Are you interested in learning a language and cooking some great recipes? Here are our top 5 tips on expanding your vocabulary on topics of food and cooking.
1. Shop online
Going to the store can be fun activity when there is nothing else to do, but wouldn’t it be even more fun if you could instead get an important task of your daily routine done and help yourself get closer to achieving your goals? Online shopping might just be the solution. Choose a store that you are comfortable with and set the website language to English. That way most of the products will have a picture attached to a now new word that you have just learnt. Additionally, if you are not looking to spend any money and shopping is not something on your to-do list you can choose a bigger store that might not even operate in your region and look through its selection while having the page set in English.
2. Watch a cooking show
Visualisation is a great help when trying to learn something new. A specialised show that is related to the topic of vocabulary that you are trying to acquire is exactly the kind of thing that will get you speaking. Not only will you be able to associate certain words with certain images without having to translate them into your native language but also you will have examples of sentences and phrases to use.
3. Label your foods
Use a ruler to draw lines on a piece of paper until you have got tiny squares that you write food names into. Attach these handmade cards to products with a piece of tape for easy application and removal. This way you will have a live and illustrated dictionary for the most used items of food at your house. For an easier version of this tip head over to sciencebird.org/food-cooking-vocabulary to get a printable version of a food items list that you can make into stickers. Do not forget to wash the food that is not in a package after peeling off the tape.
4. Read recipes on target language websites
Reading is one of the four key skills in language learning. By exchanging recipes translated into your native language for original target language recipes you will not only receive the best unique experience of a new dish but will also become acquainted with appropriate vocabulary, which is usually accompanied by helpful illustrations and other visual aid.
5. Try dishes from the culture of the language you are trying to learn
Culture is an inseparable part language and so in order to acquire great language skills it is absolutely necessary to immerse yourself into the culture as much as possible. When it comes to cooking this can easily be done by choosing to explore the dishes from the target language culture. Not only does this allow for reading more in the target language and hence improving your reading skills, but it also allows for the best possible vocabulary acquisition, you are much more likely to receive the most original and valuable language information from culturally-driven writings (in this case – recipes) rather than from ones that come from different cultures that have nothing to do with the target language. While some words for different products might have found a completely new form in the target language and therefore make for an interesting linguistic find, most of them will probably be similar if not the same as in a different language that is tied to the culture that the dish came from. It is much more efficient to look for the recipes from the exact culture that you are trying to learn more about. Not to mention the benefits of a delicious new dish.