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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Lizzie: Buenos días, me llamo Lizzie.
Allan: Allan La Rue here. Beginner Series, Lesson number 20. “Rise and Shine - 4” Muy buenos días, Lizzie!
Lizzie: Allan, ¿cómo te va??
Allan: Todo bien gracias. Great to be back for another beginner lesson.
Lizzie: Today we have Lesson 20.
Allan: Was there something in particular that you wanted to talk about?
Lizzie: Today I didn’t have anything planned. I thought I’d see what you wanted to cover.
Allan: Well, one of the things I think really comes through today’s lesson conversation is the distinction between “what happens” and “what’s happening.”
Lizzie: I’m not sure I follow you.
Allan: Well, as we’ll see in the conversation, sometimes we use the verb to express what we do, for example Soy un electricista.,” I am an electrician.” Does the verb soy express an essential characteristic or a continuous action that doesn’t have any indication of when it starts or when it stops?
Lizzie: A ver, Soy electricista. It expresses an essential characteristic - a profession.
Allan: Right. And if I say Estoy durmiendo., “I’m sleeping”, does this action seem continuous or is there some essential characteristic being expressed?
Lizzie: This time it’s the continuous action.
Allan: So, this is the kind of thing I was thinking might be interesting to discuss today.
Lizzie: Sounds like a great idea.
Allan: Now, in this conversation we are about to hear Felix, in Madrid, and Ximena, in Guayaquil who are talking on the phone. Today, in “Rise and Shine - 4” they catch up on what they’ve been up to lately.
Lizzie: Catching up, such a great conversation.
Allan: Right. It’s like learning how to give an update in Spanish.
Lizzie: No se olviden de hacer clik en el boton de sus iPods para ver la transcripción en la pantalla. ¿OK?
Allan: Don’t forget to click the center button of your IPod to see the lesson transcripts in the display.
Lizzie: Escuchemos la conversación de hoy.
DIALOGUE
FÉLIX: ¿Trabajas en el banco todavía?
JIMENA: No. Ahora trabajo en un colegio.
FÉLIX: ¿De verdad? ¡Qué bien!
JIMENA: ¿Qué haces tú?
FÉLIX: En este momento estoy buscando un nuevo trabajo.
JIMENA: Cuando no tengo trabajo, siempre busco en el periódico.
FÉLIX: ¡Es una buena idea!
FÉLIX: Do ya' still work in the bank?
JIMENA: No. Now I work in a school.
FÉLIX: Really? That's great!
JIMENA: What do you do?
FÉLIX: Right now I'm looking for a new job.
JIMENA: When I don't have a job, I always look in the newspaper.
FÉLIX: It's a good idea!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Lizzie: Allan, do you read the newspaper here in Lima?
Allan: Yes, of course.
Lizzie: Which one do you read?
Allan: I read a few. I read El Comercio, I read Gestión and sometimes I’ll even read El Expresso.
Lizzie: And what do you think about tabloids?
Allan: Well, there are all kinds of tabloids here, some are good, and some aren’t so good, I mean if you look through them , some of them have no advertising. So, who’s paying for them? Some of those tabloids are sponsored points of view as far as I’m concerned.
Lizzie: I have to say that you’re right. And now let’s take a look at some of the vocabulary and phrases that we saw in today’s conversation.
VOCAB LIST
Allan: Ok. So, first we have…
Lizzie: banco
Allan: Bank.
Lizzie: banco, banco
Allan: Next, we’ll hear…
Lizzie: colegio
Allan: “School” or “high school”.
Lizzie: colegio, colegio
Allan: Then, let’s listen to…
Lizzie: buscar
Allan: To search for, to look for.
Lizzie: buscar, buscar
Allan: And now, let’s hear…
Lizzie: buscando
Allan: Looking for, searching.
Lizzie: buscando, buscando
Allan: And now let’s hear…
Lizzie: periódico
Allan: Newspaper, periodical.
Lizzie: periódico, periódico
Allan: And finally…
Lizzie: idea
Allan: Idea.
Lizzie: idea, idea
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Lizzie: The word periódico makes me think of another word.
Allan: Which one?
Lizzie: periódista
Allan: Good one to point out. This ISTA ending usually refers to the person who carries out an action.
Lizzie: So, it’s a noun.
Allan: el periodista or la periodista, a noun. And it could be either feminine or masculine.
Lizzie: So, if a periódico is “a piece of journalism”, what do we call the person whose profession it is to carry out journalism?
Allan: A journalist.
Lizzie: So then un periódista is a journalist.
Allan: Now, what do you say we look at how some of these words are used?
Lizzie: Yeah, good idea.
Allan: Now, the word colegio. This is an easy one to pick up.
Lizzie: What kind of word is it? ¿Qué tipo de palabra es?
Allan: Es sustantivo. It’s a noun.
Lizzie: And is it singular or plural?
Allan: It’s singular. el colegio The plural would be los colegios.
Lizzie: And when someone continues their studies after high school, where do they often study?
Allan: In a college.
Lizzie: And people who work in a college regard their peers as what?
Allan: As colleagues.
Lizzie: So if I say ella estudia en el colegio, what do we mean by ella estudia?
Allan: It means “she studies”.
Lizzie: And what about the other part? What does en el colegio mean?
Allan: The word en el means “in the”. And then we have the word colegio, which means “school”.
Lizzie: There we go. Also colegio refers specifically to “high school”.
Allan: Next, let’s look at the verb buscar.
Lizzie: Another key term. buscar
Allan: So, this is an interesting word. We can say Eduardo busca su libro.
Lizzie: And what does this mean?
Allan: We can translate it in a number of ways. For example, we could say “Eduardo looks for his book”.
Lizzie: Right.
Allan: And when we translate it this way, we need to use the preposition “for”.
Lizzie: That doesn’t happen in Spanish, does it?
Allan: No, and this is why we can translate it in another way, too. We can say “Eduardo seeks the book”.
Lizzie: Well, now it sounds strange.
Allan: Sure. I mean we wouldn’t say this really but here we see how a verb like this is used with a preposition.
Lizzie: Right. And that’s how the verb buscar works in Spanish. Busco mis lentes. “I look for my glasses”.
Allan: Now, there’s just one more word that I’d like to cover today.
Lizzie: Ok. What is it?
Allan: Well, let me spell out a word for you. And then you can tell me how it’s pronounced in Spanish.
Lizzie: Ok.
Allan: I-D-E-A.
Lizzie: It would be idea.
Allan: And now, Lizzie, if you were to pronounce the same word, but this time in English, how might that sound?
Lizzie: I would say “idea”.
Allan: So, these two words mean the same thing.
Lizzie: Right. We could say Tengo una buena idea. or “I have a good idea”.
Allan: There is another word related to this that is worth mentioning. It’s the verb idear.
Lizzie: What does this mean?
Allan: It means “to conceive of” or “to design”.
Lizzie: It’s kind of a specific term, but it’s good to learn in order to see how idear, “to conceive of”, relates to idea, which is a kind of conception.
Allan: Speaking of ideas, a friend of mine told me about this idea he had.
Lizzie: What was it?
Allan: He said that to learn a language, you have to be like a sponge and just absorb everything that you can get your hands on.
Lizzie: It’s an interesting thought.
Allan: But I’m wondering if it’s really like this or if it would be better to be more like a faucet, constantly pouring out, practicing pronunciation, learning to write in Spanish and things like this.
Lizzie: Sounds like a dilemma. Which option are you leaning towards?
Allan: Probably there’s some truth in both of those. You should try to absorb everything you can. But again, if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t learn.
Lizzie: I agree with you, Allan. It’s very, very important to practice, and practice, and practice.
Allan: Now, it’s time to look at the distinction of actions that happen and those that are happening now.
Lizzie: This is such an interesting topic.

