I had a nice conversation with the veggie guy today that I wanted to discuss in a separate post. I’m noticing that my conversational Spanish is most definitely improving!
The conversation started with my asking him how to say broccoli in Spanish. He gave me a bemused smile and said brócoli. Well, that one’s easy!
I said that I love that veggie, but my favourite is green beans (ejotes). He asked how I cook them and I said I usually have them raw as a snack. I didn’t have that word, so said between lunch and dinner and he understood. If I cook them, I might use some lime juice or garlic to give them kick, but usually have them plain. He showed me how fresh his beans are by snapping them.
This was a good place to praise him for the quality of his veggies and he said that he gets fresh ones every day, except for bananas, because Isla residents like them super ripe. He gets not so ripe ones for the Gringos. I said that I take the super ripe ones and put them in the freezer and he laughed, saying that folks on Isla do that, cover them in chocolate (‘chocobananas’) and sell them for a lot (¡muy caro!).
He then asked me how long I’m staying and I said till the end of April and I’d like to see him more often. 😀
We then moved onto where am I from, yes it’s cold there right now, yes I love the heat and sun here!
He asked if I’m enjoying Isla and Maz and I said yes. Isla is a little noisy, but I live in a tiny village, so being able to walk to a bar and grocery store is great, plus Maz is so close by.
I told him about going to listen to music last Friday and that I’m going again tomorrow night and that it’s great that everything is so close by.
He asked how I got there and I said that I walked there, but took a pulmonía back to the panga. He said that’s the right thing to do, very safe to walk around the Plaza Machado, but not such a great idea to go from there to the panga on foot, even as a group, after eight or so.
We covered a lot, didn’t we?! All in Spanish! Sure, my verb tenses were all over the place and I sometimes had to talk around words (‘the thing that makes ice’ for the freezer, for example), but we understood each other perfectly!
I really need to find a conversational teacher, someone with whom I could discuss the news one week, cooking another, Mexican culture another, etc. I’ll have to ask around and see if I can get any recommendations. I need someone not just to talk to, but to correct my verb tenses, grammar, and help me build my vocabulary and learn idiomatic phrases and whatnot. I’m making giant steps on my own, but I definitely need some help to improve! I really want to find out the nuances between gustaría, quisiera, and quiero for ‘I would like X, please’, for one!
One thing I am making an effort on is talking to people at stores if they seem even remotely inclined to be chatty, especially here on Isla. The gal at the City Deli is always busy, but usually finds time to ask me how I’m doing and such. It’s not much, but it’s more than when I first got here!
I want to order = Quiero pedir
I would like = Me gustaría
I’ve been told that using quiero (eg. Quiero ejotes, por favor) is a little pushy and demanding and quisiera is a better choice (exact same verb, querer, but different tense). I completely agree with your translations, but I’m not convinced it’s that simple. 🙁
Rae, you have it right. All of those conjugations, me gustaria (I would like), quisiera (I might want), and quiero (I want) will get you some beans, but the first two are gentler. Subtle differences.
Thank you!
So quisiera is an imperfect subjunctive. Fascinating. That’s a tense I have never ever used in French and which sounds absolutely bizarre because it’s so archaic. I don’t think it will ever roll easily off my tongue. I’m going to try gustaria and see if that ones any easier.
Yes, it’s the imperfect subjunctive, but in this case a lot of the supporting structure that leads one to use it is implied. I would venture to say that in this context it is more of an idiomatic usage than anything else. Again, it’s to soften the request.
That’s what I get, too. It’s almost like the super annoying English language habit of getting to Subway and saying, “Can I have bla bla bla.”
Well, your Spanish is certainly head and shoulders above mine. We failed to take a Spanish course when we lived in Puerto Rico, even though it would have been paid for by my wife’s company. I was able to get by with my grade 10 pidgeon version. Then after a year we moved home.
Now, even though I have that degree in German lit, I had a tutor when we lived in Austria. My wife said the company was “paying for my friend”, since he would arrive once a week and we’d yak for two hours. It helped a lot.
You may be able to find someone who wishes to improve their English, and you can work out some sort of trade situation. Good luck.
Bob, I can’t imagine learning from the ground up. It must be so daunting.
Yakking for two hours is what I need. 🙂
WE know of a teacher, one hour plus for 20 pesos.
Contessa, I’ll need you to make introductions, please!
I am so impressed with your language skills. I took Spanish in high school but didn’t learn to speak it.
I went well beyond school lessons, taking private lessons both as a teenager and an adult. I completely forgot that I took conversational lessons when I had my house, so that would have been between 2002 and 2007, much more recently than I thought. I also make an effort to read the news in Spanish, watch movies, and read magazines. It’s like a muscle, it has to be exercised!