Coffee Break Spanish - ¡Empezamos en San Sebastián! - Coffee Break Spanish Travel Diaries Episode 1

Episode Date: August 27, 2020

Welcome to this brand new series from Coffee Break Spanish for intermediate learners! Following our French and Italian Travel Diaries released earlier this summer, we’re now heading to the north of Spain to follow the adventures of Victoria and Abel on their luna de miel - their honeymoon. Join Mark and Anabel in Episode 1 of this 10-week series as they discuss Victoria’s first travel diary entry and look at interesting vocabulary and expressions along the way. First stop: the stunning Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastián. ¡Vámonos! Travel Diaries will be published in one season of ten episodes weekly from 27th August. If you’d like to access lesson notes and a video version which features pauses after each sentence to allow you to practise your pronunciation, check out the full course on the Coffee Break Academy.At Coffee Break Spanish we provide content for beginners, intermediate and advanced learners, along with regular mini lessons on social media. Visit coffeebreakspanish.com for all the information you need to build your confidence in Spanish, whatever your level. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coffee Brick Spanish Travel Diaries Season 1, Episode 1 Hello to all and welcome. This is a new project of Coffee Brick Spanish. I'm Mark and I'm very content to be here with Annabel. Hello, Alabel.

Hello, Mark. How are you? Well, I'm very well and super content to be here and with all our audience. This is indeed a new project from Coffee Brick Languages

for Spanish, although for the past 10 weeks, we have been producing the coffee Coffee Break, French and Italian travel diaries. Of course, it is a time when it's a little more difficult to get out and about and to get travelling. So we thought, well, why not do some virtual travelling? And that's exactly what we're going to be doing over the next 10 weeks here in Coffee Break Spanish. Because we're taking a journey through different parts of Spain.

And you can join our characters, and that is Victoria and Abel, as they actually go on their honeymoon through the north of Spain. Annabel, tell us a who you're going to because all the audience maybe not

they're not you know well, hello all to you know I'm I've been

I've formed before the magazine the last the last also

I've been in the Facebook lives and now we're

we're here so I'm very much very very em

so this is aimed at intermediate learners of Spanish. So we're hoping that if you are working on a perhaps an A2, a B1,

even a B2 level, then you're going to be getting a lot out of this. It's aimed at people who are looking to improve their vocabulary, build their range of expression, and also crucially find out a little more about, in this series episodes all about Spain.

So we're going to be travelling through the north of Spain. I've been to some of these places. I've not been to all of these places. So this is definitely giving me the feeling that I I want to go and do some traveling soon. Anabel, you know this region of Spain? It's like you. I've been in some things, but not in

all. So, I'm muchesimous ganas to know what they're doing, that prove, and, for suppose, to have the opportunity to go there. Okay. In each episode, we are going to listen to Victoria as she writes the account, the

diary of what she's been getting up to with Abel over the course of their trip. But not on we'll be listening to this in slowly pronounced Spanish. We'll also be discussing what she says. So we'll be going through the grammar, we'll be going through the vocabulary and the constructions that are used. So we'll be helping you get to grips with all of the language. And we hope that you enjoy this. Well, Annabel, I think that we've been about enough. So we're going to start with the first

entry of Abel and Victoria. All right. For fin, has arrived the day. Abel and I, Victoria, we're going to do a route

for the north of Spain, as a voyage of the moon of Miel. When me it

was I surprised because Abel is very casero. But he also also

was that was a part of the country that me apetecis to know. The two

we're of Aragon, for what to be all the north, it was a plan-a-

we're we're in San Sebastian. No we'd have been thought

to pass the night there, for what was a day agetreated.

The first we did we did you to get to the

Mount Urbul was a a passeo precious, because we the caballierites and the fortaleza medieval. What what most me

was, was, was to see the island of Santa Clara from up, it seems a tortoise. For support,

we went to eat pinches in various bars for the Plaza of the Constitution, in the casco Antigua of

the city. We put morados. of actually we've planned to

up the mountain but as we've had been we've eaten we're

we're we're the time in the play the concha and

we've we the palace of Miramar we we

we we we we we're a in a

town that is between San Sebastian and Bilbao

with two hours of retraso Menuda form to start

the So there we have it our very first diary entry from Victoria Victoria is writing the diary and she's writing

on behalf of both herself and her husband Abel so we've got Abel and Victoria a couple

on their Luna de Miel their honeymoon and Abel Connoces San Sebastian Yes, yes

I know a city pretty Yes very precious I've been

in San San Sebastian but, I don't know, it has like 25 years or something. So I don't record much. Okay, let's go back and go through the episode. And we're going to go through each line of the text and talk about the language used. It gives you opportunities to think about

how you could use this language too. So let's begin. And Abel, can you read the first sentence, please? For fin has arrived the day. Okay, por fin, has yet yet. So we've got Por fin, which means finally, finally, has yet yet the word order is interesting here because we've got a yeah, we've got a perfect tense, a jagado has arrived.

