Do you remember her? - Discussion

Lesson Introduction

You might need to be sitting down for this lesson. Today we'll hear some shocking news about Sofía... you remember Sofía, don't you? Today's podcast is just the beginning of an intrigue... to be continued!

Comments (49)

cyberdiva says

I'm curious about the expression ¡Qué fuerte!. JP translated it as "Dang!" or "Yikes!" Perhaps some people really do say that, but not the people I know. :-) They might say "Good grief!" but they're even more likely to say something stronger--"My God!"/"Oh my God!"/Jesus Christ! or even "No sh-t!"/"No f---ing" way!" I guess what I'm asking is whether ¡Qué fuerte! is equivalent to these stronger expressions, or whether it's more the equivalent of "Gosh" or "Oh dear."

March 2, 2008 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says Si cyberdiva Es una expresión para decir "Dios mio", "que increíble". Esta expresión es para demostrar que no puedes creer lo que estas escuchando. March 2, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Muchas gracias, Liliana, por tu respuesta rapida y útil.

March 2, 2008 from the Web.

kshipley says

!Que fuerte! Pienso que Sophia no es muerte-en realidad-quisas ella es-on holiday in the Maldives! :) Espero que, si no, estoy muy triste y tengo pelligroso para mi vida! Great lesson - como siempre !

March 2, 2008 from the Web.

luisita says

Quizas Sofia solo se murio del susto...

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

npshirley says

¿Quien es ellos? ¿Son La Familia? y por qué? Muchas preguntas con no respuestas.

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

yardbird says

Well, I'm certainly glad that I've learned this exclamation. Sin aprenderla, if I'd said something surprising to a Spanish speaker and they'd responded ¡Qué fuerte! I would have asked if I had spoken too loud or was acting too strong and macho. But I've been rescued just in time! And let's see, is it who killed this poor blonde woman? Was she in the Phillipines when it happened? Then we could blame it on Jamal Islamiya. Which is not a cool British rap artist but the Southeast Asian and Pacific Iland branch of al Qaeda. On the other hand, it could have been the U.S. CIA. I don't want to seem naive about such mysteries in today's world. Or maybe it was the Russian FSB using radioactive poison. Or the Chinese using poisonous toothpaste. The possibilities are numerous.

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

shep1582 says

¡O dios mio! ¿Spanishpod, no se acuerdan del cuento? Dos hombres misteriosos oyeron por casualidad que Sofia fue a ayudar su hermaña con su plan por venganza. Por lo tanto, la murieron. La Spanishpod Times informó que el apellido de Sofia fue "Magadelena". ¡Espero Carlota no lo descubre porque Claudio y Fernando van a morir un muerte horrible!

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

projectperu says

Que fuerte, hmmmm? Pensamiento este expresion es circa la igual a "mira vea!" pero mas fuerte. Si o no?

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

yardbird says

Okay, here's a more serious comment, never mind the international conspiracy theories. I thought that to remember was "recordar," much as in Latin, although I didn't know if it used the reflexive "se" or not. I thought it was olvidar and recordar. Or olvidarse and recordarse. But now it's acordarse? I thought that meant to agree (be in accord ) with. If we agree on something, decimos que estamos están de acuerdo, no? Is it the same word, but the "remember" usage is distinguished from the agreement meaning by its use of the reflexive form? Thanks.

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

yardbird says

I just listened to the dialogue again, and I'm cracking up. The way she says "Qué fuerte! is not at all in the tone yu guys are talking about, as an exclamation. Oh my God! You're kidding! No, it sounds more as if she were saying, very seriously, "Ay, qué lástima. Or qué tragedia. Pobrecita... The very way she says this sounds as if she has known previously that the woman was in some sort of trouble that could, in the extreme, possibly be lethal, but she is sadly surprised to hear that the worst has actually come to pass. For example, she knew that Sofia had been captured by the FARQ while on holiday in the Colombia countryside, and had been held incommunicado for six months. But the last she heard, Hugo Chavez had made a deal with the FARQ over the head of the colombian government to get her released, and Sofia had been expected to return home to Mexico City any day. But now the news has gotten around that in fact she wasn't released, and her captors killed her after all? So our woman in the dialogue says she's surprised, but in a sad way that makes it clear she's hardly astonished. She sort of knew it might come out this way. i don't know. It just sounds cute. And definitely not truly, excitedly surprised. which leads me to wonder, maybe SHE is part of the conspiracy? Just pretending to be surprised and sad?

