buenos días and hello to a stranger
module: talking on day one
okay. coat can stay on. let's talk.
first thing i want you saying out loud today is "buenos días." not reading it. saying it. there's a difference and you'll feel it the second you try — your mouth doesn't know where to put the vowels yet and that's fine. that's why we're here.
so say it with me: buenos días. bway-nos dee-ahs. again. one more time. good.
why we start here and not with a vocab list
i'm not going to hand you 50 words today. i used to think that was the way in, and it isn't. you can memorize 200 words on a list and still stand there like a fence post when an actual person says something to you at the store. words on paper and words out of your mouth in real time are two different skills.
so instead: ten phrases, said a hundred times each, until they stop feeling foreign in your mouth. that's the whole plan for this module. today we've got three of them.
- buenos días — good morning (works through late morning)
- hola — hi
- ¿cómo está? — how are you (polite, for someone you don't know well)
three phrases. say all three out loud right now, even alone in your car reading this later. iykyk on how weird that feels the first few times.
the stranger part
here's the piece people sluff, and it's the important one. you can know "hola" perfectly and still never say it to a person you don't know, because that's the scary part, not the word.
so this week your job isn't to learn more words. it's to say hello to one stranger who speaks spanish, in spanish, and let it be a little clumsy.
that could be:
- a coworker
- somebody at the store you've heard speaking spanish
- a neighbor
- javier, if you happen to have a javier in your life (i do — more on him later, he corrects me constantly and it's humbling)
you don't need a conversation. you need one exchange. hola, maybe buenos días, maybe how are you. that's it. that's the whole assignment and it counts as a win.
an honest confession about how this goes wrong
i want to tell you about ryan real quick, because it'll save you some grief.
my husband and i were supposed to take a trip a while back — never happened, life got in the way like it does — but i tried to get him ready with a few phrases anyway. taught him greetings, taught him how are you, taught him thank you. gave it real effort.
what stuck was "una cerveza por favor." a beer, please. that's it. that's the entire spanish he retained. years later, still all he's got.
i tell you that not to make fun of him, though i do a little, but because it's what happens when you only practice for a hypothetical trip that isn't real yet. the phrase that sticks is the one you actually needed and used, even once. so this week, don't practice for someday. practice for the actual person you're going to say hola to. that's what makes it stick.
a real caution, nothing dramatic
when you go say hello to a stranger this week, read the room a little. somebody in the middle of a work task, on a ladder, mid-phone-call — not the moment. somebody waiting in line, standing at a counter, not obviously slammed — good moment. this isn't a safety issue exactly, it's just basic decency, and it'll also get you a friendlier response, which matters when you're new at this and your nerves are already doing enough work.
my opinion on the embarrassment part
people who won't say it out loud because they're scared of getting it wrong are the ones who learn slowest. i'll say that kindly but i'll say it. being wrong out loud, in front of an actual human, moves you forward faster than being right in your own head ever will.
so when you say hola to your stranger and it comes out clunky, or they answer back too fast and you don't catch it — that's not a failure. that's the class working. you say "no entiendo" (i don't understand) and you try again. we're building that phrase next lesson, but you can use it now if you need it.
before next time
find your one stranger. say hola, or buenos días if it's morning. say it out loud, not in your head first. tell me next time how it went, badly or well, doesn't matter which. ✨