In this lesson of our English Spanish Parallel Texts course and we are going to practice more describing personality with El verbo Ser in Spanish. Start by reading the text in Spanish below. The English translation is provided later but please try not to look at it until you have read the Spanish version various times and tried your best to understand it.

There may be some words and phrases in the text that you are unfamiliar with, but you should be aiming to capture the main essence of what is happening. There will always be words and phrases popping up in real-life situations that you have never heard before, so it is important never to get too distracted by details.

If you want to investigate some of the words you don’t know with a dictionary that would be great, please do, but do this after trying your best to understand with what you already have in your head.

Check out this video lesson with information relevant to this topic:

Describing personality with El verbo Ser

Image by Coffee Bean from Pixabay

Spanish Text

La entrevistadora: Hola, buenos días. ¿Cómo se llama usted?
El entrevistado: ¡Hola muy buenas! Me llamo Rafael Moreno. Estoy aquí para la entrevista.
La entrevistadora: Muy bien. Sí, señor Moreno. Bienvenidos.
El entrevistado: Muchas gracias.
La entrevistadora: Vale, empezamos. Como sabe usted, esta entrevista es para el puesto de jefe de proyecto en esta empresa.
El entrevistado: Sí, el puesto me parece muy interesante y tengo mucha experiencia en puestos similares.
La entrevistadora: Muy bien. Hablamos de eso luego.
El entrevistado: Sí, por supuesto.
La entrevistadora: Primero, quiero entender qué tipo de persona es usted y si usted es la persona adecuada para este trabajo.
El entrevistado: De acuerdo.
La entrevistadora: ¿Que cinco adjetivos describen mejor su personalidad?
El entrevistado: Mmmhh… Honesto, decidido, sociable, optimista, de fiar, y trabajador.
La entrevistadora: Son seis señor Moreno.
El entrevistado: Perdón. ¡Es que soy tan bueno!
La entrevistadora: Vale. Entiende usted que todos los entrevistados dicen más o menos lo mismo. Todos son personas honestas, decididas, sociables optimistas, de fiar, y trabajadoras. ¿Por qué es usted mejor para este puesto que los otros? Y, también, si es tan honesto ¿donde están las características un poco más negativas de su personalidad? Todos nosotros las tenemos.
El entrevistado: Mmmhh…
La entrevistadora: ¿Decidido?
El entrevistado: Vale, perdón. Soy un poco despistado a veces e igual un poco desordenado.
La entrevistadora: Gracias señor Moreno.

English Text

The interviewer: Hello, good morning. What is your name?
The interviewee: Hello! My name is Rafael Moreno. I’m here for the interview.
The interviewer: Very good. Yes, Mr. Moreno. Welcome.
The interviewee: Thank you very much.
The interviewer: Ok, let’s start. As you know, this interview is for the position of project manager in this company.
The interviewee: Yes, I think the position is very interesting and I have a lot of experience in similar positions.
The interviewer: Very good. We can talk about that later.
The interviewee: Yes, of course.
The interviewer: First, I want to understand what kind of person you are and if you are the right person for this job.
The interviewee: Agreed.
The interviewer: What five adjectives best describe your personality?
The interviewee: Mmmhh … Honest, decisive, sociable, optimistic, reliable, and hardworking.
The interviewer: That is six Mr. Moreno.
The interviewee: Sorry. I’m so good!
The interviewer: Ok. You understand that all the interviewees say more or less the same. All are honest, decisive, sociable, optimistic, reliable, and hard-working people. Why are you better for this position than the others? And, also, if you are so honest, where are the slightly more negative characteristics of your personality? We all have them.
The interviewee: Mmmhh …
The interviewer: Decisive?
The interviewee: Ok, sorry. I’m a little distracted at times and maybe a bit disorganised.
The interviewer: Thank you Mr. Moreno.

So, how did you get on? How much did you understand of the original text before checking the translation? Please let me know in the comments section below…

Don’t worry if you didn’t understand that much, practice makes perfect! Be patient and keep reading, hearing, writing, and speaking Spanish. See you next time!