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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