Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Carlos: Elber is coming! What’s up world? My name is Carlos and with me is the Yin to My Yang of this spanishpod101 team, Natalia Araya. Natie, how are you feeling today? |
| Natalia: I am super happy Carlos. We’d like to welcome everybody back to the Costa Rican series of spanishpod101.com |
| Carlos: That’s right. This is the only place to get the low down on the Costa Rican Spanish without actually landing in Juan Santamaria Airport. |
| Natalia: Carlos, we have another airport. |
| Carlos: It was a joke, do you get the point? |
| Natalia: It’s still a bad joke anyways. |
| Carlos: Natie, we are on #17 and the time is flying. I remember when I was 17, it was a good year. |
| Natalia: Umm…. |
| Carlos: It really was um um um…okay. |
| Natalia: Okay by comparing Costa Rican speech to the neutral Spanish taught in the core curriculum of spanishpod101, we give you the insiders perspective on Costa Rican Spanish. |
| Carlos: That’s right and with a little time with us and people will think you are tico. |
| Natalia: Well not in your case Carlos but well, if you listen to me and not to Carlo’s accent, then you will be recognized as a tico. |
| Carlos: What can I say? Old habits die hard. Baby steps Natie, come on, I am pronouncing my Ss now. |
| Natalia: No you are still missing a whole lot of other letters. |
| Carlos: No appreciation. Today we are continuing our discussion of weather. Last time, we looked at some of the different ways to say it’s hot like “¡Híjole qué luna!” |
| Natalia: Híjole. |
| Carlos: Híjole. |
| Natalia: Qué luna. |
| Carlos: Wow, what a moon! I love that word. Híjole. |
| Natalia: No, no, no, no, no. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: Say it naturally, use híjole. |
| Carlos: Híjole. |
| Natalia: Híjole |
| Carlos: Híjole. |
| Natalia: Now say with excitement. ¡Híjole! |
| Carlos: ¡Híjole! |
| Natalia: But don’t scream so much. |
| Carlos: Today we are going to delve deeper into the world of tico sarcasm. |
| Natalia: Tico sarcasm. |
| Carlos: And if there is one goal that I would like to accomplish learning Spanish, it’s to be able to successfully utilize sarcasm. |
| Natalia: Well you should practice your English sarcasm too Carlos. |
| Carlos: Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean that it’s not good. |
| Natalia: Well, well, well so Carlos, what are we doing today? |
| Carlos: Like I said, we are continuing our discussion of weather. |
| Natalia: What about the smidgen of grammar? |
| Carlos: Well it’s there too. I think Natie is getting angsty. |
| Natalia: I am, I am, I am come on Carlos, go go! |
| Carlos: Okay, okay all right, all right. Let’s go back to newbie lesson 17 where we heard the following conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| MARCOS: Hay muchas nubes. |
| FÉLIX: Sí, está nublado. |
| OLIVIA: Siempre hay nubes en Concepción. |
| MARCOS: El cielo está gris. |
| OLIVIA: Hay niebla también. |
| Carlos: This time with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| MARCOS: Hay muchas nubes.There are a lot of clouds. |
| FÉLIX: Sí, está nublado. Yeah it’s cloudy out. |
| OLIVIA: Siempre hay nubes en Concepción. There are always clouds in Concepcion. |
| MARCOS: El cielo está gris. The sky is gray. |
| OLIVIA: Hay niebla también. There is fog too. |
| Natalia: Now let’s hear what that sounds like in Costa Rican Spanish. |
| DIALOGUE - COSTA RICAN |
| TATIANA: Está oscuro hoy. |
| FERNANDO: Diay, no se ve nada. Parece de noche. |
| TATIANA: El clima está todo desmadrado. |
| FERNANDO: Y parece que ahorita viene elber... |
| TATIANA: ¿Elber? |
| FERNANDO: El vergazo de agua. |
| TATIANA: ¡Qué chile más malo! |
| Carlos: Once again slowly. Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| TATIANA: Está oscuro hoy. |
| FERNANDO: Diay, no se ve nada. Parece de noche. |
| TATIANA: El clima está todo desmadrado. |
| FERNANDO: Y parece que ahorita viene elber... |
| TATIANA: ¿Elber? |
| FERNANDO: El vergazo de agua. |
| TATIANA: ¡Qué chile más malo! |
| Carlos: This time with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| TATIANA: Está oscuro hoy. It’s dark today. |
| FERNANDO: Diay, no se ve nada. Parece de noche. Yeah you can’t see anything, it’s like night time. |
| TATIANA: El clima está todo desmadrado. The weather is all messed up. |
| FERNANDO: Y parece que ahorita viene elber... And it looks like the rain is on its way. |
| TATIANA: ¿Elber? The rain? |
