Bienvenidos a Twilingua: nuestra primera charla

Hi, I’m Fletcher Haines, former foreign correspondent and now semi-retired in Austin, Texas.

Y yo soy Octavio Solana, escritor y periodista desde Madrid, encantado de acompañarte en esta aventura de aprendizaje.

And I am Octavio Solana, writer and journalist from Madrid, happy to accompany you on this learning adventure.

Well, look, we met when I was writing about press freedom in Spain after the crisis.

Our interview lasted three hours — and then Octavio took me to a bar in Malasaña.

Sí, a partir de esa noche hemos seguido discutiendo y aprendiendo el uno del otro.

Yes, from that night on we have kept arguing and learning from each other.

Eso es lo que queremos compartir con los oyentes.

That’s what we want to share with listeners.

Right, so here's the thing — my daughter married someone from Madrid, and I thought it was about time I stopped just nodding and smiling at family dinners.

Y yo, en cambio, creo que las conversaciones reales son mejores que los libros de texto.

And I, on the other hand, believe that real conversations are better than textbooks.

Por eso decidimos hacer este podcast hablando como si estuviéramos en el bar.

That’s why we decided to make this podcast speaking as if we were at the bar.

The extraordinary thing is, our arguments about politics, culture, and food turned out to be the best language lessons either of us have had.

Es que, por ejemplo, recuerdo cuando Fletcher le dijo a mi madre que estaba “muy embarazado” en lugar de “avergonzado”.

It’s just that, for example, I remember when Fletcher told my mother he was “muy embarazado” instead of “avergonzado”.

Fue divertido, pero también muy instructivo.

It was funny but also very instructive.

[laughs] Yes, that one’s never going away.