[0:04]Hola, y bienvenidos a Coffee Break Spanish. Yo soy Mark. My name is Mark, and I'm here to help you learn basic Spanish. In this very first lesson, we're going to be learning how to ask people, how are you? And answer the question ourselves. We'll be using the phrase "Que tal?" "Que tal?" is probably the easiest way of asking someone how are you, how are you feeling, how's it going? Okay, I hope you enjoyed this first lesson of Coffee Break Spanish. Now, the first thing that you have to do if you're learning a language is obviously say hello to someone. You want to meet people, you want to get to know them, and saying hello is one of the most important things that you need to learn. So let's learn how to say hello in Spanish. It's very straightforward, you say "Hola". Hola. Hola. Hola. Now, when I say a word and Cara repeats it, you should try to repeat it along with Cara because that means you're going to be practicing your pronunciation. Remember, don't worry about who's looking at you or who's listening to you. Just try to repeat it along with us. So, hello. "Hola". Hola. Hola. Hola. Now, having said hello to someone, you'd probably want to ask them how they are. In Spanish, to do this you say, "Que tal?" Que tal? Que tal? Que tal? It means how are you? Que tal? Que tal?
[1:32]You can combine it with "Hola". Hola, Que tal? Hola, Que tal? Hola, Que tal? Hola, Que tal? So, that's all very well asking the question, you need to be able to say some answers. There are lots of different things you can answer to "Que tal?" We're going to stick with a few for the time being. The first one that we're going to learn is "Bien". Bien. Bien. Bien means well or good. So, "Bien". Bien. If I ask you then, "Que tal?" and you want to say that you're well, how would you say that? Bien. Que tal? Bien. Que tal? Bien. Bien. Bien.
[2:15]So, if I've asked you "Que tal?" and you've answered "Bien". What would be a nice way to continue the conversation? To ask you how you're feeling. Exactly, so how would you do that? Que tal? Bien. Now, I think learning a language is all about communicating, putting your meaning over to the person that you're speaking to. So, if you've answered "Bien", that's fantastic, they will understand that you're well. But you could add some other things to how you're saying this and you could say, well, thank you. The word for thank you in Spanish is "Gracias". Gracias. Gracias. Gracias. Gracias. Gracias. Now, it's maybe worth mentioning a couple of things here. First of all, you heard us say "Gracias" there. And you may well be familiar with a slightly different version of that word, "Gracias". Depending on which Spanish-speaking country you're familiar with, there are different accents and some words are said slightly differently. We're going to be concentrating on the Spanish that's spoken in mainland Spain. But the words and phrases that we use would be understood anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world. So we'll stick to "Gracias" for the time being. "Gracias". Gracias. Let's put it together in a short conversation. Hola, Que tal? Bien, gracias. Que tal? Bien, gracias. There you go, that's your first Spanish conversation. Let's try it again. This time you have got to do all the answering. I'll ask the question, we'll give you some time to answer, and then you can repeat. Here goes. Hola, Que tal? Bien, gracias. Que tal? Bien, gracias. Hopefully you remembered to ask me how I was feeling there as well, just as Cara did. So, we've got "Hola". Que tal? Bien. Gracias. Four words and phrases that you already know. If you copped with that, you'll cop with anything that we cover in Coffee Break Spanish. We're going to continue now with the phrase for very well. It's okay being well but it's nice to be able to vary your answer as well. The phrase for very well is "Muy bien". Muy bien. Muy bien. Muy bien. Okay, now this is quite a tricky word to say that's "Muy". If you imagine what a cow does, Moo. Moo. Yeah. So, Spanish cows would say "Moo". Moo. And then at the end, smile, E. E. Muy. Muy. That's it perfect. So, if you've ever been in Spain and been driving past a field full of cows, you'll notice that they're all very, very happy and smiling away to themselves. Moo. Moo. Muy bien. Muy bien. Muy bien. Muy bien. Muy bien. Muy bien. So, Cara, Que tal? Muy bien, gracias. Que tal? Muy bien, gracias. But not all Spanish cows, or indeed Spanish people are constantly happy, sometimes they're not feeling so good at all. If this is one of those days when things just aren't going very well, you could say "Fatal". Fatal. Fatal. Fatal.
[6:00]So, if I ask "Que tal?" Fatal. Fatal. Fatal, it looks when it's written it looks like fatal, so things must be pretty bad if they're fatal. Fatal. Fatal. Fatal. Fatal. And you've got to say it with some emotion in your voice. "Fatal". Fatal. Que tal? Fatal. Que tal? Fatal. Okay, let's run through these again. We're going to say we're well, "Bien". Bien. Very well. "Muy bien". Muy bien.
[6:36]And really pretty lousy, "Fatal". Fatal. Excelente. I'm going to be saying "Excelente" and "Muy bien" as you repeat things. So that will give you more practice in listening to words like "Muy" all the time. Okay, we're going to add in another phrase. So far, when I ask "Que tal?", Cara has been responding, Bien, muy bien, Fatal. Okay, one of these things, and then when Cara asked me how I was feeling, she used the phrase, Que tal? Again. But there's a different way of saying this. You could actually just say and you. Listen to this. E tu? E tu? E tu? E tu? That's it, watch your pronunciation of the Spanish E tu. E tu? E tu? E tu? So, let's use that in our conversation now. Hola, Cara, Que tal? Bien, gracias. E tu? Bien, gracias.
[7:39]Okay, let's try a different one this time Cara's not going to be feeling so well, okay? Hola, Cara, Que tal? Fatal. E tu? Yo, muy bien, gracias.
[7:53]I added in another word there, I said "Yo". Yo is the Spanish word for I, so I am very well. Yo, muy bien.
[8:05]Yo, muy bien. Or you could say "Yo, bien". Yo, bien. Or "Yo, fatal". Yo, fatal. Excelente. Vamos a repetir un poco. We're going to repeat a little. So let's take all the words that we've done so far and repeat them together. Hola. Hola. Que tal? Que tal?
[10:28]Que tal?
[10:31]Bien.
[10:34]Bien.
[10:37]Muy bien. Muy bien. Fatal. Fatal.
[10:47]Estupendo. Estupendo. Fenomenal. Fenomenal. We also learned "E tu?". E tu?
[11:03]Gracias. Gracias.
[11:14]And that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of Coffee Break Spanish. Thanks for joining us and we hope it's been useful. You can join the Coffee Break Spanish community on Facebook at facebook.com/coffeebreakspanish and follow @learnspanish on Twitter. Muchas gracias y hasta pronto.
[11:43]This is a production of the Radiolingua Network. Find out more at radiolingua.com.
