Learn how to ask for repetition
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: Next in line. In this lesson, you will learn how to ask for repetition. This conversation takes place at the immigration center within the airport, and the conversation is between an immigration officer and Jimmy. The speakers will be using the formal register. |
| JP: Now, let’s get to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: Que pase el siguiente. ¿Pasaporte? |
| JIMMY: Buenas. Aquí tiene. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Cuánto tiempo se queda en México? |
| JIMMY: ¿Cómo? |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Usted se queda cuánto tiempo en México? |
| JIMMY: Dos semanas. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Y dónde se aloja? |
| JIMMY: En el Hotel Casa Ticul, en Playa del Carmen. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Y el propósito de su visita? |
| JIMMY: ¿Disculpe? |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Cuál es el propósito de su estancia en México? |
| JIMMY: Negocios. Y conocer la ciudad. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: Bueno, que disfrute de su estancia en México. Que pase el siguiente. |
| JP: One more time, with the translation. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: Que pase el siguiente. ¿Pasaporte? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: Next, please. Passport? |
| JIMMY: Buenas. Aquí tiene. |
| JIMMY: Hi. Here you go. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Cuánto tiempo se queda en México? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: How long are you staying in Mexico? |
| JIMMY: ¿Cómo? |
| JIMMY: What? |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Usted se queda cuánto tiempo en México? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: How much time are you spending in Mexico? |
| JIMMY: Dos semanas. |
| JIMMY: Two weeks. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Y dónde se aloja? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: Where are you staying? |
| JIMMY: En el Hotel Casa Ticul, en Playa del Carmen. |
| JIMMY: The Hotel Casa Ticul in Playa del Carmen. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Y el propósito de su visita? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: And the purpose of your visit? |
| JIMMY: ¿Disculpe? |
| JIMMY: Sorry? |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: ¿Cuál es el propósito de su estancia en México? |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: What is the purpose of your stay in Mexico? |
| JIMMY: Negocios. Y conocer la ciudad. |
| JIMMY: Business. And to get to know the city. |
| INSPECTOR DE INMIGRACIÓN: Bueno, que disfrute de su estancia en México. Que pase el siguiente. |
| IMMIGRATION AGENT: Well, enjoy your stay in Mexico. Next. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Ok, Fernando, it looks like Sandra's out of the picture now... |
| Fernando: Yes, that is right, Jimmy is now at the immigration inspector's desk. You know, where you show your passport. |
| JP: Are you here on business or pleasure? |
| Fernando: Exactly. And it seems like Jimmy's there on business; he tells him "negocios..." business. Negocios. |
| JP: Now what I noticed is that Jimmy was nervous or having some trouble hearing or understanding... or something, because the inspector had to rephrase himself a couple of times. |
| Fernando: ¿Cómo? |
| JP: I said, "A couple of times the inspector had to rephrase...." oh, I see what you're doing. |
| Fernando: ¿Disculpe? |
| JP: Yah, you're making me rephrase by asking clarification words. Very clever. |
| Fernando: ¿Cómo? |
| JP: Let's look at some of the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: el próposito [natural native speed] |
| JP: the purpose |
| Fernando: el próposito [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: el próposito [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: alojarse [natural native speed] |
| JP: to lodge |
| Fernando: alojarse [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: alojarse [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: la semana [natural native speed] |
| JP: the week |
| Fernando: la semana [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: la semana [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: tener [natural native speed] |
| JP: to have |
| Fernando: tener [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: tener [natural native speed] |
| JP: And the last one. |
| Fernando: Que pase el siguiente [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next (person). |
| Fernando: Que pase el siguiente [slowly - broken down by |
| syllable] |
| Fernando: Que pase el siguiente [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Now let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Fernando: Ok, let's start with "el propósito." |
| JP: ok, the purpose, el propósito. |
| Fernando: The inspector asks "¿Y el propósito de su vista?" |
| JP: So what's the purpose of your visit. ¿Y el propósito de su vista? |
| Fernando: Right. The next word is alojarse. |
