Speak With Your Mouth Full If You Want To (Part I)

As a kid I had a nasty and rather messy habit. I used to speak with my mouth full and this often meant that the food would end up on the table instead of in my stomach.
I’ve cured this habit now but I was thinking about the importance of food in learning a language and how it can get you talking even when your mouth is crammed full of lovely stuff. You should make food related words some of the first ones you learn, as this is something you simply can’t live without when you travel.

Pasta for Breakfast

Of course, if you are planning to learn Italian you already know a lot of the words for food and related things. You will already know, for example, spaghetti, pizza, fusilli, cappuccino and, if you are a bit posh, al dente. Actually, you are very lucky that we use so many Italian loan words in English, so you can you get off to a flying start. There is a trend for going to Italy on cooking holidays but I never quite understood that. Why not take the Italian lessons London offers and eat out in restaurants everyday so you can practise speaking to the waiters instead of going and making the meals yourself? Funnily enough, the worst Italian food I ever tasted was in Rome, which is either a stunning insight into the negative effects of globalisation or else a sign that I always pick the worst restaurant in town.

Sausages for Lunch

Have you ever been to a German beer festival? One of my work colleagues went a few years ago and came back saying that he had eaten a sausage the size of a small family car because he didn’t know enough of the language to ask for a smaller one. How can you be expected to speak your new language when you are trying to cram into your mouth a sausage which is bigger than your head anyway? One idea is to try the snake’s trick and dislocate your jaw, although this tends to make it difficult to get the accent right. The other is to take giant bratwursts to the German courses London teachers offer and get used to speaking with one in your mouth while you learn. The only downside is that you might need to buy a tube ticket for it.