Lesson focus
Allan: So, to start, let’s recap what we’ve been studying.
Lizzie: Ok.
Allan: In the example “I am working”, which word expresses continuous action?
Lizzie: Working.
Allan: Right. And what do we call this kind of word?
Lizzie: un gerundio A gerund.
Allan: Great. So if I say Estoy trabajando, “I’m working”, the word trabajando is the gerund, right?
Lizzie: Yeah.
Allan: And this gerund, trabajando, comes from which verb in the infinitive?
Lizzie: trabajar
Allan: Right. trabajar And where is the one place that we can always bet on finding the infinitive form?
Lizzie: In the dictionary.
Allan: Right again. The infinitive is the form we find in the dictionary. And what does trabajar mean?
Lizzie: It means “to work”.
Allan: And how do you say “I work in Lima”?
Lizzie: Trabajo en Lima.
Allan: Trabajo en Lima.
Lizzie: Trabajo en Lima.
Allan: Excellent. Does the verb trabajo “I work” express an habitual action or the continuous duration of the action?
Lizzie: Trabajo en Lima. “I work in Lima”. It expresses an habitual action.
Allan: And it’s the present tense where the gerund is used to express a habitual action.
Lizzie: The present tense.
Allan: We see an example of this in today’s conversation. Ximena says Ahora trabajo en un colegio., “Now, I work in a school.”
Lizzie: Again, you can see it that this action is habitual.
Allan: Right. “I work in a school.”
Lizzie: Trabajo en un colegio.
Allan: So, the verb trabajo, “I work”, is used in the present tense.
Lizzie: But later on, Felix says…
Allan: En este momento estoy buscando un nuevo trabajo. “Right now I’m looking for a new job.”
Lizzie: En este momento estoy buscando un nuevo trabajo. and does the action of looking in this example express a duration or is it habitual?
Allan: It’s a duration. estoy buscando “I am looking.” It’s what’s going on right now, what was going on before, and what continuous going on after now.
Lizzie: And do you know when it starts or stops?
Allan: No, we just see the continuity of the action.
Lizzie: So then, I could say Trabajo de profesora, pero estoy estudiando para ser abogada., “I work as a teacher, but I am studying to be a lawyer.”
Allan: So, again, the distinction between the habitual action, “I work as a teacher”, and the continuous action, ”studying”, is apparent.
Lizzie: Allan, can you think of another example with this distinction?
Allan: Well, for example, Yo toco la guitarra, pero estoy aprendiendo a tocar la batería. That means “I play the guitar, but I’m learning how to play the drums.”
Lizzie: Oh, it’s very interesting.

Outro
Allan: Well, Lizzie, this has been a lot of fun.
Lizzie: Gracias a ti Thanks to you.
Allan: Have a good one. Chao!
Lizzie: Chao!

Grammar

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