But in English we'd be more likely to say, finally the day has arrived. In Spanish, por fin ha ha ha ha hajegado er diea. Could we say, por fin el dia has yeto? Yes, we can But it will be more natural to say It's a year Has yeted the day, okay And I think it also adds more emphasis to it

For fin, has yet yet The big day has finally arrived Okay, let's continue on Abel and I, Victoria We're going to do a route For the north of Spain As a voyage of Luna of Miel

Okay, this is fairly straightforward here Abel and I so Victoria's new husband is called Abel, Abel and I, Victoria, we're going to do a route we're going to literally to do a route for the north of Spain

as a journey of honeymoon. So they're going on honeymoon through the north of Spain and this use of por here is interesting because por is one of these words that can mean many things. we kind of think of por as meaning for, but of course it can mean lots of things in here.

I think the best translation would be through. So, a route for the north of Spain. Nos you can give another example of por in this sense, for favor. For example, when we're doing a walk, is give a walk for the park. Because it's like, it's like,

and it's an exact area. Okay, so it's not an exact area. We're doing a route through the park or por el or for the place or for the city also it also is

okay perfect okay let's continue on when when when I was so I'm surprised because Abel is very casero okay this is interesting

let's go straight to the end and look at this word casero you might see if you're in particular areas in Spain most areas in Spain or indeed in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world

Comida Casera. What would Comida Echera? Comita Echa So this is homemade food and it gives you

the idea of real food you know sort of especially when they're north of Spain real solid stews

and things like that but when you describe a person as casero or casera what does that mean Annabel

It's that is a person to that he is a person to perfect

So it's a who likes being at home. They're a home buddy, perhaps we could see. So at the end, Victoria has said, because Abel is quite a home buddy. So what's she saying here? When me lo propusso? Me sorpreenedi

so there are two interesting things going on here. We've got when me what proposed. Proposso, of what verb is propuso? of the verb proponer that we have puter so

so poner literally to put and proponer is the verb that we use to propose or to suggest

something proponer so when me it propus is the preterate and it's an

irregular preterate of proponar let's let's go through the whole conjugation

of poner we'll use poner because other verbs work in the same way

so So I put would be You put You put You put And they put He, she or it put

He put We all put We all put We all put You all put Vosotros Pusistais And they put

They put They put So that's the Boner verb in the Preterritory here we've got proponere so we just put a pro in front of it and all of those other parts work the same so el me lo proposo he to me it proposed when he suggested it to me me me sorprendi bastante i got quite

surprised i got a big surprise and that is from sorprendere but it's surprendersi because it's a reflex of you say to surprise yourself in that sense So let's come back just briefly to proponear because there are other verbs that work in the same way, Anabelle. We have, for example, suponer. Supponar, to suppose. So that works exactly the same.

We've got suppose, supposiste, suppos, and so on, in the conjugation of supponer. Anything else? For example, oponer, to oppose. So just the same way as an. English we have similar words. They all have the similar roots in Latin in this case, and with the

Spanish words, they have the same root. So supponer, oponer, proponar, and of course the basic one, poner. As he is. Okay, there's so much in this. We're getting into the language here in a great way, and it's great to see all these different verbs and these different constructions here and look at the ways in which they work. So when he suggested it to me, I got quite a surprise because Abel is quite a home buddy. Let's continue. But he also said that it was a part of the

country that I had Petticea to know. Okay, so he also knew he also said, so there we've got an imperfect tense, said that it was a part of the country, that me apetetetia to know that I wanted to get to know, that I fancied getting to know. So

apetecer is an interesting verb because we can use it followed by an infinitive and is really useful because it means to fancy doing something or to have a desire to do something. So me appetese connoisse, I really fancy getting to know this part of the country, but we can use mehpeteze or te apateteze in many situations. How would we say, for example, do you fancy go? to the cinema. You apeteenth-you-al-cine? Okay, so,

you're a peat-ce plus the infinitive. You're a really nice way of asking someone if they'd like to do something. You'd like to take a beer? Do you fancy going for a beer?

