Esteban: Hola, hola, and welcome back to another episode of A Zero to a Hero!, a podcast where we help Spanish speakers who are just starting, like my friend and student Logan…

Logan: That’s me!

Esteban: And we venture with them to the depths of Spanish! In each episode we’ll look into a topic that Logan wants to learn more about… and we’ll do some practice too!

Logan: And remember that if you like to read while you listen, at least I know I do, you can find the transcript of the audio in the episode description.

Esteban: Also, at the end of this episode we have a surprise for you! ¿Todo listo?

Logan: Sí, listo.

Esteban: ¡Pues empecemos!

Esteban: Logan, ¿cómo estás?

Logan: Well, for starters, I understand that question, so ¡estoy muy bien!

Esteban: ¡Ajá bien!

Logan: Err, last week I learned how to ask and respond to questions, so I’ve been feeling very confident about that!

Esteban: Oh, that's… so glad to hear! ¡Qué bien! Did you get a chance to practice a little bit?

Logan: Sí, I called my abuela and we talked for a bit in Spanish…

Esteban: Whaaat? ¿Quéeee? ¡Increíble! I bet she was so excited about it.

Logan: She was! And, after talking for a bit we started talking about my favorite subject: food.

Esteban: Of course you did!

Logan: And I realized it was hard for me to talk about likes and dislikes! I know “to like” is “gustar”…

Esteban: Ajá.

Logan: …but it works a bit differently than other verbs, right?

Esteban: Yes.

Logan: And didn’t feel confident when I used it.

Esteban: Yes, so the verb “gustar”, and verbs that are similar to it, are a bit… quirky! So how about this? Let’s talk about them now, and then let’s go grab lunch somewhere where you can use them!

Logan: Sounds great! But…who’s paying?

Esteban: Ahh, yeah, we’ll figure that out later.

Esteban: Ok, so, before we talk about the verb “gustar”, tell me a little bit about you in, in English. Um, any Mexican food you like or dislike?

Logan: Oh, definitely! One of my favorite Mexican drinks is horchata.

Esteban: Humm, horchata, qué rico.

Logan: Ahh it's so good! And my great grandmother passed down her recipe for chili relleno. I really love that, I think that's good. And tostadas are one of my favorite dishes. My grandmother and I would always get them, and I even served them at my wedding! So, that’s one of my top favorites! And unfortunately… I am not very fond of tamales.

Esteban: ¿¡Qué!? ¡Logan! 

Logan: I know…

Esteban: Oh my gosh! We… oh my gosh, we have to bleep that! Ah, apologies to our listeners!

Logan: So sorry!

Esteban: That’s fine, that’s fine… Um, ok. So, err, now, with the verbs like “gustar,” you’ll, you’ll hear people saying “me gusta” for “I like” or “te gusta” for “you like.” So, why don’t we start with a little practice with that and then I’ll give you more tips on how to use them?

Logan: Ok, sounds good.

Esteban: Ok, Logan, a question for you. ¿Te gusta la horchata?

Logan: Sí, me gusta horchata.

Esteban: ¡Ajá, muy bien, perfecto! Just remember that, unlike English, we need to add the article there, in this case “la”, before “horchata”.

Logan: Ok.

Esteban: And also, remember that in Spanish the “h” is silent. So it should be “horchata”.

Logan: Ok. So, me gusta la horchata.

Esteban: ¡Ajá, perfecto! Now, if you want to respond that you love something, instead of “I just like” you want to say “I love something”, you can use the verbs“me encanta” or you can use the verb “me fascina.” So, ¿Te gusta el chile relleno?

Logan: Ah! ¡Me encanta el chile relleno de mi… great… abuela!

Esteban: ¿El chile relleno de tu bisabuela?

Logan: ¡Bisabuela!

Esteban: ¡Ajá, excelente! We are getting into it, huh?! Now, notice that both sentences you just said, “horchata” and “chile”, they’re both singular, right? So, if the thing you’re talking about is plural, you also need to change the verb to, to plural. So instead of saying “me gusta", " you would say “me gustan”. So a question for you: ¿Te gustan los tamales?

Logan: Oh, so I use the “n” because “tamales” is plural?

