Radio Ajolote: a school interview in Xochimilco
A Mexican school radio show interviews its own team about the axolotl of Xochimilco: the amphibian on the fifty peso note, its Nahuatl name and its regrowing legs. A1 Spanish with translation.
Radio Ajolote: entrevista en la escuela de Xochimilco
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Mateo, Ana, Diego and Sofía record a fifteen minute show on their school radio and talk about the axolotl: it is an amphibian and not a fish, it appears on the Mexican fifty peso note, its name comes from Nahuatl, and a lost leg grows back over time. The pronouns carry the dialogue, and the text ends with questions for the reader.
ANA: Buenos días. Ustedes escuchan Radio Ajolote, el programa de la escuela. Hoy hablamos del ajolote, un anfibio de los canales de Xochimilco, en el sur de la Ciudad de México. Diego, ¿tú conoces bien este animal?
DIEGO: Un poco. Yo estudio los anfibios en la clase de ciencias. El ajolote no es un pez. Es un anfibio, como la rana.
ANA: Sofía y Mateo, ¿qué traen ustedes hoy?
SOFÍA: Nosotros traemos un billete mexicano de cincuenta pesos. El ajolote está en este billete.
MATEO: Y traemos una palabra. La palabra ajolote viene del náhuatl, una lengua de México. En náhuatl, atl significa agua.
ANA: El nombre Xochimilco también viene del náhuatl. La palabra xóchitl significa flor.
DIEGO: Los ajolotes regeneran las patas. Un ajolote pierde una pata y, con el tiempo, tiene una pata nueva.
SOFÍA: La rana adulta sale del agua. Los ajolotes no: ellos normalmente pasan la vida en el agua.
MATEO: Hoy quedan pocos ajolotes en los canales. Es un animal en peligro de extinción. Pero muchas personas tienen ajolotes en casa, en acuarios.
ANA: Sofía y yo terminamos aquí. Nosotras leemos los mensajes de ustedes el próximo viernes.
La maestra Ríos escucha el programa desde la puerta. Ella enseña ciencias en la escuela. Al final del programa, ella aplaude. Diego guarda los cables en una caja. Él ya piensa en el programa del próximo viernes.
¿Y tú? ¿Conoces un animal típico de tu región? ¿Tú escuchas la radio por la mañana o por la tarde? Si preparas un programa con tus amigos, ¿de qué hablan ustedes?
About this article
What you'll learn
Spanish subject pronouns yo, tú, él, ella, nosotras and ustedes in a Mexican radio interview, plus words that shift meaning by region or context, such as billete and guardar.
Mateo, Ana, Diego and Sofía record a fifteen minute show on their school radio and talk about the axolotl: it is an amphibian and not a fish, it appears on the Mexican fifty peso note, its name comes from Nahuatl, and a lost leg grows back over time. The pronouns carry the dialogue, and the text ends with questions for the reader.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
en peligro de extinción
newendangered, in danger of extinction
Peligro means danger. The whole phrase describes a species at high risk of disappearing, like the English adjective endangered.
Standard wording in any text about animals and nature.
con el tiempo
newover time, little by little
Not the weather: tiempo here means time. Con el tiempo says the change happens slowly.
Common way to say that something takes a while.
viene del náhuatl
newcomes from Nahuatl
Venir de says where a word or a person comes from. De plus el contracts into del.
The pattern venir de works for words, people and places alike.
quedan pocos ajolotes
newfew axolotls are left
Quedar here means to be left or to remain. It agrees with ajolotes, so the form is quedan.
Quedar is very frequent and in this pattern it never means to stay.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
The team
equipo
team
El equipo is a group of people working together. The same word also names a set of gear, so the context decides.
A false friend for anyone who reads it only as equipment.
Banknote
billete
banknote
In Mexico un billete is paper money, and a bus or cinema ticket is un boleto. In Spain billete is paper money too, and also a bus or train ticket; for the cinema you say entrada.
Everywhere it is paper money; what changes by country is the word for a ticket.
A live fish
pez
fish (in the water)
Un pez is the live animal. Fish on a plate is el pescado. The plural of pez is peces.
Spanish splits one English word into two, and the choice is never optional.
Animal legs
las patas
the legs (of an animal)
La pata is the leg of an animal, and also of a table or a chair. For people, Spanish uses la pierna.
Pata about a person sounds very colloquial, so pierna is the safe word.
Frog
rana
frog
Rana is feminine: la rana, las ranas. It stays la even when the frog is male.
A basic animal word that carries no clue from English.
Puts away
guarda
puts away, keeps
Guardar means to put something back in its place or to keep it. Here Diego puts the cables away in a box, though guardar can also mean to look after or to watch over.
Very common when tidying up or finishing an activity; the context tells you which sense is meant.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
When to say yo
Yo estudio los anfibios
I study amphibians
The ending -o in estudio already says I. Spanish adds yo for emphasis or contrast, as Diego does when he answers about himself.
Repeating yo in every sentence is the mistake that makes a text sound machine made.
Ustedes for you all
¿qué traen ustedes hoy?
what are you bringing today?
In Mexico and most of Latin America, ustedes is the plural of tú for everyone. In most of Spain, vosotros is used with friends and family.
The pronoun you pick immediately shows which Spanish you speak.
Nosotras or nosotros
Nosotras leemos
we read
Ana and Sofía are both girls, so their group is nosotras. Add one boy and the same group becomes nosotros.
Spanish marks the gender of the group inside the pronoun itself.
él with an accent
él es el técnico de sonido
he is the sound technician
él with an accent is the pronoun he; el without one is the article the. This short sentence contains both.
The accent is the only thing separating two very common Spanish words.
tú and tu
¿tú conoces bien este animal?
do you know this animal well?
tú with an accent is the pronoun you; tu without one means your, as in tu región at the end of the text. Ana adds tú to speak to Diego alone, not to the whole group.
One accent separates you from your, and both appear in this article.
pensar becomes piensa
piensa
he is already thinking about
Pensar changes the stem e into ie: pienso, piensas, piensa. Perder does the same, which is why the text says pierde. Note also pensar en, thinking about something.
This vowel change hits a long list of everyday verbs, so the pattern pays back fast.
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