Day 10: The Water Main Bursts at Dawn
At dawn on a flooded street in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Don Bernabé (A), a retired plumber, meets his neighbor Cecilia (B), who heads the residents' committee, as water from a burst pipe pours down the road.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Spanish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Spanish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Señora Cecilia, vengo tocando puertas desde las cinco, y el agua ya va llegando a la avenida.
Cecilia, I've been knocking on doors since five, and the water's already reaching the main road.
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B
Veinte años pidiendo agua, y ahora nos sobra. ¿A quién le hablamos primero, don Bernabé?
Twenty years begging for water, and now we've got too much. Who do we call first, Don Bernabé?
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A
A Locatel: sin folio no hay fuga. El que brote así quiere decir que reventó la tubería principal.
Locatel: without a reference number, there's no leak. The fact that it's gushing like that means the main pipe has burst.
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B
Ahorita marco. Y en el WhatsApp de la colonia anda diciendo la gente que viene con drenaje.
I'll call them right now. And on the neighborhood WhatsApp group people are going around saying it's got sewage in it.
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A
¿Con drenaje? Si trajera aguas negras, ya apestaría la cuadra: es agua potable, y se está yendo al caño.
Sewage? If it were carrying sewage, the whole block would stink by now: it's drinking water, and it's going down the drain.
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B
Listo, tengo folio. Pero el que lo diga yo no calma a nadie; ahí juraron que la antena de celular daba jaqueca.
Done, I've got a reference number. But me saying so won't calm anyone down; those people swore the cell tower gave them migraines.
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A
Pues mande un audio con el folio, y pida pipas: en cuanto cierren la válvula, nos quedamos secos.
Then send a voice note with the reference number, and ask for water trucks: as soon as they shut the valve, we'll be bone dry.
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B
“Estimados vecinos: la fuga cuenta con folio, el agua no presenta contaminación y se gestiona la llegada de pipas”.
“Dear neighbors: the leak has been assigned a reference number, the water shows no sign of contamination, and the arrival of water trucks is being arranged.”
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A
Nomás quítele lo de “no presenta contaminación”: dicho así, hasta yo juraría que viene envenenada.
Just take out the bit about “shows no sign of contamination”: put like that, even I'd swear it was poisoned.
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