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| INTRODUCTION |
| Carlos: Whoa! You speak so fast. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo spanishpod101.com world. My name is Carlos and by my side is the light in the darkness that is Costa Rican Spanish, Natalia. Natie, how is it going? |
| Natalia: The light in the darkness, this is getting worst and worst every lesson. Yo ya estoy muy muy bien por dicho. |
| Carlos: You mean worse and worse? |
| Natalia: Worst and worst. |
| Carlos: No, worse and worse. |
| Natalia: What did I say? |
| Carlos: You said worst and worst. |
| Natalia: Ah! |
| Carlos: No. |
| Natalia: What? |
| Carlos: Okay anyway Natie, lesson 25. It’s a milestone. |
| Natalia: Ey Carlos, every lesson is like a milestone for you. |
| Carlos: Well of course it is. Each lesson brings our listeners close to fluency which after all is the point. |
| Natalia: But I will give it to you, #25 is very important and then what do we do after that? |
| Carlos: Oh come on Natie, don’t you trust me yet? We are going to start season 2 of the newbie series. |
| Natalia: Season 2. |
| Carlos: Yep. We are going to be hosting a supplement show for the newbie series which all of our lessons are based upon. |
| Natalia: Umm and what does that mean? |
| Carlos: Well like the regional series, season 2 isn’t a replacement for the core curriculum, it’s a compliment to it. |
| Natalia: So it’s everything else that a student would need. |
| Carlos: We aims to please. |
| Natalia: Isn’t it we aim to please? |
| Carlos: Sshh! Who is native English speaker here? |
| Natalia: Carlos, sometimes I am not sure. |
| Carlos: Okay well then Natalia, what are we learning today? |
| Natalia: Today we are going to look at something that might be confusing to the Spanish students. |
| Carlos: Wouldn’t most things be confusing to the Spanish students? |
| Natalia: Carlos, don’t get smart. We are going to look at why we speak formally and informally interchangeably in Costa Rica. |
| Carlos: You know that is little confusing. I know that formality is a big deal in most other Spanish speaking countries. Formality cannot be used like that. |
| Natalia: Well we are going to explain that today. |
| Carlos: Anything else? |
| Natalia: The term “medio.” |
| Carlos: ¿Medio? |
| Natalia: Yes “medio.” Is there an echo here, I am hearing myself twice. |
| Carlos: Ha ha ha! |
| Natalia: Ah Carlos, we are looking at the diminutive again. |
| Carlos: I love the diminutive. |
| Natalia: I know you do but it’s important enough to take another look at it. |
| Carlos: Well I am game for that. |
| Natalia: Good. So let’s go to today’s conversation. First, in the newbie lesson 25, this is what we heard. |
| DIALOGUE |
| YMA: Ahora, continuamos con el altar. |
| MARISAA: ¿Usted puede hablar más despacio, por favor? |
| YMA: ¡Claro! ¿Hablo muy rápido para ustedes también? |
| LUKE: Sí. Queremos escuchar cada cosa. ¡Es muy interesante! |
| Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| YMA: Ahora, continuamos con el altar. Now we continue with the altar. |
| MARISAA: ¿Usted puede hablar más despacio, por favor? Ma’am, can you speak slower please. |
| YMA: ¡Claro! ¿Hablo muy rápido para ustedes también? Of course, do I speak very fast for you all? |
| LUKE: Sí. Queremos escuchar cada cosa. ¡Es muy interesante! Yes we want to listen to everything, it’s very interesting. |
| Natalia: Let’s hear how that conversation would sound like in Costa Rica. |
| DIALOGUE - COSTA RICAN |
| RUBEN: Mae, dejame contarte lo que pasó ayer. |
| CARMEN: ¡Uf! Usted habla rapidisimo. |
| RUBEN: ¿Al chile? ¡Perdón! |
| CARMEN: No, es que también estoy medio sorda! |
| RUBEN: ¿Qué? |
| CARMEN: No me fastidies, pero sí, hable un poquitito más despacio. |
| Carlos: And now slower. Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| RUBEN: Mae, dejame contarte lo que pasó ayer. |
| CARMEN: ¡Uf! Usted habla rapidisimo. |
| RUBEN: ¿Al chile? ¡Perdón! |
| CARMEN: No, es que también estoy medio sorda! |
| RUBEN: ¿Qué? |
| CARMEN: No me fastidies, pero sí, hable un poquitito más despacio. |
| Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| RUBEN: Mae, dejame contarte lo que pasó ayer. Man, let me tell you what happened yesterday. |
| CARMEN: ¡Uf! Usted habla rapidisimo. Oh wow! You speak so fast. |
| RUBEN: ¿Al chile? ¡Perdón! For real, I am sorry. |
| CARMEN: No, es que también estoy medio sorda! Well the thing is that I’m half deaf. |
| RUBEN: ¿Qué? What! |
| CARMEN: No me fastidies, pero sí, hable un poquitito más despacio. Stop being annoying, but yeah, speak a tiny bit slower. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: My God, Natie! |
| Natalia: What? |
| Carlos: That sounds like a conversation we would have. |
| Natalia: I was thinking that because you talk so fast. |
