Una Palabra Sola Episode 2, disfrutar
“All work and no play makes for a boring dinner party”… that’s how the saying goes, right?
Coming out of the pandemic, it’s taken me a long while to learn how to play. Work and hustle has been part of my DNA from the beginning (seriously; I have the body type of an underground miner) and as an adult, I struggle with knowing how and how much to play… but play goes further than normal life, eh? We can play with language - seriously, try a sopa de letras (word search) or something and see how it feels! And listen to the full episode below for more details on how to enjoy yourself ⬇️
Disfrutar: (v) To enjoy, to take pleasure in, to revel.
Related words: el goce (enjoyment), la diversión (fun)
Related verbs: gozar, aprovechar, saborear, deleitar
From the Latin “dis” prefix to indicate ‘option’ or ‘choosing from several things’. The root ‘frutar’ comes from the Latin verb ‘fruor’ (fruto in Spanish), which means ‘to use’ or ‘make use of’.
It can be difficult to find time and hold the space to enjoy yourself – really diving in to *fun* - if you’re in an all-or-nothing mentality.
4:00: Are you more machine or human? Are you living life the way you’d like?
9:33: We aren’t in charge of other peoples’ happiness or emotions (so the subjunctive is a good tool to know).
17:14: There are options for choosing novelty, for choosing to enjoy – all baked into the word itself.
19:39: Carve out time to plan for and expect enjoyment (it’s less likely to show up when you’re stressed and missing a sock and having a terrible day). Where, how, and when are you planning to enjoy yourself?
22:58: Vale la pena to come out of your comfort zone and into the present participle of Disfrutando™
For reflection:
Voy a gozar _________________.
Disfruto _________________.
Estoy disfrutando ____________ cuando ___________________.
Espero que disfrutes _____________________________.
Yo disfrutaba _______________________________.
Una PS has been a labor of love from the beginning. If you’d like to join our lil’ love fest via the Deseo program, click here to sign up! We all have our own wishes and desires when it comes to language, and with some resources and accountability, I can help make yours come true.
TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
0:09
Hola y bienvenidos, Hello and welcome to Una Palabra Sola where we get to learn Spanish one word at a time. I'm your host, Megan Miller, founder and teacher at Aprovechar Language Solutions. Empezamos and let's dive in. Hola hola otra vez mis queridos. Hello, and welcome back to Una Palabra Sola. I'm your host, Megan Miller with Aprovechar Language Solutions. And I have a question for all of you. When was the last time you remembered- or you do remember- enjoying yourself? That's right, I said it. When was the last time you enjoyed yourself? Was it today? Yesterday, last week, last month, five years ago, that is something that we are going to be talking about today. Because our palabra del día, our word of the day is disfrutar. So disfrutar is your regular old -ar verb and it's just called that because it ends in AR and I'm not talking about like arrgh like a pirate, but just disfrutar and what it means it means that something is enjoyed. It means take pleasure in it means one of my favorite words, revel. I don't know about you. But I always think of the Renaissance Faire when I think of revel, because you're just sitting there and it's like hot and sticky outside and you have a glass of cold cider or mead in your hand and you're just watching everyone be wonderfully weird and I just I love it so much. So, what was the last time that you actually enjoyed or took pleasure in something or reveled in something? Because that is Ladies and Gents disfrutar. I also have a bit of a confession. I am very horrible at disfrutando things I am just, I am a recovering or struggling honestly, both are valid. All or nothing mentality kind of person. Things are black or white. It's good or bad. I am worthy or not, I am productive or not. There's no wiggle room. There's no little, not even like a caterpillar size of wiggle room in that. I'm working on it. I think that I'm finally (finally) entering more of a mindful and a quiet, (ironic), quiet season. I'm really noticing the good, there's good in every day. I'm noticing it and I'm enjoying it. I watch it walk by and I'm like, Oh hey, good. How are you today? I see you. You're valid, you're here. I know that you exist versus more in the past when you know you're so focused on hustling or doing or just crossing shit off of a checklist that there is no enjoying or noticing that good. And each day. It's just go, go, go; do, do, do. And you're either on or you're off. It is either black or it's white, no gray, no wiggle room, no room for like a break, or anything like that. And for that, I have a question. If you are more like yeah, I work 80, 100 hours a week, and I'm doing all the things. And I'm not really enjoying things. And that's why I need to listen to disfrutar and listen to this episode. Because do you feel like more of a machine? Or do you feel like a human, because humans are not meant to be machines. And I think finally, this is kind of coming back. We're reeling in the hustle culture, we're we're putting more focus on work life balance. We've been working from home for those of us that are lucky enough to do that. Because on the heels of a pandemic. There, there are little pockets of disfrutar. But if you look at the news, it just says that we're all fucked and we're all gonna die. Because that's kind of the news' job. It's report on the fact that there's a lot of shit outside.
