Self-introduction at work: Introducing yourself to your new team

💬 Spanish often puts tú before the question word to show a change of topic, as in "and you, what do you do?". Same shape: ¿Tú dónde vives? "Where do you live?"

🇪🇸 Colleagues in Spain use tú from the first day, even with bosses in most offices. Using usted "you (formal)" with a teammate can feel stiff.

💬 Spanish drops the "a" before jobs: soy diseñadora, not soy una diseñadora. Swap in your own job: soy ingeniero "I'm an engineer".

💬 Spanish can't end a sentence on de like English "from" at the end. The de moves to the front: ¿De dónde...?.

💬 Many cities have Spanish names, so London becomes Londres. Others work the same way: Nueva York "New York", Edimburgo "Edinburgh".

💬 voy a plus a basic verb talks about the future, just like "going to". Swap the verb: voy a comer "I'm going to eat".

💬 ¡Qué...! plus a describing word works like "How...!". Swap in others: ¡Qué guay! "How cool!", ¡Qué pena! "What a shame!".

💬 estar con is about where you'll be placed, here meaning on the same team. That's why it uses estar, not ser, the other verb for "to be".

💬 The g before e or i is a breathy throat sound, like a strong h: (heh-nee-AHL).

💬 perdona is the form used with someone you call tú. With a stranger you'd address formally, it becomes perdone.

💬 In an office, mesa (literally "table") is the normal word for your desk. escritorio also means desk, but it sounds more like a piece of furniture.

💬 Spanish uses aquí "here" for near me, ahí for near you or nearby, and allí "over there" for further away.

💬 a + el always merges into al, so you say al lado de "next to". The same thing happens with de + el, which becomes del, as in el nuevo del equipo.

💬 gracias is a feminine word, so it's muchas, not muchos.

💬 amable means "kind" or "helpful", not "amiable" or easy-going. It has the same form for a man or a woman.

🇪🇸 el café here means the mid-morning coffee break, a near-daily ritual in Spanish offices. It's where people actually chat and get to know the new arrival.

💬 Spanish often uses the present tense for near plans: te presento "I introduce you" works as "I'll introduce you".

🇪🇸 vale is the everyday "OK" in Spain. You'll hear it constantly, while Latin Americans tend to say bueno or okay instead.

🇪🇸 Spaniards say hasta luego as a general goodbye even if they won't see you again that day. It's the standard way to leave a room or end a chat.