the phrases that get you out of trouping first
module: talking on day one
okay. last time we did buenos días. today we do the phrases nobody teaches you until week eight, and by then you've already frozen up in front of a real person twice and decided spanish isn't for you.
not doing that here. we're doing it week one.
the phrases
here they are. four of them. that's it for today.
- no entiendo — i don't understand
- más despacio, por favor — slower, please
- ¿cómo se dice...? — how do you say...?
- ¿puede repetir? — can you say that again?
that's the whole lesson, basically. everything else we teach in this class is decoration. these four are the studs.
why these four first
most classes save this stuff for later. i think that's backwards.
here's my thinking, and it's the one real opinion i've got about how to teach this whole language: you don't need two hundred vocab words sitting in your head doing nothing. you need a handful of phrases that buy you time when you're in over your head, because you WILL be in over your head. every beginner is, every single day, for a long while. that's not a you problem. that's just what beginner means.
"no entiendo" isn't giving up. it's not quitting the conversation. it's telling the other person, hey, keep going, just slow down or say it different, i'm still here. that keeps you in the conversation instead of nodding along lost and hoping context saves you. context does not save you. i've tried.
say it out loud, right now
don't just read these. say them. out loud, alone in your kitchen if you have to, nobody's grading you on dignity here.
try this at home, this week:
- write the four phrases on an index card. or your phone notes, whatever, i just like having something in my pocket i can glance at.
- say each one five times out loud before you look at the spelling. hear it in your mouth first.
- pick one and use it somewhere real. macey's, costco, the checkout line. you don't need a whole conversation. just drop "¿cómo se dice...?" pointing at something and see what happens.
- if somebody talks back too fast, that's your cue. "más despacio, por favor." that's the whole point of the phrase. use it live.
that's the work this week. small, but real.
a quick story, since we're on the subject of learning the wrong language
my dad ronald watches me study sometimes and one night he asked why i don't learn danish instead, since that's where his side of the family actually comes from. like there's some ancestral obligation sitting on me.
i told him spanish pays the bills and danish just sits pretty on a shelf. which is true. i talk to guys on the crew every day who need spanish, not danish. nobody at crosspoint is asking me about their great-grandmother's farm outside copenhagen.
but i felt kind of bad after i said it. because he wasn't wrong that there's something to the other thing too. i just don't have room for both right now. you pick the language that gets you talking to the people actually in front of you. that's mine. maybe someday danish. probably not.
point is — pick a reason for learning that's real to you, not the tidy sentimental one. mine's a jobsite. yours might be a grandkid, a neighbor, a trip. whatever gets you talking is the right reason.
a caution, not a big one
when you're practicing "más despacio" out at a store or with someone at work, watch your tone. said flat and calm it's just a request. said fast and annoyed it can come off rude, and you won't mean it to. slow the whole sentence down, not just the words you're asking them to slow down. i learned that one from javier correcting my face as much as my spanish.
before next time
practice the four phrases until they don't feel dumb in your mouth anymore. use at least one of them on a real live person before we meet again — grocery store counts, coworker counts, doesn't have to be fancy.