Coffee Break Spanish - Season 3 – Lesson 33 – Coffee Break Spanish

Episode Date: December 6, 2011

In lesson 33, it’s destination Mexico as Mark is joined by Juan from México D.F. Juan introduces Mark to the geography and some of the tourist attractions of Mexico. Language concepts included the use of soler, the difference between amable and amigable, and a reminder of the fact that 'another' is otro/otra in Spanish – and not un otro / una otra… Please note that lesson 33 of Season 3 was originally known as lesson 333 of Coffee Break Spanish. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.This season of Coffee Break Spanish features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break Spanish in the Coffee Break Academy.Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break Spanish on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your Spanish. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break Spanish Facebook page here.If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.You can also check out our Coffee Break Spanish Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Su time Spanish episode 33. It's hour to pass to the next level, from the ensign to the spectacle that's open the telon. Hello, dearly, I'm Mark, how you know,

you know, and today I'm here with another person of other country where he's Spanish. Good days, Juan. Hello,

Good days. How good you? How do you? Very good. Very good. Well, we've passed two in company of Carolina,

that was of Colombia, but today we have a other person with us. We can't say where you are, Juan? Of Mexico. And of what part of Mexico? Of the city of Mexico,

or district federal. Very well. But in this moment you don't live in Mexico, right? No, I'm living here in Scotia.

And then tell us what you are you're doing here in Scotia. I'm studying a doctorate and I've here

eight months. And then in this program and the the next, we're going to about about

about how you okay? Yes, so then we're to start. Well, for you can explain, we're

going to where is Mexico. I think the majority of our audience, they'll

know. But, and let meh know, explain us where it's a lot of

America, then it's all north of the Ecuador and it has two limites

geographical, one one with Guatemala and the other with the

or how people live in Mexico? Approximately 109 million

and are distributed all the whole of the country. Very well.

So, explain us how is the country geographically because well,

it has a coast in the atlantic and a coast in the Pacific no?

It's a country very great. It's, if you you can imagine

like a seta and the two extremes, one would Baja California, and the other

would be the peninsula of Yucatan. Okay, I have understood about Yucatan and also of Baja California, as as a destination. Is so? Yes, so is. Yucatan is a center touristic, like for

people young, there is there's encounter Cancun, and to the people that are the clubs nocturnos and the festas, is a grand destination for them.

And I've intended to about about of Acapulco. Acapulco is also in Yucatine? No, it's a 18 hours in car

In coach? Yes, that is one of the differences in the Spanish. We're in caro. Well, I go in

Carro from Yucatan to Acapulco? Yes, are 18 hours because you're from west to

perfect. And tell me, how is Mexico geographically? It has deserts, has

Mexico is very, very varied in terms of of the and you're in places, you're in those mountains, deserts,

plasias, even zones that are very very high similar to certain parts of Scoti, for example.

And the capital, the capital is very high, no? We're we're at

two-mil meters over the level of the sea. I've said

that Mexico D. F is the capital most of the world, no?

Yes, me it seems that the PAS in Bolivia is the capital

more Alta, but I can be quite a question if our the

You've been here to Scotia. Exactly. And, and tell us a what you are doing here in

Scotland. Well, as I mentioned, I'm doing a doctorate and in neuropharmacology.

And in words very easy, you can explain, what is the neuropharmacology. I'm

I'm a different pharmacos that could help to cure certain certain

certain like Parkinson or Huntington. Well, it has to be very

interesting and, well, I'd like much a lot of such a Thank you. And then you're in

you're in your first you're in your first time? Yes, it's the first and say, why

you've been to Scotland? What are in Scotland? What are in Scotia? Because

all the world said that the people were very very very very

and that there were many the same very beautiful and cities and

cities and do you know, and for example, the university has

any speciality for the neuropharmacology? Yes, it has a recognition

international is an area very very very and after

your doctorate you will be to go to

the city of Mexico and to work in the

university national and doing more investigation perfect you

have said you have There are many people who are in Yucatan of vacations for the clubs nocturnes and all this, the life nocturnal. But what more

there are for the tourists in Mexico? Well, Mexico has the advantage that it has a history very vast and you have from ruins of pre-Hispanicas to cities coloniales, many things to be. And for all parts of the

country or are in a part in particular? Generally, the majority of the areas are in the because it's

where it's where it's where it's the culture Maya, the Aztecas in the center and

in the north, in reality was an area desertic that was dishabitada so it's

more than in the sure. You know, a friend I was

in Yucatan and has seen a pyramid very famous and the photo that

has been made that is a or the of Kukulkan in Chichenitsa.

