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Newbie - Table for Two

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Lesson Information
Hosts: Liliana,  JP
ID: 0015
Difficulty: Newbie
Published: November 30, 2007
Topics: restaurant, reservation
Functions: going out to eat
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Lesson Introduction

Here's a lesson about asking to be seated at a restaurant; a simple dialouge between diner and host or hostess. Listen for two different ways to say "please" in Spanish, since good manners always leave a good impression.

Comments (32) RSS

Avatar Team
jpvillanueva says
The "eating" theme continues! There are more restaurant words for you in the Vocabulary section (orange tab above). Where I'm from, the bill usually comes without me having to ask for it, but that's not true in a lot of places in the world. When it's time to pay, you can say: La cuenta, por favor That's "Check, please!" What other restaurant vocab would you all like to know?
November 29, 2007 from the Web.
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lilianamata says
"Quiero salsa picante" which means " I want hot sauce." I am always asking for some kind of salsa, if they have Tabasco it's great but if they do not have then I would like chunky salsa.
November 29, 2007 from the Web.
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tholman says
i am having trouble with the phrase "if you please or be so kind".......can someone spell that phrase out for me as i cannot pick up the words..............supposed to be four words but i can understand them......gracias
December 2, 2007 from the Web.
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jpvillanueva says
tholman, You're looking for the phrase "si es tan amable." If you'd like to see the dialog in written form, scroll up to click the orange tab that says "dialogue." Or you can download the Lesson PDF (below the picture in the upper left, below the flash player, under "Lesson Downloads." Enjoy!
December 2, 2007 from the Web.
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lilianamata says
To cancel a reservation you can say "quiero cancelar mi reservación" which means " I want to cancel my reservation."
December 2, 2007 from the Web.
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yardbird says
Until now, the only extra feature I've used from time to time have been the .pdf displays of the lessons, which I'm able to read with my blind adaptive program even though it reads the Spanish crazily unless I switch the voice cynthesizer to speak Latin American spanish, which is tricky in this kind of situation. So I sometimes just go over the words letter by letter and thus figure out their spelling. That works. But today, on this lesson, I decided to click on the tabs Ithey present as links to me) called Dialogue,Vocabulary and the other one, Extensions, is it? to see how they worked. Well, to my surprise, for each one I got an identical page containing nothing but global site links and little else. No sign of dialogue, vocab or other material. Are the contents of those pages encoded in something other than HTML? Are they purely graphical except for the global navigation links? I would love to be able to enrich my SpanishPod learning experience with these features. thanks.
December 3, 2007 from the Web.
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darda says
how do you say "this one's on me" ? I'm in a generous mood ;) lol
December 3, 2007 from the Web.
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leoguerrero says
The closest translation would be: "Esta la pago yo"
December 3, 2007 from the Web.
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lilianamata says
You can also say "Me siento generoso, yo pago" which means " I feel generous, I pay."
December 3, 2007 from the Web.
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darda says
thank you both =)
December 5, 2007 from the Web.
Avatar Team
jpvillanueva says
yardbird, There are graphic links to audio files for each of the text items on the Dialogue, Vocabulary, and Expansion pages. Find the row of tabs, and then just to the south-east of the word "Exercises" you'll find the words "How do I use this?" Due south of the words "use this" you'll find the row of graphic links; each graphic link is an the audio version of the sentence whose text is to the left. The dialogue sentences on the dialogue page are the same sentences you hear in the podcast, and in the Dialogue MP3 (under "Lesson Downloads"). You can hear the same audio from the Vocabulary and Expansion pages if you listen to the Fix MP3. Hope that helps, my friend!
December 5, 2007 from the Web.
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lilianamata says
If you are on a business lunch and you need a receipt you can say " me da recibo por favor " which translates into "can you give me a receipt."
December 5, 2007 from the Web.
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estibalitz says
Dear friends, in Spain we don´t say ¨una reservación´´ instead we say:UNA RESERVA, which means exactly the same.
December 9, 2007 from the Web.
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yardbird says
J.P., I probably said this somewhere else, but I use the blind adaptive computer program called a screen reader, and the way these work is that they pick up HTML coding and text and render it into speech, while the user navigates the screen and performs tasks using keyboard commands. In the case of the tabs and other screen elements you describe as graphic, these are invisible to my program, so it's as if those elements weren't on the page. As I said somewhere else, I was just curious. I don't really mind downloading an .mp3 file to stream rather than playing it directly from the site. In fact, sometimes that method uses an online player tht's proprietary to the Web site and there aren't any scripts for it built into my program (Jaws) to find and speak its controls so I can access them, so such a player can be unworkable for me. On the National Public Radio Web site, for example, they recently added a proprietary player for online streaming, but a screen reader user can't find or operate its controls once it launches, so you have to just sit and wait helplessly for it to play to the end of the file. I wrote them and they understood, and directed me to the text only mirror site of http://www.npr.org, where in the exact same place in the program listings when you click on the audio of a segment, your own player (Winamp in my case, at the moment, though it could be Windows Meida Player or Real Player, too) launches. Much better. So don't worry about the invisible streaming links. It's not that important or tragic for me.
December 9, 2007 from the Web.
Avatar Team
jpvillanueva says
dear yardbird, I'm glad you're able to access the mp3s through the text links on the left side of the page. Please do let me know if you have suggestions to make the page accessible to all users. That goes for everyone! : )
December 10, 2007 from the Web.
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yardbird says
Well, left side, right side, how would I know. It's all just a gray blur. I'm not peering at the screen with a mouse in my hand, hunting for anything. It's completely different, this way of operating the computer. But it works, I'm grateful to say. And definitely, I'll be sure to mention page design factors in terms of accessibility when it matters. Thanks for caring. By the way, when I say page design, I mean it at the coding level, not appearance. Just to clarify.
December 11, 2007 from the Web.
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AuntySue says
