Learn how to leave a message, review the prepositions: durante, mediante
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| INTRODUCTION |
| James: Leaving a Spanish Phone Message. James Here. |
| Laura: Hola. I'm Laura. |
| James: In this lesson, you’ll learn about leaving a message. The conversation takes place by phone. |
| Laura: It's between Alejandra Soto and the receptionist, and Alma Cordero and the receptionist. |
| James: The speakers are caller and receiver, and they will speak both formal and informal Spanish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Alejandra Soto: Buen día Alicia, necesito avisar urgentemente al Director que hoy no podré llegar a la oficina. Durante la mañana se averió mi auto y sigo en el taller. |
| Recepcionista: Por supuesto, le aviso enseguida. |
| Recepcionista: Buenos días, ¿en qué puedo ayudarle? |
| Alma Cordero: Hola Alicia. Llamo para comunicar que llegaré unas horas más tarde. Traté de avisarle a Roberto mediante su celular, pero no contesta. ¿Puedes contactarlo personalmente para pasarle mi mensaje por favor? |
| Recepcionista: Me parece que estaba en conferencia de prensa durante toda la mañana. Pero puedo averiguar donde se encuentra mediante lo que me digan sus colegas.Yo me encargo de pasarle su mensaje. |
| Alma Cordero: ¡Muchas gracias! Espero poder resolver este asunto durante las próximas dos horas. |
| James: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Alejandra Soto: Buen día Alicia, necesito avisar urgentemente al Director que hoy no podré llegar a la oficina. Durante la mañana se averió mi auto y sigo en el taller. |
| Recepcionista: Por supuesto, le aviso enseguida. |
| Recepcionista: Buenos días, ¿en qué puedo ayudarle? |
| Alma Cordero: Hola Alicia. Llamo para comunicar que llegaré unas horas más tarde. Traté de avisarle a Roberto mediante su celular, pero no contesta. ¿Puedes contactarlo personalmente para pasarle mi mensaje por favor? |
| Recepcionista: Me parece que estaba en conferencia de prensa durante toda la mañana. Pero puedo averiguar donde se encuentra mediante lo que me digan sus colegas.Yo me encargo de pasarle su mensaje. |
| Alma Cordero: ¡Muchas gracias! Espero poder resolver este asunto durante las próximas dos horas. |
| James: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Alejandra Soto: Buen día Alicia, necesito avisar urgentemente al Director que hoy no podré llegar a la oficina. Durante la mañana se averió mi auto y sigo en el taller. |
| Alejandra Soto: Good day Alicia, I urgently need to inform the Director that I will not be able to make it to the office today. During the morning, my car broke down and I am still at the workshop. |
| Recepcionista: Por supuesto, le aviso enseguida. |
| Receptionist: Of course, I will inform him immediately. |
| Recepcionista: Buenos días, ¿en qué puedo ayudarle? |
| Receptionist: Good morning, what may I help you with? |
| Alma Cordero: Hola Alicia. Llamo para comunicar que llegaré unas horas más tarde. Traté de avisarle a Roberto mediante su celular, pero no contesta. ¿Puedes contactarlo personalmente para pasarle mi mensaje por favor? |
| Alma Cordero: Hello Alicia. I am calling to communicate that I will arrive some hours late. I tried to inform Roberto on his cellphone, but he did not answer. Could you please contact him personally to pass on my message? |
| Recepcionista: Me parece que estaba en conferencia de prensa durante toda la mañana. Pero puedo averiguar donde se encuentra mediante lo que me digan sus colegas.Yo me encargo de pasarle su mensaje. |
| Receptionist: I believe he was at a press conference during the whole morning. But I can figure out where he is through what his colleagues tell me. I will take care of passing on your message. |
| Alma Cordero: ¡Muchas gracias! Espero poder resolver este asunto durante las próximas dos horas. |
| Alma Cordero: Thank you very much! I hope to be able to resolve this issue during the next couple of hours. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| James: Arriving late is never good. |
| Laura: No, but at least Alma did the right thing by calling ahead. |
| James: Even if it was only to leave a message for Roberto. |
| Laura: A message is fine! Just remember that if you leave a message, you still need to be respectful and polite. |
| James: Yes, we’ve spoken before about how Mexicans take to heart how you communicate with them, and the tone of voice and the language you use is important. |
| Laura: That’s right. If you leave a message, be brief, clear, and precise. |
| James: Start with an appropriate greeting, as you would do whenever you contact anyone. |
| Laura: For example, buenos días. |
| James: "Good morning." |
| Laura: Follow that with señor or señorita. |
| James: For men, or women, respectively. Then make sure that you use formal language. |
| Laura: And always wait for the other person to finish speaking before you start. |
| James: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| James: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laura: avisar [natural native speed] |
| James: "to inform, to let know, to warn" |
| Laura: avisar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: avisar [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: urgentemente [natural native speed] |
| James: "urgently" |
| Laura: urgentemente [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: urgentemente [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: durante [natural native speed] |
| James: "during, in, for" |
| Laura: durante [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: durante [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: mediante [natural native speed] |
| James: "through" |
