Music to help you Learn Spanish - Me Voy (Julieta Venegas)

This is the General Linguistics method to teach foreign languages in action! You'll see the lyrics of the song Me voy by Julieta Venegas in the "Pizarra Mágica" or Magic Whiteboard and will be able to sing along.



Check out more videos to learn Spanish on Youtube.

Uncertainty: The Only Certainty In Argentina Business

Doing business in Argentina means living with uncertainty. Due to the foibles of each government, long-term planning isn't really possible and one could even say shouldn't be attempted. Anyone initiating any kind of business venture in Argentina needs to think about recovering all the money invested (and making a profit) in fewer than 5 years. A few examples I can think of businesses that have been destroyed by the government's administrative decisions:

• Lunch ticket companies (the government began to tax these tickets as normal wages and thus caused their elimination from the market)
• Private pension funds (the government appropriated all "AFJP" funds)
• All producers of products in the consumer price index (price controls)
• Farmers (brutal increase in export taxes)
• Utilities (price controls)
• Airlines (price controls & official interference by the Transport Ministry)
• Public transit (price controls / constantly changing subsidy regimes)
  
• Energy (price controls)

The list goes on and on. These are just some recent examples I thought of in about a minute or two. If I were to put together a comprehensive list, it would be much larger. All these industries have seen their conditions change dramatically through decisions by the government to either impose price controls, increase taxes to confiscatory levels, or in the case of Aerolineas Argentinas, destroy the company outright by fomenting union agitation to a level that renders the company totally inoperable.

"Normal" Surprises
In addition to brutal government changes that can effect an entire sector (such as what I described above), businesspeople should be prepared for more "normal" surprises that can arrive in the form of union negotiated pay raises or government decrees giving pay raises or special bonuses to employees.

read the full article on argentinabusiness.blogspot.

WORK IN ARGENTINA

Find a job in Argentina is not easy, there are many Argentines scrambling for work, although there are plenty work opportunities in Non-governmental Organizations in Buenos Aires, almost always is a voluntary work, by example, in the national parks system. There are occasionally opportunities as a paying volunteer in environmental and archaeological projects with the Earth-watch Institute, 57 Woodstock Rd, Oxford OX2 6HJ,

There are no restrictions or quotas for the employment of foreigners in Argentina, while they fulfill immigration regulations.

Foreigners need to have a valid residence permission, local regulations on immigration establish three sorts of residence: permanent, temporary and transitory. To set up any business in Argentina its necessary to have permanent or temporary residence.

A work visa is required, this visa is issued by the Direccion Nacional de Migraciones de Argentina (National Directorate of Migration), exists a charge for making a visa application.

The main work visas issued are:

• Visas issued for short term work in Argentina (if initial validity of 15 days and can be extended for another 15 days once);
• Temporary Residence Visa, for labour contract, this visa is issued for employees on internships contracted by companies in Argentina, employees will be treated a local employees; by example,a Unique Code of Labor Identification CUIL (Código Único de Identificación Laboral) has to be applied as well, the minimum duration is 6-12 months;
• Secondment-Temporary Residence Visa, this visa es issued to employees send abroad by their companies for at least 6-12 months. A labour contract is not required.

To engage foreign workers the work contract shall obey with current labour legislation in all the national territory.

To apply for a work visa, is necessary fulfill the following requirements:

• Work contract with the company in Argentina.
• Birth certificate, translated into Spanish by a certified translator.
• Marital certification, translated into Spanish by a certified translator (if an application is being made for a spouse).
• Passport with a minimum validity of 18 months remaining (for each family member).
• Three passport photo’s for each family member (4x4; preferably light blue background; ¾ profile right side).

foreigners with previous work contract must fulfill the following requisites to get into the country:

• Labour contract signed by the employer and the contracted foreigner, with the signature certified by public attorney or agent of the National Immigrations Office.
• Statutes or company’s incorporation contract, duly recorded.
• Proof of payment to pension fund by the employer for all employees in the last six (6) months.
• Proof of record in the tax system and compliance of the last three (3) due payments.
• Tax Revenue Office Form stating payroll at the beginning of the company’s activity.
• Municipal authorization to operate (if applicable).

Keep reading the article on Argentina Travel

Che Malambo Traditional Dance

It's a very Argentine dance, not from Buenos Aires though. Look at their feet. They imitate how the gauchos used to dance.




For more videos go to Youtube.

U2 to Play Buenos Aires in November, 2010?

U2 fans across South America have been eagerly waiting to find out if and when the Irish rock band would return to the continent for its 360° tour.

While there has been no official confirmation from the band about any South American tour plans, the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported last week that U2 will play Brazil in November, 2010.

According to the report, U2 will do three shows three show in Sao Paolo and one in Rio. If that’s true, it means U2 would almost certainly play Buenos Aires very close to that date.

In other U2 news, in case you haven’t caught U2 ’s spectacular 3D concert movie, you can see it in Buenos Aires at any of the Showcase movie complexes in Belgrano, Marínez, Haedo, as well as in the interior cities of Córdoba and Rosario.

Check out more news on The Argentine Post.

BA Basics: Conversions: Weight, Temperature, and Seasonal Climate Changes

One of the joys of adjusting from life in the US to life here in Buenos Aires is learning how to convert our screwy imperial units of measure (pounds, degrees Fahrenheit, feet and miles) into those handy metric units (grams, kilograms, degrees Celsius, meters and kilometers). Since at first this task can be just a bit perplexing, here are a few quick hints to making these adjustments yourself:

Weight (1 pound = 450 grams)
You will most frequently need to be familiar with the conversion between pounds and grams while visiting your local fiambrería (deli meat seller), carnicería (butcher) or verdulería (vegetable seller). Ordering meats and vegetables are the easiest, as you can just request “dos pechugas” (two chicken breasts), or “tres zanahorias” (three carrots), and be on your merry way. Ordering deli meat is a little trickier, however, as the density of the meats varies by type. As a rule of thumb, I typically buy 100 grams of dense salted meats, such as salami, but opt for 200 grams when ordering the more common sandwich companions, including cheese, ham or turkey. These portions are just right, as they are enough to sustain me through several lunches, but won’t last too long and go feo.

Weight (1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds)
When I moved into my first apartment here in Buenos Aires, I was also pleasantly surprised to see a scale in the bathroom. Only problem? It weighed me in kilograms. If you are watching your weight while you’re here, this simple conversion is handy to keep in the back of your mind.

Temperature (°C = (°F -32) x 5/9)
The conversion between degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit is not only the measure that you will most frequently encounter, but also the one that can be the most perplexing. As you can see, the formula for making this conversion is a doozy!

Thanks to a dear Argentine friend that I met while still in the US, I now know a simpler way to get a ballpark figure for the conversion: just take the temperature in Celsius, double it, and add 30. This figure will always be slightly off from the exact temperature reading, but it works in a pinch.

Weather, Seasons and Average Temperatures
If you don’t already know, the seasons south of the equator are the opposite of those to the north. That means, that when it is summer in the northern hemisphere, it is winter in the south, and vice versa.

Read the rest of the article on LandingPad BA.

Images of Argentina

More of theses pics on Flickr.