Juegos de Taboo

Language is such a crazy thing.  It's that little voice in your head that you hear when you're reading.  It's the source of your expressions during conversation.  It's literally your comprehension (unless you have a way of communicating through telepathy.. but then we need to have a chat about that too.)

I have a lot of respect for people who study languages.

I certainly have a lot of respect for people who can speak a second (or multiple) language(s).

Someday I hope that to be me.  Obviously right now I'm working on Spanish.

So, language.  In my novice opinion, language is the building block for how you view and experience the world.  When it comes to expressing thoughts, it's the ordering of letters, words, and frases to communicate in idea.

When I speak Spanish, I form the sentence in English first, then translate the words and phrases into Spanish as I'm speaking.

I don't think that this is a good way to speak a language, however.  Here's why.

Sometimes, I'll begin my Spanish sentences and come to the realization:

I don't know all of the words in Spanish to complete the sentence correctly.

Then it becomes a game.

A game of Taboo.

For those who have never played a game of Taboo (which is sad if you haven't cuz it's really fun), the idea is simply this: to get your teammates to say the word at the top of the card by describing it.  Except you can't say the word itself, and as an added difficulty, there are a list of other words that you can't say either.

For example, if the word is "Apple", some things you couldn't say would be like red, fruit, sweet, pie, orange, etc.

Except for the Spanish version (the one that I play every day), there is an imaginary card.  On the top of that card is an idea I'm trying to express.  But instead, there isn't a list of words that I can't say in Spanish...

Because I don't even have the necessary vocabulary words.

Again, for example.  The word might be manzana (apple).  The words I know how to describe it are red, fruit, sweet, etc.  Problem?  Yeah, you're right.  Those words are in English.

Realization?  I can't use English because I'm in Spain.

Okay, rest easy y'all.  I know how to describe an apple in Spanish.  (And how to meet up with friends, buy clothing, order food, etc.)

It's just to say that sometimes a limited vocabulary can really hinder you (like a list of words on a card that you can't say).

And eventually, you resort to phrases like: Pues, es una bebida como una cerveza pero es hecho de uvas... or Vale, quiero comer algo como pan pero más dulce...

Possible correct answers: Wine and cake.

Sure those are silly examples.  But that's the idea.  That's how it's like Taboo.

Sometimes you get your teammate to get the right answer.  Sometimes you don't.  And sometimes you just use Google Translate.