| JP: Alojarse. To lodge, to stay in a hotel. alojarse. |
| Fernando: Yes, in the dialog, the inspector asks "¿Y dónde se aloja?" |
| JP: So where are you staying? ¿Y dónde se aloja? They always want to make sure you've got a hotel or address listed down, so they can track you down if they need to. ¿Y dónde se aloja? |
| Fernando: Next is the word for week, la semana. |
| JP: La semana. Seven days, en una semana, ¿no? One thing you should know, folks, in the Spanish speaking world, the calendar week begins on Monday. La semana. |
| Fernando: Ok, next we have a verb. The verb tener. |
| JP: It means to have, tener. Now remember it's in the sense of to have as in to possess, to own, or to hold. So tener mucho dinero is to have a lot of money. Or to have a problem |
| Fernando: Tener un problema. |
| JP: Right. now be careful with tener, because the English equivalent of tener is a lot looser.... you can say "I we have pancakes for breakfast" but in that case you don't want to use tener, when you're having pancakes for breakfast, you're not really owning them or holding them for breakfast. |
| Fernando: Right, you're eating them. |
| JP: And there's a verb for 'to eat' that's not tener. My students said that once, it weirded me out... I had pancakes for breakfast "yo tuve panqueques..." it's just weird. it kind of hurt my feelings. |
| Fernando: Yah, that's weird. Ok, last phrase is "que pase el siguiente." Que pase el siguiente. |
| JP: This is literally, let the next person come by. or may the next person come by. |
| Fernando: You hear this when you're waiting in line.... |
| JP: I think in English I would say "next in line, please.” Or, “Can I help whoever's next?" |
| Fernando: que pase el siguiente. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: The one thing I want to point out. There are a lot of methods and textbooks out there that teach the phrase "repita por favor," which is "please repeat." We're not teaching that in this product, I don't like it; i never say it.... |
| Fernando: It sounds kind of cold and robotic, anyway. |
| JP: So let's look at other ways to get the information in Spanish, other than asking for straight repetition. Now the interesting thing about the grammar in this lesson is how Jimmy makes the inspector rephrase himself a couple of times. First, the inspector asks... |
| Fernando: ¿Cuánto tiempo se queda en México? |
| JP: And then Jimmy asks ¿Cómo? And then the inspector comes back with the same question, rephrased. |
| Fernando: ¿Usted se queda cuánto tiempo en México? |
| JP: Ok, so you notice in the first one, the inspector left out the word "usted." listen again. |
| Fernando: ¿Cuánto tiempo se queda en México? |
| JP: So if were to gloss this literally, it would be "How long are you staying in Mexico" Now the second question.. |
| Fernando: ¿Usted se queda cuánto tiempo en México? |
| JP: Same question, different order, and he included the word usted this time. What I want to point out is these two questions are exactly the same, they mean the same thing even though the order is different. Let's hear them again... |
| Fernando: ¿Cuánto tiempo se queda en México?... ¿Usted se queda cuánto tiempo en México? |
| JP: Ok, Spanish is pretty free when it comes to word order; changing the order of things in a sentence usually doesn't change the meaning. Ok so Jimmy gets the inspector to rephrase again when the inspector asks "so the purpose of your visit?" It's actually an incomplete sentence, it sounds like this... |
| Fernando: ¿Y el propósito de su vista? |
| JP: And then Jimmy doesn't get it, so he asks for repetition, he says ¿Disculpe? Now check out how the inspector rephrases the question. |
| Fernando: ¿Cuál es el propósito de su estancia en México? |
| JP: Ok, so , in the rephrase, instead of "su visita," he says su estancia en México. But also, see how he made it a complete sentence? |
| Fernando: ¿Cuál es el propósito de su estancia en México? |
| JP: So when you ask for clarification in Spanish, the Spanish speakers will try to help you; they'll rephrase, they'll use words they think you might know, they'll switch to complete sentences. |
| Fernando: Ok. |
| JP: The point I'm trying to make is, you wouldn't get any of this help if you as "repita por favor." You just sound like a space robot from space. |
| Fernando: Yah, nobody talks like that anyway. |
| JP: So the more appropriate ways of asking for clarification, the more helpful ways were asking ¿Cómo? and ¿Disculpe? |
| Fernando: There are a couple other. You can try ¿Perdón? |
| JP: Right, this is the word for "pardon." ¿Perdón? |
| Fernando: In Mexico, people say ¿Mande? |
| JP: Right, this is another way to ask for repetition. A Mexican way. Other people in the Spanish speaking world don't really say it, but when you hang out with Mexicans you'll hear it all the time. |
| Fernando: ¿Mande? |
| JP: I said when you hang out with.... ahhhh! |
| Fernando: Ahhhh! |
Outro |
| Fernando: So that just about does it for today. |
| JP: So, hasta luego. |
| Fernando: ¡Adiós! |
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