Language Learning,  Living Abroad

Cómo Aprender Español: Temas Tabúes

Dear Carly,

As you have probably noticed by now, language-learning is a popular topic on the blog and we believe it to be a very important part of life abro. Still, how often do you spend language classes learning about colors, animals, and how to ask for directions to the library? On the other hand, do you know how to talk about sex, offer condolences, or explain menstration in Spanish? Our guess is that these somewhat taboo topics were not covered in your general Spanish classes, but we imagine you’d like to learn vocabulary for these kinds of real-world situations you may find yourself in abroad.

That’s why we invited today’s expert, Anabel Fortes of Pitacho Online Spanish Lessons to be our guest speaker on the fifth episode of our Cómo Aprender Español video series. We have been so impressed with the way that Anabel unabashedly shares about taboo topics on her Instagram feed, so we decided to chat with her specifically about that!

In the episode, you can listen to Dani and Anabel discuss the kinds of topics that are often avoided in language classes, such as sex, menstration, alcohol, death, and going to the gynecologist. We exchange embarrassing and uncomfortable accounts from our own lives that arose when we didn’t feel confident in these situations and why we believe it’s so important to learn the vocabulary associated with them.

 

 

Perhaps best of all, Anabel provided us with some fantastic infographics to assist in our language-learning journey. Check out snippets from these infographics throughout the video that will help you learn some of this ‘taboo’ vocabulary along with the conversation. We’ve included the full images here and on our Instagram page too! Be sure to click on each for an enlarged version that is easier to read!

If you’re unfamiliar with our Cómo Aprender Español series, it is made up of video interviews we conduct with certified Spanish teachers. As non-natives ourselves, we believe it best to ask the experts what they believe is most important to the language-learning process, and we’ve had some fantastic conversations as a result! The interviews are held entirely in Spanish for a more immersive language-learning experience, but we have included both Spanish and English subtitles to assist you according to your needs. Just click the ‘CC’ button in the bottom right corner on YouTube to access them.

As always, let us know in the comments here or on YouTube if you have any questions or specific experiences you would like to share.

Sinceramente,
Spain

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