Where you are
It is Tuesday, 3:40 in the afternoon, and you are tying your apron in the back room. Your shift starts in twenty minutes, and Aníbal is at the other café until six.
Escenario 3 · Rol B
You have the closing shift
Informal. Same rank, same shifts, you see each other every day. They start. About 7 turns each · 7 minutes.
Your screen only. Don't show it. Don't read from it.
Tu información
It is Tuesday, 3:40 in the afternoon, and you are tying your apron in the back room. Your shift starts in twenty minutes, and Aníbal is at the other café until six.
You want to help. But you don't want to work sixteen hours, and this can't be your third swap.
You work with this person every day, and you are going to need exactly this favor next month.
Notas, no frases
| Now | Tuesday, September 8, 3:40 p.m. |
| Saturday 12 | opening 7:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. · closing 3:00–11:00 p.m. |
| That day | a reservation for forty people at 9:00 a.m. — a company breakfast |
| Announced | in the café group, on Friday |
| Your swaps this month | two: the 28th and the 4th |
| What Aníbal said | third swap → the backup list, no more fixed weekends |
| Your Sunday | bus at 5:00 a.m. to San Gil · ticket paid |
| Your limit | nothing after 8:00 p.m. on Saturday |
| A normal Saturday | about 45,000 pesos in tips |
| Saturday 19 | wedding, sixty people — about 110,000 |
Palabras para esta situación
| Word | What it is | Here |
|---|---|---|
| a reservation | a table you save for people who call first | forty people at nine · your big card |
| a rush | a short time when everything is very busy | what that opening really is |
| a swap | when two people change days | swap number three · the thing you can't say yes to |
| fixed weekends | the weekend days that are always yours | the days with tips · the real cost |
| in a row | one after another, with no break | the words for sixteen hours with no break |
| the backup list | people who work only when somebody is missing | what swap number three costs you |
| tips | extra money the customers leave you | 45,000 on a normal Saturday · a number to put on the table |
| to be short-staffed | to not have enough people at work | why forty people at nine is a problem |
| to cover | to work someone else's hours | what they are asking you for |
| to double a shift | to work two shifts, one after the other | sixteen hours · the easy answer you can't give |
Ayuda común
Yours: 1 (you don't open — they stop you), 2, 3 [receives] — they are going to throw IELTS, Speaking and exam center at you, and you don't have to know them: ask — 5 (your reason has numbers in it), 7 [grants] and 8. Not 4, not 6: you hide nothing. You have a card to drop, and you choose the moment.
Solo para tu rol
| Purpose | Form | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| another way | How about …? · What if you …? | put your own option on the table instead of saying no again |
| asking what they need | What exactly do you need — the … or the …? | make them name the hours before you answer |
| granting it | I can do it, but only if … | grant it with one condition, and hold it |
| the bus on Sunday | My bus leaves at … | the hard limit, said once, with the hour in it |
| the nine o'clock reservation | There's a reservation for … · That shift is not a … | drop the card that changes the size of the favor · warn them it weighs more than they think |
| what saying yes costs you | I did two swaps … · After the third one, no more … | why this isn't free for you · what it actually costs |
Cuándo terminar
Today a message goes to the café group. You finish when the two of you have said all five out loud. Nobody says the other person's points.
A's screen · your two: who opens on Saturday the 12th, and at what time · which shift pays the favor back, and on what exact day.
B's screen · your two: how long that person stays, and who comes in after — it is your 8:00 limit · the name that goes written in the message, which is your one condition.
Together, once: what's still open, who fixes it, and before what time today.
Two rules:
Five points, or it isn't closed. It closes partial. That is the plan.
Después de hablar
Para repasar
El acto de B es conceder-con-condicion y se pronuncia aquí: "I can do it, but only if you ask me in the group today". El tema autoriza literalmente can dentro de la cláusula if ("If you can come, please let me know"), que es lo que hace decible la condición sin discurso indirecto. También sostiene "What if you …?", el tronco con que B propone en vez de negar.
