Learn how to introduce yourself
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anna: Hola soy Anna. |
| Eric: Eric here! Telling People Where You’re From in Spanish. |
| Anna: In this lesson you'll learn how to give your nationality and tell someone where you're from. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place at a restaurant in Spain. |
| Anna: It’s between Camila and Mioko, two students who just met. |
| Eric: Since the speakers have never met, they'll be speaking politely. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Camila: Hola, soy Camila. Soy de Brasil. ¿Y tú? |
| Mioko: Yo soy Mioko, soy japonesa. |
| Camila: ¿Eres japonesa? ¿De Tokio? |
| Mioko: No, no soy de Tokio. Soy de Osaka. Encantada. |
| Eric: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Camila: Hola, soy Camila. Soy de Brasil. ¿Y tú? |
| Mioko: Yo soy Mioko, soy japonesa. |
| Camila: ¿Eres japonesa? ¿De Tokio? |
| Mioko: No, no soy de Tokio. Soy de Osaka. Encantada. |
| Eric: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Camila: Hola, soy Camila. Soy de Brasil. ¿Y tú? |
| Camila: Hello, I'm Camila; I'm from Brazil. And you? |
| Mioko: Yo soy Mioko, soy japonesa. |
| Mioko: I'm Mioko. I'm Japanese. |
| Camila: ¿Eres japonesa? ¿De Tokio? |
| Camila: You're Japanese? From Tokyo? |
| Mioko: No, no soy de Tokio. Soy de Osaka. Encantada. |
| Mioko: No, I'm not from Tokyo. I'm from Osaka. Nice to meet you! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anna: Listeners, did you know that Spain is divided into comunidades autónomas? |
| Eric: These are something like states or provinces, and some of these areas even have their own language and culture. |
| Anna: That's right. Spain is an interesting country in that sense. The languages in Spain include Spanish, Catalan, Euskera, and Gallego, which is spoken in Galicia. |
| Eric: This diversity makes Spain a culturally rich country. There are popular writers in different languages, and many people are bilingual and familiar with multiple cultural traditions. |
| Anna: Plus the food is excellent! |
| Eric: Well, that's certainly true. But these differences among the provinces have caused some problems in Spain. |
| Anna: Yeah. But there are more people who identify with Spain than don't. |
| Eric: That’s interesting. Okay, now let's move on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Anna: japonés, japonesa |
| Eric: Japanese |
| Anna: japonés, japonesa [slowly] |
| Anna: japonés, japonesa |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: encantado, encantada |
| Eric: pleased, glad |
| Anna: encantado, encantada |
| Anna: encantado, encantada |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: de |
| Eric: from, of |
| Anna: de[slowly] |
| Anna: de |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: ¿Y tú? |
| Eric: And you? |
| Anna: ¿Y tú? [slowly] |
| Anna: ¿Y tú? |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: no |
| Eric: no |
| Anna: no [slowly] |
| Anna: no |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: No soy |
| Eric: I’m not |
| Anna: No soy [slowly] |
| Anna: No soy |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: Tokio |
| Eric: Tokyo |
| Anna: Tokio [slowly] |
| Anna: Tokio |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Anna: eres |
| Eric: you are |
| Anna: eres [slowly] |
| Anna: eres |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: In this lesson, we'll learn a list of nationalities and countries. The first word we're going to look at is... |
| Anna: Japonés, which means "Japanese." |
| Eric: That's right. For example, in the dialogue, we have... |
| Anna: ...japonesa. |
| Eric: This is the feminine form "Japanese," and the masculine form is... |
| Anna: ...japonés. The general rule is that if the masculine word ends in a consonant, such as irlandés for "Irish," then we'll add an a to it to make it feminine, such as irlandesa. |
| Eric: Can you give us another example? |
| Anna: Sure! For example, español becomes española and japonés becomes japonesa. |
| Eric: Perfect. Okay, what's our next word? |
| Anna: Our next word is americano, which means "American." |
| Eric: So the tip here is that when the nationality ends in o, you change that "o" to an "a." Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: Sure. Chileno becomes chilena and coreano becomes coreana. |
| Eric: Excellent. And what's our last word? |
| Anna: Canadiense, which means "Canadian." |
| Eric: Now, we should point out that nationalities with these endings are rare. In this case, the word |
| Anna: ...canadiense... |
| Eric: is both masculine and feminine; it doesn't change. |
| Anna: Beyond that, there's no rule for these words. Two more examples of words that don't change are árabe for "Arabic" and belga for "Belgian,” both of which have the same masculine and feminine forms. |
| Eric:We'll talk more about nationalities in the grammar section, so let’s get to that now! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about nationalities in Spanish, and how to say where you are from. |
| Anna: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase soy japonesa. |
