NIS Beginners 006 - El Verano en Madrid

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Inspired Beginners from Notes in Spanish, the Spanish podcast which is hopefully helping you to zoom ahead in your Spanish studies. Of course you are going to have to delve into a few textbooks maybe or get on our forum and ask lots of questions about grammar and so on but the idea is that we're going to help you learn some real Spanish as it's really spoken out on the street so that when you actually get to speak to someone in Spanish you sound like a natural. I'm Ben Curtis, as usual I'm here with Marina Diaz. How are you today Marina? I'm very well thank you. Good. Very well but a bit hot maybe. A bit yeah just a bit. Yeah because it's summer here in Madrid late July and that's what we're going to be talking about today. Now before we start as usual we're going to have a quick review of some of the vocabulary from the last podcast. Just a quick note to say that every time I ask Marina for a key phrase or a key piece of vocabulary in Spanish in today's podcast we'll be leaving a significant gap afterwards which is for you to repeat what Marina's just said. That's a really great way of helping you to keep it fixed in your brain. So just in case you're wondering that's what the big pause is for. So I wonder if any of you listening can remember how to say to go on a trip. Imagine it's the weekend and you go on a trip. How would you say that Marina? Ir descursion. Okay fantastic. Ir des excursion. You're gonna have to correct my pronunciation. Come on try again. Ir des excursion. Very good. Thank goodness. Okay now how do you say to see a film? Let's think about that to see a film Marina. Ok because of course Pelicula is the Spanish for film La Pelicula but if you want to sound super Spanish and super cool then you'd probably say una peli the short version. Right then of course where do you see a film at the cinema Marina how would you say to go to the cinema. Ir alzini. Ir alzini. How was my pronunciation? Perfect. Oh good. Right then to read the paper to read the newspaper. Lair el periódico. And the verb for to go for a walk. Pasear. Pasear. Which could be ir de paseo. To go on a walk or dar un paseo. Okay so there's lots of different ways of saying to go for a walk and we'll be hearing one of those later on today. Now drinks. A couple of drinks. Also we'll be hearing about more drinks today. Very important vocabulary if you're coming on holiday to Spain. We had before beer which was. Serbetta. Lots of the the that. And finally something which people in Britain really don't like drinking which is what we call shandy which is a mixture of well beer and lemonade but in Spain is very common in summer is. Clara. Okay so no shame at all about drinking shandy in Spain. Perfectly alright. Nothing to worry about and very. It's much too hot to drink too much beer and it will go straight into your head but at the same time is is very refreshing to drink something so that's the way we solve the problem. Tell that to the large English holiday makers on holiday in Belidorm or Mallorca. They may not agree. Okay that's my point of view only. A very sensible point of view. Right then okay so that's a little bit of revision. Now last week we were talking about a typical weekend for us in Madrid. Now today we're going to be revising a bit of that vocabulary that you would have seen last week because we're going to be talking about what it's like in summer in Madrid. A topic very much on our minds at the moment as we're sweltering here in the capital so Marina first of all we're going to have a look at some of the vocabulary that you'll be hearing shortly when you listen to Marina and I having a real Spanish conversation. So Marina here we are at the end of July. Okay so how would you say in Spanish at the end of July? Afinales de Julio. Can you repeat that again? We'll leave a pause so that if you want to you can repeat after us as well but at the end of July is. Afinales de Julio. Just out of interest if it was the beginning of June or July sorry it was the beginning of July the heat's going to my head if it was the beginning of July what would we say? A principios de Julio. Okay great now one of the problems is that at the moment it's very hot so how would we say one way of saying it's very hot? Hace un montón de calor. Not that un montón is a bit informal the normal way it would be. Hace mucho calor. Okay so maybe you can say those two again for us first of all the normal way. Hace mucho calor. And if you want to sound like a street smart Spanish speaker you might say. Un montón de