Introducción obligatorio

[mknightretke]

¡Hola a toda la comunidad! Soy Matthew, un estuadiante de la escuela secundaria en Oregón del sur. Me he tomado dos años de la clase de español, y mi fluencia, aunque bueno, no está perfecto. Como pueden ver en mi profilo, me voy a Costa Rica este verano (en realidad, ¡voy a dejar en dos semanas!), asi necesito aprender más español, muy rapido. ¿Es posible?

Necesito practicar:

1. Charlando en español
2. El tenso con "me ha..." ó "me he..." (cómo se llama?)
3. Vocabulario específico a Costa Rica

¿Pueden ayudarme? (Oh, y corrigen mis errores, por favor!)

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums, Matthew.
Bienvenido a los foros, Matthew.

Algunas correcciones:

Originally Posted by mknightretke

¡Hola a toda la comunidad! Soy Matthew, un estuadiante de la escuela secundaria en del sur de Oregón del sur. Me He tomado dos años de la clase de español, y mi fluidez, aunque buena, no es perfecta. Como pueden ver en mi perfil, me voy a Costa Rica este verano (en realidad, ¡voy a irme/salir en dos semanas!), así que necesito aprender más español, muy rápido. ¿Es posible?



Necesito practicar:

1. Charlando en español
2. El tiempo con "me ha..." ó "me he..." (¿cómo se llama?)
3. Vocabulario específico a Costa Rica

¿Pueden ayudarme? (Ah, y corrijan mis errores, por favor!)

The tense you didn't know the name of is the first of several compound tenses. In English, it's called the present perfect tense. In Spanish, it's called the 'perfecto de indicativo'. It's called a compound tense because it uses a conjugated form of 'haber' with a past participle. The use of 'me' at the beginning, as you wrote it above, would only be necessary if a reflexive pronoun is needed and only in the first person. Other reflexive pronouns exist for the other persons.

tomar


tomarse


Costa Rica has its own flavor of Spanish, just like any other hispanic country. A Costan Rican male is called a 'tico'; a female, 'tica'. You might be called a 'macho', but it doesn't mean what you think it does.
'Pura vida' is a very popular phrase. It's like 'awesome'.

By the way, 'obligatory introduction' is 'presentación obligatoria' in Spanish.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Rusty

By the way, 'obligatory introduction' is 'presentación obligatoria' in Spanish.

Although, introduction means presentación, I think "introducción" might be correct in this case, because he is not only introducing (presentándose) himself but also is describing what his purposes are etc..

I might be wrong.

[aleCcowaN]

se introducen productos (en los mercados)
se presentan personas (a otras personas)

[wrholt]

¡Bienvenido a los foros, Matthew!

You remind me of myself when I had finished my third year of high-school Spanish and went to Nicaragua for several weeks as an exchange student. I lived with a family from Chinandega that had a son my age, and I went to classes with him at his colegio in León. During my stay I went on a weekend trip with the other US participants in the exchange program to San Jose, Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and the weather in San Jose is much more pleasant than in most cities in Nicaragua.

1. Charlando:

I don't think you need to worry too much about trying to master speaking in Spanish before you get there. Improving your speaking and listening skills will happen naturally and rapidly while you're there.

While it's good to try to speak with reasonably-correct grammar and pronunciation, it's more important to communicate by whatever means necessary, mistakes and all. Over time your ability to use correct grammar and pronuncation will improve.

You probably will find yourself imitating the accent of the local people. While there are several features that you will discover, there are 3 features of the local accent that stand out.

a. The pronunciation of the letter 's' at the end of a syllable: it is often aspirated (that is, pronounced like we pronounce 'h') and it sometimes disappears completely.

b. The pronunciation of the letter 'n' at the end of a WORD either at the end of an utterance or when the next word begins with a vowel. Many people pronounce this the same way that we pronounce the letters 'ng' in the word 'sing'.

c. The pronunciation of the letters 'y' and 'll' varies a lot, even by the same person, and it may be anthing between how we pronounce 'j' and how we pronounce 'y'. For example, the word "yo" (I) may sound like "Joe", it may sound like "Yo!", and it may be somewhere in between these two extremes.

2. Los tiempos del verbo

You'll improve with these, too, as you converse with the people you're living with and spending time with. If you have internet access, you can visit here to ask questions, or you can bring some grammar materials with you as reference.

3. Vocabulario específico a Costa Rica

Regional and local vocabulary, and especially current slang among young people, are very rich and very large topics. You'll learn a lot of it just by being there and talking with people.

However, one specific item that may be useful to know: Costa Rican Spanish, like Spanish in most Central American countries, is generally "voseo": that is, in everyday speech it is quite common to use the pronoun "vos" and its associated verb forms instead of "tú". This habit was universal between young people in Nicaragua when I was there, and it seemed to be universal between young people in Costa Rica when I was there. Everyone will understand you if you continue to use "tú" and its verbs, but people your age will probably use "vos" and its verbs when they speak to you.

When using "vos": the pronoun "vos" is used as both the subject pronoun and as the object of a preposition, and the pronoun "te" is used for direct objects, indirect objects, and with reflexive/pronominal verbs.

If you have learned about the pronoun "vosotros" and its verbs in your classes at school, then deriving the "vos" forms of the verb will be easier. The verb forms that are the most noticeably different between "tú" and "vos" are the simple present and the imperative.