| Carlos: Hey just the environment that I was born into. |
| Natalia: I don’t believe it. Listeners one day, I heard him talking with another guy from New York. I was pretty much staring, I did not understand a thing. |
| Carlos: Now, you know what it feels like when I hear you and Melly talking. All I hear is mae, mae, mae, mae, mae, mae…. |
| Natalia: Well I can express myself easier. I have to slow down in English. I can’t just go blah, blah, blah…. |
| Carlos: You know Natie, I might resist learning Spanish just for that. |
| Natalia: Oh sure, funny, funny, funny, how funny! |
| Carlos: But I don’t want to digress too much formality and informality. |
| Natalia: Yeah what about it? |
| Carlos: I mean how important is formality in Costa Rica? |
| Natalia: We’ve talked about that already. |
| Carlos: But it’s important like look at the first question in the newbie conversation. |
| MARISSA: ¿Puede usted hablar más despacio por favor? Ma’am, can you speak slower please. |
| Natalia: What about it? |
| Carlos: Well Yma’s answer was |
| YMA: ¡Claro! ¿Hablo muy rápido para ustedes? Of course, do I speak very fast for you all? |
| Carlos: I can’t help but notice something. |
| Natalia: Umm and that is. |
| Carlos: Well, the question was asked and answered with formality. I mean “usted” and “ustedes” |
| Natalia: Right. |
| Carlos: But in our Costa Rican conversation Rubin says “Mae, dejame contarte lo que pasó ayer.” Man, let me tell you what happened yesterday and then Carmen answers with |
| Natalia: ¡Uf! Usted habla rapidisimo. |
| Carlos: Okay so he addresses her informally with “contarte” and she answers him with “usted”. I mean what’s the deal. |
| Natalia: Well, as I told you in the past, you know, in Costa Rica, it’s not like you are going to get offended by somebody saying “usted” or “tú” or “vos”. We pretty much are open to using all of them. |
| Carlos: Okay so like is one person being disrespectful and the other not? |
| Natalia: In the grammar point of view, you would look at it that way but not like the person is not going to be feeling disrespected. |
| Carlos: I remember when I went to visit Joe and Bae down in Lima, you know there, when we spoke to someone formally, we never switch to the informal address I mean unless someone specifically asked us to. |
| Natalia: Claro. When you are speaking to someone formally and they want you to speak to them informally, they could say “Tuteame, por favor.” |
| Carlos: Tutear. |
| Natalia: Yeah that means to speak to someone informally. |
| Carlos: Ah you know I got it. Wait, to use the “tú” form but you know I mean I think this is pretty interesting and I get the sense that it’s pretty proper to Tiquicia. |
| Natalia: Yeah let’s talk about this during the week in the comments section for this lesson. |
| Carlos: Okay now you said, we are going to go over “medio sorda” and I understand “medio” to be medium. |
| Natalia: It does but it is being used differently here. |
| Carlos: How so? |
| Natalia: Well Carlos, how did Carmen use it in the conversation? |
| Carlos: No, es que también estoy medio sorda |
| Natalia: And that means no, the thing is I am half dead. |
| Carlos: Ah okay “medio” half but you know I can understand that. |
| Natalia: There is more to it. |
| Carlos: Well there always is. |
| Natalia: Well the word “medio” in this case is also an adjective but instead of modifying a noun, it’s modifying another adjective “medio” modifies “sorda” I am half deaf. |
| Carlos: So I take it that “sordo” or “sorda” means deaf. |
| Natalia: Ah good word Carlos but seriously we use “medio” in front of many words. |
| Carlos: Like. |
| Natalia: Muchas veces tus bromas son medio tontas. |
| Carlos: And that means |
| Natalia: Many times, your jokes are kind of stupid. Y cuando no son medio tontas son tontas por completo. |
| Carlos: You love my jokes. You know, before we get into the localisms, I would like to thank Rodney from comments section in the forum for providing a question for us. |
| Natalia: Is that the same Rodney that was traveling to Costa Rica? |
| Carlos: Yeah and Rodney, if you are listening, please tell us if you had a good time and how your Costa Rican Spanish works. |
| DIALOGUE - COSTA RICAN |
| Natalia: What was around this question? |
| Carlos: Well he was wondering about the use of the diminutive. |
| Natalia: Well if you are traveling in Latin America, it is important. |
| Carlos: Is it different in Spain? |
| Natalia: In fact a diminutive is one of those things that really depends on the local context. That’s why there are so many different forms. |
| Carlos: All right, well cool, let’s focus on Latin America. |
| Natalia: A good place to look at this subject is Costa Rican lesson 10, I Am Dying of Hunger. |
| Carlos: Right, you know what, that’s what we introduced but first a definition of the diminutive might be good. |