March 3, 2008 from the Web.

paulohenriques says

El mistério del asasinato de Sofia....

March 4, 2008 from the Web.

memmifer says

Hi, I'm a new user here, on both SpanishPod and ChinesePod. (And I'm waiting for ItalianPod, FrenchPod, ... :) I love your podcasts. Even though my Spanish is maybe high intermediate, I get a lot out of doing ALL the podcasts -- there's always something I don't know in every one. BTW, I have a few usability suggestions/enhancements for you to consider: 1) Vocabulary: how about using the supplementary vocabulary in the expansion sentences? They're much easier to remember in the context of a sentence. 2) Exercise 1: The sentence case (upper/lower) gives away the answer - makes the answers a no-brainer. Perhaps you could/should put all text into lower case? Or swap words that don't start the sentence. 3) Exercise 3: Fill in the blanks - sometimes there are two blanks, but there is only space for one answer (and the control only seems to expect one answer.) Confusing... - could you wrap the answer words (at the top) earlier in the line so that they're not out of view (and don't require horizontal scrolling?) The control often doesn't repaint correctly after scrolling, making it confusing to do the exercise.

March 4, 2008 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says memmifer Thanks so much for your suggestions. We are working in changing our exercises, and all this are great ideas. March 4, 2008 from the Web.

yardbird says

Hi. I'll ask this again, hopeing for an answer. I always thought that "to remember" was recordar. But in this lesson, I learn the expression acordarse. Does this mean that recordar isn't useful at all? Or are the two interchangeable? Moreover,though the reflexive se is part of acordarse, I am unclear whether or not this construction is supposed to be used with recordar and olvidar (to forget). I'm trying to remember a lesson from the short Spanish conversational course I took hace unos años where we were taught to say "me olvidé el cuaderno" to say "i forgot my notebook" (a variant on "the dog ate my homework). But I never got this rflexive thing clear as pertains to remember and forget. I forgot myself my notebook? Or just I forgot my notebook? I remember (recordar) something, or I remember myself something? I will repeat my first question. Acordarse versus recordar? Could someone hold forth on this, please? Thanks very much. And my apologies for misspelling the acronym FARC. My mind was on vacation. Still, I am mourning for Sofia.Pobrecita. Tan joven, tan rubia, y tan muerta.

March 5, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Hola Yardbird. I've had the same question in the past, and I've been told by native speakers that the two terms are pretty much synonymous and interchangeable.

March 5, 2008 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says cyberdiva y yarbird Acordarse y recordar son sinónimos. "No recuerdo su nombre", "no me acuerdo de su nombre". Ambos ejemplos tienen el mismo significado. March 5, 2008 from the Web.

lvalmoria says

Pienso que se mataron Sofia después de que ella diera a mafia el número correcto. Acabo de escuchar la lección en el número de teléfono incorrecto (http://spanishpod.com/lessons/wrong-phone-number), y mi teoría es, Sofía era espía!

March 6, 2008 from the Web.

missy2 says

yardbird You should do the spanishpod blog. You have quite the sense of humor and imagination to match it.

