Gather Round: It’s Time for Sobremesa!

I have no idea where I first read about Sobremesa, but I was immediately drawn to the idea. In its traditional form, sobremesa means gathering around the table over dessert for casual conversation. When I learned about this tradition, I thought it would be a perfect way to make our family’s language learning more fun.

How It Works

Admittedly, I created our version of Sobremesa for my children as a way to bribe them to practice Spanish. That said, it would work equally well for adults.

It’s a pretty simple premise. Once a week, we plan a dessert that everyone enjoys and agree that while we are eating it, we will all speak in Spanish. It works best if we decide on a topic ahead of time to focus on because we can learn some useful vocabulary, which makes things go more smoothly.

Some ideas for Sobremesa topics:

• Likes/dislikes (me gusta este helado)

• The names of whatever you’re eating

• What you did that day (preterit tense practice)

• Where you’re from

• Describing your family

As you progress, you can do less planning of the conversation topic and it becomes more of a true chat.

More Ideas for Sobremesa

After you get comfortable with having a chat in Spanish (or Spanglish from time to time), you can expand on this idea. You could explore Spanish and Latin American culture by trying out desserts from Spanish speaking countries (bonus points if you make them from a recipe written in Spanish). You could also extend your Sobremesa to an entire meal.

You could host a virtual Sobremesa if your Spanish speaking friends or family don’t live close enough to eat with you in person. You might even use this format to make some new Spanish speaking friends by finding people interested in virtual Sobremesa on Reddit, Meetup, or other similar platforms.

Why It Works

There are two things I credit with the success of our Sobremesa. First, it’s short. It’s just dessert. You can force yourself to practice speaking long enough to eat a bowl of ice cream. Second, it’s dessert. Everything is more fun with dessert.

It’s a pretty simple concept, but it’s turned my kids’ attitude around about practicing Spanish, and it makes it a lot more bearable for me, too. I think it would work for anyone new to Spanish or shy about speaking.

¡Buen provecho!