Sebastian: Hola and welcome to the latest episode of Un día en español, a Spanish podcast for beginner learners.

I'm Sebastian and I'm here to help you understand what's going on in the stories we hear. Remember that you can rewind the Spanish parts as many times as you need. You can also go to babbel.com/podcasts to read along with a dynamic transcript and also find pictures and maps, as well as an episode vocabulary list, to keep studying with!

We're just about to jump into Daphene's día en español, but I just wanted to say that you can email us at podcasting@babbel.com to let us know what you think of this podcast series! Or, rate and review us in your podcast player!

So, today we'll hear about a day in the life of Daphene, a Puerto Rican student who just moved to Argentina. In her first week in the capital, Buenos Aires, she realizes that she might need to use another word when she wants to take the subway in some Latin American countries. This leads to a funny or embarrassing mistake, depending on which side of the conversation you're on. Given how widely-spoken Spanish is throughout Latin America and the world, miscommunications can happen between Spanish speakers from different regions. Let's listen to Daphene and learn more!

Daphene: ¿Cómo están? Soy Daphene y soy de Puerto Rico, pero acabo de mudarme a Buenos Aires. ¡Es mi primera semana en la capital de Argentina!

Sebastian: Daphene said, "I just moved to Buenos Aires”, acabo de mudarme a Buenos Aires, which in case you didn't know is Argentina's capital.

It's a fantastic place that is famous for its cultural scene and for being a cosmopolitan city, and this is also something that Daphene is very happy about. She moved there to do a student exchange, un intercambio de estudios.

Daphene: Estoy muy feliz de estar aquí. Buenos Aires es una ciudad fantástica con una escena cultural muy importante y muy cosmopolita. Estoy aquí porque hago un intercambio de estudios en una de las universidades de esta ciudad.

Sebastian: She lives in an apartment that she really likes with two very nice porteñas. Porteño or porteña, in the feminine form, is the term for people from Buenos Aires.

Daphene: Vivo en un apartamento increíble con dos porteñas muy simpáticas. Porteño o porteña es el nombre de las personas que son de Buenos Aires.

Sebastian: And Daphene not only has un apartamento increíble, but the apartment is in one of the most popular barrios, neighborhoods, of the city: Palermo. It's a neighborhood where you can find nice cafés, restaurants, museums, shops or tiendas, and beautiful parks. It's basically the perfect place to encontrarse con amigos, to meet up with friends.

Daphene: Mi apartamento está en el famoso barrio de Palermo, en el norte de Buenos Aires. Es un barrio muy popular. Tiene museos y parques. También tiene muchas tiendas, cafés y restaurantes. Es el lugar perfecto para encontrarse con amigos.

Sebastian: Today is Daphene's first day at the university. There's a special event for los estudiantes de intercambio, exchange students. There's a welcome talk, una charla de bienvenida, at the university.

Daphene: Hoy es el primer día para los estudiantes de intercambio. Todos los estudiantes de intercambio vamos a una charla de bienvenida en la universidad.

Sebastian: The university is a bit far away, un poco lejos. So Daphene needs to take the metro, or the subte, as the subway is called in Buenos Aires.

Daphene: La universidad está un poco lejos de mi casa. Tengo que ir en el “subte”, que es como llaman los argentinos al metro de Buenos Aires.

Sebastian: First she goes a pie, on foot, to the station. In the same station you can catch the subway, bus and ferrocarril, train. The station está cerca, is close to Daphene's home.

Daphene: Primero voy a pie a la estación de metro, bus y ferrocarril. Está cerca de mi casa.

Sebastian: Now, let's try to listen carefully to the directions that she is giving us. She has to go todo recto, straight, until the park, hasta el parque. You might have heard hasta in hasta la vista, or hasta pronto, but it's also a very useful word when you talk about directions, which in this context means “until”. She also uses the verb girar, which means "to turn". So she says that, “I turn to the right”, giro a la derecha, and then to the left, giro a la izquierda. Finally she finds the station. She also mentions two streets, or calles, that she needs to follow to go to the station.

Daphene: Voy todo recto hasta el parque. Después giro a la izquierda en la calle Armenia y luego giro a la derecha en la calle Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz. ¡Ahí está la estación!

Sebastian: Alright, so getting to the station wasn't very difficult. Now she needs to get the subte to get to the university. Has it ever happened to you that when you go to a new city it takes you a bit of time to figure out those maps with all the lines and stops? I know I'm so thankful that I can just use an app on my phone! However, Daphene is now trying to figure out the subway map of Buenos Aires. And coming from a city with just one subway line, the 10 lines of the Buenos Aires subway can be a bit intimidating!

Daphene: En la estación hay un mapa con todas las líneas de metro, o subte. Buenos Aires tiene muchas líneas de metro: tiene 10. En San Juan solo tenemos una línea. Hmm, ¿qué línea va a la universidad?