Today I'm using a text mode browser called lynx, which I often do when my desktop computer fries in a storm (like today) or just because I'm sitting comfy at the (text mode) server computer already. For people who use screen readers from MSDos or Unix style interfaces, lynx is the browser often used, so I'm getting a good visual indication of what their screen reader would be speaking. (Yardbird's situation is probably completely different since he's using a GUI display to extract text from, which would feel like a strange round-about way to me, horses for courses.) With my setup, I'm very pleased with how the site looks and works. There is a lot of Premium material I can't access because it's presented in Flash which I can't use (or see) unless I'm on a recently built computer with a GUI. But the rest of the Premium stuff, all the text, looks good to my eyes. There's none of it missing or messed up. I tried all tabs. The vocab list is nicely tabulated, expansion has the English present (in brackets) underneath the Spanish, no sound options but also no screen clutter where they would have been. On my ANSI terminal I'm getting all of the letters without the accents, but no missing letters or strange characters as far as I've noticed, so the Spanish is readable. The Exercises tab, of course, just comes up with the header and footer junk because it's all in Flash and I can't do Flash, so that's what I expected. On each of these tabs you get the long Help text that goes with it, displayed underneath the body of the page. In general, the arrangement of non-page-body components above and below looks sensible and convenient. Yardbird, this has nothing to do with you, I'm sighted, just reporting from another perspective where it is very important to degrade gracefully into plain text, and it does. In the remote chance that you might like to try lynx (but hell why would you when your screen reader has a wonderful modern GUI to play with), you would likely see the same as I do, though what you need to see would be different of course. But maybe what I'm getting is the same as what you're getting already.
December 11, 2007 from the Web.
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AuntySue says
Today I'm using a text mode browser called lynx, which I often do when my desktop computer fries in a storm (like today) or just because I'm sitting comfy at the (text mode) server computer already. For people who use screen readers from MSDos or Unix style interfaces, lynx is the browser often used, so I'm getting a good visual indication of what their screen reader would be speaking. (Yardbird's situation is probably completely different since he's using a GUI display to extract text from, which would feel like a strange round-about way to me, horses for courses.) With my setup, I'm very pleased with how the site looks and works. There is a lot of Premium material I can't access because it's presented in Flash which I can't use (or see) unless I'm on a recently built computer with a GUI. But the rest of the Premium stuff, all the text, looks good to my eyes. There's none of it missing or messed up. I tried all tabs. The vocab list is nicely tabulated, expansion has the English present (in brackets) underneath the Spanish, no sound options but also no screen clutter where they would have been. On my ANSI terminal I'm getting all of the letters without the accents, but no missing letters or strange characters as far as I've noticed, so the Spanish is readable. The Exercises tab, of course, just comes up with the header and footer junk because it's all in Flash and I can't do Flash, so that's what I expected. On each of these tabs you get the long Help text that goes with it, displayed underneath the body of the page. In general, the arrangement of non-page-body components above and below looks sensible and convenient. Yardbird, this has nothing to do with you, I'm sighted, just reporting from another perspective where it is very important to degrade gracefully into plain text, and it does. In the remote chance that you might like to try lynx (but hell why would you when your screen reader has a wonderful modern GUI to play with), you would likely see the same as I do, though what you need to see would be different of course. But maybe what I'm getting is the same as what you're getting already.
December 11, 2007 from the Web.
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AuntySue says
Oh dear, sorry about that, I found a negative. When posting with lynx, there is no indication that "Add Comment" worked, and the new comment doesn't appear at the end of the discussion. That might have something to do with lynx having no javascript. So I posted my tome twice, sorry. Maybe admins could delete one? (I'm trying links this time instead of lynx)
December 11, 2007 from the Web.
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yardbird says
aunti sue, You're right. I'm using the screen reader Jaws from Freedom Scientific, which is the most popular screen reader ahead of Window eyes. When I was still using a DOS computer, prior to getting my first Windows operating system, it happens that I did use Lynx, because the server at my ISP was a Unix shell or whatever you properly call it. So I'm familiar with that, but the ppredominant blind computer setup is all designed around the Windows operating system. There are a few holdouts in the blind computing world who use equipment something like yours and some sort of screen reader whose name I forgot, but they're what amounts to an eccentric and tiny minority. The entire engineering effort around blind adaptive technology has to do with accessing the Windows GUI, as that's the predominant system under which all but about 10 per cent of the world's computers are running, and the point is to be in that arena and be able to communicate in that world. Apple has been slowly developing a text to speech feature in the Mac o/s, but according to most serious blind computer users, it's not quite ready for prime time. Carry on, then.
December 11, 2007 from the Web.
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AuntySue says
So what's the deal with smoking in restaurants in some Spanish speaking countries that you know about? Is it common to have separate smoking and non-smoking sections so you'd need to state that when booking? Or is it outright banned in restaurants? Or is there very little or no restriction? Whether smoker or not, this kind of thing can easily trip you up when visiting an unfamiliar country and the norms are not what you're used to. At worst it can spoil a well planned relaxing evening. Especially if you're a smoker ;-)
December 12, 2007 from the Web.
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fimperial says
Como se dice (in a nice way), "Let me pay or you'll be in trouble"?
December 13, 2007 from the Web.
Avatar Team
lilianamata says
fimperial You can say "déjame pagar si no quieres problemas."
December 13, 2007 from the Web.
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fimperial says
Gracias Liliana - como se dice 'doggy bag'? Can one say "Quisera una [doggybag] por favor?" or is there a better way to say this?
December 14, 2007 from the Web.
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pebakk says
Yardbird, The section your screen reader doesn't seem to want to read is actually Flash-based. I've never used screen readers, so I could be wrong, but I don't think there is a screen reader developed that can handle Flash. JP, You asked what could be done to make the site more accessible? Get rid of the Flash for things that are needed. In the Expansions tab, the exact same thing can be accomplished with just HTML and CSS. Flash is overused and, as you can see, presents accessibility issues. I'm guessing you're not the web designer, so you may want to pass that along and see what can be done to change it to make SpanishPod.com more accessible.
December 31, 2007 from the Web.
Avatar Team
jpvillanueva says
Thanks pebakk! I'll pass it along!
December 31, 2007 from the Web.
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kensa says
pienso que tengo encontrar just what necesito to get me donde quiero ir. I will enjoy this programme. Pienco esta muy bien.
March 16, 2008 from the Web.
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playinginthefields says
what are your menu specials? recommendations?
April 4, 2008 from the Web.
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twobit says

