Your Chapter 1 task is to introduce yourself and get to know someone else by asking basic personal questions. 

Meet Gabby, as she introduces herself to you and asks you questions to get to know you.

Steps to take to achieve this task:

1. Los saludos– use formal and informal greetings to greet someone
2. Preséntate– introduce yourself in Spanish and ask questions to get to know others in formal and informal contexts
3. ¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre?– use the alphabet to spell your name and pronounce words in Spanish and ask others to spell their names
4. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?– use numbers, dates and months to share more personal information such as your birthday, age and phone number
5. Las despedidas– say farewell in a variety of ways when concluding a conversation
6. Task 1 Assessment– introduce yourself in Spanish and ask someone else basic personal questions to get to know them

I. Los saludos (Greetings)

¡Hola! 🙂 Greetings in Spanish vary by region, culture and context or setting.  Greetings among Latinos often include a hug and kiss on the cheek. Have you ever greeted someone from Latin America or Spain? What was the greeting like? Was it different from how you greet friends, family or someone you met for the first time in your culture?

Watch as Nas Daily Español shares his experience greeting people from Spain and Latin America.

Did you know that in Spain and Latinx countries, informal greetings are generally used for family, friends or someone that is your age or younger, and formal greetings demonstrate a level of respect and are reserved for professional settings or when greeting someone older than you?  

A common greeting in Spanish used in both informal and formal settings is ¡Hola! (Hello!).

What did you learn about your classmates and their experience with the Spanish language?  You will get to know your classmates and the Spanish language more throughout the rest of this book. 🙂

You just greeted your classmates in Spanish with Hola. In your native language, how do you greet your friends and family? Does it differ from how you greet someone in a professional setting?

BaseLang shares some common greetings used in both informal and formal settings in Spanish.

Watch as Inhispaniainvideos uses some of these greetings in her video.

Listen as Gabby pronounces her favorite informal and formal greetings for you.

¡Muy bien! 🙂

II. Preséntate (Introduce yourself)

Now that you’ve learned how to greet someone in Spanish, it is time to include more personal information about yourself such as your name, where you’re from and age. Watch as Dani introduces himself to you in the following video.

*Dani is from Brazil. Make note that in Brazil, Portuguese is the national language. However, Dani also speaks Spanish.

Dani starts his video with a greeting and states his name. Did you know there are 3 ways to say your name in Spanish?

Listen as Letty shares her name with you in each way.

When Letty asks for your name, how would you answer?

When Dani introduced himself, he shared where he was from, where he lives now and his age.

Letty shares this same information as well.  Take a listen.

How would you answer Letty’s questions about yourself?

Listen as Gabby from your Chapter 1 Introduction helps you introduce yourself in Spanish and answer Letty’s questions.

The final question in the last activity was about age.  Earlier, Dani shared how old he was with you. If you would like to express your age or someone else’s, you will first need to know your numbers in Spanish.

MyDailySpanish pronounces numbers 1-100 for you in Spanish. Take a listen.

You could scroll to the number you need for your age with the progress bar.

For a visual of numbers 1-100 in Spanish, see the following slide.  Play the audio to hear how they are pronounced.

Knowing your numbers in Spanish could be very helpful if you are asked for your age or would like to express how old someone else is. Watch as Jumpspeak shows you how to ask for someone’s age and say how old you are in Spanish.

You were introduced to the verb tener (to have) in the video by Jumpspeak, which is used to express age.

¡Bien hecho! 🙂

III. ¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre? (How do you spell your name?)

As children, learning the alphabet in school was one of the first lessons taught. It helped children pronounce and spell out words in their native language. Similarly, when learning a new language such as Spanish, it is important to know what letters sound like and how to use those letters to spell words.

Did you know that the letters of the alphabet have distinct pronunciations depending on the country where Spanish is spoken? Watch the following videos to hear how the alphabet is pronounced in Latin America and Spain.  Do you hear a different pronunciation for certain letters?

Feel free to pause the videos when necessary to practice pronouncing the Spanish alphabet.

The following video provides the Latin American pronunciation of the alphabet, courtesy of Jumpspeak.

The following video provides the Spanish pronunciation of the alphabet, courtesy of EO Español Online.

You may be in a situation where you need to provide your personal information by spelling out your name or contact details. Gabby from your Chapter 1 Introduction pronounces some prompts that will help you do that.

IV. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

Earlier in this chapter, you were introduced to numbers in Spanish to express your age or ask others about theirs. Knowing your numbers is also important to share more personal information such as your telephone number, birthday or to provide the date when asked.

To review your numbers, see the following slide.

Listen as a study abroad director, Juan, asks for personal information involving numbers that he needs for his intake form.

For a transcript of Juan’s message, click here.

To answer Juan’s questions, Gabby shares prompts to provide the date, your birthday and telephone number in Spanish.

While studying abroad in Costa Rica, someone told Ximena about a new trend on TikTok called Asoka, which has influences from India.  Have you heard of Asoka?

V. Las despedidas (Ways to say goodbye)

You’ve learned how to introduce yourself in this chapter and ask others about themselves when you first meet them.  You are now ready to conclude your brief conversation with a farewell. Do you know any ways to say goodbye in Spanish?

Listen as StoryLearningSpanish shares common ways to say farewell in Spanish. Which is your favorite?

Gabby concludes this chapter by sharing ways to say goodbye in Spanish.  She also shares days of the week with you, in case you would like to say- See you on Monday or See you on Friday.

VI. Chapter 1 Final Assessment

In Chapter 1, you learned how to introduce yourself, spell your name, say where you’re from, provide your e-mail, age, birthday, and other personal data, and ask others about themselves.

¡Bravo! 🙂 You learned how to start and end a basic conversation in Spanish! 🙂

As a review for your Chapter 1 Final Assessment, answer Dani’s questions in the following video you saw earlier in this chapter.

For your Chapter 1 Final Assessment, you will have a conversation with Gabby because she would like to get to know you.

Listen to Gabby’s questions, and answer them by completing the following prompts and recording your answers.