Learning a second language isn’t easy, but can be improved by television chefs. After all, you need to eat. The survival instinct can be a wonderful motivator.
Karlos Arguiñano, one of Spain’s first TV chefs, is very visual and uses familiar items. When carrots are on the menu he holds them up to the camera, or points at them, and names them, zanahorias. He speaks clearly and additional written cues are frequently flashed on screen. Even if you don’t want to follow the recipes, and Karlos has apparently prepared over 10,000 dishes on television, you will be able to buy the ingredients in local shops.
All television chefs have their own trademark styles. Karlos laughs at his own jokes, sometimes before the punch line. He also sings a lot; amateurishly it has to be said. This is all good fun and actually helps the struggling language student. Like all day to day transactions, you won’t follow every word but you will soon recognize those relating to the main subject. Karlos becomes serious when he returns to describing food and cooking processes.
Learn New Vocabulary
The educational nature of television cuisine means that the actual kitchen elements are presented with lots of close up camera work. It is easy to pick up new vocabulary without a dictionary. For example ajo is garlic, a commonly used ingredient. Un diente de ajo, literally a tooth of garlic, is quickly understood as a clove of garlic, although not many Spanish chefs restrict themselves to a single clove.
When Karlos demonstrates techniques he uses single words of instruction, rather than full sentences. On a recent show “sarten; fuego; aceite; asi,” was heard.
Watching the sequence everything became obvious. Sarten, a frying pan held up to the camera. Fuego, fire, he turned the heat on. Aceite, there was little doubt as to which particular oil he used as a certain amount of sponsorship is considered legitimate. In this case Carbonell olive oil in the pan. And how did he do it? Asi! Like that!
Other words and phrases sprinkled liberally throughout each episode include "vamos a ver," let´s see when checking on the progress of a dish. "Tenemos," when listing ingredients. As in "tenemos mostaza," we´ve got mustard.
Listening to Spanish
A further benefit of watching the same show regularly is that advertisements are repeated. This is a really useful way to learn to listen to Spanish. Each repetition reinforces more and more words.
As popular television shows are just as much a part of a nation’s cultural background as its art or literature, and usually more accessible, you will have a talking point when you start to have conversations with real live Spaniards. Whether they like Karlos or not, they will all know him.
The current series of "Karlos Arguinaño en tu Cocina" is currently broadcast on Spanish television´s TeleCinco, weekday afternoons from 2.00pm.
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