Pratique : se décrire, sa famille, ses émotions

¡Bienvenidos! Welcome back to Spanish for Beginners. This is lesson twenty-seven of course one. As always, I'm your teacher, Isabella. Let's get started.

Let's begin by reviewing the vocabulary from the previous lesson. Repeat after me. ¿Cómo eres? La personalidad. Amable. Valiente. Sensible. Horrible. Ambicioso. Apasionado. Cuidadoso. Cínico. Dependiente. Independiente. Fuerte. Divertido. Gracioso. Dulce. Educado. Inteligente. Generoso. Paciente. Impaciente. Impulsivo. Interesante. Malo. Mentiroso. Perezoso. Poderoso. Positivo. Reservado. Serio. Simpático. Talentoso. Muy bien.

So in today's lesson, we will practice and build. Basically, this is a review lesson. In the previous course, we spent quite a lot of time practicing. We will continue to practice in this course as well, but I'm going to dedicate less time to it than before.

So to begin : "Explica tu árbol genealógico" (Explain your family tree). I've given you the beginning : "En mi familia tengo…" (In my family I have…). Pause and describe your family. Tell me who is in your family and give numbers. For example : "tengo dos hermanos". Here's what I wrote : "En mi familia tengo dos padres, cuatro abuelos, siete tíos, nueve primos y un sobrino" (note : sobrino = nephew, not given in earlier lessons).

Let's continue. "En la familia de mi madre tiene…" (In my mother's family she has…). Pause and tell me about your mother's family. Here's what I wrote : "En la familia de mi madre tiene dos padres, cuatro hermanos, diez sobrinos y sobrinas, dos tíos y cuatro sobrinas. Pero no sabe cuántos primos tiene." (But she doesn't know how many cousins she has.)

"¿Cómo estás?" Tell me how you are. How do you feel today? "Hoy me siento…" Tell me with at least three emotions. Here's mine : "Hoy me siento feliz, cansada y cómoda." Today, I feel happy, tired and comfortable.

Let's do the Simon Says again. "¡Toca la cabeza! ¡Toca la cadera! ¡Toca el hombro! ¡Toca la pierna derecha! ¡Toca los pies! ¡Toca el codo! ¡Toca las orejas! ¡Toca el brazo izquierdo! ¡Toca los dedos! ¡Toca las orejas! ¡Toca los ojos! ¡Toca la rodilla! ¡Toca el tobillo!"

Now, "¿Cómo eres?". You remember : this has two meanings, what you look like and what you are like (personality). In this sense, we'll go physical first. Pause and give at least 3 descriptions for "soy" and 2 for "tengo". Here's what I wrote : "Soy rubia, baja, delgada. Tengo veinticuatro años y los ojos azules."

Now the other option : tell me your personality. "¿Cómo eres?" What are you like as a person? Pause and give me at least three personality traits. Here's what I wrote : "Soy amable, cínica y ambiciosa."

"Junto" (altogether) : "Descríbete a ti y a tu familia." Describe yourself and your family. I want you to take the time to put everything together in one big paragraph. Describe who you are, what you look like, and who is in your family, as if you were introducing yourself at a party.

This is what I wrote : "Me llamo Isabella, tengo veinticuatro años. Tengo los ojos azules, soy rubia, corta y delgada. Soy una persona amable, graciosa y perezosa. No tengo una familia muy grande, pero tengo dos padres, cuatro abuelos, siete tíos y nueve primos. Hoy me siento cansada y feliz."

Translation : "My name is Isabella, I'm 24 years old. I have blue eyes, I'm blonde, short and slender. I am a nice, funny and lazy person. I don't have a very large family, but I have two parents, four grandparents, seven aunts and uncles and nine cousins. Today, I feel tired and happy."

Conversation practice. I'll be black, you'll be red.

Hola. ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿Cómo estás?

How did you do? These should have been your responses. For the last one, you can say "estoy" or "me siento", same thing.

A little harder now. I'll ask, you answer.

¿Cómo eres? ¿Tienes familia? ¿Quiénes son tu familia?

"¿Cómo eres?" : I purposefully didn't specify. In this conversational context, personality would be better since you'd be face to face.

"¿Tienes familia?" : do you have family? Simple answer "Sí". Or "Sí, tengo familia".

"¿Quiénes son tu familia?" : who is in your family? "En mi familia tengo…" and list your family members.

That is the end of this lesson. We will be doing more of these review lessons sporadically throughout the entire course. In the next lesson, we will be back to learning more vocabulary. Until then, hasta luego.