Opinions and negotiations

Lesson Overview: Opinions and Negotiations in Spanish

This lesson focuses on expressing opinions and negotiating offers within professional contexts, emphasizing the use of indirect speech with simple past tenses in Spanish. It covers practical scenarios such as negotiating work contracts, discussing proposals in meetings, and debating job offers. The lesson content suits learners at the A2 level who want to improve communication skills in workplace or business settings.

Key Topics Covered

• Negotiation of Offers: How to discuss contract proposals and negotiate terms respectfully.
• Hierarchy in Spanish Companies: Insight into organizational structure and how it affects communication.
• Indirect Speech with Simple Past: Using indirect (reported) speech to talk about what others have said, especially using pretéritos simples (simple past tenses) to relay past statements.

Important Language Points

The main grammar focus is on estilo indirecto con pretéritos simples, which allows you to repeat or report what someone else said in the past. This is common in negotiations and professional conversations.

Example sentences from the lesson include:

• "Sí, me dijo que era un poco baja para el trabajo que haría." (He told me the offer was a bit low for the work.)
• "El jefe dijo que la oferta era final y no podía cambiar." (The boss said the offer was final and could not be changed.)
• "Ana me dijo que le parecía arriesgada pero con oportunidades." (Ana told me she found it risky but with opportunities.)

Useful Vocabulary and Expressions

• Oferta – offer (as in job or contract offer)
• Negociar – to negotiate
• Contrato – contract
• Empresa – company
• Presupuesto – budget
• Decisión – decision
• Reclutador – recruiter
• Condiciones – conditions or terms

Comment on Instruction vs Learning Language

Since the instruction language (English) differs from the target learning language (Spanish), translations and clarifications are provided as needed to support understanding. Spanish indirect speech uses particular simple past forms (pretérito perfecto simple and pretérito imperfecto) to narrate past dialogues. In contrast, English often uses the past simple or past perfect without changing verb forms for indirect speech. For example, Spanish distinguishes between dijo (he/she said - pretérito perfecto simple) and decía (he/she was saying/used to say - pretérito imperfecto) to provide nuance in the timing or frequency of the past action.

Here are useful phrase structures to practice:

• Me dijo que... – He/she told me that...
• Recordó que... – He/she reminded that...
• El jefe dijo que... – The boss said that...
• Creía que... – He/she believed that...

These structures help learners report conversations politely and accurately in business or social scenarios.