Los dos límites duros del escenario son obligaciones, no gustos: "I have to be free from three to six" (A, después de la carta) y "I have to leave at eight" (B, por el bus). El tema también trae "don't have to" (no es necesario), que es como B usa el bloque 3 de la caja sin quedar mal.
El pago del favor se compromete en will y con fecha exacta: "I'll do the inventory on Monday the 14th", "I'll write it in the group now". El tema separa este uso —decisión que se toma en el momento— del going to, que es lo que distingue una promesa de un plan.
El plan fijo de A es un presente continuo con expresión de tiempo, que el tema declara esencial: "I'm taking the IELTS on Saturday the 12th". Y la interrogativa del propio tema ("Are you working next Saturday?") es la que sostiene el exponente con que A abre por el lado del otro: "What are you doing on Saturday?".
Los cuatro verbos que cargan el pasado del escenario son irregulares: paid ("I paid more than a million pesos"), did ("I did two swaps this month"), said ("Aníbal said the third swap puts me on the backup list") y el del punto 4 del cierre: "I asked you for the swap" — que solo es decible en activa.
La pregunta que A no puede contestar y que su propia ficha le anuncia —"Who else did you ask?"— es past simple directo, con did y sin inversión rara. Es la razón de ser del bloque 6 de la caja.
Lo que queda pendiente —el punto 5 del cierre— se dice con already y yet: "I haven't talked to Aníbal yet", "Have you already written it in the group?". Es present perfect de experiencia y de balance, sin for ni since: la duración se queda fuera de A2.
El tamaño del favor se discute contando: "How many people are coming?" — "Forty", "There aren't many people on Saturday morning", "I don't have much time", "a lot of tips". El escenario entero se juega en cuántos, y sin estos el estudiante dice números sueltos sin marco.
B defiende su coste comparando: "the wedding is bigger than a normal Saturday", "110,000 is more than 45,000". Y A cifra lo que pierde con la misma estructura: "more than a million pesos". Sin comparativo, el coste de cada lado se dice como queja, no como dato.
La columna vertebral de dar razones, que es el acto A2 del escenario: "I want to help, but sixteen hours is too much", "my bus leaves at five, so I can't stay after eight", "because there's no new date". El but es además lo que sujeta el exponente de concesión de B.
Sostiene lo que se dice y lo que se lee. Se dice: "the person who opens", "the shift that pays it back", "the days that pay me in tips". Y se lee: la ficha usa dos relativas de contacto ("the money you paid for it", "anything Aníbal can call swap number three") y este tema es el que enseña que el relativo se omite cuando es objeto.
La carta grande de B es un superlativo: "That is the worst shift of the month". Es la frase que cambia el tamaño del favor, y sin el tema se dice "that shift is very bad", que no obliga a A a mover nada.
Sostiene la petición, la propuesta y la concesión de los dos lados: "Can I ask you a favor?", "Can we write it in the group today?", "We can do it two ways", "I can be here at six thirty", "I can do it, but only if…". El tema cubre explícitamente permiso y petición, y sustituye a los "Could I…?" de cortesía que el registro no ancla en ningún nivel.
El punto 1 del cierre exige quién abre y a qué hora, y el escenario entero son horas: 7:00, 3:00, 8:00, 1:30, 6:30. El tema autoriza la forma digital (three forty, six thirty), que es la única que hace decibles 3:40 y 6:30 sin quarter past ni half past.
La fecha exacta con que se paga el favor no vale sin la preposición: "on Saturday the 12th", "on Friday the 18th", "at eight", "in the afternoon". El tema trae on + día y on + fecha con ordinal, que es exactamente el formato de los datos duros.
Las dos malas noticias del escenario entran con there is: "There's a problem: …" (A, cuando llega la carta) y "There's a reservation for forty people at nine" (B, su carta grande). Y la pérdida de A se dice en negativa: "there's no new date", forma que el tema acepta.
Las dos preguntas abiertas obligatorias son present simple con do/does: "What exactly do you need — the opening or the closing?" (B, antes de contestar nada) y "How does Saturday work for you?" (A). La primera es la que impide que B conceda a ciegas.
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