Day 3: A Thesis About the Tuesday Tianguis
On the stairs of their building in Querétaro, Angélica (A), a sociologist finishing her doctoral dissertation on street markets, runs into her neighbor Doña Elvia (B; doña is a respectful title), who has sold fruit at the Tuesday tianguis, a street market, for twenty years.
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
Doña Elvia, ya casi entrego mi tesis sobre los tianguis de Querétaro.
Doña Elvia, I'm nearly ready to hand in my dissertation on the street markets of Querétaro.
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B
¡Ay, qué bueno! ¿Y a qué conclusión llegó sobre nosotros los tianguistas?
Oh, how wonderful! And what conclusion did you come to about us market vendors?
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A
Sostengo que la gente va al tianguis sobre todo porque ahí todo es más barato.
I argue that people go to the market mainly because everything's cheaper there.
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B
Con todo respeto, lo dice como si solo importara el precio. A mí me compran por confianza.
With all due respect, you're saying it as if price were all that mattered. People buy from me because they trust me.
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A
Pero en mi encuesta el precio fue, por mucho, el factor más mencionado.
But in my survey, price was by far the most frequently mentioned factor.
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B
Si usted vendiera un mes conmigo, vería otra cosa: les aparto la fruta y hasta les fío.
If you sold with me for a month, you'd see things differently: I put fruit aside for them and even let them pay later.
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A
Ese matiz se me escapó. ¿Me haría el favor de leer el capítulo antes de entregarlo?
That's a subtlety I missed. Would you do me a favor and read the chapter before I hand it in?
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