¡Feliz Navidad! Lesson 10

December 23, 2006
Lesson 10
Notes
In this edition:
celebrating
Christmas,
giving gifts and
singing songs!
¡Feliz Navidad!
Lesson 10
Programme Notes
Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish, the podcast
aimed at independent learners of Spanish. In
Coffee Break Spanish we’ll be guiding you
through the basics of the Spanish language and
helping you to learn to communicate in Spain
and Spanish-speaking countries.
Navidades
Christmas period
This gives the following greeting:
¡Feliz Navidad!
Happy Christmas!
Lesson 10 of Coffee Break Spanish is a special
edition of the show with a festive theme. The
notes will give you access to the language covered
in the lesson and will provide some extra
material including song lyrics.
To wish someone a Happy New Year, you would
say:
Christmas Greetings
¡Próspero Año Nuevo!
Happy New Year!
As most Spanish-speaking countries have
Christian traditions, Christmas is a major feast
throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
The word for Christmas itself is:
Dialogues
Two dialogues were included in the recording of
lesson 10. Here is the transcript of both
dialogues to help you get to grips with the
language covered.
Navidad
Christmas
The plural form of this word is used to talk
about the Christmas season:
Mark: Hola.
Jair:
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Hola, buenos días.
The word él is used to reinforce the subject as
“he”.
Mark: ¿Qué tal?
Jair:
Muy bien.
Mark: ¿Cómo te llamas?
Jair:
Me llamo Jair.
¡Cantemos!
Mark: Jair, ¿de dónde eres?
Jair:
Soy de México. Soy de Veracruz,
pero ahora vivo en Glasgow,
Escocia.
Mark: ¿En qué trabajas?
Jair:
Navidad, Navidad, hoy es Navidad
Con campanas este día hay que festejar.
Navidad, Navidad, porque ya nació
ayer noche, Nochebuena, el niñito Diós.
Soy maestro.
Mark: Y ¿te gusta tu trabajo?
Jair:
Me encanta.
Mark: Muy bien. Pues, muchas gracias,
Jair.
One word which you may not yet know is:
(el) maestro/a
teacher
A transcript of the second dialogue now follows:
Ana:
Hola, me llamo Ana. Soy de
Barcelona, pero ahora vivo en
Glasgow, en Escocia. Trabajo en
un colegio y me gusta mucho mi
trabajo.
Mark: Ana, ¿tienes hermanos?
Ana:
Sí, tengo un hermano mayor. Se
llama Miguel y él vive en Valencia.
Mark: Y en tu tiempo libre, ¿qué te gusta
hacer?
Ana:
In Lesson 10 we learned to sing Navidad, Navidad,
a Christmas song to the melody of the popular
Christmas song Jingle Bells.
En mi tiempo libre me gusta ir al
cine. Me gusta salir con mis
amigos, y me gusta mucho leer.
Here are some words and phrases to help you
fully understand the lyrics of this song:
hoy
today
una campana
a bell
este día
this day
hay que...
you have to...
festejar
to celebrate
nació
was born
Mark: Muy bien.
Ana said she had an older brother:
ya
already
un hermano mayor
an older brother
When talking about her brother, she said:
él vive en Valencia
he lives in Valencia.
The word él refers to “he”. It’s not necessary to
use this: vive en Valencia in the example above
would equally have meant “he lives in Valencia”.
2
porque
because
ayer
yesterday
Nochebuena
Christmas Eve
¡es genial!
it’s great
el niño / el niñito
the boy / the little boy
es justo lo que quería
It’s just what I wanted
Diós
God
¡Qué detalle!
That was so nice of you!
A loose translation of the song is as follows:
Christmas, Christmas, today is Christmas
This day must be celebrated with the ringing of bells
Christmas, Christmas, because already
Last night, Christmas Eve, the God-child was born.
Bonus language
In the bonus podcast for lesson 10 we’ve covered
some phrases which may be useful if you’re
giving presents to Spanish-speaking friends over
Christmas.
If you have something for someone you could
use one of the following phrases. Note that these
phrases are all in the informal forms:
te he traído algo
I’ve brought you something
Hopefully you’re now fully equipped to give and
accept Christmas presents in Spanish!
Bonus song
The extra podcast included a bonus Christmas
song. Here are the lyrics with a translation to
help you understand the Spanish lyrics.
Oh pueblecito de Belén,
cuan quieto tú estás.
Los astros en silencio dan
su bella luz en paz.
Mas en tus calles brilla
la luz de redención
que da a todo hombre
la eterna salvación.
The song words are explained in the bonus
podcast. The following words and phrases should
help you get the meaning of the lyrics.
esto es para ti
this is for you
Someone giving you a gift may say:
a ver si te gusta
let’s see if you like it
a ver si te queda bien
let’s see if it fits / suits you
Oh little town of Bethlehem
How still you are
The stars in silence
Peacefully shine their beautiful light.
But in your streets shines
the light of redemption
which gives to all men
eternal salvation.
espero que te guste
I hope you like it
If you’re accepting a gift then it would be
polite to say muchas gracias. You could also
say that you like it: me gusta or me encanta.
You could develop this by saying:
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