4:43
So part of you might feel guilty for disfrutando something like Oh, there's a lot of weather events. Mother Nature is having more and more temper tantrums every year. Oh, there's war. Oh, there's polio (didn't see that coming). Oh, there's pox. Oh, there's, you know all these bad things? Who am I to enjoy something or take pleasure in something. But I must, I must tell you, I implore you, if you will, since this is all about words here, if you don't enjoy something, even the tiniest little bit of something every day, are you living your best life? Are you living to how you want to live right now? That was a question I should have put ah? at the end, I should have upspoke, I didn't, deal with it. If you don't enjoy something, at least just a little thing every day, how are you really living your best life or enjoying life, because not everybody has to live our best life all the time. That's just called life. If everything is fantastic as the baseline, well, you can't really move past that. So I don't want to put my all or nothing mentality on you and say, Oh, you must live your best life at all times, I'm just saying it is especially when you get into more of Spanish speaking culture, it is a different perspective. And it is a different priority. And there's something to be said about that. Because we don't go out and enjoy ourselves as much, especially those of us that are businesses on the internet, we really only see people from the waist up. So we have a lot of virtual relationships. And some of those virtual relationships have moved into in-person relationships. And those relationships have grown and gotten deeper, and really just kind of lean into and enjoy. Other times our in-person relationships have just kind of taken a step back and maybe those aren't our people anymore, right? There's no harm in that. But there is harm, I think, in not kind of auditing your relationships and who you're around. Because if you're around the hustle culture and the overwork, and the underpay and survival kind of mentality, if you're around that, that just seems normal to you. And it might seem normal to not enjoy things. "Humans are made for suffering." That's what Protestantism is all about and Catholicism, right, humans are made to suffer; we should suffer on Earth. However, I would like to invite you to another perspective, which is life is meant to not be taken so seriously, and that we should enjoy a little bit of it. And I'm not talking about, you know, being reckless... like anytime that Americans are around Fourth of July and fireworks. I am talking about finding those little things to enjoy. So, when we think and talk about disfrutar as a verb, I mean it's used a lot in it's infinitive root. The infinitive root is just when the conjugation gods have not come and blessed that verb with a conjugation. So the the verb is still disfrutar and the definition is still to enjoy, to take pleasure in, to revel. The conjugation happens when yo disfruto or tú disfrutas, when the verb changes to make it so that I enjoy, you enjoy, we enjoy, they enjoy, kind of thing. So with disfrutar, it's actually used in its infinitive quite a bit, where you can have for example, ganas de disfrutar and ganas are just like little wants. I want to enjoy. Oh, voy a disfrutar, I'm going to enjoy. Or
9:04
you can also put put the verb in the past. Yo disfrutaba la comida en mis vacaciones. I enjoyed the food on my vacation. You can put the verb in the present: él disfruta con la compañía de sus libros, like he enjoys or takes pleasure in the company of his books. Sometimes, let's face it, people suck. And one of my personal favorites is the subjunctive. Not only is it kind of fun to say subjunctive, but it also shows the probability or the possibility for chance. I can say something like que lo disfrutes, I hope you enjoy it. I hope you take pleasure in this, whatever this is, but I'm not in charge of that. I don't know if you will enjoy it or not. I don't know. And when we talk about enjoying, that's okay. Sometimes we don't know what we'll enjoy. And that is why the novelty of something, the newness of it is really, really important. I see it all the time with language where people come to me and they say, I've been learning Spanish for fill in the blank, honestly, three months, two days, three years, 60 hours, whatever. They go, I was really pumped at the beginning, and then I just fell off. Or they won't even say that in so many words. They'll say something like, Well, I started in, I really want this. And then there's also a "but" or "though" in there, and then they'll give some kind of fiddly (HINT! Sarcasm) excuse like, "oh, well, my mom died", or "I had a baby", or there was a huge life change, or "I changed jobs" or, you know, something like that. Because let's be honest, life happens. That's kind of the circle of it. The point with language learning and disfrutar, though, is that, it should always be a little fun pocket in your day, if something is not fun, we're not going to do it. You need to enjoy something in order to keep up your motivation. That's kind of how motivation and brain science works to some extent, where keeping that novelty or that newness in something makes it so that you're looking forward to it every day. As humans, a lot of times we have like these expectations for something and then when our expectations aren't met, we get disappointed. We go through a little mourning period. And then we move on. I would once again implore you not to do that with language. Because, yeah, you're not going to be fluent in a month or a year, maybe. And yeah, you could study for five hours a day. But who would want to do that? No. The thing is, is to make it so that language goes into your day and that it's a little pocket of joy. Think of it like a tiny Marie Kondo just popping out and speaking Spanish. Does this spark joy? Yes, it should. And I know I hate to use the should, or the S word for people. But it really is kind of up to you in finding that newness of a language, whatever that thing is that you want to enjoy or take pleasure in. So when a lot of times when I meet clients, and they say, you know, this is where I want to be, how do I get there? I ask them a bunch of questions about themselves. Not only how do you like to learn? Because duh. But also, who's your favorite musical artist? What kind of music do you like? What kind of newspapers do you read? If you do read any at all? If you have a kid, what do they like? How can we make this personal and personally motivating for you. Because you have to keep the novelty. As soon as you get used to something, boop, a new something comes in. That is learning; that can be enjoyed, because you can see the progress. Learning a language isn't like going to the gym, where you can go and lift and I can critique your form. And then you can look in a mirror and pop a muscle and go, "Oh, gains. Yeah." All of that's happening in your brain. So when we meet, I can critique your form, but you can't go and pop your brain muscle and be like, "Oh, yeah, gains." However, there are some really just toe curling experiences that happen with a language and that's when you connect with someone. That's when you can crack a joke. And somebody else laughs.