Something like that. I mean me more now a tea, but thanks, Mark. Okay, perfect. Okay, let's a segue. The two

We're of Aragone, for what to see all the north , it was a plan-o. Okay, this is interesting because we can see how we can use the we form, the Nosotros form of the verb, and then put Los Dos in front of it to say, we're both from Aragon in this case. Los Dos Somos de Aragon. Let's see if our listeners can work this out.

How would we say, we are both learning Spanish? Annabelle, how would we say that? Los two, we studyamos Spanish. Perfect. What about we are both exhausted? Again, we'll give our listeners a little time to think about this. Okay, Annabel. Los dos

We're done-cansados. Okay, Los two are we're trying to simply those or Los three or those four or whatever, then we use the Pluto form, the Nosotros form of the verb. Just one other thing there.

If we were talking, for example, to females, Las dos we're cancadas. That's. Okay, so we change the loss or last two. refer to whoever we're talking about. So, Los dos we're of Aragon.

Where is Aragon? Aragone is between the part north that they're to be and Catalonia. Okay, so

the part of the north of Spain where our friends are going to visit, then there's the Aragon in the middle and then there's Catalonia over to the east.

So it's that section of the north of Spain, including areas like Ouesca, Zaragoza, Teruel, all these areas

that right up to the Pyrenees and also to Andorra, the principality of Andorra. Okay, so given that we're both from Aragon, for what you see the north, it's a plan-a-so. For that reason, ver total the north, seeing the whole of the north, it seemed to be a plan-a-o. It seemed to be a plan-a-o. Annabelle, you can't explain what is a plan-a-o-o?

A planazo is a plan grand but emotionante It's very very exciting Okay So this Azo ending You see that sometimes And it means something that is

bigger and it's impressive It's exciting It's something positive Generally A planatho It seems like a great plan But it's quite colloquial Isn't it?

Yes, it is colloquial and oral But super colloquial Okay, very well So let's find out where they're going to start. They're a trip. We're going to San Sebastian. Okay, so we're starting in San Sebastian.

Let's continue. No teniams pensado pass the night there, for what he was a set a lot to be agetreado. Right, some nice vocabulary in here. And also an interesting construction, because we've got, no teniamos, so let's analyze this. We've got the imperfect tense of tenor and then the past participle.

That's not a normal tense. We don't form a tense with tenor and the past participle, but it is an expression. So, Anabel, can you help us work out what this means? The structure tenor plus past participle is a perifrasis. It's kind of similar than tenor ke plus infinitive, but the meaning is different. That means that it's something that you have thought about. it was done. It was all the process of thinking in this case was done.

Okay. So no we had to be spent the night there. We hadn't planned to spend the night there. For what he was to be a bit of agetreado. So for that reason, that's for that reason. I was a year a bit of agetreado. For that reason, it was going to be quite a busy day.

agitreado is a good word. Yes, agetreado is occupied but it is more

occupied than using occupied. Okay, okay. So a one of a

day a day would be a really busy week one of those weeks where you've got things

happening all the time and you've too many things to fit in in this case it's

a day a bit agetreated it's going to be really quite a full on day

because they've got to get all done in one day before they move on at the end of the day to stay somewhere else, to spend the night somewhere else. Okay, so let's find out what they did in their day a hetriado in San Sebastian. The first

what we did was to move to the Mount Urugu. It was a passeoose because we saw the caballierizes and the fortaleza Medieval. Very well. Okay. The first

what we did was the first thing that we did was to go up to the Montefugoy. It was to go up to the Montefugul. So this is a hill in San Sebastian

and it was a Paseo Precioso a lovely walk a walk because we've seen the cavalierizes are stables

and the fortaleza medieval and the medieval fort or the fortress rather. Let's continue. What he most me was to see the island of Santa Clara from above. It's like a tortuva.

Okay. Lo que most me this is a really useful phrase. If you're talking about something that you enjoy doing or you're recounting an event or perhaps something that you did the previous day, the thing I like best, that which most pleased me,

And note that accent on We've got the preterate tense here And therefore we're talking about the thing that pleased me the most What was it? What was it? Was it? Was it? To see the island of Santa Clara from above,

Desde Arriva. And what does it look like? Like a tortoise. A tortoise. It looks like a tortoise from above. Okay, we're going to take a short break there and we will be back in just a moment to find out more about

Victoria and Aver's day in San Sebastian. We wanted to let you know that there's a premium version of the travel diaries course and this includes a set of lesson notes where you'll be able to read the text from each of the diaries and work through the vocabulary and any explanations that we've provided. There's also a video version of the text

where we've left space for you to repeat the words and phrases used, giving you an opportunity to practice your speaking and your pronunciation. For more information about this, head to coffeebreakacademy.com. Welcome back. We are following the adventures of Victoria and Avel as they travel through the north of Spain, an area that I would love to get to know more. And you can get to know more of this area along with us. We were talking in the break, and we were talking in the break, and we were talking about the expression

