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| INTRODUCTION |
| Megan: ¡Bienvenidos a SpanishPod101.com! |
| David: Buenos días. Me llamo David. |
| Megan: Megan here. Iberian Spanish Series, Lesson 1 – “How’s it going?” I’m Megan. I’m here with David and we’d like to welcome you to the first lesson of Iberian Spanish Series on SpanishPod101.com, the only place where you get podcast adapted to the Spanish of Spain. |
| David: ¡Así es! That’s right! Here, we reference the core curriculum of SpanishPod101.com and show how it applies to Iberian Spanish. |
| Megan: We’ll also shed light on words and idiomatic expressions proper to Spain. |
| David: Showing you how these are pronounced with an authentic Iberian accent. |
| Megan: And, at the same time, we will give you insight into Iberian customs and culture. So, join us for this lesson of SpanishPod101.com. Welcome to the inaugural Iberian Spanish Lesson. For this lesson, we’ll study how the Spanish spoken in Spain and sometimes specifically in the capital city Madrid, differs from the neutral version that we’ve heard in Newbie Lesson 1. So, let’s start today’s lesson off by going back to Newbie Lesson 1. In that lesson we heard the following conversation: |
| DIALOGUE |
| MEGAN: ¡Hola! |
| DAVID: ¡Hola! ¡Buenos días! |
| MEGAN: ¿Cómo estás? |
| DAVID: Yo estoy bien. ¿Y tú? |
| MEGAN: Yo estoy muy bien, gracias. |
| Megan: “Hi!” |
| David: “Hi! Good morning!” |
| Megan: “How are you?” |
| David: “I am well. And you?” |
| Megan: “I’m very well. Thanks!” |
| Megan: Now, let’s hear what that sounds like in Iberian Spanish, in particular using some slang from Madrid. |
| MEGAN: ¡Hola! |
| DAVID: ¡Buenas, guapa! |
| MEGAN: ¿Qué tal? |
| DAVID: Bien. ¿Y tú, cómo andas? |
| MEGAN: Pues nada, tirandillo. |
| Slowly: |
| MEGAN: ¡Hola! |
| DAVID: ¡Buenas, guapa! |
| MEGAN: ¿Qué tal? |
| DAVID: Bien. ¿Y tú, cómo andas? |
| MEGAN: Pues nada, tirandillo. |
| English translation: |
| Megan: “¡Hola!” - “Hey!” |
| David: “¡Buenas, guapa!” - “Morning, beautiful!” |
| Megan: “¿Qué tal?” - “How are you doing?” |
| David: “Bien” - “Okay.” “¿Y tú, cómo andas?” - “How is going with you?” |
| Megan: “Pues nada, tirandillo” - “I’m all right!” |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Megan: So, as you can see there are some big differences between the two conversations. First off, let’s look at the way “Hi! Good morning!” was rendered in Iberian Spanish. David, could you repeat that for us, please? |
| David: “¡Buenas, guapa!” |
| Megan: Which literally means “Good, beautiful.” Now, in Lesson 1 it sounded like this: |
| M2: “¡Hola! ¡Buenos días!” |
| Megan: David, what would you say the major differences are? |
| David: In very colloquial situations, when you greet someone you can just say “¡Buenas!”. This is literally “Good!”, in the plural feminine form. It’s very convenient and it works for “Buenos días”, “Buenas tardes” and “Buenas noches”. |
| Megan: That’s a good trick! This way you can’t go wrong. |
| David: Just saying “Buenas” makes it a lot easier. |
| Megan: So, David, would you say this is a formal or informal greeting? |
| David: Actually, it’s pretty universal. I always use it when I greet “un compañero de trabajo”, “a co-worker”, and “un vecino”, “a neighbor.” So, you can see that it’s not really that informal slangy. In fact, I say “Buenas” all the time. It’s really common. |
| Megan: That’s interesting now that you put it that way. I’m thinking about how this compares to English. |
| David: Megan, do you think this happen in English? |
| Megan: No tanto. Not so much. If we were to translate this usage from the Spanish, it would be like going around and saying “Good!” to everyone you run into. And that would be pretty silly. In English when we shorten these greetings we tend to say “Morning!” or “Night!” or “Good night!” |
| David: Yes, that’s similar to what we do with “hasta luego”, which ends up being something like “¡sta luego!” o “¡ta luego!”, “See you later!” |
| Megan: That’s true. So, to review the neutral way to say “Hi! Good morning!” is: |
| M2: “¡Hola! ¡Buenos días!” |
| Megan: And in the Iberian Spanish we can say: |
| David: “¡Buenas!” |
| Megan: Which means “Good morning!”, “Good afternoon!”, “Good evening!” or ‘Good night!” And what about “guapa”? It literally means “beautiful” and it’s singular and feminine since you are talking to a woman. |
| David: It’s a common way of talking to any friend or person close to you, assuming that one is a woman. Were you surprised the first time someone called you that here in Spain? |
| Megan: Definitely! In English we can only get away with that in a very informal romantic sort of situation. You could really get yourself into a lot of trouble in the U.S if you went around saying “Hi, beautiful!” to all of your co-workers, colleagues or pretty much anyone who wasn’t your girlfriend. |
