as it was immigrants from Genoa who populated the neighborhood in its formative years. The lower class slang language of Lunfardo, which began as a kind of criminal cipher, is peppered with many words of obvious Italian origin and is now part of the popular vernacular.

So Italian you Can Taste It

Argentine cuisine is so deeply inspired by its Italian counterpart that it could almost be described as an offshoot. Sure, there exists a large quantity of excellent regional dishes to be found if you look hard enough, but day-to-day eating is dominated by a definite Italian flavor.

Pizza is popular worldwide, but in Argentina pizza eating is a national pastime. Argentina pizza is fairly close to the original Italian version, although it often has a slightly thicker, doughier base, and plenty of cheese. With pasta, it’s a similar story — whether eating at home or in a restaurant, Italian originals inspire all the standard local dishes. The most common of these are the basic Tuco (tomato sauce flavored with capsicum, basil, garlic, oregano and paprika) and its variations, as well as cream-based pastas with ingredients like mushrooms and bacon.

Another staple in Argentina, the milanesa (breaded veal cutlet) is often assumed by locals to be an original Argentine creation, although it does exist in many parts of the world, including Japan, the US, and the Middle East. Various theories abound about its origin, although it is likely that it was first prepared in Lombardy, Italy and spread from there.

Although this country may be more famous for its asados, on any given night most Argentine families are more likely to be chowing down on a meal that has its culinary roots in Italy.

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