LEARN SPANISH LIKE A NATIVE
Have you ever been to a busy pub in a city centre and heard the following conversation?
Foreign tourist “Can I have a beer please?”
Cynical Spanish barman “Would that be mild, bitter, lager, stout, pale ale… Would you like a pint or a half”?
Hardly! This would just not happen in Spain. If you are in a bar there is a difference between the way that Spanish is spoken and the way that you have probably been taught. Indeed, learning Spanish is not just about book work it is about speaking Spanish like a native and that is much more complicated (and often counter intuitive than it seems.
Look at the following, for example, when asking for the bill:
“La cuenta, por favor”
Right?
No, wrong. Confident Spanish speakers know that such words are a mark of shame. The phrase you need is, spoken with a rising intonation –
“Me cobra, por favor”
This phrase will bring instant respect, adulation and the warm glow of having been spoken with the air of an authority. Similar acclaim will also result from the use of the phrase:
“¿Qué se debe, por favor?”
Both these phrases, if translated literally would sound a little strange to British ears. For that reason I am going to omit their literal translation. So many text books muddy the waters with constant references to the literal translation of various phrases. This is a mistake. Trust me; if you want to ask for the bill, use one of the two phrases featured above and watch the whole world change around you.
So what do you say when you want to attract the attention of a waiter or bar person? Oiga or por favor, right?
Wrong! Members of the initiates club always use the phrase – again with the correct rising intonation:“Cuando pueda”
This is the linguistic equivalent of the urbane soul who stands at the bar and merely makes discreet eye contact with the barman or barmaid and finds their order winging its way to them across the busy bar, whilst the less sophisticated punters shout and wave their tenners in vain.
In order to speak Spanish or any other language well, you have to embrace the following concept: that, to a certain extent, you become another person when you speak another language. So, you must allow yourself to take on board certain attitudes and a certain mindset. Indeed, to a certain extent, you must become Spanish whilst you are speaking Spanish and then you will be heading for linguistic success.
So, how to ask for that beer.
Spanish people hardly ever drink pints of beer. The reason for this is that a pint of beer warms up on a hot day, ensuring that the first half of your drink is refreshingly cold whilst the second half has become tepid. So, do like the Spanish do, and ask for the size of glass that the beer comes in. Una caña is typically a small glass of beer. So try ordering your beer by asking for Una caña and allow yourself to be freed from the tyranny of the pint!
If wine is your drink don’t make the mistake of using the dictionary to look up the word glass – vaso, and combining it with the word vino for wine and coming up with the phrase “Un vaso de vino, (tinto, blanco or rosado), por favor. The correct phrase when asking for a glass of wine is: “Una copa de vino, por favor.”
Even something as simple as greeting a friend in the street can be a minefield. Two friends approach each other on the street. They clearly are too busy to stop and talk, but they clearly wish to acknowledge one another. A cheery hello is required. So, you say: “Óla”.
Wrong again. The Spanish in these circumstances bid one another goodbye, so although it may seem counter-intuitive, what you need to call out is a friendly “Adiós”.
This is a remnant of the days when virtually everybody took leave of their friends with a mediaeval “Go with God.” In Spanish “Vaya con Diós.”
There are lots of other ways in which, although it may have disastrous consequences, you can give the impression that you know much more Spanish than is really the case. The phrase “¿Se puede?” (with the by now familiar rising intonation) is a general way of asking for permission. It is most often used when asking to enter an office. However, if you don’t add anything else, and leave the ending hanging in the air, the context should be so obvious that whoever it is you are talking to will let you sit down, let you through a gap or do just about anything that the circumstances dictate.
So, apart from the words that go to make up a language, you can see that successful communication is about adopting the right mindset. With your newly formed Spanish attitude you will find you are speaking Spanish with greater confidence and achieve more with the Spanish that you know.
There is, of course, a caveat. You might give the impression that you speak such fluent Spanish that you are met with a hail of Andalucian street slang delivered at breakneck speed. At that point, you might have to resort to the other weapons at the disposal of the amateur linguist – a great deal of smiling and shrugging…
Written by Pete Wolstencroft