At Stripey Spanish we love food and managed to get food into every course, whether that’s cooking, eating or socialising. Here we share five things you can try to improve your language skills using food!
Cooking in Spanish
Beginners can try making the dish and learning the words for the ingredients as you go along you can look these up and say them as you handle each ingredient. Remember to use the correct article (el/la/los/las) when ypu learn the word so that you memorise the gender more easily eg “La patata” - the potato.
Those with a bit of Spanish already can you can put a recipe in Spanish on Youtube making sure you slow down the tempo and add the Spanish subtitles and follow it. This will help you with your listening
Get even more social and invite a friend to cook with you and you’ll have lots of interaction and reactions to practise too. See some examples below.
Useful expressions
Pásame el aceite - Pass me the oil
Necesita más sal - It needs more salt
¡Huele bien! - It smells good!
Visit a Spanish/Latino Restaurant
Practise, practise, practise - one great place you are bound to meet native speakers is in a restaurant. If the waiters are native speakers aks them to only speak to you in Spanish. Check out our suggestions of great Spanish and Latino restaurants to try in London.
Vocabulary and expressions
¿Qué recomiendas? - What do you recommend
Soy vegan@/vegetarian@ - I’m vegan/vegetarian
Quiero el ceviche - I want the ceviche
Write a shopping list
Why not write your shopping list entirely in Spanish? Then take your list to the supermarket - you’ll have to remember what the words mean if you want to get home with everything that you need - extra incentive! Aim to include the quantity too. To extend it you can also learn the numbers and say aloud the prices of the items as you pick them up in the shop.
Vocabulary
Dos kilos de patatas - Two kilos of potatoes
Cuesta dos con cinquenta - it costs two fifty
Es un poco caro - It’s a bit expensive
Label your food
Put post it notes on your cupboard and fridge doors with the names of what is inside in Spanish. It’ll remind you to say the word each time you use that ingredient throughout the week.
The gummy bear and book method
Are you someone that needs to be motivated and has a sweet tooth? Why not try the old fashioned method of putting treats a few pages into a Spanish reading book when you get to the page you have a sweet incentive!
You could try graded readers, children’s books or dual text books that have Spanish on one side and English on the other.
By Emily
Events andcourses coming up:
Speed-friending and Spanish Taster night : Wednesday 29 May
Level 1 course - Wednesday 5 June 6pm-7.30pm
Level 1 course - Wednesday 5 June 7.45-9.15pm
Similar blogs:
12 of London’s best Hispanic restaurants
How playing games can help you learn Spanish
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