Here are some examples for the simple present tense:

you speak: (tú) hablas, (vosotros) habláis, (vos) hablás
you come: (tú) comes, (vosotros) coméis, (vos) comés
you live: (tú) vives, (vosostros) vivís, (vos) vivís
you play: (tú) juegas, (vosotros) jugáis, (vos) jugás
you sit (down): (tú) te sientas, (vosotros) os sentáis, (vos) te sentás
you want: (tú) quieres, (vosotros) queréis, (vos) querés

The basic pattern: for -ar and -er verbs, take the "vosotros" form of the verb, drop the 'i' from the last syllable, and keep the accent (stress) on the last syllable. For -ir verbs, the vos form is identical to the vosotros form.

Here are some examples for imperaties:

Speak! = (tú) ¡Habla!, (vosotros) ¡Hablad!, (vos) ¡Hablá!
Eat! = (tú) ¡Come!, (vosotros) ¡Coméis!, (vos) ¡Comé!
Open! = (tú) ¡Abre!, (vosotros) ¡Abrid!, (vos) ¡Abrí!
Sit down! = (tú) ¡Siéntate!, (vosotros) ¡Sentaos!, (vos) ¡Sentate!
Tell me! = (tú) ¡Dime!, (vosotros) ¡Decidme!, (vos) ¡Decime!
Come! = (tú) ¡Ven!, (vosotros) ¡Venid!, (vos) ¡Vení!
Go! = (tú) ¡Vé!, (vosotros) ¡Id!, (vos) ¡Andá! *
Go away! = (tú) ¡Vete!, (vosotros) ¡Idos! [or ¡Iros!], (vos) ¡Andate! *

The basic pattern is simple: for ALL* verbs, the 'vos' imperative is made by dropping the letter 'r' from the infinitive and keepin the stress on the last vowel.

*The ïmperative of "ir" is a special case: dropping the 'r' from the infinitive leaves 'i', which is just too short to work; as a result, everyone says "andá" and "andate" instead.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

se introducen productos (en los mercados)
se presentan personas (a otras personas)

O sea que la introducción en un libro, está introduciendo el libro, que es un producto, y no la idea de éste, etc.?

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by chileno

O sea que la introducción en un libro, está introduciendo el libro, que es un producto, y no la idea del éste, etc.?

Claro, las papeletas de votación que se introducen en las urnas son productos también Y a no olvidarse de los dedos que se introducen en la nariz, que también son productos.

Ah! y como según vos se introducen las personas, "la introducción en un libro, está introduciendo el libro, que es un producto una persona, y no la idea del éste, etc.?"

[chileno]

Me parecía que iba a tener una mejor respuesta...

Pregunto otra vez.

La introducción de un libro, que introduce? Al autor?

Perdona que no te esté entendiendo, y en nuestro idioma.

[CrOtALiTo]

Hello Matthew.

I'm Mexican guy that is disposal to help you with your learning when you need it, although I have left to practice the English, because almost not I have enough time for my business that I'm IS provider in my country and well that just not give me chances to come back again and to take for complete my practice in the forums, but well I'd like to have a conversation with someone in English and Spanish if you are interested, you can notice me and well we can get us in the time and hour that we can have a little talk for the skype.


Sincerely yours.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by chileno

Me parecía que iba a tener una mejor respuesta...

Pregunto otra vez.

La introducción de un libro, que introduce? Al autor?

Perdona que no te esté entendiendo, y en nuestro idioma.

La introducción de un libro es lo que se dice antes de dar comienzo al libro en sí. Puede tener mil objetivos diferentes pero los más comunes son el picar la curiosidad del lector y ponerlo en el ánimo adecuado como para comenzar a leerlo, o justificar la existencia de la obra que se desarrolla a continuación.

That being said, what has all that to do with mixing up different meanings of related words? Introducir and introduce are false friends when it deals with establishing acquaintances, and "introducir a una persona" is Spanglish or North American ghetto Spanish when used in such sense. "Quisiera introducirme" suggests in native terms that the person wants to sneak in some closed place, unless you know some English and its real intention is revealed.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

La introducción de un libro es lo que se dice antes de dar comienzo al libro en sí. Puede tener mil objetivos diferentes pero los más comunes son el picar la curiosidad del lector y ponerlo en el ánimo adecuado como para comenzar a leerlo, o justificar la existencia de la obra que se desarrolla a continuación.

That being said, what has all that to do with mixing up different meanings of related words? Introducir and introduce are false friends when it deals with establishing acquaintances, and "introducir a una persona" is Spanglish or North American ghetto Spanish when used in such sense. "Quisiera introducirme" suggests in native terms that the person wants to sneak in some closed place, unless you know some English and its real intention is revealed.

Todo eso lo entiendo.

El problema es que para mí, quizás ambas traducciones del título de este post parecen ser aplicables.

Se está presentando, pero también está haciendo una nota introductoria.

¿Estoy tán mal?

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by chileno

Todo eso lo entiendo.

El problema es que para mí, quizás ambas traducciones del título de este post parecen ser aplicables.

Se está presentando, pero también está haciendo una nota introductoria.

¿Estoy tán mal?

Lex parsimoniae tells me Matthew just wanted to introduce himself. I say that only based on the language level I perceived and the content of the message having that title. I don't think languages and penal law are alike, I mean, sort of any interpretation makes sense until proven wrong.

[chileno]

Ok, no problem.