Catriona: Suncream, check, passport, check, socks, check.

Héctor: What are you doing, Catriona?

Catriona: I’m getting everything ready for my trip, remember?

Héctor: But, we still have to record the last episode of this season!

Catriona: I know, I know… So, where was I? Toothbrush, check, more suncream, check.

Héctor: I guess we’ll have to record this episode while you pack.

Catriona: Yes, and I can tell you about everything I have planned for my itinerary!

Héctor: Perfect, we can do that in Spanish.

Catriona: Sweet, just one more lesson and off to Madrid. But before we jump into our topic for today, I would like to make a quick announcement for our audience.

Héctor: What is it?

Catriona: On the show notes you can find a link to the transcript of this podcast, here you can find all the words and phrases, as well as some links and funny GIFS that we have prepared for you. ¡Comencemos!

Héctor: Don’t you love the excitement of getting ready for a trip?

Catriona: Yes, you start wondering what the city or town is going to be like, what you’re going to do, where you are going to stay, the people you are going to meet, the food you are going to eat. So many new things to experience.

Héctor: ¿A dónde vas de vacaciones, Catriona?

Catriona: “¿A dónde vas de vacaciones?”, so where am I going on holiday?

Héctor: That's correct.

Catriona: So how would I go about answering that, Héctor?

Héctor: You can use the phrase “Voy a…”, and add the city you are going to.

Catriona: Voy a Madrid… ¿de vacaciones?

Héctor: Well done! You can also say “Voy de vacaciones a Madrid”.

Catriona: And this  will be with the verb…

Héctor: That’s the verb “ir”.

Catriona: OK, so obviously a irregular verb since the first person is “voy”, but when I'm putting it together to say where I'm going is similar to English I guess so “voy a” plus city “going to”.

Héctor: Yes, here we use a similar structure as the one you use in English with “going to”…

Catriona: OK, so the question then is translated as “Where are you going on vacation?”

Héctor: Yes, the verb you use is verb “ir”. It is an irregular verb indeed, so that means that it changes its form when conjugated.

Catriona: OK, so we briefly picked up on for first person singular “yo”, I would need the form “voy: yo voy a Madrid” and for “tú” I would need “vas, tú vas a París”.

Héctor: Yup! Very good!

Catriona: So Spanish and English have very similar structures when it comes to talk about holiday plans.

Héctor: ¿Vas en carro, en tren, en avión, en autobús?

Catriona: So, here you're asking me how I'm traveling. If i'm going by car,  “en carro”, by train, “en tren”, by plane,  “en avión”, or by bus, en  “en autobús”. 

Héctor: That's right. Very nice!

Catriona: Voy en avión.

Héctor: OK. Good.

Catriona: So, to say where I'm going I have to say “Voy a…” and to say how I’m getting there, I need to use ”Voy en…”

Héctor: Yes, you can also use “voy a…” with any infinitive to talk about plans or intentions in the future.

Catriona: So, that is similar to “I’m going to go to Madrid” in English.

Héctor: Precisely, how would you say that in Spanish?

Catriona: Voy a ir a Madrid.

Héctor: ¡Muy bien! ¿Qué vas a hacer en Madrid?

Catriona: So then to answer, I could say: “voy a hablar español”.
That I'm going to be speaking Spanish.

Héctor: Yes, and if I ask you: “¿Qué vas a comer?”

Catriona: “¿Qué vas a comer?”, “comer” we've had so what am I going to eat?

Héctor: Yeah.

Catriona: Definitely I'll be in the look out for something delicious, I think I would probably go for churros con chocolate.

Héctor: Oh, I love churros. 

Héctor: ¿Y qué vas a beber?

Catriona: So, “¿qué vas a beber?”, you're asking what I'm going to drink, so maybe I would order some vermouth or some agua de Valencia because I know that's popular in Madrid.

Héctor: You've been doing a lot of homework, I like it. 

Catriona: We searched for food and drinks for our holiday as a top priority. 

Héctor: And how about sightseeing? “¿Qué lugares vas a visitar?”

Catriona: OK, so here you’re asking what places I’m going to visit, right?

Héctor: ¡Correcto!

Catriona: Voy a visitar el Parque del Retiro y también la Plaza Mayor.

Héctor: ¡Qué divertido!

Catriona: Now that we have covered how to say where you’re going on vacation, how you’re going to get there and what you’re going to do once you’re there, I would like to know a few more verbs related to common holiday activities.

Héctor: Tesauro Time?

Catriona: ¡Así es!

Catriona: In our section El Tesauro we always learn useful words and phrases to expand our knowledge of the Spanish language.

Héctor: And this time we are going to learn a few verbs. Which verbs do you want to learn, Catriona?

Catriona: Well, a big part of going to a new place is taking photos and I’ve definitely got my camera packed! How do I take photos in Spanish?

Héctor: Tomar fotos.

Catriona: Voy a tomar fotos.

Héctor: Very good!

Catriona: Voy a tomar muchas fotos.

Héctor: Impressive, you’ve been doing your homework.