| Natalia: The diminutive is a formation of a word used to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning. Smallness of an object or quality meant intimacy or endearment. It is the opposite of an argumentative. |
| Carlos: Wow Natie, look at you. That sounded pretty official. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that you know what you are talking about. |
| Natalia: Carlos, yo sí sé de lo yo estoy hablando, contrario de usted, tonto. |
| Carlos: Man you got to hold it against me, don’t you? |
| Natalia: Why you don’t know what I am talking about. |
| Carlos: ¿Por qué, princesa? |
| Natalia: Ay Dios. Because I got it from the grammar bank in the learning center. |
| Carlos: There you have it guys, take it from Natie. I remember if you don’t get it right, there is a good chance that she is going to insult you. |
| Natalia: As if I would. I will never do that Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes, yes she would but how did we talk about the diminutive in lesson 10. |
| Natalia: To show my affection with one of the loves of my life. |
| Carlos: Chocolate? |
| Natalia: No. |
| Carlos: Jewelry? |
| Natalia: Well almost, “la joyita”. No coffee, café is not good enough expression for coffee, “cafecito”. |
| Carlos: Didn’t you tell me that you have been drinking coffee since you were 15 days old. |
| Natalia: Carlos, that’s another personal story. That is, there was a big fight between my grandma and my great-great grandma. My 103-year-old grandma put…. |
| Carlos: Wait, wait you went from a grandma to great-great. What happened to the great? |
| Natalia: The great-great-great grandma. |
| Carlos: But that’s impossible. That’s like five generations back. |
| Natalia: We live a lot. |
| Carlos: Alright. So 15 years old. |
| Natalia: You get it. The thing is that I was a baby and then my great-great grandmother put her finger in a cup of coffee, put it on me and my grandma caught and there was a big fight. So I have been drinking coffee since I was little. |
| Carlos: And like it doesn’t work on her anymore. I swear to god. She has a cup of coffee and she just goes to sleep. |
| Natalia: Caffeine does not do anything for me anymore. |
| Carlos: Okay but the diminutive expresses affection but also size. |
| Natalia: Right. There is a perfect example from Costa Rica 16, what a moon! |
| Carlos: Oh yeah, that was at the beach right? |
| Natalia: Yep in that lesson, we heard “Ya esta llenilla la playa.” Now that beach is really full. |
| Carlos: So how was this different from [*] other than not expressing affection. |
| Natalia: When used with adjectives, we add an extra emphasis to the quality being described. In this case “llenilla” really full is the diminutive form of the adjective “llena” full which is conjugated form of the verb “llenar” to fill or to cover. |
| Carlos: Wow, we really covered the diminutive. |
| Natalia: Yeah so you use, don’t forget lesson Costa Rican 18 St. Peters moving the furniture. |
| Carlos: Covered it there too. |
| Natalia: And you say I have a bad memory Carlos. |
| Carlos: Okay then, well then if you have such a good memory, how is it used in that lesson? |
| Natalia: There it was used to emphasize size “Son pelitos de gato, nadamás.” |
| Carlos: Oh yeah, how could I forget the little cat hairs. |
| Natalia: Well somehow you did. |
| Carlos: Hey I’ve got an idea. |
| Natalia: Oh that’s why you smell smoke. |
| Carlos: For real. Na na nah for real, let’s open up a thread in the forum and start compiling a list of words in the diminutive with different examples so that we can learn to distinguish when a word is being used to show affection or size or the like. |
| Natalia: That’s pretty much the best idea I’ve ever come up with. Wow, stop by the forum and check out Natie’ list of diminutives. |
| Carlos: I could have sworn that I just said that it was my idea. |
| Natalia: What! Carlos, keep quiet, we don’t have much time. |
| Carlos: Well thanks again to Rodney for requesting a more thorough explanation of the diminutive. |
| Natalia: I hope we helped. |
| Carlos: And if anyone else in pod101 world has a question or a subject you would like us to cover, please, please don’t be shy. |
| Natalia: And to see where I got our explanation, check out the grammar bank in the learning center. |
| Carlos: It’s really very useful. |
| Natalia: But don’t take our word for it. Sign up for the seven days on us. |
| Carlos: Natie, if I ever invent something, I am hiring you for the infomercial. |
| Natalia: Oh my Carlos, that’s the best thing you could possibly do. |
| Carlos: I know. That’s why I said it. |
Outro |
|---|
| Natalia: Okay. See you next week then. |
| Carlos: Well I see you next week Natie, bye bye. |
| Natalia: Bye. |
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