is a great way of saying a lot of. Exactly a lot of something. Although it's a bit informal. Yeah. Okay let's move on what's the next phrase we've got here? Okay in summer because of the heat you'll hear us saying that we have to change our habits a bit we have to change the way we do things so Marina how would you say we have to change our habits? We have to change our habits. Okay let's hear that one again. One of the things we have to change is how we sleep because it's far too hot in our bedroom. We're going to be hearing that as well. How would you say our bedroom is very hot? Nuestro dormitoreo es muy caloroso. Okay because caloroso of course means very hot. Right finally three quick words. The first of all is to go to bed at night. So for example I go to bed. Yo me ha puesto. Okay and of course at the other end of the spectrum to get up in the morning. So I get up. Yo me levanto. Now we've talked in previous podcasts about pause words and often Marina and I use poes meaning well or just to give us a moment to think about what we're going to say next. In today's podcast you're going to hear intonthus quite a few times which means well or therefore. Therefore it's more of a conclusion theme. Yeah and very common another great way of sounding very Spanish and with all that in mind let's listen to the first part of today's audio. Estamos a finales de julio y en esta época del año hay muchos cambios, ¿verdad, ven? Sí, sobre todo la temperatura porque hace un montón de calor ahora mismo. En Madrid en verano puede llegar a los 37 o 40 grados centígrados. Sí, muy caloroso y entonces tenemos que cambiar un poco nuestros hábitos, ¿verdad? Por ejemplo en verano dormimos en el salón porque nuestro dormitorio es muy caluroso. Sí, pero también nos vamos a la cama mucho más tarde. Claro y también nos levantamos muy temprano porque hace calor. Pues eso es el problema porque si nos acostamos a la una de la mañana y nos levantamos a la siete de la mañana sólo tomimos seis horas. Entonces ¿qué hacemos? Pues dormimos una siesta. Sí, por las tardes nos echamos a lo mejor una hora. Sí, media hora o como mucho 45 minutos en mi caso. But this helps, but not at all, because. que en este época del año nos encontramos con menos energías. Sí, nos cuesta más hacer trabajo físico, por ejemplo. Sí, yo tengo mucha pereza en verano, por ejemplo no me apetece hace deporte. A mí no me apetece salir durante el día de casa. Porque hace tanto calor, también a mí no me apetece comer mucho. Por ejemplo, una hamburguesa me parece un montón. A mí me apetece más una ensalada. O una espacho. Bueno, espero que no te encontré así. Claro que puedes hacer un transcripto de los españoles del podcast, y un translación sobre los trabajos más sobre eso al final. Pero, Marina, hay muchos otros más interesantes de lenguaje sobre el podcast, que es algo que hay un look at. Por ejemplo, hay que encontrar algo difícil de hacer algo de trabajo físico. Entonces, ¿cómo habéis dicho eso? Nos cuesta más hacer trabajo físico. Ok, so, nos cuesta más, we find it more difficult a hacer trabajo físico, a hacer physical work at this time of year. Now the key here is the phrase "nos cuesta", which is, literally, it costs to us, but it means we find it difficult, it's difficult for us. Now, if I was going to talk about myself and, for example, to say, "I find it difficult to cook", in general, I'd use "me", "me cuesta", it costs to me, it's the literal translation, but I find it difficult. So, "me cuesta costinar", I find it difficult to cook. Marina, how would somebody say, "I find my homework difficult"? Me cuesta hacer los deberes. Another one, we said that we're very lazy at this time of year when it comes to doing sport. How did we say that? So, the key there is how to say you're feeling very lazy, which would be, Ok, "pereza" is laziness. I've got a lot of laziness, literally, "dengol", mucho, "pereza". Mucha, "dengol", mucha, "pereza". Ok, and finally, we talked about whether we felt like doing things or not. So, for example, the phrase, "I don't feel like eating a lot", because it's so hot. So, Marina, how do we say, "I don't feel like eating a lot"? So, the key here is, "apadece", ok, "I don't feel like". Now, you might have noticed that we also put before the "nomiapadece", the phrase "amí", which literally would be "tumí". So, "tumí", "I don't feel like doing". So, for example, if I did, it sounds funny. It's complicated. Yeah, it's complicated, but let's look at another example. So, if I said "nomiapadece", "comedmucho", "I don't feel like eating a lot", it's "well, I don't feel like going out". How would you say that? "amí", "nomiapadece salir". Ok, so the "amí", just adds a bit of emphasis that you're talking about yourself again. I might then come back and say, "amí", "nomiapadece", "apadecorte". Ok, "I don't feel like doing any sport". Ok, so "nomiapadece". So, you are feeling very lazy, then. "I'm so lazy this time of year". Who wouldn't be when it's 40 degrees said to grade outside all day? Right, then. Let's look at some of the phrases that we're going to be hearing in the next part of the Spanish audio. Right, Marina. At this time of the year, everyone goes on holiday. So, how would we say that? La gente se vale vacaciones. Not here that la gente is the general term for people in general. And it's a very useful way for expressing generalizations. And also, a very important la gente is singular. Even though we're talking about thousands of people, perhaps, la gente is singular. So, here we have la gente se va. Se va is to go from irse de vacaciones to go on holiday. It's reflexive. So, we've got the same in front of the back. So, Marina, I'll tell you what. Say the whole phrase again, and then we'll leave a bit of a gap afterwards in case people want to repeat it. La gente se va de vacaciones. Now, one of the results of this is that Madrid ends up pretty empty. Okay, so how would we say Madrid ends up fairly empty? Madrid se queda bastante vacío. We've got the word bastante there, which means fairly or pretty. So, Madrid ends up bastante vacío. So, we've got this phrase "se queda", meaning it ends up. So, another example would be Madrid ends up very peaceful, very tranquil at this time of the year. How would we say that? Madrid se queda muy tranquilo. Now, you're going to hear also a question. What do we do when we go out at night? How would you say that, Marina? ¿Qué hacemos cuando salimos por la noche? Okay, perfect. Now, there's two things that we tend to do when we go out at night that you'll be hearing about. One is to go for a walk in the park. Marina, how do you say we go for a walk in the park? Damos un paseo por el parque. Okay, and finally, how would we say to go out to have something to drink on the terraces? Salir a tomar algo en las terrasas. Great, and las terrasas are the outdoor tables and chairs, the outdoor cafes, where everybody's out having a great time at night. You're going to hear all about them now. Entonces, en Madrid hace mucho calor y tenemos mucha pereza para hacer algunas cosas. Pero no todo es negativo. No. Hay cosas muy buenas de Madrid en verano, por ejemplo. Pues que la gente se va de vacaciones y Madrid se queda bastante vacío. Claro, por ejemplo, es muy fácil aparcar. Si vas por ahí en el coche. Y se queda muy tranquilo. Sí, no hay tanto ruido como durante el resto del año. Y hay cosas que nos gusta mucho. Por ejemplo, salí por la noche cuando no hace calor. ¿Y qué hacemos, Marina, cuando salimos por la noche? Pues, a veces, damos un paseo por el parque cuando ya se ha hecho de noche. Y otra cosa que a mí me encanta es salir a tomar algo en las terrasas. Marina, ¿qué son las terazas? En verano, los bares y restaurantes ponen mesas en la calle. Y tienen terrasas, se llaman terrasas. Entonces, por la noche, es muy agradable estar en las terrasas. ¿Y qué es lo que solemos peber cuando salimos a tomar algo en las terrasas? En verano, solemos tomar a veces un tinto de verano. Tinto de verano es una mezcla de vino y limonada, ¿verdad? Coñelo. Y otra cosa que nos gusta mucho es una caña. Sí, las cañas es lo que más nos gusta. Una caña es una cerveza en un vaso pequeño. Muy bien, ¿qué les salió esta noche para tomar una caña en una teraza? Claro. Muy bien. Ok, then, at the end, we asked, "What do we tend to drink in summer?" Marina, "How was that?" said. ¿Qué solemos beber en verano? Ok, that's the verb soleer to tend to do something that we've heard before and other podcasts. So, what's the answer, Marina? So, lemos tomar un tinto de verano o una caña. ¿Un tinto de verano? Can you explain that for us? Ok, tinto de verano y. a mixture of red wine and limonet and also a little bit of ice. So it's a very refreshing drink for the summer. Still goes to your head if you have a few of them. Of course it does, of course it does. And the other one, a canya, well canya. A canya is the term that we use for a small glass of beer. Note that in Spain it's very hot, so in summer if you order a large glass of beer it will get a hot halfway through. So to solve this problem we order a little glasses of beer. Just out of interest that we were in Thailand recently and they solved this problem by putting ice in there beer, but I don't think any Spanish person would be seen dead putting ice in there beer. I think a watery beer is awful. Yeah. Okay, so now let's look at a bit of useful vocabulary on the street if you're in Spain. This is we're getting down to the real how to sound really Spanish part of the podcast again now. Imagine you walk into a bar in Spain or you sit down at a terrace and the waiter comes over and you want to ask for a beer. Okay, how would you say that? ¿Me pones una cerveza, por favor? Which is a very funny way of asking for a beer because you're literally saying can you put me a beer please? ¿Me pones una cerveza? Will you put me a beer? In English that sounds very rude. It sounds bizarre, but in Spanish it's perfectly fine, it's perfectly polite. So can you say it once again Marina? Now imagine you're sitting with a friend at the bar or in the terrace and he also wants a beer and instead of repeating ¿Me pones una cerveza, por favor, as well? There's a very, very super Spanish way of saying that. So imagine Marina says ¿Me pones una cerveza, por favor? I want one as well. All I have to say is ¿Qué se andos? ¿Make it to, no? Yeah, make it to. Now se and is a bit complicated. It's actually part of the subjunctive mood. We're not going to be talking about that too much now. You'll be learning lots about that later on as your Spanish progresses. Don't worry about it. All you need to do is say ¿Qué se andos, por favor? Or even ¿Qué se andos? Without the por favor. Right then and finally when it's time to get the bill, now if you're sitting somewhere where you're having food or if you're in a restaurant then you probably know the phrase la cuenta, you know, the bill. So how would you say can you bring me the bill in this case? Me trae la cuenta, por favor. Or you can also simply say la cuenta, por favor. Okay, perfect. Now la cuenta tends to be, as we've said, when you're having something with some food, but if you were Spanish, a real Spanish speaker, then if you're just standing up in a bar or just on a on a terrace and only having a drink, then there's a much more informal, much easier way of asking to pay. What is it, Marina? Me dices cuánto es? And you don't even need the por favor. Often Spanish people say por favor y gracias, please and thank you much less than say the British or the Americans. Doesn't mean they're rude. So let's hear that once again, Marina, how would you ask her to pay in this case? Me dices cuánto es? Literally, will you tell me how much it is? Okay, there we go, hopefully now you can go out for an item's pain and sound really Spanish, right? Homework, homework. I don't think anyone's doing any of their homework. What do you think, Marina? I don't think so. I'm fairly normal, nothing to worry about. But for those that do feel like doing a bit of homework. Maybe they do it at home and they don't show it to us. Okay, but we'd really love it if people came into the forum and started writing in Spanish a bit. Keep an eye on the forum because occasionally we have competitions which hopefully inspire you to write a bit in Spanish. Now today's homework would be to tell us the changes that the summer introduces into your town or into your life. Your town, your life, your culture. What summer like? Is it particularly hot? Is it particularly cold if you're living on the other side of the world? Maybe it doesn't work like that. Anyway, tell us about how things change during the summer for you. If you can come into our forum and write about it in there, fantastic, you'll find lots of people willing to help correct your mistakes and you'll learn even quicker. Right, that's it for today. Of course, if you'd like the transcript of the Spanish part of our conversation and the translation of it, then head over to notesandspanish.com and you'll find out how to get hold of the worksheets which also include some vocab building exercises, an extra bit of cool Spanish, all look at key vocab from the podcast from every episode. It's very hot, isn't it Marina? Yeah. Time for a siesta? No, time for a drink. Okay. Tinto de verano? No, alcoholic for me, thanks. Very good. We'll see you very soon. This is Ben Curtis and Marina Diaz saying hasta pronto. Adiós. Hi, it's Ben here. Just a quick message. We've got a very special free PDF report for you, our real Spanish fluency roadmap. These are the exact steps that I used to go from clunky textbook Spanish to real confidence Spanish fluency. It'll make a huge difference whatever level you're at. So you can get this wonderful free real Spanish fluency roadmap if you go to notesandspanish.com/real. That's notesandspanish.com/real spelled R-E-A-L.