March 6, 2008 from the Web.

yardbird says

Missy, thanks for the compliment, but I've not yet even seen the blog. If I can find the link to it, I'll take a look and see what's going on Can you give me the link from the home page that's titled Your Lessons? Just the name of the link, not its position on the page or any other visual description of where to look for it. Just the link's label. I'm using a program called a screen reader (text to speech) to access the site, because I can't see it clearly, and that's how such a program works, in this case. thanks. And Lili, thanks for confirming that acordarse de and recordar (thanks for making it clear that they use different grammar) are more or less synonymous. But surely there's some difference in the feeling conveyed by each, different in tone from the other in a given context. In English no two words are literally synonyms for each other, and that's the most important thing someone learning english as a second language has to understand about using a thesaurus. I don't want to get all tied up in that, so please just believe me. I know you do. So, that said, could you or someone please think about acordarse and recordar and show us some examples where one way of saying this would convey a certain feeling or meaning, and the other way would be different? I know it's not arbitrary, and I'd like to understand the nuances of this. thanks very much.

March 6, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Hola Yardbird. On the WordReference.com forum, this question (acordarse vs. recordar) has been discussed a number of times. I haven't looked at all the discussions, but in those I have read, many native speakers indicate that the two are pretty much synonymous, though several point out that "recordar" can also mean "to recall," and presumably "acordarse" does not have this other meaning. You may wish to take a look at March 6, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Arrgh, I seem to have screwed up my message. Somehow I put "Espero que te sirva" in the middle of my message (in the middle of a link) rather than at the end, where I thought I was writing it. And somehow that cut out the last part of my message. Oh well, in spite of being called "Espero que te sirva," the link goes to the discussion I was suggesting you look at. The last four messages in that discussion may be particularly relevant to your question. The first of those four begins "No es muy sencillo explicar esto sin una explicacion filologica y complicada." I hope this will enable your screen reader to find it. I also strongly wish that there were a "preview" option available with our comments (as there is in lots of other forums/blogs, etc.). That would have saved me from mangling my previous message. Alternatively, as I've suggested before, it would be very useful to be able to edit our comments.

March 6, 2008 from the Web.

ewong says

muy misteriosa! re the hair color, pelirroja is red hair, como se dice "black hair" es pelinegro? does peli mean hair? I checked, the translation of hair is cabello. What is more commonly use cabello o peli?

March 9, 2008 from the Web.

Team

jpvillanueva says

ewong, "Pelirroja" is a special word for redhead, so it doesn't exactly mean "red hair." A "pelirrojo" has red hair, but also fair coloration. If you want to refer to someone with dark or black hair, you call them "moreno." A person with blond hair is called a "rubio." Note that none of these words actually contain the word "hair" (although 'pelirrojo' is an almost!). "Pelo" and "cabello" are both words for hair; "cabello" is specifically the hair on your head, where as "pelo" is the general word for "hair" that can mean hair on the head or hair on your arm, or on your toes, or anywhere else. Yes, anywhere else. : )

March 9, 2008 from the Web.

ewong says

gracias JP. so if would say my hair is black, it would be "mi cabello es negro" or I have black hair "tengo negro cabello"

March 12, 2008 from the Web.

Team

jpvillanueva says

ewong, You can say any of the following options: Tengo el pelo negro. Soy morena. Tengo el cabello negro--you can say this, it's understood, but the first two options above are more common ways to say it. For your purposes, I recommend not messing with the word "cabello." I almost never say that word! Remember, the dictionary can tell you approximate equivalents, but you should ALWAYS check with a native speaker if it's something that counts. The dictionary does not tell you the whole story.

March 12, 2008 from the Web.

docmolly says

Que fuerte....esta lección! Me hizo pensar en la violencia que pasó durante los ochenta en Guatemala o de los paramilitares en Colombia! Pero, no voy a continuar, porque acá practicamos español, y opino que es mejor evitar la política en tal lugar.

March 13, 2008 from the Web.

ewong says

thanks JP

March 14, 2008 from the Web.

rishabh says

No entiendo "Que fuerte",podemos usar la exprecion para expressar todos tipos de sopresa?Can anyone clear my doubt?

March 15, 2008 from the Web.

Team	jpvillanueva says rishabh, This "que fuerte" is used to express shock when something serious has happened. It's not for happy surprises. It's hard to express in English; when I hear bad news, I might say, "oh my goodness" or something along those lines. March 15, 2008 from the Web.

npshirley says

Espero que los matarones no saben estes gentes que están hablando. Ellos podría los proximos. (I hope that the killers don´t know these persons that are talking. They could be next.)

