Spanish in Mexico Through the Senses

Language School “Extras” Can Be the Main Course

Article and photos by Linda McDonnell

When I went to Oaxaca, Mexico to learn Spanish I never imagined that some of my best lessons would be in the kitchen.

Like many language immersion schools, the one I’d chosen offered cooking as part of a menu of optional cultural activities. Cooking had a special appeal since Oaxaca is renowned for its rich cuisine with deep pre-Hispanic roots.

Laura, the instructor, began with an introduction to the day’s recipe — all in Spanish. Listening, watching, doing, and concentrating mightily, I learned to make pollo en barbacoa, chicken in Mexican barbecue sauce. “Dos dientes de ajo,” said Laura, picking up two cloves of garlic. I recognized comino (cumin) and orégano by their aroma. As Laura held up the chilies, I learned that guajillo is a favorite Mexican variety.

I learned to identify the flavors of Oaxacan food with the musical sound of their ingredients. Canela, pimienta negra, cebolla: they rolled off Laura’s tongue and heightened the allure of the flavors that I’d always known simply as cinnamon, black pepper, and onion.

“Todos los ingredientes molidos,” said Laura, setting the blender awhirl — "molidos," that most useful word in Oaxacan cooking, meaning “ground.”

As I relaxed over the meal I’d just cooked in my new language, I was glad I hadn’t dismissed this opportunity as a mere “fun” class and separated it from the real business of learning.

No Better Way to Learn

There is no better way to learn Spanish and local culture than through participation in such activities as learning to cook the local foods. Even back home, as my blender whirls tomatoes and herbs into a summer salsa, I hear myself repeating “todos los ingredientes molidos.”

Excursions offer the same opportunity. In the markets, where all the senses are re-tuned to this new world of colors, sights, and aromas, it becomes perfectly natural to see pollo, queso, and tomates instead of chicken, cheese, and tomatoes. In the craft classes, the colors of textiles and ceramics take on a new vibrancy in the local tongue.

The immersion schools tie the learning all together. In the structured classes, you expand your proficiency with grammar and sentence structure and gain fluency in conversation. In the enrichment activities, you put that learning to work and make it stick with the vocabulary of the sights and sensations around you. If your passion is crafts, music, or history, you can fall in love with it all over again in Spanish.

Oaxaca abounds with just such opportunities. The school I attended, Becari, offers programs from the basic three hours of structured classes per day to six hours that include afternoon workshops in cooking, crafts, folk dancing, and more. Optional activities include cultural events and excursions to nearby archeological sites and village markets. You can also sign up for an intercambio, which pairs you with a Mexican student learning English for conversation exchanges. The school will arrange accommodations, including homestays.

Linda McDonnell is a freelance writer and EFL teacher in Portland, OR.