| David: I guess it just doesn’t translate well. |
| Megan: Yes, it’s a cultural thing. Here, saying “¡Hola, guapa!” or “guapo” is just a cure or affectionate way of greeting a friend or a colleague, or even someone you don’t know well in certain context, kind of like saying “Hey, honey!” or “Hey, sweetie!”. It just doesn’t have the romantic overtones at all. One of my professors even came in the class every single day and greeted us with “¡Hola, guapos!”. So, again, the neutral way to say “How are you?” is: |
| F2: “¿Cómo estás?” |
| Megan: And in Iberian Spanish we can say: |
| David: “¡Buenas, guapa!” |
| Megan: “Morning, beautiful!” All right! Next we’ll look at “How are you?”. David, could you repeat that for us, please? |
| David: “¿Qué tal?” |
| Megan: “How are you doing?” Now, in Newbie Lesson 1 it sounded like this: |
| F2: “¿Cómo estás?”. |
| Megan: David, what do you think are the major differences here? |
| David: Okay! “¿Qué tal?” could be seen as a shorten form for “¿Qué tal estás?”, “How are you doing?” |
| Megan: And what about the other expression “¿Cómo andas?”? It literally means “How are you walking?” |
| David: Yes, it’s another informal way to ask how someone is doing. |
| Megan: But you aren’t really interested in how he or she walks, right? |
| David: No, no, right! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Megan: So, when you asked me “¿Cómo andas?”, I replied with “Pues nada, tirandillo”. First, let’s focus on “Pues nada”. This literally means “So, nothing”, but what is the exact meaning? |
| David: Well, there’s really no concrete meaning. It’s just filler or a pet phrase. The sentence would mean exactly the same if you leave it out. |
| Megan: I’ve got it. It’s a “muletilla” or “a crutch word”, kind of like “Whatever!” or like “you know”, in English. Muy bien. Now, let’s look at the word “tirandillo”. David, what can you tell us about it? |
| David: This word “tirandillo” is very “ibérica”, very Iberian. To start, I should say that it’s the diminutive form of “tirando”, which is the Gerund of the verb “tirar”. |
| Megan: And what does “tirar” mean? |
| David: It has a lot of meanings. It can mean “to throw”, “to pull” or even “to shoot”. |
| Megan: So then, as a Gerund, what does “tirando” mean? |
| David: Oh well, Megan, the Gerund form “tirando”, “you’d be throwing”, “pulling” or “shooting”. |
| Megan: Got it! Now that we have the formation down, what does the localism “tirandillo” mean in Madrid? |
| David: “Tirando” is a very common response to “¿Qué tal?” or “¿Cómo estás?” or “¿Cómo andas?”. It’s used when you feel just okay, not really as well as usual. If someone asks me “How’re you doing?”, it’s like saying “I’m alright.” |
| Megan: I see! So, if I say “tirando” it can mean that something might be a little off with me or I’m just not as enthusiastic about my mental state as I could be. Or, as it’s so often the case here in Madrid, I don’t want to come office to over the top cheerful. |
| David: Right! If you say “tirando”, I would imagine you are a bit ill or stressed, but nothing really serious. |
| Megan: I see! It’s kind of like how in English we say “I’m getting by.” |
| David: Eso es. Now you get it. |
| Megan: Okay! Back to “tirandillo”, what nuance does the diminutive “illo” bring? |
| David: Yes. When you want to sound a bit less serious, a bit more fun, a bit kinder. You can change a noun or an adjective into the diminutive form. So, you probably said “tirandillo” because you’re kind of tired, but you don’t want to sound dramatic or make a big deal out of it. |
| Megan: Could you give me some more examples? |
| David: Yes, I’m sure you have heard “¿Unas cañitas?”. |
| Megan: Oh, yes! “Cañitas y tapitas”, that’s a Madrid institution. “Cañas” in this context means a small glass of beer and a “tapita” is a small plate of food. |
| David: “¿Unas cañitas?” is what the barman or waiter might ask a group who is hanging out at the bar or who has sat down at the table. “Cañitas” is the diminutive for “cañas”, so by saying “¿Unas cañitas?” we are being asked if we want to order small glasses of beer. |
| Megan: But why the diminutive? |
| David: Well, it sound more fun, don’t you think so? |
Outro |
| Megan: Definitely. Diminutives like “ito” and “illo” are a great way to be more expressive in Spanish and every country, region or even city has its own variations. But, we’re going to this a lot more in future lessons. We’ll stop here for today. See you soon! |
| David: ¡Hasta pronto! |
| DIALOGUE |
| MEGAN: ¡Hola! |
| DAVID: ¡Buenas, guapa! |
| MEGAN: ¿Qué tal? |
| DAVID: Bien. ¿Y tú, cómo andas? |
| MEGAN: Pues nada, tirandillo. |
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