Learn about talking abut nationalities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: Buenos días Lima, me llamo Lizy. |
| Alan: Hi everyone, I am Alan. |
| Lizy: Newbie series, lesson 7. |
| Alan: “I am Argentine, I am American.” Hello to all of you. Welcome back, it’s great to be here. |
| Lizy: Hello Alan, hello friends. Es un gusto como siempre estar con ustedes y saber que prefieren spanishpod101.com |
| Alan: That’s right. Welcome to spanishpod101.com, lucky #7 today, Lizy. |
| Lizy: Why is seven lucky? |
| Alan: You know I’ve never thought about that but it just is. |
| Lizy: If you say so, do we have a special lesson today? |
| Alan: We always have a special lesson, Lizy, but today is perhaps a little more special than normal. |
| Lizy: More special than normal? |
| Alan: Aha today we are going to learn how to ask the question “what country are you from?” |
| Lizy: See that is important. |
| Alan: Definitely Lizy. Hey quick question. As a native speaker, I can hear someone’s English accent and have a pretty good idea where they are from. |
| Lizy: Really? |
| Alan: Yeah, completely, but I’d like to know. I mean you are learning English as a second language. Can you tell the difference between different accents, the Australian, the British, the New Zealand, the American, the Canadian? |
| Lizy: No, para nada, para nada es difícil diferenciar esos acentos. El australiano lo saco al toque, al igual que el inglés, para mi es fácil. |
| Alan: Okay, good for you, good for you. So you have no problem telling the difference. Me on the other hand at least at first when I was learning Spanish, I couldn’t tell an Argentine from a Mexican, from a Nicaraguan and now recently only after 13 years, I can pretty much pick up where people are from. It’s a lot of fun. |
| Lizy: Well who shows us this in the conversation? |
| Alan: Today’s conversation takes place between la señora Rossi and señor Gutiérrez in an office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| Lizy: I love Tango. |
| Alan: I’ve got to agree with you on that one, Liz. |
| Lizy: Well let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| SRA. ROSSI: ¿De qué país es usted? |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: Yo soy estadounidense. ¿Y usted, de qué país? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy argentina. |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: ¿De qué ciudad es usted? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy de Mendoza. |
| Alan: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| SRA. ROSSI: ¿De qué país es usted? |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: Yo soy estadounidense. ¿Y usted, de qué país? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy argentina. |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: ¿De qué ciudad es usted? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy de Mendoza. |
| Alan: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| SRA. ROSSI: ¿De qué país es usted? |
| MRS. ROSSI: What country are you from, Sir? |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: Yo soy estadounidense. ¿Y usted, de qué país? |
| MR. GUTIERREZ: I am American. And you Ma'am, what country? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy argentina. |
| MRS. ROSSI: I am Argentine. |
| SR. GUTIERREZ: ¿De qué ciudad es usted? |
| MR. GUTIERREZ: What city are you from, Ma'am? |
| SRA. ROSSI: Yo soy de Mendoza. |
| MRS. ROSSI: I am from Mendoza. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alan: No, Lizy, not yet but you know, I’ve got a dream to take my wife to Buenos Aires. You know, a couple of years ago when they had huge economic problems in Argentina, lots of Peruvians went there for these weekend junkets, these cheap weekend excursions and they would come back with stories of all of the meat they ate and the wine they drank and the Tango shows they went to. You know, it seems like a very spectacular city. This is very European. |
| Lizy: Así es, es una ciudad excitante y yo también quisiera conocerla. Their Spanish is very, very different from ours. |
| Alan: Yeah, I have noticed that. |
| Lizy: We should have an Argentine regional series. |