It's the most famous because during the equinoxio of the winter, you can see as

a serpent, a sombra of a serpent that descending from the cuspide to the pyramid

to the world. The Mayas were very advanced for their time.

The last when we took with Carolina we had

taught some some phrases typical Colombianas so I would like

you think you think in some these for the time this next year and

you can explain some some expressions very typical Mexicanas. Is it good?

And if is my task and my time, the you could

be to do two groups of music Mexican and

listen and you could give some the trios

the Panchos for example that is music typical is

Mariachi Okay. And something more contemporary, like Cafetta Cuba, for example. Cafetta Cuba. So,

then this week, I'm going to look a music of the trio and the trie of Pansos. Yes.

And of Cafetta Cuba. That's. And Cafetta Cuba is music contemporary. It's like rock pop.

Perfect. Well, this time the audience also, will be to try to

listen this music. For now we're to pass to the Intermedio.

Hello, Jose, what you Hello, Mark, and Hello, Juan. One of the attractions of Scotia is the people so amables that live there.

But as you know, that the time is one of the most of the most of the things, and the

jubes, and the newb, and the never, to be, Mark. Well, we're going to start with the Intermedio. In my

house, when I was more young, they'd be many telenovelas Mexican. A my mother they'd like to so I'm very accustomed to the little differences between the Spanish

of Mexico and the Castellano, how it's in Spain. Like, for example, car in bed of a coach. The word mariachi, that you've used

before, me really, I've always been very curious, mariachi. As you know, mariachi is

a type of music typical of Mexico, and also a mariachi is the name of the person that

interpreta this type of music. What a lot of not know is that this

word also has a different. A sometimes in Mexico can

say not you're not be mariachi meaning don't be a wimp

Don't be a coward. No Sears Mariachi. I'm going to show you two phrases more that are very similar. The first is to ask us to a person to not have valor. You're a cowardica.

Meaning literally, you're a coward. You're a cowardic. You can also say, no seas cobarthica, meaning don't be such a coward. No seas cobar dica. The second phrase is to use to animate or allentar

a person that is a cobar dica, is that is, that no he has a trebe or no has value to do a lot of meaning have courage and face the bull, valor and the toro. Valor and the toro.

Well, well, today we're going to repeat three phrases. Are you? The first is primarily in Mexico and is

No. Seas Mariachi. No. Seas Mariachi. The second is more universal. No

Seas cobarthica. No Seas Cobarika. And the third also. Valor

and the Toro. Valor and to-o Well, with these three phrases we're going to at final of this Intermedio in Showtime Spanish.

As always, it has been a tremendous pleasure to be with you and I'll go to the next episode. Adios and

until the next. As someone who's working on Spanish at an intermediate level, you may also be interested in our Coffee Break Spanish magazine podcast.

This is a podcast for intermediate learners and we focus on texts, which allow you to develop your linguistic knowledge and also your cultural knowledge. We have presenters from Spain and also various parts of Latin America, so you'll be building your understanding of different accents throughout the series. Find out more about the Coffee Break Spanish magazine at coffeebreakacademy.com.

Much thanks, Jose. The first thing I'd like to pick up on in today's second act is a word that you'll be very familiar with, and that is the word Otro or Otra. Now, OTHRO in English is translated as another. So, for example, Otra persona would be another person. Indeed, at the beginning, I said that today we have Otra persona de Otro Paix,

another person from another country. Now, you might be wondering why I'm mentioning this, and it's just really to reinforce the fact that you never ever say in Spanish, un-otro, as in a direct, translation of another. For example, another person. One other persona, which is wrong.

You simply say, Otra persona. So Otra, or Otro, has the concept of another built into it. And you don't need to have an indefinite article with Otro or Otra. And it's just worth

pointing that out because it's quite often a mistake that learners make quite regularly. As we get to this stage of Showtime Spanish, we're really picking up on very small things. Really, the grammar that was used in the discussion today was fairly straightforward, and it's perhaps more vocabulary that you've found a little tricky, particularly all this stuff about the Mayans and the Aztec civilizations and so on. Now, one word that Juan used when he was talking about people in Scotland was the word amigably. And to be honest, I find it a little bit difficult to distinguish between amigable and amable.