Hi everyone. As a newbie, I am a little confused about something which will probably sound silly in the asking. It is the use of the indefinite article in Spanish.I notice in this lesson that the expression..."tiene reservacion?"is used to mean..." Do you have a reservation?" Sometimes I have seen it written " Tiene una reservacion?"Does this mean that the use of the indefinite article is optional in Spanish?

December 30, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

Twobit

You asked an excellent question.  This is something I always wondered about and it does not seem to be taught in schools.  The text in blue comes from A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish fourth edition by John Butt and Carmen Benjamin.

 

Section 3.3.8 Omission of nu/una after other verbs

Spanish does not use un/una after a number of verbs such as tener ‘to have’, comprar ‘to buy’ sacer ‘to take/draw out’ (with cinema tickets, etc. ‘to buy’ or ‘to book’) , buscar ‘to look for’, llevar ‘to wear’ , when their direct object is a noun referring to things of which one would normally have or carry only one: umbrella, pen, spoon, nanny, valet, cook, hat.

Pepe ya tiena secretaria – ‘Pepe’s got a secretary now’

¿Tenías idea de lo que serías capaz de hacer? Did you have any idea of what you’d be able to do?

Ya he scado entrada – I’ve already got a ticket.

…..

(i)                  The indefinite article is used if the object has special characteristics: ‘llevaba una falda blanca’ –‘She wear a white skirt’

(ii)                Use of un/una with unqualified nouns may hint at some suppressed comment: tiene un coche/una casa – ‘you should se his car/house/

 

You also do not use the article with things like professions, occupations, social status, sex, unless there is a qualifier.

For example :

Soy piloto – I am a pilot

But

Soy un piloto bueno – I am a good pilot.

December 30, 2008 from the Web.
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evandar says

Nunca he oído la frase "si es tan amable" antes de esta lección. ¡Gracias por un ejercicio útil!

September 27, 2009 from the Web.
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donperigo says

Para mi lo interesante es que no es condicional como en Inglés. En el indicativo, me suena como un desafío. ¡muestrame, sea amable!

Me pregunto si se puede decir "si serías tan amable".

For me the interesting thing is that is not conditional, as in English. In the indicative, to me it sounds like a challenge. Show me, be nice!

I wonder if you can say "if you would be so kind."

September 28, 2009 from the Web.

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