Seis estudiantes de distintos lugares del mundo se conocen. ¿Qué tienen en común? Todos son estudiantes de intercambio en una universidad de Estados Unidos durante un semestre. Durante este período aprenderán más inglés, conocerán mejor la cultura estadounidense y aprenderán más en sus campos de estudio.
Esta serie de “Conversaciones cotidianas” trata de seis estudiantes y sus experiencias durante un semestre académico en una universidad de Estados Unidos. Estas conversaciones son para niveles de inglés intermedio o más alto.
Las conversaciones cotidianas son una gran opción para mejorar tu inglés. Los estudiantes más avanzados pueden leer este artículo en la versión original en inglés.
Escucha el audio:
En esta conversación, un estudiante (Ajay) explica a otra estudiante (Lucía) las diferentes festividades que celebrará.
Ajay: How’s the studying going, Lucía?
Lucía: I can’t wait for finals to be over! In another week, I’ll be flying back home. What are you doing over the winter break?
Ajay: Alan invited Lee and me to stay with his family. Home-cooked food for three holiday meals!
Lucía: Three holidays?
Ajay: Alan’s dad is Jewish, and his mom is Christian, so they celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. And his mom is a professional chef, so she goes all out for both holiday meals.
Lucía: And what’s the third holiday?
Ajay: New Year’s Day. They have all their family over, and Alan’s mom cooks again. Alan has raved about his mom’s cooking all semester, so Lee and I can’t wait.
Lucía: Holiday meals cooked by a professional chef. I want to hear all about it later. I’ve never had a traditional Hanukkah meal.
Ajay: Neither have I. I’m looking forward to it.
Revisemos ahora el vocabulario
How’s (something) going? [¿Cómo va (algo)?] This question is used to ask someone about his/her progress or about life in general. For example, how’s the studying going means what’s the progress of your studying. The general question how’s it going is informal and similar to how are you.
Can’t wait [No aguanto más, literalmente “no puedo esperar más”] means to be very eager, anxious or impatient for something.
A winter break [vacaciones de invierno] is a period of vacation between semesters of college or other schools that includes the winter holidays, such as New Year’s Day.
Home-cooked [comida casera] or homemade [hecho/a en casa] food means food prepared at home and not made in a factory, store, etc.
Hanukkah or Chanukah [Jánuca] is an eight-day Jewish holiday, usually in late November or December, that commemorates [conmemora] the rededication of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.
Commemorate [conmemorar] means to do something special to remind people of an important event or person from the past.
To go all out [darlo todo, hacer el máximo] means to put all of your energy into what you are doing or to put a lot of effort into doing something.
To rave [presumir] about something is to talk or write about something in an excited and enthusiastic way.
A holiday meal [comida festiva] is special food prepared and eaten for a certain holiday. Sometimes these foods are only made and eaten during a certain holiday season. For example, for many families in the U.S. on Thanksgiving, the holiday meal includes cranberry sauce. This is not a food that many people eat at other times of the year.
¿Listo para aprender más inglés? Nuestro material te puede ser de utilidad.
El sitio web American English ofrece una variedad de recursos gratuitos para estudiantes y profesores de inglés. La página de Facebook de American English publica a diario materiales de aprendizaje para estudiantes de inglés.
Las conversaciones cotidianas son creadas por Heidi Howland, funcionaria principal de programas en la Oficina de Programas de Idioma Inglés en la Oficina de Asuntos Educativos y Culturales del Departamento de Estado.