| Laura: mediante [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: mediante [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: averiar [natural native speed] |
| James: "break down" |
| Laura: averiar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: averiar [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: enseguida [natural native speed] |
| James: "right away" |
| Laura: enseguida [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: enseguida [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: encargar [natural native speed] |
| James: "take on a task" |
| Laura: encargar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: encargar [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: comunicar [natural native speed] |
| James: "communicate" |
| Laura: comunicar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: comunicar [natural native speed] |
| James: Next we have... |
| Laura: resolver [natural native speed] |
| James: "solve" |
| Laura: resolver [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: resolver [natural native speed] |
| James: And last... |
| Laura: averiguar [natural native speed] |
| James: "find out" |
| Laura: averiguar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: averiguar [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| James: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Laura: necesito avisar urgentemente |
| James: meaning "I need to urgently inform." |
| James: Let’s break down this phrase. |
| Laura: The first word is necesito, it means "I need." Next is avisar. |
| James: That means "inform." The final word means "urgently." |
| Laura: That is urgentemente. Necesito avisar urgentemente. |
| James: "I need to urgently inform." You can use this to show that it is important something is quickly communicated. |
| Laura: It’s usually used in formal settings. |
| James: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Necesito avisar urgentemente a mi profesora del atraso. |
| James: … which means "I need to urgently inform my teacher of the delay." |
| James: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Laura: yo me encargo |
| James: meaning "I will take care of." |
| James: What can you tell us about this, Laura? |
| Laura: First we have yo me, it means "I myself." Next is encargo. |
| James: This means "take care of." Altogether it means "I will take care of." |
| Laura: yo me encargo |
| James: You can use this to say that something is your responsibility. |
| Laura: You can use this in both formal and informal settings. |
| James: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Yo me encargo de sacar la basura. |
| James: ... which means "I will take care of taking out the trash." |
| James: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Laura: llamo para comunicar |
| James: meaning "I am calling to communicate." |
| James: This is our last phrase. |
| Laura: The first word is llamo, it means "I am calling." Next is para. |
| James: This means "to." The final word means "communicate." |
| Laura: That is comunicar. Llamo para comunicar. |
| James: "I am calling to communicate." You can use this during a phone conversation to talk about the message you are delivering. |
| Laura: It’s usually used in formal settings. |
| James: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Llamo para comunicar que ha sido aceptada. |
| James: ... which means "I am calling to communicate that you have been accepted." |
| James: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| James: In this lesson, you'll learn about leaving a message. |
| James: And we’ll start by reviewing some new prepositions that will come in handy while leaving a message. |
| Laura: The prepositions this time are durante and mediante. We will start with durante. |
| James: It has a similar meaning to "during", "for", "over", "through" and "in the course of." It is used to show events happening at the same time. |
| Laura: For example, Se bronceo durante el verano. |
| James: "She got tan during the summer." Can you remind us of the next preposition? |
| Laura: mediante. |
| James: This can mean "through", "via", "by means of", "based on" or "by the use of." It’s used to show how things happened; by what means or who helped. |
| Laura: For example, Logró bajar de peso mediante el ejercicio constante. |
| James: "She was able to lose weight through constant exercise." Now, let’s move onto some sentence patterns that you can use when leaving a message. The standard phrase you can use is: |
| Laura: Quiero dejar un mensaje… |
| James: "I want to leave a message..." For example, |
| Laura: Quiero dejar un mensaje importante para la doctora. |
| James: "I would like to leave an important message for the doctor." Another common pattern is: |
| Laura: Necesito avisar... sobre un cambio de planes. |
| James: "I need to notify... of a change of plans." If you are calling to request something, you can say: |
| Laura: Me gustaría solicitar... un recibo. |
| James: "I would like to request... a receipt." If you want to speak directly to the person, instead of leaving a message, you can ask: |
| Laura: ¿En qué horario... la podré encontrar para platicar?. |
| James: "At what time... could I find her in order to talk?" If you want to let the receiver know that you prefer to call back later, say: |
| Laura: Llamaré nuevamente... en media hora. |
| James: "I will call again... in half an hour." Finally, if you left a message and you would like to know who took it, you can ask: |
| Laura: ¿Con quién tengo el gusto de dejar el mensaje? |
| James: "Who do I have the pleasure of leaving the message with?" |
Outro |
| James: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Laura: Hasta la próxima. |
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