Day 101: Forty Guests in Guelaguetza Week
In Oaxaca, during the week of the Guelaguetza, the city's great July festival of regional dance, Jessica (A), a young events planner, negotiates a dinner for a group of forty with Abel (B), a restaurant's events coordinator, who keeps raising the minimum spend.
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
-
A
Abel, la semana pasada eran novecientos por persona; hoy, mil cien más un mÃnimo de cincuenta mil. ¿Qué cambió?
Abel, last week it was nine hundred a head; today it's eleven hundred plus a minimum spend of fifty thousand. What's changed?
-
B
Es semana de Guelaguetza, licenciada. Cuanto más se llena Oaxaca, más valen mis mesas.
It's Guelaguetza week. The fuller Oaxaca gets, the more my tables are worth.
-
A
Curiosa aritmética: cuanto más grande es el grupo, más caro sale cada cubierto. Es un descuento al revés.
Funny arithmetic: the bigger the group, the pricier each plate. It's a discount in reverse.
-
B
Cuarenta personas son un operativo: cuarenta platos de mole negro a la vez, meseros extra y cincuenta por ciento de anticipo.
Forty people are an operation: forty plates of mole negro at once, extra waiters and a fifty percent deposit.
-
A
El anticipo no me espanta; el cuento de siempre, sÃ: apenas hubo firmado la incauta, subió el mÃnimo.
The deposit doesn't scare me; the same old story does: no sooner had the poor innocent signed than the minimum went up.
-
B
Qué novelesco. Aquà nadie le mueve a un contrato firmado, y tengo otro grupo interesado en esa fecha.
Straight out of a novel. Nobody here touches a signed contract, and I've got another group interested in that date.
-
A
Quien tiene otro grupo no escribe a las once de la noche. A ver, ¿qué necesita de verdad?
Someone with another group doesn't send emails at eleven at night. Come on, what do you really need?
-
B
Entre nos: el dueño quiere la terraza libre a las nueve, cuando baja del FortÃn la gente de la función de la tarde.
Between ourselves: the owner wants the terrace free at nine, when the crowd from the afternoon show comes down from the FortÃn hill.
-
A
¡Haberlo dicho antes! Mis cuarenta cenan a las seis y a las nueve se van a la calenda. Cuanto menos se queden, mejor.
Why didn't you say so! My forty have dinner at six and at nine they're off to the calenda parade. The less they linger, the better.
-
B
Si me libera la terraza a las nueve en punto, le dejo los novecientos, sin mÃnimo y con treinta por ciento de anticipo.
If you free up the terrace for me at nine on the dot, you can have the nine hundred, with no minimum and a thirty percent deposit.
-
A
Trato hecho. Y ya tengo el final de mi novela: apenas hubieron dado las nueve, el coordinador sonrió.
Deal. And I've already got the ending of my novel: no sooner had the clock struck nine than the coordinator smiled.
Your progress is saved in this browser only, with no sign-up. The course page and the menu show where you left off. Well done! Next up: Day 102: A Retired Metro Driver's Tip
If this free course has helped you in your Spanish journey, please consider supporting the project. It's a one-person effort, and even small contributions help keep it running and free for everyone.