AAO: On the Mexico City Metro
* This blog post is provided as an “Alternate Assessment Option”. The intended audience is modern language instructors.
OVERVIEW:
Have you ever taken a subway train in Mexico City? If so, you’ll know that it is rarely silent. In addition to the sound of the train on the tracks, there is an automated voice telling you about the next station, a steady stream of vendors selling everything from ballpoint pens and USB sticks to candy and keyrings, and the sound of doors opening and closing. There are also 1001 random conversations happening all around you. A one-sided conversation from a guy on his cellphone, three high school students talking about how to choose make-up, a mother trying to quiet her child, etc. You get the idea. It’s an overwhelming experience and, if you’re trying to improve your Spanish, not an especially useful one. Too much is happening all at once.
But what if your students were in charge of creating their own “metro soundscapes”? What if they had their own collection of separate conversations that they could put together to recreate the soundtrack of a subway on their own terms? This is the objective of this activity.
INSPIRATIONAL SOUNDSCAPES:
- Inside Subway Station Mexico City
- Un día con vendadores de metro
- Mexico City Tamales Vendor
- Organilleros, musicalizando calles de México hace más de 100 años | México | Noticias Telemundo
- NM-02 Anuncia “Próxima Estación” (Completo)
STEP BY STEP:
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Divide your class into groups of 3. Each group will work together to come up with a conversation and/or audio experience we might hear on a Mexican subway train. Something like those mentioned above, but students can imagine other scenarios too.
You may want to assign one group to research station announcements, bells, sounds of doors opening/closing, and the sound of the train. Freesound.org and Pixabay (and others) contain large numbers of audio recordings that are in the public domain, however, I would recommend that students create their own based on these original samples. It is a speaking activity after all!
You also may want to assign another group to focus on the vendor language heard in the metro. It is unique and will be a challenge for students; but also potentially a lot of fun. Click this link – Un día con vendadores de metro – to learn more.
Last, it is not unusual to have someone come on the train with a guitar and play for a short time. This could be a challenge if you have a musical student who wants to record him/herself singing in Spanish.
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Use Copilot or ChatGPT to create a suitable dialogue. I have created a few prompts (see below) to accomplish this. As you can see, I included statements about the level of the language, asked for some Mexican slang (with explanations), and given it a timeline. And yes, you could ask students to come up with scripts on their own, but I feel like this as a productive application of Generative AI to support teaching.
Students check the script to (a) ensure they understand everything in it and (b) ensure (with your input) that there are no errors in it.
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Student groups use a cellphone to record themselves having the conversation.
Student groups submit their recordings and scripts as a BrightSpace assignment for assessment.
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Instructor assesses submissions, requests modifications (if needed), approves submissions, and when all are complete, shares them to BrightSpace as a Zip file where students can download them.
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Now students have the raw material needed to create their own version of the sound of the Mexico City metro. When they are ready, they can download the zip file of audio clips and start mixing them together. This mixing can be accomplished using free software like Audacity (available in both our language labs), GarageBand on Mac, or other.
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When completed, students can share their recordings on a Discussion forum along with reflections on their experience with the project; what they learned about Spanish; etc. Students can listen to each others recordings. Reflections can be graded.
SAMPLE DIALOGUES:
PROMPT
Create a short script of a 12 year old boy selling ballpoint pens, usb sticks of music, and keychains in the mexico city metro. Search the web for videos of similar vendors and use their language as a template. Include at least 3 typical samples of mexico city slang. Bold the slang in the text and include an explanation of this slang at the end of the dialogue. Make the level of Spanish more beginner level.
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(Niño entra al vagón y habla fuerte con energía y sonrisa)
— ¡Hola, güey! Traigo plumas, USB con música y llaveros.
— ¡Plumas bonitas, muchos colores! Solo cinco pesos, órale.
— USB con música buena: reguetón, cumbia, pop. ¡Solo veinte pesos!
— Llaveros de colores, para las llaves de tu casa.
— Todo está chido, está barato.
(Camina entre los pasajeros mostrando los productos)
— ¿Quieres una pluma? ¡Escribe bien!
— ¿Te gusta la música? USB con muchas canciones.
— Llaverito para tu mochila. ¡Sale y vale!
(Cierra con emoción)
— ¡Gracias por mirar! ¡Gracias por ayudarme! ¡Buena suerte a todos!
Explicación del slang:
güey: amigo, persona (muy común en México entre jóvenes).
órale: expresión para animar o llamar la atención, como “¡vamos!” o “¡dale!”.
chido: algo bueno o bonito.
sale y vale: forma amistosa de decir “ok” o “está bien”.- Source: OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (June 17) [gpt-4.o]. chat.openai.com
PROMPT
Create a one-sided cellphone conversation (15 lines max). A 20 year old man is talking to his mother. He is telling her that he is dropping out of his university engineering program and to pursue a career as a musician. He is a guitar player with a punk band. We only hear one side of the conversation. Even though the man is a native speaker of Spanish, make his level of the language more beginner level. Include at least 2 samples of Mexico City slang. Explain each at the end of the conversation.
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Claro, aquí tienes un monólogo telefónico de un joven guitarrista punk, hablando con su mamá. El español es básico, con jerga típica de la Ciudad de México. Las expresiones de jerga están en negritas y las explicaciones están al final:
[Sentado en una banqueta, guitarra al lado, hablando por celular]
Hola, ma.
No te enojes, ¿sí? Solo escúchame.
Voy a salir de la carrera… ingeniería no es para mí.
Ya sé que querías que yo termine, pero no soy feliz.
Voy a ser músico.
Toco con mi banda cada semana.
Es punk, ma… con guitarra, batería, todo.
La gente dice que tocamos chido.
No es solo un juego. Vamos a grabar un demo.
No voy a estar echando la flojera, te lo juro.
Voy a trabajar, ensayar, tocar… todo.
No te preocupes tanto.
Si no funciona, regreso a estudiar, ¿va?
Pero necesito intentar esto.
Te quiero mucho, ma. Gracias por escuchar.
Jerga chilanga:
Chido: Muy bueno, bonito o genial. Aquí significa que la banda suena bien.
Echando la flojera: No hacer nada, estar perezoso. Él quiere decir que no va a ser flojo, sino que tomará en serio la música.
¿Quieres una versión donde esté hablando con su papá en vez de su mamá?- Source: OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (June 17) [gpt-4.o]. chat.openai.com
IMAGE CREDITS:
“View of a Colorful Subway Train at a Station”. Uploaded May 28, 2022 to Pexels by Susan Flores.
“Mexico City Metro Line 1 scheme 2018”. Uploaded 15 July, 2018 by Cocu15, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.