Catriona: I definitely have.

Héctor: Another important thing when you are on holiday is how you’re going to move around the city. Are you going to rent a car?

Catriona: No, unfortunately not, I don’t even have my driving license, so I most definitely be taking the subway. How would I say that?

Héctor: You can use the verb “tomar”.

Catriona: Tomar.

Héctor: Tomar, voy a tomar el metro.

Catriona: Voy a tomar el metro.

Héctor: That is quite common in Mexico and some other parts of Latinamerica, although there are some regions, particulary in Spain they use the verb “coger: voy a coger el metro”.

Catriona: Voy a coger el metro.

Héctor: ¡Excelente! I would like to point out that in Latinamerica the verb “coger” has a sexual connotation, so when you're there try to stick to “tomar” and when you're in Spain you can use “coger”. For this you could use one of the verbs that we've seen before: “viajar: voy a viajar en metro”.

Catriona: “Voy a viajar en metro”.

Héctor: That's right.

Catriona: And one more, how do I say “I’m going to stay in a hotel”.

Héctor: Voy a hospedarme en un hotel.

Catriona: Voy a hospedarme en un hotel.

Héctor: That has some tricky grammar, but when you’re taking the first steps in a new language, sometimes it is OK to get familiar with some expressions before getting into the nitty-gritty grammar.

Catriona: I agree, you can definitely learn some phrases or standard phrases to begin with and things will slot into place in your brain later on. 

Héctor: Yeah, great. So, I think you’re ready for today’s challenge.

Catriona: ¡Estoy lista!

Catriona: OK, I'll give this my best shot.

Héctor: Go ahead.

Catriona: So, hay mucho tráfico en Madrid entonces voy a tomar el Metro. Or I guess if I'm in Spain, voy a coger el metro. Voy a visitar el Parque del Retiro, el parque está en el centro de la ciudad y hay un gran lago ahí.

Héctor: Es un lago muy bonito.

Catriona: Dado que soy turista voy a visitar por supuesto La Plaza Mayor. Hay muchos cafés y voy a tomar un café o una cerveza.

Héctor: Hay muy buenos restaurantes ahí.

Catriona: ¡Qué bueno! Voy a visitar también el Palacio Real, el palacio está cera del Mercado de San Miguel y definitivamente voy a comer todo.  

Héctor: I like it. Just one brief note, you said “voy a comer todo”. That would actually mean that you would actually eat everything, but it would be more idiomatic to say “voy a comer de todo”.

Catriona: “Voy a comer de todo”. So in English we don't really make the distinction, when we say that we are going to eat everything we do not neccesary mean it in a literal sense, that would be something to watch out in Spanish.

Héctor: Very good. I like it. You have a really nice plan for Madrid.

Catriona: Definitely, most of it surrounding food and drink which I think it's perfectly acceptable.

Héctor: I think you deserve a big congratulation. Congratulations, Catriona 'cus you have gone through one season 10 episodes and your Spanish is impressive.

Catriona: Gracias. 

Héctor: So, how do you feel?

Catriona: I feel good. I feel like I'm ready for my trip to Madrid and I think in between all my snacking and drinking and more food, I can probably fit in some conversations with people in Spanish.

Héctor: Good, and what has help you in this whole first season of
A Zero to A Hero?

Catriona: I think it's definitely been a help to reuse a lot of the phrases that we've looked up, things that I've learning with the app to have the chance to actually speak about, and put them into practice, and definitely adding to my vocab has helped. It means that I think you sound more conversational, a bit more impressive not too stuck to the same forewords. That has been a big help.

Héctor: And what are your plans? In terms of your Spanish learning?

Catriona: Definitely gonna continue so I think I'm relatively conversational-ish now in certain topics definitely, but it's definitely not enough. I want to continue and improve and I would love to get to a proper conversation level where I don't feel inhibited or nervous just to speak. 

Héctor: Yes, and I think that you just touched a very important point, we are not fluent in all aspects of language but we can definitely restrict our learning to certain topics and then jump into another one, get familiar with a vocabulary or with any new structure and make progress from then on.

Catriona: Definitely, building up and stuff is always good. 

Héctor: OK, so, in this last episode of our first season, we went through the fundamentals of verb “ir” and if you would like to expand your knowledge and are looking for more advanced topics, we can recommend “Palabras Bravas”, one of Babbel’s podcast tailored to the needs of intermediate and advanced learners hosted by our experts, Paula and David.

Catriona: It’s completely in Spanish and it will definitely help you brush up your listening skills. If nothing else.

Héctor: Catriona, after 10 episodes, you’re ready for Madrid.

Catriona: I am but before I leave, I would just like to remind our listeners that they can contact us via email at podcasting@babbel.com. Don’t forget to write A Zero to A Hero in the subject line.

Héctor: We love reading all your emails, they help us a lot to improve.

Catriona: ¡Y olé! Thanks for listening to us throughout this season!

Héctor: ¡Hasta pronto!

Catriona: ¡Hasta luego!