Passar La Noche They're talking about spending the night They didn't end up spending the night in San Sebastian But there's another way of seeing this, Annavel, isn't there? Also, Also, to make noche

Acer noche in a place. So, right, like, watch out of this very careful. Passar la night, to make noche. Okay, so two different

expressions there. either passa la noche, which is to spend the night or acer noche. So without the la in that case. And it means the same to spend the night, but it's really only used for journeys when you're on a trip. Acer noce. Hacemus noche in Salamanca. We're spending the night in Salamanca before moving on to Bayadolid or whatever it happens to be. Yes. Let's continue on with our text. Annabelle, would you like to read the next sentence please.

For supposed, we're to come pinches in various bars for the plaza

of the Constitution in the casco Antigo of the city. Okay.

For supposed, of course. There's something that you have to do in San Sebastian

and that is eat pinchos. What are pinchos? The pinches are like tapas

but is the word and the form of the word

in in Uskia in Basco but So these are tapas Basque style, the Basque country

in the north of Spain and in the Basque country, there's a different culture, there's a different language, a very interesting language, the Basque language or as it's called in Basque itself, Eusquera, and it's not related to Spanish in any way, in fact, it's said that Eusquera is not related to any other

Indo-European language in the local area of this part of Europe at all. So one of the things that you'll see very often in this part of the country are signs written in both Basque and in Spanish. And you'll see lots of Xs because there are lots of Xs in Basque, including in this word pincho. So the Spanish spelling of PINCHO would be P-I-N-C-H-O. But if you're using the written version of this, if you've got the premium version of this, you'll be seeing that it's written P-I-N-T-X-O, the pinchos.

So with the end, obviously, this is the Basque spelling of pincho. So they went to have some pinches and the various bars in the Plaza of the Constitution in the Casco Antigua of the Ciudad. So what's the

Cascco Antigua? The part Antigua of the city. Yeah. So the casco, literally what does Casco mean? Casco is what we we put us in the case to protect

us. Exactly. So it's the thing that we put in our heads to protect ourselves it's a helmet.

But when you're talking about the old part of a city is very common to refer to it as the casco

Antigo. It's the helmet of the city. If you imagine the part that is closest to

the core of the city which needs to be protected the casco Antigo the oldest

part of the city. And then Victoria uses a lovely expression here. What's this expression? Nos posimos morados.

So we've had proponer in the early part of this episode and now we're just seeing it poner in the preterate tense again. Nos posimos morados. Now if we're translating this literally, it means we made ourselves purple.

But what what do you mean? It's like that they're much. They had loads to eat. There are other versions of this, no? There's more simple to use,

that is, we're not there's in poners emorado the whole structure has to agree with the subject but in poners the verb and the reflexive pronoun has to agree.

Ponerses the lotas. Okay, so we've got Ponerse morado. In this case, we made ourselves purple. So, nos pusimos morados. We've got the nosposimos. That's your reflexive verb in the preterate.

And then morados, the plural version of morados, or morado. But the other version that Annabel was suggesting, Ponerce las botas. We just say, nos posimos las botas. We don't need to worry about agreeing

an adjective there. Okay, Annabed, do we say both, putnerce the botas and poners

in Latin America I'm afraid they are not going to use that much but they

have different expressions and other words to use for this that would be

atrak or darce an atracon okay so an

a traco is a robbery we have the verb atrak to rob a

bank for example but atrak is to rob

yourself literally but it's the verb that you use when you you pig out on things or you binge on food in some way. So dhsi want to track on another way of saying this. Lots of idiomatic expressions and very often with idiomatic expressions, the usage varies from country to country and it's difficult to say there's this version in this country and this version in another country. But you'll definitely be understood and if you're not understood, then it will definitely be a good starting point for a conversation as to,

explain why you put yourself purple. Okay, let's continue on. De actually, So in fact, we had planned to go up to Mount Igeldo. But how we had eaten so much? Al-Final in the end, we spent the afternoon in the beach of the concha, the shell, literally, and we saw the Miramar Palace.

Let's just look at two things here, because we've got Al-Final, in the end. that's kind of like after some decision making, after some discussion. And it's different from Por Fin, which means finally. And that's how the episode started. Por fin has arrived. Finally the day has arrived. But at the final it is different.