Esteban: Correcto.

Logan: No me gustan los tamales.

Esteban: ¡Perfecto, excelente, ajá! Your Spanish… absolutely flawless, your opinion on tamales… not really. But your Spanish is great!

Logan: Ok, so other verbs conjugate to the person doing the action, but here the ending of “me gusta” only changes when the thing I like is singular or plural? What’s going on here?

Esteban: This is a great question! So, you… ok, so, you don’t need to understand this or know this to use these verbs, but if grammar is helpful to you, here’s what’s happening: the object of the sentence and the subject of the sentence are flipped.

Logan: What… what does that even mean?

Esteban: Ok, so, so for example, when you say err, “no me gustan los tamales”, the actual grammatical subject of that sentence is “the tamales”. So you’re basically saying something like, “the tamales are not pleasing to me” or, uhh, “the tamales are not likable to me”, but backwards.

Logan: Ohh, oh, I think I understand. “To me, it is not pleasing to eat tamales.”

Esteban: Yes, something like that, yes, yes, yes. So, that’s why you’ll never hear someone with these sentences, with these verbs, you’ll never hear people saying “yo me gusta”. You’ll never hear that. That’s incorrect. Or “tú te gusta”. But you will just use the pronoun “me gusta” or “te gusta”. 
Okay, Logan. So last week you told me you’re going on a trip to Oaxaca with your cousins. They might ask you “¿Qué comida te gusta?”, ¿Qué comida te gusta?”. How will you respond?

Logan: Ok. Me gusta la horchata. Me encanta el chile de mi…

Esteban: …bis…

Logan: ¡Bisabuela! 

Esteban: ¡Ajá

Logan: Me encanta el chile relleno de mi bisabuela.

Esteban: ¡Muy bien!

Logan: No me gustan los tamales…

Esteban: A shame, but correct.

Logan: Okay! And how do you say “cousins”?

Esteban: ¡Primos!

Logan: Okay. No me gustan los tamales. ¡Lo siento, primos!

Esteban: Good, you’ll need to apologize for that. Okay, I’m a, I’m a little bit too harsh on but, on the tamales opinion, but excellent Spanish.

Esteban: Ok, Logan, es hora de nuestra invitada. It’s time for our guest! So, last week in one of our Babbel Live teacher meetings, I talked to my colleague, Laura, about this exact thing. She is a Spanish teacher from Spain. You did great talking about your likes and dislikes, but let’s see if you can catch what Laura likes and dislikes of the food in her city of Barcelona.

Logan: Okay, let’s go!

Esteban: Alright, so here’s me talking to Laura!

Esteban: Laura, ¿estás algunos días fuera de Berlín?

Laura: Sí, estoy pasando un tiempo en Barcelona con mi familia y amigos, un mes.

Esteban: ¡Qué genial! ¿Y tú eres de Barcelona, verdad?

Laura: Sí, exacto, yo soy de Barcelona. ¿Y tú Esteban? ¿De dónde eres?

Esteban: Yo soy de Ecuador, pero vivo en Michigan. Y siempre que vuelvo a Ecuador necesito ir a comer comida Ecuatoriana todos los días. Me imagino que haces lo mismo, ¿no?

Laura: Te entiendo, te entiendo. Es igual para mí, estoy en Barcelona y tengo que comer cada día paella, tapitas… cada día. ¡Me encantan!

Esteban: ¿Cómo es la comida en Barcelona? ¿Qué te gusta de la comida de allá?

Laura: Bueno, me gusta muchísimo la paella, que es un plato típico de Valencia, pero la comemos mucho en Barcelona, con arroz, marisco, verduras… Pero me encanta la horchata, una bebida súper refrescante típica en verano.

Esteban: ¿Horchata en España? Yo pensaba que era la horchata de México.

Laura: Sí, sí. Mucha gente no lo sabe. Tenemos horchata en España y no es la horchata de México, es diferente. ¿Sabes qué lleva?

Esteban: No, ¿qué lleva?

Laura: Agua, azúcar y chufas… un producto muy especial, una planta.

