Hola, ¿qué tal? It’s time for another interactive episode of the Spanish Conversation Podcast! I’m your hostess Alyssa Bonelli, founder of Gringa Consulting, and hostess of the Gringa Spanglish Podcast, and I’ve got a fun topic for you today! We have 8 questions you can use when meeting your partner’s Spanish speaking padres. The questions will be traducidas y explicadas. Then, te daré las preguntas in an order diferente. Responde, pausa, regresa, whatever you need! Pero primero, el vocabulario: 1. conocerse = to know one another 2. las alergias = allergies 3. de niño = as a child 4. sentarse = to sit 5. considerado = thoughtful 6. mudarse = to move (house) 7. mayor / menor = older / younger Ahora, imagínate that your date from episodio tres went swimmingly, and now it’s time to meet your natively Spanish speaking partner’s parents. No entres en pánico, it will look great that you are trying! Pero si quieres impress, you can preparar by to preguntar o responder a these questions: 1. ¿Puedo ayudar con poner la mesa?– Can I help set the table? Asking if you can help, major brownie points. You can also use other verbs in their infinitive form such as limpiar, lavar, conseguir, if those are better for the situation. 2. ¿Cómo se conocieron?– How did you all meet? Conocer is the verb for to know people or places, and saber is more for knowing information. It’s possible you could be asking or answering this question, perhaps answering with Nos conocimos… to say we met… 3. ¿De dónde eres?– Where are you from? If addressing one person as tú, the above is best, if asking both parents at once, you would say son in place of eres. Point of origin, where you are from uses ser. 4. ¿Tienes algunas alergias? – Do you have any allergies? You may be asked this question if staying for dinner, or you could ask if you are hosting. You may hear Ninguna (not one, none) or something like cacahuates for peanuts, nueces for nuts, gluten for gluten. 5. ¿Cómo era tu hijo de niño? – What was your son like as a child? Again we are addressing just one person, so using tu hijo for your son, instead of the plural su hijo if addressing both parents as ustedes. How would you say this about a daughter as a child? Two things would change. 6. ¿Tienen otros hijos? ¿Dónde viven ellos? – Do you have other children? Where do they live? You might already know this information, but you could either ask it, or be asked about your siblings in a similar way, or hermanos. 7. ¿Les gusta vino? Traje una botella. – Do you all like wine? I brought a bottle. You are asking about a drink preference, here we use vino or wine, but you could change this if desired, to a drink or food item. We use the les for ustedes here, but te gusta for tú would work great as well. 8. ¿Dónde debería sentarme? – Where should I sit? Debería is should, conditional of debber, and could be changed to should we sit by adjusting deberíamos and sentarnos, changing the pronoun at the end. Okay, take a second to check your notes and answers if you jotted some down. You may want to ask your pareja about whether to use usted or tú when addressing the parents individually, as its just ustedes for both. Your future with this pareja depends on it! Kidding, solo una broma. Here come the questions in random order. Make sure you pause during the break if you don’t have enough time to reply. ¿Les gusta vino? Yo traje una botella PAUSE Mi respuesta es / My answer is: Sí claro, mi esposo y yo bebemos mucho vino tinto, ¡eres tan considerada! (considerado, or considerada is thoughtful, and tinto denotes red wine). ¿Tienen otros hijos? ¿Dónde viven ellos? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Sí, tenemos una hija menor, se llama Erica. Ella se mudó al centro comercial de Dallas con sus dos hijas hace dos años. (Hace and time is used for ago, so here its two years ago. Se mudó from mudarse is she moved) ¿De dónde eres? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Yo soy de Guatemala, y mi esposa es de Venezuela, pero hemos vivido en Miami por los últimos quince años. (Are they from the same place? How long have they lived in Miami?) ¿Tienes algunas alergias? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: No no, no tengo ninguna alergia. ¡Pero mi esposo tiene una alergia a plátanos y perros! (what allergies does the husband have, and does she have any?) ¿Cómo se conocieron? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Nos conocimos a través de trabajo en Miami, en mil novecientos ochenta y cuatro. Yo era el agente de bienes raíces y Angela estaba comprando una casa. (Agente de bienes raíces means realtor. What year did they meet?) ¿Dónde debería sentarme? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Donde quieras, bonita. Tenemos espacio aquí para ti y para Andrés. (Espacio is space, and donde quieras is wherever you want) ¿Cómo era tu hijo de niño? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Ohh, Andrés era un niño muy lindo, super activo y muy inteligente. Él jugaba muchos deportes y siempre me ayudaba en la cocina, le encantaba cocinar (What did Andres like to do, how does the parent speak about him?) ¿Puedo ayudar a poner la mesa? PAUSE Mi respuesta es: Por supuesto, gracias por preguntar. Hay platos en la cocina y servilletas en el mostrador, a la izquierda (Can you help? What should you grab?) Alrighty that’s all for now, I hope this episode makes this somewhat stressful hypothetical scenario more approachable! If you have questions, ideas, or feedback for the podcast, I would love to hear it! You can send me a message through my website at gringaconsulting.com. Students and listeners give me some awesome ideas, keep them coming! Til next time friend, ¡chau!