Now, amable means in English perhaps kind or nice, and amigable, if you look at up in the dictionary, means friendly. Now, in English, there's not a huge difference between friendly and kind or nice. However, in Spanish, if you describe someone as amable, then they might be nice to you. They might be kind with you in a particular situation. For example, someone might stand up in a bus or a train to let you sit down and that would be amaville. Likewise, friends can be amable with each other.

Literally, amably means lovable. So, amavly, kind, nice, lovable. It makes sense. However, let's think about amiable. Amigable. Amigable is when you are friendly. And that would suggest then that if you're friendly, if you're amigable, you're the kind of person that someone would find it easy to make friends with. So, for example, if you describe someone as amigable,

if Miguel is very amigable. Here you're basically saying that it's easy to make friends with Miguel because he's a friendly person. Miguel is very amigable. Now, the nuances here are very, very slight, and to be perfectly honest, both words would work in many situations. But it is useful to begin to distinguish between these words and other words that have very similar meanings. But in certain contexts, one word works better than another. Now, the final thing I'd like to look at today is the word soler.

It's an interesting word because it can't really be translated exactly into English. For example, if I say, I sluo salisers'lis for la tardy, I tend to go out on Saturday afternoons. Or, sullo estudiar Spanish, antes de accostarme. I tend to study Spanish before I go to bed. So I tend to do something,

to tend to do something, is this idea of soler. Now, the reason I'm picking up on Soler is the fact that Jose used it in the intermedio, but he didn't use it about himself. He said, So in his house, literally, many telenovelas, many Mexican soaps tended to be watched. Se solian ver.

Now, think about this a little. the subject of this sentence say solian bear based on the ending of the verb solian is the third person plural so the subject is in fact the telenovelas now jose could have said

soliamos bear much telenovelas mexicanas we tended to watch many Mexican soaps now I actually asked Jose about this before I started to record the second act because I would have probably expected him to say soliamos ber, instead of se solihan ber.

Now to get to the bottom of this, I'm going to give you another example. You may well see a sign in any Spanish-speaking country, something like se vende. Literally, it is selling itself, or it is being sold. So it's quite common to use this sort of impersonal version of a particular. particular verb referring to whatever it is that's being sold or being watched in the case of telenovelas mexicanas similarly you might be walking along the street and you would see in a shop window se vendin zapatos or se vendin sapatos literally shoes are selling themselves or shoes are being sold so again here the subject of the verb is los zapatos se vendin zapatos

Now equally, the shopkeeper could come to the door of the shop and say, Vendemos Zapatos. We sell shoes or we are selling shoes. But in the situation where you've got a sign or a poster or something like that, is very common to use the impersonal form. Se vendin' zapatos. Now let's bring it back to Se solian ver much telenovelas Mexicanas.

when I asked Jose about it he thought that perhaps I was over-analysis first of all but I tend to over-analyze things anyway especially to do with language so if I was over-analysing I wanted to find out whether Jose was in fact distancing himself almost

from the watching of these Mexican soaps and he agreed that it was indeed his sister and his mother who tended to watch the Mexican soaps rather than himself included. So perhaps that's the reason behind his use of se solian mer, as opposed to soliamos bear. Both work perfectly well in Spanish. You can use soler as a

personal verb, something that you do yourself or that we do or that they do or whatever. But it can also be used in a similar way to se vending chapatos or se vending, se alquilin pizos, for example. flats are being hired or flats for hire, for example, in a poster, and we can use se soli and mer, mutas telenovelas mexicanas in the same way. Now, as usual, there's lots more information on this week's nodes, and you can find full vocabulary for all the words and phrases

included in this week's conversation in our lesson guide. We also provide the Encore podcast, which will test you on some of the, of the grammatical constructions covered, and the lesson guide notes, which again provide a transcript of the exercise that we are giving you in the Encore podcast. Well, that is all for today and for this

time. Much thanks, a Juan. And you'll be the same next? Sure that is. Thank you. Thanks for the invitation. Of nothing. Well, then, until the week to all our audience and to you, too, Juan. After

later