Upper Intermediate - Business Partner

Pregunta del día, ¿Qué tal los negocios? La recesión económica que dicen que es posible que pasemos, ¿te hace estar nervioso?

Hi. There's a problem with the pdf transcript. The first page is OK, but beginning with the second page, the English translation does not appear in the right place. Speaker B says "Sí mucho más, además ya lo hemos hecho, sólo que si importamos cantidades más grandes el precio será aun mejor," but the translation given for all this is simply "Really?" "Really" should have appeared the end of the previous statement. The translation that follows the next statement by A is not what A has said, but rather what B had said earlier, and each of the statements from then on has the same problem. In each case, the translation belongs with the previous statement.

Cyberdiva Muchas gracias, ya estamos arreglando el error.

cyberdiva, Check the PDF now, I think it's fixed! Thanks for being patient with us; daily publishing on a live website is pretty demanding, and errors like these slip out (much to my chagrin!). Please know that we do our best to avoid errors, but if you spot one, let us know, and we'll tackle it! ¡Pa' delante!

it is still mixed up. Check the PDF from the following line and onward: " By importing them the retail price becomes more competitive."

Hi kikuyu, It's been fixed! If your copy is still wrong, please try re-downloading it. :)

Works OK for me.

Yes, now it's fine. Thanks very much for fixing this so quickly.

?"Tiene que ver con" es translado - "it has to do with". Quando hace "tiene que" se dice. - it is necessary y quando se dice- "it has to do with"?

Aun estan trabajando para arreglar los problemas del ultimo ejercicio? Casi todos los dias hay algo que no fiunciona en esta parte de los ejercicios.

Hola abuelojack. I think that "tiene que" (or more generally "tener que") almost always means "has/have to" except when the phrase is "tiene que ver" (or tener que ver), usually followed by "con." That's simply a different expression, and, as you note, it means "to have to do with." For example, "No tengo nada que ver con eso" = I have nothing to do with that. "Juan no tiene nada que ver con el robo" - Juan has nothing to do with the robbery.

¿Quién tiene un socio? Yo tengo el mejor socio en el estudio JP!

Aw, Lili, yo sin ti no valgo nada... Eres el viento que me llena las velas, el queso de mi taco, el dinosaurio de mi prehistoria...

Como respuesta de lo arriba, podría decir? "Qué cursi!" Pero así me gustan ustedes. Hacen que el aprender español sea muy divertido!

Oh, casi se me olvidó por que vino aquí: mi comentario sobre esta lección: Normalmente no me gusta aprender el lenguaje de negocios. Pero este podcast, sí me gustó. Usaron frases que son útiles en cualquier tipo de oficina. También, creo que JP tiene un buen punto con respeto a como enfatizamos en inglés unas palabras con la voz, pero en español enfatizamos con fraces como "a mí, a tí y hasta yo." A veces digo cosas como ME gusta también, con enfasis en "me," y suena raro. Me gusta a mi también es mucho mejor. Graicas JP.

oops, error: "....porque vine aquí..."

docmolly Si puedes decir "que cursi" jajaja. Que bueno que te gusto la lección queríamos hacer algo que le ayude a personas que no sean empresarios.

Gracias, Cyberdiva. The use of the word ver throws me, I don't see, ja ja, the metaphor behind the idioma but I accept that it is just a phrase. Thanks Abuelo Jack

Hola, todos. Yo tengo una pregunta sobre la palabra "volverse". Ustedes han decido que "volverse" significa "to become", pero tambien he oido que "ponerse" y "hacerse" significan lo mismo. Son iquales? O hay una diferencia sobre las tres palabras?

Hola Katymae. There's an interesting discussion of ponerse, hacerse, and volverse in an extremely good book entitled Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish, written by Joseph J. Keenan. Keenan says that "As a rule, ponerse is the handiest word for "to become." It's used most often for fleeting states of mind or conditions, such as "ponerse furioso" [to get/become furious], "ponerse nervioso" [to get/become nervous], and "ponerse viejo" [to get/become old]. Keenan says that for longer-term, usually nonreversible conditions, hacerse is the verb to use. He uses the examples "Me hice rico' [I became/got rich] and "El penique se está haciendo inútil" [The penny is becoming useless]. He says that one can also use "hacerse" with "viejo," but "hacerse viejo" suggests becoming an old person or becoming elderly, whereas "ponerse viejo" hits at starting to feel or look old. As for "volverse," Keenan says this is best translated as "to turn into," as in "Se ha vuelto una verdadera molestia" [He's become/turned into a real nuisance]. He also says that "volverse" is the only phrase to use for "to go crazy" in the permanent state: "volverse loco." The discussion is considerably longer than what I've reproduced here; it's definitely worth looking at in its entirety (pp. 137-38).

Gracias, cyberdiva - thanks for the explanation, and I will definitely look for that book!

Cyberdiva, thanks for the book recommendation -- yet another book to add to my top-heavy language-oriented bookshelves!

In the dialog we have, "baterıas electricas para auto". In the PDF this is translated as "electric car batteries". Aren't all batteries electric? Is the Spanish translation for "battery" "bateria electrica", or are we talking about batteries for electric cars -- something perhaps entirely different! Perhaps a better English translation might just leave out the term "electric?" I don't imagine those Prius batteries can be put into my Subaru.