| Alan: You know, I think that would be good addition to the spanishpod101.com family and that’s sure to come but for now, on to the vocab. Here we are going to break these words down syllable by syllable so that you can hear exactly how each word sounds. |
| Lizy: ¡Vamos! |
| Alan: So let’s begin with... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizy: “Qué”. |
| Alan: “What.” |
| Lizy: “Qué”, “qué”. |
| Alan: Next we will look at... |
| Lizy: “De qué”. |
| Alan: “From what.” |
| Lizy: “De qué”, “de qué”. |
| Alan: Now we have... |
| Lizy: “País”. |
| Alan: “Country.” |
| Lizy: “Pa-ís”, “país”. |
| Alan: Next we will look at... |
| Lizy: “Estadounidense”. |
| Alan: “American.” |
| Lizy: “Es-ta-do-u-ni-den-se”, “estadounidense”. |
| Alan: Next we will hear... |
| Lizy: “Argentino”. |
| Alan: “Argentine.” |
| Lizy: “Ar-gen-ti-no”, “argentino”. |
| Alan: And then finally... |
| Lizy: “Ciudad”. |
| Alan: “City.” |
| Lizy: “Ciu-dad”, “ciudad”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Alan: Okay, let’s see how we can make practical use of our vocab. |
| Lizy: The first expression we will look at is “de qué”. |
| Alan: As in... |
| Lizy: “¿De qué ciudad eres tú?” |
| Alan: “What city are you from?” Lizy, would you say that “de qué” is an important term? |
| Lizy: Oh yes, in terms of asking where people or things are from. |
| Alan: Literally it means “from what” or “from which”. |
| Lizy: The word order for this question is “de qué”, then the kind of place, then the verb. This question is often abbreviated to “¿de qué ciudad?” |
| Alan: Which means “from what city?” or “¿de qué país?” |
| Lizy: Right “from what country.” Alan, do people usually ask you this question? |
| Alan: Woof! You know Lizy, if I had a nickel for every time I had been asked that question in the last 13 years, I’d be a rich man. I get asked that question all of the time. |
| Lizy: I imagine you would have learnt that question really quickly. |
| Alan: Yes, probably the first day but you know what, it’s a really nice entry into a conversation when somebody asks you where you are from. I’ve been asked it so many times since I led to really getting to know the person and I have learned that half of the taxi drivers in Peru seem to have a cousin or some other family member who lives in Montreal, Canada. |
| Lizy: Okay, the next word we are going to be looking at today is “país”. |
| Alan: Lizy, how about an example, please? |
| Lizy: “El país de Argentina es grande”. |
| Alan: “The country of Argentina is large.” |
| Lizy: So you can see that “país” means “country”. In the sense of a nation, not countryside. |
| Alan: Lizy, have you ever been to Argentina? |
| Lizy: No, my father was Argentinean and I haven’t had the opportunity to go there but I hope to in the future. |
| Alan: Do you still have family there, uncles, aunts? |
| Lizy: No, no, no. |
| Alan: That really must be a dream for you. |
| Lizy: Oh, yes. |
| Alan: Well, hey, there is a different word in Spanish for “countryside.” |
| Lizy: Right, we say “campo” for “countryside.” |
| Alan: Would we say that “país” is a masculine or feminine noun? |
| Lizy: The noun “país” is masculine which means if you are going to modify it with an adjective. |
| Alan: The adjective will need to be masculine as well. |
| Lizy: The next word today is “argentino”. |
| Alan: Lizy, would you give us an example with “argentino”? |
| Lizy: “El músico es argentino”. |
| Alan: “The musician is Argentine.” You know I love Argentine music. Tango, that’s a classic but since coming here, I’ve learned that Argentina is also really well known for its rock music. |
| Lizy: Uff. |
| Alan: A couple of months ago, we had a group called “Soda Stereo” come to Lima. They were – I think they are just beginning their tour. They were beginning their tour, right Lizy? |
| Lizy: Aha, aha. |
| Alan: And they had been broken up for years and years. |
| Lizy: Así es. |
| Alan: They sold out the national stadium two nights in a row. I couldn’t believe it. |
| Lizy: Gustavo Cerati y Soda Stereo son fantásticos, “¡oye, te hacen faltan vitaminas, minas, minas!” |
| Alan: Have you seen them in concert? |
| Lizy: Yes, yes. |
| Alan: In this last tour or before? |
| Lizy: Before, before, the first time they came. |
| Alan: Was it a fun time, was it a good show? What do you remember of that? |