| Eric: which translates as "I'm Japanese." Okay, so, phrases like "I'm Spanish," and "You're American" are interesting because the word's endings will change depending on the gender of the person saying them. |
| Anna: An example is Ella es americana, which means "She's American." |
| Eric: Now, if we change the final –a to a final –o, we get the masculine adjective, right? |
| Anna: Right. Which would give us Ella es americano. But that's not right! The translation to English is the same, "She's American." But in Spanish, the feeling is more like, "She's an American man." |
| Eric: Oh, that isn't quite right is it? |
| Anna: (laughs) No, it isn't. You have to change ella to él and the sentence would be, Él es americano, or "He's American." |
| Eric: Which makes it "He's an American man." |
| Anna: Most nationalities have this kind of masculine and feminine pairing. For example, mexicano and mexicana for "Mexican man" and "Mexican woman." |
| Eric: Okay, but how about other nationalities that don’t end in vowels, like Spanish? |
| Anna: Some of those would be español and española, which mean "Spanish man" and "Spanish woman." Another pair would be francés and francesa, which mean "French man and "French woman." |
| Eric: So if the nationality ends in a consonant in the masculine form, then you just add an "–a" to make the feminine, right? |
| Anna: Right. Another example of this would be alemán which means "German man" and alemana which means "German woman." |
| Eric: But now how can I say, "I'm Spanish," or "You're Australian?” |
| Anna: Good question. In the last lesson, we talked about the verb ser and how you can conjugate it to different forms or persons. |
| Eric: Ah, so we just use that same format and add the nationality word on the end? |
| Anna: Exactly. |
| Eric: Could you give us an example? |
| Anna: Sure! Yo soy español, which means "I'm Spanish." To say it in the feminine form, you should say, Yo soy española. |
| Eric: And that's the same verb we use when we introduce ourselves. |
| Anna: That's right. So in a normal conversation, you could very naturally say something like "Yo soy Anna. Soy americana." |
| Eric: Which translates as "I'm Anna. I'm American." |
| HOMEWORK |
| Anna: Okay listeners, I hope you’re ready for the Tarea, because here it comes. |
| Eric: But first we will give the answer from our previous lesson. Sentence #2 is incorrect. |
| Anna: The correct sentence would be: Nosotros somos maestros de español. |
| Eric: Did you get it right? Now, this time, you have to look for the correct sentence. |
| Anna: How would you say: “You are Colombian” using the formal register? Here are three options: |
| 1) Ustedes son colombianos. |
| 2) Tú eres colombiana. |
| 3) Usted es colombiano. |
Outro |
| Eric: You’ll find out the answer at the end of our next lesson. And that just about does it for this lesson! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Anna: ¡Hasta pronto! |
Comments
HideListeners, let's practice. Answer the question "Where are you from?" in Spanish in the comments!
Hola Fayza,
Thank you for your comment.
We’re happy to have you here.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola Camila
Yo soy Fayza. Americana de California
Hola, Yo soy Americana de California.
Hola lynn,
Thank you for your comment.
Not sure what you mean since this lesson also has a lesson audio.
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
you used to have tape of conversation of each lesson or wa
thanks Lynn
s that only in Finish/
Hola Martin,
Que bien!
Espero estes disfrutando de las lecciones.
Dejame saber si tienes alguna pregunta.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola. Me llamo Martin, y soy australiano pero vivo en japon
Hola Duncan,
Mucho gusto!
Gracias por participar y compartir con nosotros.
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola,
Me llama Duncan,
Estoy de Australia y hablo Ingles.
Mucho gusto y hasta luego
Hola tony,
Mucho gusto!
We're happy to have you here.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
¡Hola! Soy Tony. Soy Inglés.
Hola Tamara,
Gracias por participar.
We’re happy to help you in this new journey.
Please don’t hesitate to leave us your questions.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
!Hola!
Soy estadounidense
Soy de los Estados Unidos
Hola Kevin O'Brien,
Thank you for your question.
You could say “y usted?” To be politer but depending on how you say it “tu” can also sound polite.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
At the beginning of this lesson it says they will be speaking formally, but right away we hear ¿Y tú?, which is informal.
Hola Carolyn J Betz,
Mucho gusto!
Hope you're enjoying the lessons.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola,
Soy Catalina. Soy de los Estados Unidos, estado Ohio.
Hola Roberta Doyle,
Thank you for sharing.
We're happy to have you here, please let us know if you have any questions.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Soy Roberta, de Los Estados Unidos y la ciudade de Seattle.
Hola Robert Gilmaney,
Mucho gusto!
Yo soy de Lima, Perú.
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com