March 17, 2008 from the Web.

estornino says

Tengo el sentido que Sofia le mató por causa de la administración de los Republicanos –– probablemente fue Cheney en alguna manera. Tal vez ella fue una agente de la prensa liberal. Pero, … puede ser viva como una prisionera en Guantánamo. ¿Dónde está su cuerpo? Y, ¿qué es eso olor? ¿Estás fumando algo?

April 4, 2008 from the Web.

macaca says

this was really an interesting lesson - I am a beginner have found the few lessons I have managed to listen to really great - I am understanding everything and next time I will attempt to write in Spanish - the comments are most interesting and useful too - thanks so much!

April 23, 2008 from the Web.

macaca says

buenas noches a todos, muchas gracias, hasta luego.

April 23, 2008 from the Web.

kizzyk says

Excelente muchas gracias ¡Que furete! Sophia was raped and killed by a serial killer.

April 28, 2008 from the Web.

dtang says

cyberdiva y yarbird Acordarse y recordar son sinónimos. "No recuerdo su nombre", "no me acuerdo de su nombre". Ambos ejemplos tienen el mismo significado.

This was always confusing for me, but thanks now! Makes a lot of sense... btw many compliments on the style and presentation of the lessons. The system makes it "mas facil para recuerda las palabras". And JP and Lili, you are always fun to listen to!

May 16, 2008 from the Web.

jaimemayo says

En vez de "¿Te tiñes el pelo"? es posible decir "Te pintas el pelo"? Creo que se dice en el Caribe.

May 25, 2008 from the Web.

tufan says

Creo que relato va a acabar mas doloroso para mi , si Sofia estaria pelirroja. Porque me encanta pelirrojas :-)

May 29, 2008 from the Web.

aventuremacher says

Si fue en Espana, quizas fue a la corrida de toros... entonces estaban "ellos" los toros. En todo caso es mi teoria por el momento. !Que fuerte!

June 7, 2008 from the Web.

bonitalynn14 says

you guys are really good at spainsh, ive been learning for about 6 years and still.... nothing! i can speak a sentence but if someone speaks back i'm gone mi no espeaken esponol mui mucho (as u can tell i suck)

June 26, 2008 from the Web.

stevestr says

bonitalynn14

I fell the same way. I am no expert on the subject of language acquisition but I have read a little bit about it and will give you my thoughts. Please fell free to stop reading if you get bored or fell that I don’t know what I am talking about. Most people currently believe that the best way to learn a language is by listening, reading and speak it, not by studding grammar in books which is how it is done in many schools. They also say that the best way to increase your vocabulary is of course by using the words you are trying to learn but also by hearing and seeing them in context not to study a vocabulary list from a Spanish book. What I have been doing is getting the dialogs form the Spanishpod lessons. I would then select the words to study from the lessons and put them on index cards so that I can easily study them during the day. I also listen to the lesson a few times along with the lesson review. This way I hear the words in context. I also read t  he dialogs so that I see them in context. I think it is good to use as many sense as possible.

There are websites that you can use to find Spanish speakers who are studding English to practices with. Most people used Skype but some use MSN Messenger. Usually you spend half the time speaking Spanish and the other half speaking English. I have never used them but I know people who like them very much. Below are a few links

http://www.language-exchanges.org

http://www.mylanguageexchange.com

http://www.sharedtalk.com

http://www.conversationexchange.com

http://www.livemocha.com

There is a thread on the subject of learning materials and methods on this blog. Here is a link.

http://spanishpod.com/community/conversations/post/339

June 26, 2008 from the Web.

marcobestgen says

¡ No voy a dormir bien del todo ! ¿ Que paso con la chica ? arghhHhHhhH quiero saberrrrr (pero es muy tarde y debo dormir,) hasta mañana chicos .... Marcito

October 26, 2009 from the Web.

samschuermann says

I LOVE SPANISH POD! ive learned so much already after only two days! yay.