| Lizy: It was wonderful. |
| Alan: Okay, well let’s get back to it. |
| Lizy: So the word “argentino”, means “Argentine.” |
| Alan: It comes from the word “Argentina” which is spelled the same in Spanish and English. |
| Lizy: Let’s point out that “argentino”, can be used as either a noun or an adjective. |
| Alan: When it’s used as a noun, it usually refers to a person. |
| Lizy: Okay, the last word we are going to look at today is “ciudad”. |
| Alan: Lizy, how about one more example? |
| Lizy: “¿Dónde está la ciudad?” |
| Alan: “Where is the city?” The word “ciudad” means “city.” It’s used much like the word “city” is used in English. |
| Lizy: When you want to say something like “Mexico City”, don’t forget to use the preposition “de” which means “of.” |
| Alan: Right as in “la ciudad de México”. For “New York City”, you would say “la ciudad de Nueva York”. |
| Lizy: Alan, have you done a lot of traveling other than Perú? |
| Alan: Hah, yeah, fair bit I suppose, maybe not as much compared to some people. |
| Lizy: Tell us, please. Which countries have you visited? |
| Alan: Oh I guess I visited most of Western Europe, parts of Africa and some other cities or countries in South America. |
| Lizy: What is your favorite city other than Lima of course? |
| Alan: Other than Lima! I do love Lima but I don’t think you can have a favorite city but I think anybody who goes to Paris is amazed by the architecture. New York City is amazing for the commerce and the arts. I lived many years in Vancouver British Columbia and that’s a fantastic city. There is ocean, mountains, really cool place to live and then here in South America, I went to Cartagena in Columbia recently and that was what a tremendous place to visit. It’s old walled city, great Caribbean weather. It was just so much fun, beaches and history. I mean you have it all in Cartagena. |
| Lizy: ¡Oh Alan, qué ilustrativo! Por unos momentos nos has hecho viajar a través de varios países, a través de las maravillas de varios países. Gracias por eso. |
| Alan: Ah not a problem. My pleasure, Lizy, as always. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Hey, let’s take a closer look at the grammar used in this lesson. |
| Lizy: In lesson 5, we looked at the expression “¿de dónde?” which means “from where?” |
| Alan: And today we are going to build on this by learning to ask from “what place?” |
| Lizy: With the expression “¿de dónde?”, “from where?”, we were asking about the place in general of someone or something. Now with the expression “¿de qué?”, we are asking how to distinguish this place from other places. |
| Alan: Right. That’s why you can translate “de qué” as either “from what” or “from which”. Hey Lizy, can you take us back to where this appeared in the conversation? |
| Lizy: “¿De qué país es usted?” |
| Alan: “What country are you from sir?” So what do we distinguish in here? |
| Lizy: We are distinguishing one country from another which we know by the appearance of the word “país” which means “country” after the interrogative phrase the “¿de qué?”. |
| Alan: Lizy, can you give us another example of how this applies? |
| Lizy: “¿De qué pueblo es usted?” |
| Alan: “What town are you from sir?” |
| Lizy: This time, what we are distinguishing is the word “pueblo”, which means “town.” |
| Alan: Now notice how only the place has been changed in order to ask this question. |
| Lizy: First, we asked “¿de qué país?” and now we are asking “¿de qué pueblo?” |
| Alan: Again the shortened way of asking the question is pretty common. See Lizy, I told you, this was a lucky lesson. |
| Lizy: I agree. Very, very useful. |
| Alan: It will be even more useful when you cross reference this lesson people with Costa Rican 7, Iberian 7 and Peruvian 7. |
| Lizy: Really see how this question is asked in other countries. |
| Alan: Then no matter where you go in the Spanish speaking world, you can hold your own. |
| Lizy: Especially after they checkout the learning center for lesson specific and general reference tools. |
Outro |
| Alan: You speak no lies, Lizy. So people, I will leave you with one thought. Remember to use what you are learning if you can’t travel but until next time, we will see you. |
| Lizy: ¡Ya nos vemos mañana! |
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