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| INTRODUCTION |
| Megan: ¡Bienvenidos a Spanishpod101.com! |
| David: ¡Buenos días! Me llamo David. |
| Megan: And I’m Megan. Iberian Spanish Series, Lesson 3 – “Soy el guitarra de un grupo”. Hi, there! My name is Megan and I’m joined by David. ¿Cómo estás, David? |
| David: Muy bien, gracias. |
| Megan: In Iberian Lesson 2 we looked at the phrase “la verdad es que” which means “the truth is” and the slang term “guay” which means “really great” or “cool”. |
| David: Today’s Iberian Lesson references Newbie Lesson 3 – “Who are you?”, so be sure to check that one out, too. |
| Megan: To get started, let’s go back to Newbie Lesson 3 where we heard the following conversation: |
| DIALOGUE |
| CÉSAR: ¿Quién eres tú? |
| AMANDA: Yo soy Amanda. ¿Y tú? |
| CÉSAR: Yo soy César. Soy músico. |
| AMANDA: ¡Qué bueno! Yo soy profesora. |
| CÉSAR: ¡Qué interesante! |
| David: English translation: |
| David: “¿Quién eres tú?” - “Who are you?” |
| Megan: “Yo soy Megan. ¿Y tú?” - “I’m Megan. And you?” |
| David: “Yo soy David” - “I am David.” “Soy músico” - “I am a musician.” |
| Megan: “¡Qué bueno! Yo soy profesora” - “Great! I’m a teacher.” |
| David: “¡Qué interesante!” - “How interesting!” |
| Megan: Now let’s hear what that that sounds like in Iberian Spanish: |
| David: ¿Cómo te llamas? |
| Megan: Megan. ¿Y tú? |
| David: David. Soy el guitarra de un grupo. |
| Megan: ¡Cómo mola! |
| David: ¿Y tú en qué trabajas? |
| Megan: En la enseñanza. Soy profe. |
| David: ¡Qué interesante! |
| David: Slowly. |
| David: ¿Cómo te llamas? |
| Megan: Megan. ¿Y tú? |
| David: David. Soy el guitarra de un grupo. |
| Megan: ¡Cómo mola! |
| David: ¿Y tú en qué trabajas? |
| Megan: En la enseñanza. Soy profe. |
| David: ¡Qué interesante! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Megan: Now there’re obviously some basic differences between these two conversations. For example, let’s look at how you said “I’m a musician” in Iberian Spanish. David, could you repeat that for us, please? |
| David: Well, I have decided to be “a guitarist”, “un guitarrista”. |
| Megan: “Un guitarrista”, “a guitarist”, but you didn’t say it quite that way, did you? |
| David: Right! I said “soy el guitarra de un público”. Literally, “I’m the guitar of a band.” |
| Megan: So, you used the name of the instrument you play as your profession. |
| David: Yes, I think this is a special feature for our musicians. You don’t say that your job is your instrument in other professions. |
| Megan: That’s true. A bus driver can’t say he’s a bus or a surgeon can’t say that he is a scalpel, but a guitarist can say “I’m the guitar” or a drummer can say “soy el batería”, or the bass “soy el bajo”. |
| David: “Soy el guitarra de un grupo”. |
| Megan: David, as I’m sure you already know that strong “R” is one of the most difficult sounds for many foreigners learning Spanish. |
| David: I know. This sound is probably the best test for knowing whether someone is native from Spanish or not. You can speak perfect Spanish, but if you don’t pronounce this “R” correctly, you won’t sound native. But of course, this is not a big problem. We can still understand what you’ll say just fine. |
| Megan: That’s a relief. Can you repeat “guitar” for us one more time? |
| David: “Guitarra”. |
| Megan: Spanish linguists describe this trilled a rolled “R” sound as an “alveolar vibrante múltiple” or an alveolar trill, which really sounds technical, but it’s important to know that the alveolar ridge is what your teeth are attached to. So, to make this sound correctly, you put your tongue a bit behind your upper teeth, tense up your mouth a little bit to help cut off the airflow and then let your tongue vibrate or trill as you blow out. It takes a lot of practice. I’ll confess that I still don’t do it right. So, let’s have you repeat that sound for us, that would be better. |
| David: Sure! “R” it sounds like “motorcycle”, “rr”, “rr”, “guitarra”. “Guitarra”. |
| Megan: Okay! Now let’s go over some of the local expressions that came up in this conversation. First is the expression “Great!”. Now, in Newbie Lesson 3 it sounded like this: |
| F2: ¡Qué bueno! |
| Megan: And in the Iberian conversation it sounded like this: |
| David: ¡Cómo mola! |
| Megan: Which means “How cool!” David, can you tell us a little bit about this word “mola”? |
| David: Sure! “Mola” could be the Present Tense of the verb “molar”. This is a slang, “una jerga”, that means “cool”. Either way, it’s very, very Iberian. |
| Megan: How often would you say this is used in Spain? |
| David: I’m sure you can tell me that, Megan. |
| Megan: Well, I hear it all the time in Madrid, especially among people more or less under the age of 45. I’d say it’s really common. |
| David: Do you know “Beavis and Butthead”? |
| Megan: Sure! |
| David: Yes, when they said in English “Cool! Haha, yes! Cool, cool!”, in Spanish it was translated as “¡Mola! ¡Sí! Jajaja, ¡mola!, ¡mola!”. |
| Megan: So, it sounds like something you probably wouldn’t say to impress your boss then. |
| David: No, you’re right. You would use this with your friends and it wouldn’t be appropriate in the formal situations. Okay! Now let’s go over “¿cómo te llamas?”. |
| Megan: This is the most common way to say “What’s your name?”, although it literally means “How are you named?” |
| David: Other expressions like “¿Cuál es tu nombre?”, which literally means “What’s your name?”, are not so used, at least not in Spain. |
| Megan: Right! That structure sounds really awkward in Spanish, doesn’t it? And here we are again with the usage of “tú”. Even when you don’t know someone at all, it’s not uncommon in Spain to use “tú” for “you”, is it? |
| David: Right! The form “tú” tends to be used much more frequently in Spain than in many other parts of the Spanish speaking world. Here, in Spain, “usted” is used exclusively as a formal or respectful version for the singular “you”. In casual situations, “tú” is the form that is most used. |
| Megan: Right! And “ustedes” is the respectful form for plural “you”. Again, “usted” and “ustedes” are used in situations that require a specific show of respect. Say, for example, when you get pulled over for speeding by a police officer. |
| David: Right! It definitely cuddles my heart. And when you’re speaking with someone older than you or someone you’ve just met that you feel the need to be extra respectful with, that the use of “tú” or “vosotros” doesn’t imply the respect. You use those with friends, family, colleagues or people you feel are more or less similar to yourself. |
| Megan: And what about the word “profe”? This is a short form of “profesora”. |
| David: Yes. We tend to do this with a lot of words in informal situations. |
| Megan: Right! Like “finde” for “fin de semana”, which means “weekend.” |
| David: Right! Or “peli” for “película”, which means “movie”. |
| Megan: I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of these short forms in the coming weeks. |
Outro |
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| David: That just about does it for today’s lesson. |
| Megan: So, have a good one! |
| David: ¡Que te vaya bien! |
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