Learn Spanish at the Market

If there is one thing I loved in my early days in South America it was going to the market. I could pass hours breathing in the smell of the peaches, admiring the fresh cucumbers and trying to work out why my local supermarket in the UK didn’t employ someone to shine people’s shoes.

Actually, when I went to classes to learn Spanish in Quito one of the first places the teacher took us to was the local market. We bought some exotic fruit, cut it open and discussed its merits. I was hooked by this stage.

The first thing you need to know when you start frequenting your local market is that the fruits and vegetables have different names in different places. Just as Brits call it an aubergine and people from the US call it an eggplant, so you will come across variations here. By the way, why on earth do they call it an eggplant anyway?

For example, if you learn Spanish in Bolivia you will call strawberries frutillas, while in some other countries they are fresas. The same goes for avocado (aguacate / palta) and lots of other stuff too. I was rather embarrassed to note when I got here that I didn’t actually know the names of many fresh things in English. Blame it on my vitamin deprived lifestyle in the UK, but people would wave strange green stuff at me and ask me what it was called in English and I didn’t have the foggiest idea.