| FERNANDO: El vergazo de agua. The rainstorm. |
| TATIANA: ¡Qué chile más malo! What a bad joke! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Here we go with the other extreme. |
| Natalia: Umm what are we talking about? |
| Carlos: I am just saying Natie, here in Costa Rica, it rains or it doesn’t and when it rains, man does it rain. There is no such thing as drizzle in this country. |
| Natalia: Drizzle? |
| Carlos: See there is no such thing, right. |
| Natalia: Well! |
| Carlos: She doesn’t know and she has no idea what drizzle means. |
| Natalia: Well I don’t remember. Spanish is my first language Carlos like I do my best to speak English. Drizzle, well let’s see how these conversations are different. |
| Carlos: All right, now if you insist, where would you like to begin? |
| Natalia: Umm let’s start with. |
| Carlos: El cielo está gris. |
| Carlos: The sky is gray. |
| Carlos: El cielo está gris. |
| Carlos: You know, clouds are always the easiest to learn. Now how did this sound in our Costa Rican conversation? |
| Natalia: El clima está todo desmadrado. |
| Carlos: The weather is all messed up. |
| Natalia: El clima está todo desmadrado. |
| Carlos: How do you pronounce that word again, “desma”? |
| Natalia: des-ma-dra-do |
| Carlos: desmadrado |
| Natalia: That means like messy. So you say: El pelo de Carlos está todo desmadrado. Carlos hair is all messed up. |
| Carlos: All right, all right. |
| Natalia: I am giving an example. |
| Carlos: As am I. So “El clima está todo desmadrado.” The weather is all messed up. |
| Natalia: Exactly. |
| Carlos: So “desmadrado” is an adjective. |
| Natalia: Well it’s a past participle used as an adjective. |
| Carlos: Well let’s leave that explanation for another lesson. |
| Natalia: Okay but “desmadrado” is an interesting word. |
| Carlos: And why is that? |
| Natalia: Well in addition to “desmadrado” you have the verb “desmadrar”. |
| Carlos: Which means. |
| Natalia: To deteriorate. |
| Carlos: You know what I could see that link, messed up, deteriorate. |
| Natalia: Also we have the noun “desmadre”. |
| Carlos: I am not sure how I can make deteriorate or messy a noun. |
| Natalia: Actually this is interesting. “Desmadre” literally translated would mean no mother. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: But it really means like wild or chaos. |
| Carlos: But that will make sense. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: Well how else would a kid act without a mother, wild and chaotic! Okay this has reminded me of something. |
| Natalia: I don’t want to hear about your sad childhood Carlos. |
| Carlos: Once again in our newbie conversation, we heard “El cielo está gris.” and in our Costa Rican conversation, we heard |
| Natalia: “El clima está todo desmadrado.” Carlos, where do you want to go next. |
| Carlos: I do have a comparison. |
| Natalia: Shoot! |
| Carlos: All right, in the newbie conversation we heard “Dí, está nublado.” and in our Tico conversation, we heard “Diay, no se ve nada. ” and that’s a whole lot of new words. |
| Natalia: Yeah. I am pretty sure that will be confusing for someone learning Spanish. |
| Carlos: And you’d guess it right. |
| Natalia: What you are concerned with is passive and active construction. |
| Carlos: And what do we mean? |
| Natalia: Well we see the phrase “no se ve nada” as Fernandez said it, it means like nothing is seen. |
| Carlos: Hah! |
| Natalia: Umm that’s more like in a figurative sense. I guess in practical English, it will be, ya can’t see anything. |
| Carlos: Okay like ya see anything. |
| Natalia: Ya see anything. No we got to do it like in a country tone. |
| Carlos: You can’t see anything! Okay. |
| Natalia: Sí, that’s using the passive impersonal say. |
| Carlos: And that sounds pretty technical. |
| Natalia: As usual, it sounds more complicated than it is. |
| Carlos: Says you. |
| Natalia: Okay Grasshopper, the passive and personal say is used when giving information or instructions where the person doing the action is not important. |
| Carlos: Like? |
| Natalia: Well, taking the opposite view from Fernandez, we could say “Se ve todo.” Which can literally be translated as one can see everything. |
| Carlos: Oh okay so here the person is not specific but you know like generalized. |
| Natalia: Right. |
| Carlos: Which is why you would say one as in one must always blah blah blah! It’s not really specific, it’s like one must always pay their taxes. |
