Learn how to talk about your likes and dislikes
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: Enjoying Dinner. In this lesson, we’re gonna learn about the verb gustar. The conversation takes place in a restaurant. The conversation is between Jimmy, Valentina, and el Señor Rodriguez. The speakers will be using the familiar register. |
| JP: Alright, let’s listen to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| EL SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Muy bien, vamos a comenzar. Les presento a Jimmy McSherry. Jimmy es de Los Ángeles. |
| EL GRUPO: Hola. |
| SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Jimmy, por favor, preséntate. |
| JIMMY: Hola a todos, me llamo Jimmy, soy de Los Ángeles, y me encanta México lindo y bonito. |
| SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Gracias. Siéntense, por favor. |
| VALENTINA: Jimmy, me llamo Valentina. Mucho gusto. |
| JIMMY: El gusto es mío. |
| VALENTINA: ¿Te gusta la comida mexicana? |
| JIMMY: ¿Si me gusta? No..., ¡me encanta! |
| VALENTINA: Ah, ¡ok! Qué chistoso eres. A ver, ¿La tinga? ¿Te gusta la tinga? |
| JIMMY: Em, la tinga ¿qué es? |
| VALENTINA: Ahh, la tinga es riquísima. Te va a encantar. Es cocina muy mexicana. |
| JIMMY: Bueno, ¿qué más me sugieres? |
| VALENTINA: A ver, hay que probar de todo. ¿Y qué quieres tomar? |
| JIMMY: No sé. Lo mismo que tú. |
| JP: One more time, with the translation. |
| EL SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Muy bien, vamos a comenzar. Les presento a Jimmy McSherry. Jimmy es de Los Ángeles. |
| MR. RODRÍGUEZ: Okay, let's begin. I'd like to present Jimmy McSherry. Jimmy's from L.A. |
| EL GRUPO: Hola. |
| THE GROUP: Hello. |
| SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Jimmy, por favor, preséntate. |
| MR. RODRÍGUEZ: Jimmy, please introduce yourself. |
| JIMMY: Hola a todos, me llamo Jimmy, soy de Los Ángeles, y me encanta México lindo y bonito. |
| JIMMY: Hi, everyone, my name is Jimmy, I'm from L.A., and I love lovely and beautiful Mexico. |
| SR. RODRÍGUEZ: Gracias. Siéntense, por favor. |
| MR. RODRÍGUEZ: Thanks. Please have a seat, everyone. |
| VALENTINA: Jimmy, me llamo Valentina. Mucho gusto. |
| VALENTINA: Jimmy, my name is Valentina. Nice to meet you. |
| JIMMY: El gusto es mío. |
| JIMMY: The pleasure is mine. |
| VALENTINA: ¿Te gusta la comida mexicana? |
| VALENTINA: Do you like Mexican food? |
| JIMMY: ¿Si me gusta? No..., ¡me encanta! |
| JIMMY: Do I like it? No, I love it! |
| VALENTINA: Ah, ¡ok! Qué chistoso eres. A ver, ¿La tinga? ¿Te gusta la tinga? |
| VALENTINA: Oh, okay, you're so funny. Let's see, do you like "tinga?" |
| JIMMY: Em, la tinga ¿qué es? |
| JIMMY: Um, what's "tinga?" |
| VALENTINA: Ahh, la tinga es riquísima. Te va a encantar. Es cocina muy mexicana. |
| VALENTINA: Ooh, "tinga" is delicious; you're going to love it. It's very Mexican. |
| JIMMY: Bueno, ¿qué más me sugieres? |
| JIMMY: Okay. What else can you recommend? |
| VALENTINA: A ver, hay que probar de todo. ¿Y qué quieres tomar? |
| VALENTINA: Let's see, you have to try everything. What do you want to drink? |
| JIMMY: No sé. Lo mismo que tú. |
| JIMMY: I don't know, whatever you're having. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Fernando, what's going on today? Is this a business meeting or a lunch? |
| Fernando: I'm not sure, it seems like a little of both. |
| JP: Is that common for Mexican business meetings? |
| Fernando: No not really. Anyway, the boss gets Jimmy to introduce himself to the group, and then they sit down and talk about lunch. |
| JP: Who is the lady he starts talking to? |
| Fernando: That's Valentina, who asks him if he likes Mexican food. |
| JP: Who doesn't like Mexican food.... |
| Fernando: It seems like he's never heard of la tinga before, though. |
| JP: Well, then he's in for a treat. |
| Fernando: Right. You know, he's not sure what to drink either, so he's just going to have whatever Valentina's having. |
| JP: Ooh, that's a good strategy, when you're somewhere and you're not familiar with the local menu... leave it up to your local friends. I do that all the time. |
| JP: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: El gusto es mío [natural native speed] |
| JP: The pleasure is mine. |
| Fernando: El gusto es mío [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: El gusto es mío [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: presentarse [natural native speed] |
| JP: to introduce oneself |
| Fernando: presentarse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: presentarse [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: chistoso [natural native speed] |
| JP: funny |
| Fernando: chistoso [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: chistoso [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: comenzar [natural native speed] |