It's at the end. It's that kind of idea of in the end, you know, after some discussion, we decided to do such and such. Yes. Okay. Let's continue. We were there for so long time that we're going to a Guernica,

a people that is between San Sebastian and Bilbao, with two hours of retraso. Okay, so we were there for so long, and we'll come back to that in a moment,

that we left for Guernica, a people that's between San Sebastian and Bilbao, it's a village which is between San Sebastian and Bilbao with two hours

the retrasso, literally with two hours of delay, so two hours late. Let's go back to Estubimus Tantotempa yi, because there's an interesting thing that's going on here. If in English we said, we were there for so long, and we wanted to translate that into Spanish, we'd start to think about that word, four, and you'd start to think, well, it's it por, or para, or is it during, or is it something else? but note what happens in the Spanish Estubimus Tantu tempo

there's no word for four we were there so long and it's a really good way of missing out the fore altogether we don't need to worry about the four just use estar and the time that you were there Annel can you give us some more examples of this yes,

yes, we're just three hours in the bar wow I hope you enjoyed all those those pinches So we were in the bar for three hours, but you don't need a por in Spanish. Certainly in Spain, Spanish. Estubimus three hours in the bar. Another example?

Abel and Victoria, they were in San Sebastian five hours. Okay, so they were in San Sebastian for five years. Again, we don't need the pour. However, Annabel, in Latin America, we may well see a por in there, is that correct? Mm-hmm, as yes. Por can be used, and it's usually used, for four-plus time.

So, for example, in I've been studying Spanish for two years. It is said, I've studied, I've been studying Spanish for two years. Okay, in Spain, Spanish, should be more likely to hear during. Mm-hmm. Or nothing. Or nothing.

Okay, so they were so long at the beach, Stubimuos Tinto Tienpa that they left for Gernica two hours late, with two hours of retraso. And then, Victoria finishes the episode with a lovely expression.

Menuda form to start el via So, menuda form fought a way to start the journey of Empezzar the voyage. And it's a little bit ironic

here. Menuda form of. What a way to start the journey. It's to start the journey with already two hours of a dilly because you spent all afternoon at the beach. But menuda or menudo, can you give us more examples of that? For example, menudo plan. Ah, what a great plan. Or indeed, menudo plan-plan-a-so. What a fantastic plan, okay, what a great, exciting plan. And there you're seeing menudo, men-do plan. or menudo planazo. We had menuda

form, so menudo, menuda has to agree with what it is describing. We can have plutals as well. As well. What amazing eyes. Menudo eyes has, or something like that. Very good. What we're going to

do now is re-excuching the text. So, we're going to hear. For fin, it has arrived the day. and I, Victoria, we're going to do a route for the north of Spain, as a voyage

of the Luna of Miel. When me it was I surprised because Abel is very casero, but he

also was a part of the country that me was to know the two we're of

Arragone for what to be all the north was a plan-azzo. We're in San Sebastian.

No we'd have been thought to pass the night there, for what that was to be a day agetreated. The first we did was to get to the

Mount Urugu. It was a placeo because we saw the caballieritas and the fortaleza

medieval. What most me was to was to be the island

of Santa Clara from a a turtle for

supposed we went to eat many bars by

the place of the constitution in the casco

the city we put more those we actually

we had we had planned to up but

as we had we had been we've eaten so, at final, we've got

the time in the play of the concha, and we've the Palacio of Miramar. We've

got to time there that we got to a Gernica, a a town that is

between San Sebastian and Bilbao with two hours of retraso menuda way

to start the voyage. Well, menuda form to start the

series, no? Yes. very emocionante. Muches adventures. Much aventuras. Many adventures. And we're going to be continuing to follow the adventures of Victoria and Abel

as they travel through the north of Spain over the next 10 weeks. Now, do check out our Instagram where you'll be able to see some beautiful images of the trip that they're taking, the places that they visit. You can find our Coffee Break Languages Instagram by simply searching for Coffee Break Languages on Instagram. And as we said earlier, there is also a premium version of this series. So you'll be able to access a video version, which will show you the text. And you'll be able to pause the text and listen to the pronunciation and practice your pronunciation.

It's something that we've been doing during our Facebook lives. And the viewers of the Facebook lives certainly seem to be enjoying this opportunity to practice pronunciation. So that's something that we are doing available in the Coffee Break Academy. simply head over to coffeebreakacademy.com. We will be back next week with a second episode with the next installment of the diaries. Well, much thanks, Annavel.

Thank you, Mark, with much ganos, that he'll get the same time and see the next episode. And that we know us, Gernica. That's. As well. Adios. You have been listening to a production

of the Coffee Break Academy for their radio lingua network. Copyright 2020, Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright, 2020, Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved.