1.3: Language + Cultural Notes

To understand a conversation in Spanish, you need to understand not only the language but also the culture. In this episode, we talk about the language and cultural notes that came up in the conversation you heard in the previous episode. 

In this episode, we take a look at a basic conversation in which two people discuss a location. That location is Boston, where a Mr. Michael Smith is from. This is a conversation between Mrs. Laura Ramirez & Michael Smith. Mr. Smith has recently moved to Mexico.

This episode welcomes you to Unit 2 of the Live Lingua Spanish podcast. In this unit, you're going to learn how to reply when people ask where you live, count from 1 to 10 in Spanish, talk about how long you've lived somewhere, and how much you like (or don't like) living there.

Congratulations! You have made it to the end of Module 1 of the Spanish Lingua podcast, brought to you by Live Lingua.  You should now be able to: Greet others Respond to others when they greet you Introduce yourself and others with you Respond when others introduce themselves to you. If you are not confident with this yet, repeat this episode as many times as you need If you want additional free practice just visit our website LiveLingua.com.  If you liked this episode, please take a minute to leave us a review on iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcast app.  As a small family-run boutique language school, we really appreciate it. In the next episode you will learn how to share basic information about where you are from and ask the same information of others you meet. Hasta pronto.

One of the best ways to learn anything is to visualize it. This is why you see boxers doing a visualization of their practice and shadowboxing. We’re going to try the equivalent in language learning. We’re going to give you three scenarios. Close your eyes (as long as you’re not driving, of course) and imagine you’re in the scenarios. You’ll say something in Spanish based on what we’ve learned in this unit. Try to imagine the conversation in your head — either be the person who is asking the questions or answering them. Let’s see if you can do it! After listening, check out the corresponding blog post for written exercises and more. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!

This is a review to help you review what we’ve learned so far in Unit 1 of the Live Lingua Spanish Podcast. If you’ve listed to all of them and practices the exercises, you should be able to get through every word of it now – even if you weren’t able to when you started this course! If you listen to it again and there’s a part you still don’t understand, go back and listen to that episode (links here in the previous articles.) And be sure to check out the written material and exercises corresponding to this episode in our blog post. Let’s get started. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!

Let’s bring together everything you’ve learned in Unit 1 of the Live Lingua Spanish Podcast. You learned how to say “Good Morning,” “Good Afternoon,” “Good Evening.” You also learned people’s titles, and how to introduce the people in your family. Now, we’re going to give you a few phrases — in English — combing all of these. What I need you to do is to say them in Spanish! The first time we’re going to give you only the English. The second time, we’re going to say it in Spanish (after a short break) to give you the answer. Let’s get started! After listening, review the exercises and material in this blog post. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!

Let’s practice introducing others.  To introduce others we will use the phrase ‘le presento’ which means ‘may I introduce you to’. This is followed by my ‘mi’ if you are introducing a family member, since you are implying a relationship to you. Example:  Le presento a mi esposo -> May I introduce you to my husband. If you are introducing a person by their first name, without including their title, you add an ‘a’ before the name: Example: Le presento a Ray Blakney -> May I introduce you to Ray Blakney. If you are introducing a person with their title you add either an ‘a la’ if they are female or ‘al’, spelled ‘A-L’ if they are male.  That is just contraction of ‘a el’. Example:  Le presento a la doctora Sánchez -> May I introduce you to Dr. Sánchez. Now, repeat all the following phrases out loud, but add the word ‘le presento’ at the beginning of each one. Example: A mi hijo -> Le presento a mi hijo. Find more practice exercises in this blog post after listening to the episode. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!

For better or worse, we may actually have to introduce members of our family to the people we meet in Latin America or in Spain — this may be more embarrassing for some than for others! Here at Live Lingua, we’re going to teach you the basic vocabularly words you need to do so. Say them out loud, both in English and Spanish — we promise, it will help you memorize the terms. Without further ado, let’s get started with the practice. After listening, try the practice episodes here in this blog post. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!

In this section, we’re going to learn how to say “How are you?” in different circumstances. Now, this might sound simple — but in Spanish, we have both formal and informal, and to add a spin in there, it’s even more complicated when talking to a group of people. Asking “How are you guys?” or “How are you girls?” has it’s own way of being said in Spanish. If you’re going to ask one person how they are doing, you’d say “¿Come esta?” That’s formal, but you could make it more formal by saying “¿Como esta Usted? You don’t have to add the pronoun, but you can. In an informal setting among friends, you would say “¿Como estas?” If we’re talking plural, whether three people or a million people, you would say “¿Como estan?” With the pronoun, that would be, “¿Como estan Ustedes?” Notice that we don’t actually have gender differences here, which makes it a little easier. We don’t have to worry about Mr. and Mrs. when we’re asking this. In this section we practice saying “How are you?” in the formal singular ‘usted’ or informal ‘tú’ form as well as the plural ‘ustedes’ form.  Note that in most of Latin America there is no different formal and informal for the plural. After listening, work through the exercises in the corresponding blog post. Don't forget to subscribe here, rate 5 stars, and leave a review!