| JP: to start |
| Fernando: comenzar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: comenzar [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: sugerir [natural native speed] |
| JP: suggest |
| Fernando: sugerir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: sugerir [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Fernando: Let's look at the phrase "El gusto es mío." |
| JP: El gusto es mío... the pleasure is mine. Now this is what you say when someone says, "pleasure to meet you." |
| Fernando: Right, it's the response to "mucho gusto." JP, mucho gusto! |
| JP: Fernando, el gusto es mío. What's the next word? |
| Fernando: Next we have "presentarse" |
| JP: Ok, presentarse. To introduce oneself. Presentarse. You can break this down into two parts... presentar means "to introduce." The particle "se" at the end of the word is a reflexive pronoun, it means oneself. So to introduce oneself is "presentarse." |
| Fernando: Sí, presentarse. Ok, the next word is "chistoso" |
| JP: chistoso, this is the word for funny... funny ha-ha funny. Chistoso. |
| Fernando: Muy bien. The next word is "comenzar" |
| JP: Comenzar is to start or begin. comenzar. In English we have the word "to commence." Now, Fernando, I know another word for "to start" or "to begin, it's "empezar." |
| Fernando: Right. It's a synonym, empezar. But today's word is "comenzar" |
| JP: Cool. Was that the last word? |
| Fernando: Nope, one more... sugerir. |
| JP: Ok, sugerir, to suggest. sugerir. |
| Fernando: Así es. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: Ok, let's get to the grammar. Today I want to talk about the verb gustar. |
| Fernando: Gustar... to like... |
| JP: Well, we always translate it as "to like" but that's not always the best way to think of it for people who are learning Spanish. |
| Fernando: Gustar doesn't mean "to like"? |
| JP: Yes, it does, the translation is "to like" but grammatically, "gustar" behaves very differently from "to like." See in English you can like something. Like if I say "I like the book" I'm liking it, I'm the |
| subject, and I'm doing something to the book, I'm liking it. Now if you say it in Spanish... |
| Fernando: Me gusta el libro. |
| JP: See, when you say it in Spanish you're not doing something to the book, it's the book that's having an effect on you. Literally, when you say "me gusta el libro, what you're saying is "it gives pleasure to me, the book" Right? You start the sentence with "me" which means "to me." Me gusta el libro. To me, it gives pleasure the book. |
| Fernando: That doesn't sound like good English. |
| JP: Well it's not, because in English we say "I like the book..." same meaning, but different grammar. |
| Fernando: Ok so what is the different grammar? |
| JP: This can get complicated, but the simple way to do it is this... "gustar" means "to give pleasure to." Period. And if anyone ever told you that it means something else, forget what they told you, because "gustar" means "to give pleasure to." That's the only translation that will give you the correct grammar. So instead of saying "_I_ like the book" you're going to say "the book gives pleasure _to_me_." |
| Fernando: Me gusta el libro. |
| JP: Ok, so now that we're saying that the book gives pleasure _to_me_ we have to go through the paradigm so that other people can like the book. |
| Fernando: You mean so that the book can give pleasure to... to someone else. |
| JP: So to you, the book gives pleasure to you... |
| Fernando: Te gusta el libro. |
| JP: Hear that "te?" It means "to you." Te gusta el libro. And remember back in the dialog, when Valentina asks Jimmy if he liked Mexican food? |
| Fernando: ¿Te gusta la comida mexicana? |
| JP: What she really asked was "to you, does it give pleasure, Mexican food?" |
| Fernando: ¿Te gusta la comida mexicana? Ok, I see. |
| JP: Good... now this can be a difficult concept for people, because we're not just replacing words here, we're asking them to restructure they way they think about a sentence... and people don't usually think about the structure of their sentences when they're talking about, say, Mexican food. |
| Fernando: Well, that's true. |
| JP: If this is difficult for you, don't worry, you'll get used to gustar soon enough, because it's so important that you can't avoid learning it. Anyway, there's a whole paradigm of indirect object pronouns... to me, to you, to him, to her... |
| Fernando: Me gusta, te gusta, le gusta.... |
| JP: Right, and rather than list them all off here, we've got a chart in the lesson notes that will guide you through all those indirect object pronouns, so you can see how to use gustar with all the different people. |
| Fernando: Ok. |
Outro |
| JP: For now, it’s time to say goodbye. Hasta luego! |
| Fernando: Bye-bye! |
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