LingoflyAt the gym in Basque
Signing up at the gym in Basque. 6 phrases that the conversation is made of: «Egun on. Kirola egin nahi dut: zer eskaintzen duzu?» — Good afternoon. I want to do sports: what do you offer?; «Entrenamenduak astelehenetik ostiralera. Talde txikiak gara.» — Workouts from Monday to Friday. We keep small groups. Every line can be played right on the page.
How the whole thing sounds
The situation: signing up at the gym. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.
- Good afternoon. I want to do sports: what do you offer?
- Entrenamenduak astelehenetik ostiralera. Talde txikiak gara.Workouts from Monday to Friday. We keep small groups.
- Ondo. Zenbat balio du hilabetean?Fine. How much is it a month?
- Hogeita hamar euro. Urteko harpidetza merkeagoa da.Thirty euros. The yearly pass is cheaper.
Lines one by one
| Basque | Translation |
|---|---|
| Egun on. Kirola egin nahi dut: zer eskaintzen duzu? | Good afternoon. I want to do sports: what do you offer? |
| Entrenamenduak astelehenetik ostiralera. Talde txikiak gara. | Workouts from Monday to Friday. We keep small groups. |
| Ondo. Zenbat balio du hilabetean? | Fine. How much is it a month? |
| Hogeita hamar euro. Urteko harpidetza merkeagoa da. | Thirty euros. The yearly pass is cheaper. |
| Azkar korrika egiten ikasi nahi dut: lagunduko didazu? | I want to learn to run fast: will you help me? |
| Noski! Lehenik oinez hasi, gero azkartuko gara. | Of course! First we start at a walk, then we speed up. |
How to prepare for a conversation like this
Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.
And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.
- Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many timesTeimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
- That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many timesXiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.
Frequently asked
How do you start a conversation in Basque in this situation?
“Egun on. Kirola egin nahi dut: zer eskaintzen duzu?” — Good afternoon. I want to do sports: what do you offer? The first line in such a conversation is almost always the same, and that is the one worth learning: the other person will carry it from there.
What if you did not understand the reply?
Say “I don't understand” and “repeat, please” — both are in the rescue set. Admitting your language is still shaky almost always makes the other person more patient.
Should you memorize the dialogue?
No. It is more useful to catch the key words by ear: the other person will say their own thing, and a memorized line will not always fit their reply.