Esteban: ¿Chufas? Nunca he escuchado de las chufas, pero la próxima vez que vaya a Barcelona necesito probar horchata. Oye, ¿y hay algo en la comida española que no te guste?

Laura: Pues, curiosamente, no me gusta el chorizo, un producto muy típico en España, carne de cerdo con pimentón. No me gusta nada, pero es muy, muy típico aquí, en nuestro país.

Esteban: Ajá, pero mi esposa y yo somos vegetarianos… bueno, yo hago un poco de trampa y el chorizo es una de las cosas con las cuales yo hago trampa en mi vegetarianismo. Así que…

Laura: Uy, pero para tú mujer es un problema…

Esteban: Okay, so we talked a lot with Laura, but as far as the likes and dislikes, Logan, did you catch some of those things?

Logan: I think I got some of those things.

Esteban: Nice, okay, so let’s see! Um, before we start, this is a bit advanced, but, you know, we’re talking about Laura now, we’re talking about someone else. So we need to change our sentence to the third person.

Logan: Ok.

Esteban: That means we need to start our sentences with “a” and use the pronoun “le”, so we are talking about Laura, “a Laura le gusta”. So here is my question for you: ¿A Laura le gusta el chorizo?

Logan: Uhh, no, a Laura no le gusta chorizo.

Esteban: Muy bien. A Laura no le gusta el chorizo.

Logan: Ah, el chorizo.

Esteban: ¡Ajá!

Logan: Ok. Wait a minute. Did I get that correct that you’re vegetarian and you eat chorizo, Esteban? What is that?

Esteban: What? You caught that Logan?

Logan: Yes I did!

Esteban: You were not supposed to catch that! Oh my gosh, between you not liking tamales and me cheating on vegetarianism, I think we should cancel this episode! But correcto: a Laura no le gusta el chorizo. ¿Qué le gusta a Laura?

Logan: Uhh, ok… A Laura no le…

Esteban: ¿Qué le gusta a ella?

Logan: A Laura le gusta la paella y a Laura le gusta las tapas.

Esteban: Uhm?

Logan: Oh! Okay… A Laura le gustan las tapas.

Esteban: ¡Muy bien! A Laura le gustan las tapas y a Laura le gusta la paella. ¡Excelente, ajá! ¿Algo más? Something else?

Logan: ¡Sí! Y a Laura le encanta la horchata.

Esteban: Muy bien. ¿A Laura… a Laura le encanta qué?

Logan: La horchata.

Esteban: ¡La horchata, ajá! A Laura le encanta la horchata. A Laura le encanta la horchata de chufas.

Logan: Okay, what are “chufas”?

Esteban: “Chufas” is just a kind of plant. I think in English it's called tiger nut. But I didn’t know Spain had its own horchata!

Logan: Neither did I, but I have to say me encanta.

Esteban: Yeah, it’s probably me gusta for sure, right? So, how do you feel, do you think you’re ready to talk about food with your cousins?

Logan: Oh, absolutely!

Esteban: I love that! Okay, so, uhh, what do you think should be next? What should we talk about next time we meet?

Logan: Okay, so, since I’m going on this trip I wanna understand my heritage. So I want to know how to talk about family.

Esteban: Great! Yes, I love that! So what we can do next time is, we’ll review a bit of the vocabulary of the family, and I can give you some pointers to talk about relatives.

Logan: ¡Me gusta!

Esteban: ¡Ajá, excelente! You’re such a fast learner! But for now, ¿vamos a comer? Should we go out to eat?

Logan: ¡Me encanta! I’m starving!

Esteban: Alright! Let’s go to a place that has horchata…

Logan: Definitely!

Esteban: …and tamales for me!

Esteban: That was our episode on verbs like “gustar”! ¿Te gusta el episodio? Let us know what you think. We’ve put together a survey that you can find in the episode description. Remember you can listen to this episode again, and use the transcript linked also in the episode description if you want to read as you listen. There you will also find the surprise: a limited, special Babbel Live class offer just for you! Come to a Babbel Live class with me, with Laura, or any of our teachers! There’s actually a class about food coming up, so let’s get hungry together. Logan and I will see you next time! ¡Hasta el próximo episodio!

Logan: ¡Hasta luego!