Learning a language doesn’t have to mean sitting down with a textbook. One of the easiest ways to make language practice more enjoyable is to connect it to something you already love.
Love food? Follow a recipe in Spanish or Italian. Enjoy the news? Read an article in Portuguese. Prefer a good story? Pick up a short story in French.
With Soltar, you can bring your own content into your language practice, turning the things you already enjoy into opportunities to learn. Here are a few ways to get started.
1. Learn a language through food
If you love food, why not use it to learn?
Try watching a cooking tutorial in your target language without relying on subtitles straight away. Listen for familiar words, ingredients and cooking verbs.
Some channels to try:
- Las Recetas de MJ
- Spanish
- Hervé Cuisine
- French
- Fatto in Casa da Benedetta
- Italian
When you come across a word or phrase you want to remember, bring it into Soltar as a lesson and use it as the starting point for your practice.
Watch cooking shows
Cooking shows are another great way to combine entertainment with language practice.
Try watching a programme in your target language with subtitles in the same language. Look out for cooking verbs, ingredients, expressions describing flavour and texture, and everyday phrases.
You can save the words you find interesting and practise them with Soltar.
Follow a recipe in your target language
Now it’s time to put your new vocabulary to work.
Find a recipe written in your target language and try following it from beginning to end. You don’t need to choose anything complicated.
Recipes are particularly useful because they naturally repeat common verbs and vocabulary related to ingredients, measurements and preparation.
Try making:
- Tortilla de patatas
- Spanish
- Pizza scrocchiarella
- Italian
- Pastel de nata
- Portuguese
- Ratatouille
- French
Keep a note of words you don’t know and bring them into Soltar, and you can then practise the vocabulary you’ve just encountered in context while cooking.
2. Read the news in your target language
If you already enjoy keeping up with current events, turn your daily news habit into language practice.
Start with a short article rather than trying to read an entire newspaper. Choose a topic you’re genuinely interested in, whether that’s sport, travel, food, music or technology.
As you read, don’t worry about understanding every single word. Instead, look for:
- Words that appear repeatedly
- Useful verbs and expressions
- Words you can understand from context
- Phrases you would actually use yourself
Found a word you don’t know? Add it to Soltar and practise it.
You can even take a short news article and use it as your starting point for a language session. Read it first, identify unfamiliar vocabulary, then use Soltar to practise the words and expressions you want to remember.
The goal isn’t to translate everything. It’s to learn how the language is actually used.
3. Read a short story
Stories give you something that vocabulary lists can’t: context.
Reading a short story in your target language lets you see how words, grammar and expressions work together. You also have the advantage of having a storyline to help you understand what’s happening.
If you’re learning French, Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a familiar starting point for many learners.
You don’t have to read an entire book in one sitting. Start with a short section and focus on understanding the general meaning.
Then use Soltar’s conversation and vocabulary practice on the words and expressions that caught your attention.
What are you learning today?
You don’t need to completely change the way you spend your free time to learn a language.
Watch the cooking video. Read the news. Start that French story. Try the recipe you’ve been saving.
Then take the words and expressions you discover and turn them into language practice with Soltar.
Because sometimes the easiest way to learn a language is to stop treating it like homework and start learning through the things you’re already interested in.