| Natalia: Exactly. See I told you, it wasn’t as difficult as you were making it out to be. |
| Carlos: Let’s get down with some localisms. |
| Natalia: Calm down Carlos. |
| Carlos: Hey I am enthusiastic for education. Localisms! |
| Natalia: I don’t know what to say to that. I am hungry and being enthusiastic means making faces and noises and you speaking weird? |
| Carlos: Actually it does. |
| Natalia: Okay. |
| Carlos: And plus like I said, today is the day when we delve deeper into the mysteries of tico sarcasm. |
| Natalia: And trust me, we are sarcastic. |
| Carlos: And creative. I mean come on “olla de carne” pot of meat. You can’t make that up. It’s a pot of meat literally... |
| Natalia: Pot of meat? |
| Carlos: There is no creativity. |
| Natalia: Carlos, don’t you be judging our Costa Rican elder people man, they are the ones that put “olla de carne” to olla de carne. |
| Carlos: Pot of meat. |
| Natalia: Okay keep going Carlos. You are making me mad now. |
| Carlos: Alright, but seriously this tico conversation really shed light on the sense of humor people in the country have. |
| Natalia: How so? |
| Carlos: Well I actually liked the joked that Fernando uses. |
| Natalia: Well you would. It sounds like some of your corny jokes. |
| Carlos: They always make you laugh. |
| Natalia: They don’t make me laugh. I just pretend so that I don’t hurt your feelings. |
| Carlos: I sincerely do not connect that you care about hurting my feelings. |
| Natalia: Okay, okay do you hear this audience, I am rolling my eyes just so you know. |
| Carlos: The joke is profound in its simplicity. “Y parece que ahorita viene elber. ¿Elber? El vergazo de agua.” That’s classic. Well, that’s just great. I am going to use that. |
| Natalia: Ey I want to be there when you use that. |
| Carlos: I mean, come on, listen to the translation, it’s funny. |
| Natalia: If you must. |
| Carlos: I must and it looks like the rain is coming, the rain, the rainstorm. Come on Natie, you have no sense of humor. |
| Natalia: I think I don’t. When it comes to your jokes, I don’t. |
| Carlos: Okay well listen, I am going to teach this joke to my niece and she will find it hilarious. |
| Natalia: How old is she? |
| Carlos: Six. Come on, if a 6-year-old looked you in the eye and told you that joke, you would die laughing. |
| Natalia: Carlos, you would do that to the poor thing? |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: Oh my god, I think we should also point out “vergazo” is a very colloquial phrase. |
| Carlos: And what does it mean? |
| Natalia: Well, look at the line “el vergazo de agua”. |
| Carlos: All right I am looking. |
| Natalia: Okay “el vergazo de agua” well does it say “lluvia”? |
| Carlos: No, it doesn’t say rain and it says “agua” water. |
| Natalia: Right and how does the sky look according to Tatiana, how does the sky look? |
| Carlos: Tatiana says “está oscuro hoy” It’s dark today. |
| Natalia: So since it seems to be so critical of Costa Rican rain, is it going to rain a lot when the sky is dark? |
| Carlos: Oh yeah. |
| Natalia: So what do you think “vergazo” could mean? |
| Carlos: Okay like a lot, like a lot of water. |
| Natalia: Right. In Costa Rica, “vergazo” means a large amount of something, a ton. |
| Carlos: I see. So “el vergazo de agua” a ton of water. |
| Natalia: Hold on, let me brush my shoulders off. |
| Carlos: Now, Natalia’s alter ego Tatiana also has no sense of humor. |
| Natalia: Oh my god, now you are getting personal Carlos. I have sense of humor but I got good sense of humor. |
| Carlos: Okay and what is her response to the very clever joke? |
| Natalia: “Qué chile más malo.” Something I would say, what a bad joke! |
| Carlos: Is “chile” a play on “chiste” Natie? |
| Natalia: Yeah actually “chile” you know, if you do the literal translation, it’s just a red hot pepper you know but “chile” is sort of because it’s sort of spicy. So it’s sort of like a joke. |
| Carlos: Okay man, “chile” is used a lot in Costa Rican Spanish. Qué chile más malo, qué chile….Any other use for the word pepper? |
| Natalia: Well, not that I can think of right now but if I find, I will make sure to include it in another lesson. |
| Carlos: Or comment on the forum. |
| Natalia: Exactly. |
Outro |
|---|
| Carlos: This will conclude today’s lesson. Don’t forget to reference this lesson with newbie lesson 17. |
| Natalia: See you again next week. |
| Carlos: Peace, love and Spanish, we are out. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide