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Early Intermediate Spanish Podcast 3 – How to Order Food in Spanish in a Restaurant

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How to order food in a Spanish restaurant.

In this intermediate Spanish lesson, we walk you through one of the most important activities when on holiday: waiter drinksscaleHow to order food in Spanish in a restaurant.

Just like in a bar, there is a certain etiquette to ordering in a Spanish speaking restaurant.

How do you get the waiter’s attention?

In many phrase books and beginners Spanish work books they tell you that when you want to attract the waiters attention you simply shout:

“¡Oiga!”

This is the imperative tense and means, “Hear” which doesn’t translate very well but is equivalent to the English, “I say!”

The problem is that this is NOT the most common way of shouting for the waiter and what is more, in the wrong region it can sound a little offensive.

Certainly, in central Spain it is not what people say. In the ten years that I have been eating in restaurants in Madrid I haven’t heard anyone shout it at a passing waiter.

So why do they put it in the books?

The answer to this is easy. It’s in the books because it’s one of those standard phrases that everyone is supposed to use but hardly ever does. We could ask why Spanish speakers learn the greeting: “Hello, how do you do?” when, in fact, it’s used only in very formal situations and rarely at that!

The other issue is that many of the Spanish text books out there were written decades ago and just keep getting reprinted with the same old, archaic Spanish in them. Not only that but it is very difficult to offer a Spanish that is used throughout the entire Spanish speaking world.

This is a real challenge and so, when we produced this podcast about how to order food in Spanish we tried to provide you the kind of language that would travel and could be used in all countries.

Aviso/Warning

Our advice is always this: Use what you have learnt until you find the place that you really want to spend time in. Once you are there, start listening to what the locals say when they order food in Spanish and copy them. Even from region to region in Spain there exists different vocabulary and verbs that that area prefers to use in conversation.

That’s why it’s important to start with something non-polemic and very general and work from that as a base.

In this podcast we help you with:

What should you expect when the waiter comes to the table?

What do you order first?

What else can you say other than “La cuenta, por favor.” when the meal is over?

Listen in as we give you the most important vocabulary to use when you are in a restaurant.

You can sound just like the natives do. ¡Que aproveche!

A mountain of additional information and guidance can be found in the comprehensive Spanish help-sheets.

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:10 — 13.9MB)

Spanish Beginner Podcast 2 – The Spanish Alphabet A to G

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In this Spanish beginner podcast we cover the essential sounds that will help you sound like a native Spanish abcscalespeaker. One of the greatest hurdles to overcome in your learning journey is developing an authentic Spanish accent. Starting right at the beginning is vital if you want to avoid getting into bad habits.

We take you through the most important sounds in the Spanish alphabet and help you understand and, more importantly, be understood.

Of course, all the additional information and guidance can be found in our comprehensive Spanish help sheets.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:36 — 14.3MB)

Advanced Intermediate Podcast 2 – Possessive Pronouns in Spanish

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Possessive Pronouns in Spanish.new homescale

Possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in Spanish form such an intrinsic part of the language that it’s important that you make sense of them so that you can use them well and accurately. Not surprisingly, due to their complexity and to the multiple options that they present to the student, they are often used incorrectly. This more often than not causes for the listener what can only be described as, massive confusion!

Just so that you have clearly in your mind the difference between a possessive adjective and a possessive pronoun, here are some examples:

My house, your house, his house… these are Possessive Adjectives. That’s because they describe the house.

Mine, yours, his, hers…these are possessive pronouns and they stand alone without the need of the noun.

In this podcast we help guide you through the function and structure of these possessives and shed light on when you should use the illusive “my one” and “your one” and when, of course, you shouldn’t. Listen in as we go step by step through the options you have and why you would choose to use the adjective over the pronoun.

The good news is that these aren’t too dissimilar to English, so as a student, you probably already have a frame of reference with which you can grasp these concepts. The “less good” news is that given the multiple varieties of masculine and feminine, singular and plural, the Spanish pronouns and adjectives offer the student more of a challenge.