Sebastian: ¿Qué línea va a la universidad?, which line goes to the university, is what Daphene is trying to figure out. She's in a hurry, or as we say in Spanish, “I have hurry”, tengo prisa, just like you “have” your age, tengo 26 años. Anyway, the subway map has different lines with different colours and letters. And Daphene is a bit confused.

Daphene: Miro el mapa pero tengo prisa. Veo que la universidad está en la dirección sur. Las líneas de metro en Buenos Aires tienen diferentes colores y letras. Estoy un poco confundida.

Sebastian: It's a bit late, es un poco tarde, so Daphene runs to the stop for the line that she thinks is going to the university.

Daphene: Es un poco tarde, así que corro a la parada del metro.

Sebastian: Daphene gets on the subway just in time, she says subo al metro justo a tiempo. But, uh oh… a few minutes later she realizes that she's in el metro equivocado, the wrong subway.

Daphene: Me subo al metro justo a tiempo. ¡Qué bien! Pero unos minutos más tarde… ¡Oh, no! Estoy en el metro equivocado. ¡Qué mala suerte!

Sebastian: ¡Qué mala suerte! That's bad luck indeed! So she needs to get off the subway. Daphne says, “I get off the metro”, me bajo del metro, and she looks at the map at the next stop.

Daphene: En la siguiente parada me bajo del metro y busco el mapa con todas las líneas de metro. Miro otra vez el mapa y estoy más confundida. Tengo que pedir ayuda.

Sebastian: The map is not really helping, and she wants to ask for help, pedir ayuda. Nearby, she sees someone who looks like a student. Maybe he's going to the university, like Daphene. Surely he knows which line she needs to take, right?

Daphene: Veo a un chico que parece un estudiante. Quizás va a la universidad, como yo. Seguro que él sabe qué línea va a la universidad.

Sebastian: Daphene is going to ask the likely student if he knows the way. She says, estoy perdida, “I'm lost”, and asks for help. The student wants to help her and asks her where she's going, ¿a dónde vas?

Daphene: –Perdona, estoy perdida, ¿puedes ayudarme?

Estudiante: –Claro. ¿A dónde vas?

Daphene: –Voy a la universidad. ¿Qué metro tengo que coger para ir a la universidad?

Estudiante: Hahaha…

Daphene: Él empieza a reírse y no para de reírse.

Sebastian: Oh, boy! Daphene's question might have come across a bit wrong… He starts laughing, empieza a reírse, and he doesn't stop laughing, y no para de reírse. Daphene is puzzled, she doesn't understand what is so chistoso, funny. But, I do know what the problem is, and I'll tell you in a bit why he's laughing.

Daphene: –¿Por qué te ríes? ¿Qué es tan chistoso?

Estudiante: –Mira, en Argentina “tomas” el metro… nosotros no “cogemos” el metro. “Coger”… bueno, no usamos “coger” en ese contexto porque su significado es… bueno… es sexual y muy vulgar. Es mejor decir “tomar”.

Sebastian: So, maybe some of you already knew, but the word “take” can have different translations in Spanish. In most Latin American countries you say tomar el metro, when you speak about “taking the subway,” but in Puerto Rico you can say coger el metro. However, well… coger has a very different meaning as the student explained. Well… it can be a vulgar way to talk about sex! So basically, Daphene asked which Subway she has to !@#$ to get to the university. Man, this is very embarrassing, qué vergüenza. But also very funny!

Daphene: –¡Oh, no! ¡Qué vergüenza!

Estudiante: –Bueno, ahora ya sabes. Y yo también voy para la universidad. Podemos ir juntos. Tenemos que tomar este subte.

Daphene: –¡Sí! Esa es una buena idea, ¡gracias!

Sebastian: So, luckily, the student is also going to the university and he suggests to Daphene that they can go together. After that funny, chistosa, or embarrassing, vergonzosa, confusion, Daphene arrives at the university just in time for the speech.

Daphene: Después de una confusión...chistosa o vergonzosa, llego a la universidad justo a tiempo para la charla.

Sebastian: De ahora en adelante, from now on, Daphene is only going to tomar the subte in Argentina, and she's only going to coger the subway and the guagua, which is what Puerto Ricans call the bus, when she's back in Puerto Rico.

Daphene: De ahora en adelante, solo voy a tomar el subte y el bus en Argentina; y solo voy a coger la guagua o el metro en Puerto Rico.

Sebastian: So, as you can see, language learners aren't the only ones who make embarrassing mistakes. This also happens between Spanish speakers in different countries, and to make a mistake from time to time is an important part of the journey! And like Daphene, you'll always have some funny anecdotes to share!

Un día en español is produced by the language experts at Babbel. Whether you're hoping to make new Spanish-speaking friends or explore a new culture, the Babbel app teaches everything you need to understand and use the language. Thanks for listening and ¡Hasta el próximo día!