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I successfully "made contact" with a native | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5703 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 7 02 October 2010 at 11:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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And it was awesome!!! I was in the mall, looking for something to eat and a guy dressed as a taco stopped me and offered me free samples of his nachos. Anyway, I got in line to buy a taco (or whatever it was) anyway. While I was in line, we chatted a bit (90% in Spanish) and I found out that he was from Mexico, he owned the restaurant, he's been in the states for 7 years and learned English here. He introduced me to his wife, (even corrected her for addressing me in English, he told her that I spoke Spanish!) and after I placed my order for food, I went to the bathroom and when I got back we chatted some more. All in all, we probably only spoke for 3 minutes solid, but you know how much you can say in 3 minutes!
I'm sorry, this has little to do with anything but I'm so excited I had to tell someone and who better than my fellow language nerds! I'm suddenly motivated to do my Spanish homework because the only time I got stuck it was because I didn't know how (on the fly, that is) to phrase my statement that I'd get the food when I got back from the bathroom. But I understood everything they said to me. When he told me the woman was his wife I said "Verdad? Thats cool...uh, how nice...hmm" because I didn't know such a phrase in Spanish, then I apologized and confessed that my vocabulary wasn't very good. Any one wanna tell me how to express a general thing like "thats cool" or "how nice" in Spanish. I just said que bueno and moved on 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5805 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 7 02 October 2010 at 11:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spontaneous conversion is something. :) Muy buena!
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 7 03 October 2010 at 12:33am | IP Logged | ||
Congratulations.
Don't worry about this. I'm not too good at small talk but I might have said something like Mucho gusto, señora or maybe even Hola, ¿que hay?. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5591 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 4 of 7 03 October 2010 at 1:11am | IP Logged | ||
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The slang would be "Que padre" literally "what a father" but used in slang to mean "really cool". But, you don't want to offend the husband either, so maybe just "mucho gusto" would be enough. When really at a loss, do as you might in English: smile and don't say anything. Actually, the main thing is you made contact and that is "really cool" too. Congratulations!
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 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 7 03 October 2010 at 2:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Very cool!
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| lidz0054 Triglot Newbie FranceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5417 days ago 2 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 7 03 October 2010 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I love moments when my studying pays off. You are putting those language nerd skills to use! I think I would also have just said "Mucho gusto" with a big smile, meaning "nice to meet you." "Que padre" is total Mexican slang as stated above, they use it all the time to say "how cool". It's not offensive in anyway- young and old use it- but it is informal. If you want to get really buddy buddy, the young people all say "que chido" to each other in Mexico but I wouldn't have used it in that situation. Keep up the good work! :)
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| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5858 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 7 of 7 03 October 2010 at 8:12am | IP Logged | ||
In Chile... "que bien, poh!" Knowing Spanish is great when you're in the US. In pretty much every taco shop you're able to talk to the employees in their language... it's great! Edited by Liface on 03 October 2010 at 8:13am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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