However, “no te preocupes” we can help you with that! The good thing about our podcasts is that they are not like a classroom situation in which your get to hear a piece of information only once. You are able to replay these over and over until you really get the whole picture, grasping the concepts that we offer you until something goes click. A far better way to learn, don’t you think? If you ever have a question that needs answering, remember that you can always contact us directly through this page, or through our Youtube site. We’ll always try to get back to you as quickly as we can.

Of course, as always we have compiled a wealth of additional information and guidance on the possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns in Spanish in our comprehensive help sheets. Not sure if you think they’ll help? Why not download the free Spanish help-sheets and decide for yourself.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 16:20 — 14.9MB)

Advanced Spanish Lesson 2 – Comida y Cultura Pt. 1

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In this advanced Spanish lesson, we discuss the enormous subject of the attitude of the Spanish to food. There is so much to say, we’ve split it into two and even then, haven’t scratched the surface of the significance of food in Spain.

Anyone who knows the English culture will know that if you want to have a conversation with anyone, you just have to bring up the weather. In Spain, you simply have to talk about food.

The Spanish love to talk about food. Even the men! However, listen to Gordon’s opinion of that! Any Spanish person worth their salt will be able to tell you the culinary specialities of all the major regions of Spain and will always have an opinion on food.

The Spanish truly love their food and want everyone to try it (and comment positively on it, too). They also enjoy talking about the processes and preparation that the food undergoes before it hits the plate. Their love of food is admirable and in our opinion, it’s wonderful that people can have such a passion and pride for their food and culture.

For more information and guidance as well as a full transcription and translation of the podcast just visit our website at www.lightspeedspanish.com to download the comprehensive help-sheets. We have some try before you buy samples to give you the confidence that they give you value for money. ¡Nos vemos allí!

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:36 — 11.5MB)

Early Intermediate Spanish Podcast 2 – Ordering a Drink in a Spanish Bar

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Naturally, when travelling through your Spanish speaking country, you are going to need to stop for some waiter drinks2 scalerefreshments. Being able to manage your way around a Spanish bar is nothing short of “imprescindible”.

The Spanish Myth.

Every country has its bar culture, and none more so than that of Spain. In fact, there seems to be a big misunderstanding about alcohol consumption in Spain.

Many people confuse the fact that Spanish bars are often full to the brim with noisy Spaniards drinking beer and eating tapas and imagine that there is a lot of drinking going on. Actually, they couldn’t be further from the truth.

What happens, in reality, is that Spanish people spend far more time in their bars than other Europeans and yet they drink far less. In the ten years that I have spent time in Spain, I can recall only one time that I saw someone drunk. Even at four o’clock in the early morning on New Year’s Eve (la Noche Vieja) everyone was still quite sober.

The true Spanish bar culture.

What it’s all about in Spain is not drinking for drinking’s sake, or drinking to get drunk, but rather it revolves around the pure enjoyment of savouring good beers, or wines and eating tasty little snacks along the way.  It’s not uncommon for the Spanish to pop into their local bar twice a day for a little beer and some tapas.

If you watch what they drink, however, you’ll notice that the typical ‘caña’ glass of beer they order is less than a half pint. Either they order one of those, or a ‘botellín’ which is what is often called a ‘stubby’ bottle, the smallest bottle of beer available.

It’s for this reason that it’s quite common to see Spaniards drinking a beer at lunch in their work break. At first, it used to seem a little extreme to me, and I’d heard the stories of the construction workers having a shot of  ‘aguardiente’ before they went up to the scaffolding.

The difference is that that was what they had, one shot, and not half a bottle! Certainly, in many other European countries, we have much to learn from the Spanish bar culture and their view of how to enjoy alcohol.

In this free Spanish lesson we have distilled much of the key vocabulary that will help you order drinks like Spanish speakers do. ¡Salud!

Of course, all the additional information and guidance can be found in the comprehensive Spanish help-sheets.

Video of This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:42 — 13.5MB)