Welcome, Bienvenidos to the Spanish Conversation podcast! My name is Alyssa Bonelli and I am so glad you are here. This podcast is for those of you looking for a way to practice speaking in Spanish. Some of you may have found your way here via my other podcast, The Gringa Spanglish Podcast, because I am your Spanish tutor, or some other way. No matter how you wound up here, I am really excited to show you how this podcast is going to help your Spanish speaking and comprehension skills. At the start, I will do an intro of the topic for the day, which today is basic small talk. we will discuss some questions that you will be asked, and some potential ideas for response. I would recommend taking some notes if you can or trying to think of a potential response as you hear each prompt. Then, you will be asked 5-10 questions in Spanish, today there are 8 related to the topic of the day, in random order. The questions are in the description, the transcript with everything else is at rss.com, check out the link in the description. after each pregunta or question, you will have a varied amount of dead air. This is time for you to formulate and speak a short response back to me. For longer answers or time to think, you can pause during that time for as long as you like. After the dead air, I will offer a suggestion or a few for answers you could provide. Before we begin, here are a couple of words or phrases that might help you to formulate both questions and responses: 1. vivir = to live 2. llamarse = to call oneself 3. el esposo / la esposa = husband / wife 4. conocer = to know a person 5. dedicarse = to do for a living 6. la familia = family 7. Dónde = where 8. el nombre = name 9. ahora = now As mentioned, today our topic is small talk. Imagine you run into someone at the grocery store, you meet someone’s partner for the first time, or you are socializing at a party. What do you say? here are the questions I am going to ask you today that can help, and their translations: 1. ¿Cómo te llamas? / ¿Cuál es tu nombre? – What is your name? Assuming the person approaches you as tú, you would hear one of the two questions above for introducing yourself. In response to the first variation, you would say [removed] and to the second, [removed]… If you don’t know their name either, you can mirror the question back or simply say ¿y tú? 2. ¿Cómo andas? – How’s it going? you can respond with things like Ando bien/mal for good or bad, or [removed] for same as always, and you can finish with [removed] or [removed] to pose the question back to them. ANDAR 3. ¿Qué hay de nuevo? – What’s new? You can respond either that a lot is new, something like [removed] to talk about your new baby girl, or [removed] about getting a new job, or more simply for beginners, [removed] for not much, i’m good, you? Hay means either there is or there are, so it doesn’t change for plural. 4. ¿Cómo está tu familia / mamá / esposo / etc? – How is your family / mom / husband / etc? Depending on who the person is, you will respond Mi _____ está bien or Mis______ están bien if everyone is good, or you could switch out for mal, enfermo, ocupado, etc. Remember to change your adjectives for feminine or plural. 5. ¿Dónde estás viviendo ahora? – Where are you living now? As a beginner, you could reply for yourself, [removed] or for your family as [removed]. For the more advanced listener, perhaps trying to talk about when you moved, saying something like [removed] for I moved to San Fran two years ago. 6. ¿Cómo conoces a (nombre)? – How do you know (Name)? This is a bit harder to answer but is common at a party where you know few people. Try the past tense here, either for we met (Conocimos) or we have known eachother since (nos hemos conocido desde…) as a starter. Remember that colegio is high school, la universidad is college, el trabajo is work, or maybe through other friends, which is a través de otros amigos. 7. ¿A qué se dedica usted? or ¿A qué te dedicas? – What do you do for a living? Assuming your profession isnt too complex, this one should be fairly easy. You will use ser for the profession to say i am, and note that there is no need for un / una. My answer would be [removed]. If you and your partner have the same profession, you could employ somos instead of soy. For a job change, you could add [removed] for now or soon I will be as [removed]. Be mindful of choosing the formal usted vs informal tú, depending on the person you are speaking with. 8. ¿De dónde eres? / ¿De dónde son ustedes? – Where are you / you all from? This one is similar to the above in that you will use ser. For a tú question, your answer is likely to be in the yo form, yo soy, and for ustedes questions, likely a nosotros somos, unless you are from different places. You can use things like la ciudad for city and el pueblo for town, or el país is country, perhaps to give context [removed] Okay, listo, ready? Here come the questions in random order. Make sure you pause during the break if you don’t have enough time to reply. ¿De dónde son ustedes? PAUSE Mi respuesta es / My answer is: Somos de Colorado, en los Estados Unidos. ¿y tú? or I could say ¿y ustedes? ¿Cuál es tu nombre? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Mi nombre es Alyssa or Soy Alyssa or Me llamo Alyssa, ¿y tú qué tal? ¿Qué hay de nuevo? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Pues, ¡mucho! Estoy trabajando mucho y he completado varios proyectos grandes este año. También viajamos mucho. ¿Y tú, algo nuevo? (Note i am putting the question back to the person at the end and how I am saying a lot is new, from proyectos or projects to traveling (the verb viajar). ¿A qué te dedicas? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Soy maestra de español principalmente, pero también tengo un podcast, cursos online y un libro. ¿y tú, a qué te dedicas? (Note, my answer is long and would only be with someone I am comfortable with or who is really curious, otherwise I would just stop at maestra de español). ¿Cómo conoces a Raúl? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Raúl es un amigo de la universidad, el salió con mi amiga Sara. (hint: Salió salir con is went out with or dated). ¿Cómo está tu hermana? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Ella está bien, gracias por preguntar. Ella tiene una bebé de un año ahora y vive en Westminster. (I am thanking the person for asking and talking about my niece and where my sister lives). ¿Dónde estás viviendo ahora? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: En el mismo lugar como antes, en Arvada, Colorado en un condominio allí por los últimos siete años. Estoy veinte minutos de Denver. (Note I am giving my condo’s distance from a major city people might know better.) ¿Cómo andas? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Ando super bien, ¡gracias! Es muy bueno verte y estoy feliz estar aquí con todos nuestros amigos de nuevo (Did you catch that? I’m saying its good to see you and to be with our friends again). Well there you go, episode one in the books! How did that feel? Did you feel a little loco talking to yourself? That’s okay, it gets easier. You can repeat these episodes as many times as you need, tweaking answers and questions, moderating your speed, etc. You’re on a roll already, so I will see you in the next episode to keep things moving. For more products from Gringa Consulting, check out www.gringaconsulting.com/products/ Bye!