14:03
And you don't have to be that advanced. Honestly, fart jokes are universal. You can have all sorts of little things. And that's what makes it fun. And if you're having fun, then is it really work? So this is why kind of an all-or-nothing, black or white, good or bad, worthy or not, fluent or not: it doesn't really serve us here. And instead of serving us with words, surprise, I'm gonna serve you with a reframe, which is: Where was the last time that you enjoyed yourself? What were you doing? Who were you with? Why were you enjoying yourself? And then go and try to replicate that, because quite honestly, como estadounidenses, as Americans, and I'm speaking for my own culture here. As a general rule, we're very reserved, we're very contained. We show up early, or *gasp* on time with expectations that quite honestly only a Pinterest board can match. We do and do and do and work and work and work and hustle and hustle, hustle; god forbid, we learn how to stop and party a little bit. And just stop and take a breath. So whether that breath that you take is with Spanish or not, whether that breath is with a virtual relationship, inperson relationship or not, whether that is something that is new to you, or it's something that you're revisiting, I would say, plan. I know this is weird, plan to enjoy something. Taking it full circle back to the beginning here. This is how I myself got to a more of a mindful and quiet season that quite honestly is serving me really well. And that is noticing that good. There is good in every day. Sometimes you don't see it because it sneaks by as the shadows are coming in, but there is good every day. So whether you disfrutar with ganas de disfrutar, you disfrutar in the subjunctive because we are not in control of what other people can enjoy or not. Everyone enjoys tacos though, just putting that out there. Or you do it more in the present tense of disfrutando - currently, present participle, disfrutando, la comida; whatever you're doing in the moment, or in or around your moments, I guess, plan for that enjoyment and you will be surprised at how and where and when it shows up. So into some nerdiness here, the DIS the DIS at the beginning of disfrutar, some people say that it's negation. It actually isn't, it just means that there's an option. There's choosing from several things and that is from Latin, of course. And this is such a wonderful message as well because all the novelty and in all of the different ways that we can disfrutar things... there are plenty of options here. Specifically in the world today, there are plenty of options for enjoying anything really: alone or with others. The root frutar actually comes from the Latin verb fruor, which in Spanish is like fruto which means to use or make use of. So there are a lot of different options or choosing of several things to make use of: IE, enjoy.
18:02
There are also four synonyms, I love the fact that they are all also AR verbs. We have gozar, which for any Marc Anthony fans out there: Voy a reír, voy a gozar, voy a vivir mi vida, la la la la. So, gozar is like to enjoy. One of my favorite synonyms of disfrutar is actually aprovechar -surprise- which means to make the most of, to take advantage of: aprovechar el tiempo, aprovechar la comida, whatever it is that you are trying to aprovechar, that is a wonderful synonym for disfrutar. You also have saborear, like savor. So if you're like, tucked into a meal and you're ready to savor every single mouthful, definitely enjoy that; revel in it. And then you also have delietar, which is a very close synonym for disfrutar; it means like to take pleasure in or to enjoy. All of those verbs, and the conjugation will be in the show notes as well. For any kind of related nouns, there's not a whole... there's not like a direct related noun to disfrutar. You can have something like diversión, which is fun, or probably a more correct related noun would be el goce. Not only is it super fun to say, el goce, but it also means like enjoyment. So as you are looking and planning, whether you are catching this episode right when it drops, right as we are in the midst of changing from September to October, right before daylight savings time right, before we kind of tuck into winter. And I love this time because I really use it to plan and prioritize just the next season, not just the temporal season but the next season of, of my life and how I want to live. I use it as kind of a check in, honestly a big old Planning Committee of what am I liking? What am I not? How am I enjoying things? Right? So whether you're listening to it now, or you're listening to it later, as you look into that next season of life, or as you look into the next kind of area for transformation, or even just the next week, where are you enjoying yourself? How are you doing it? And really, are you holding enough space to enjoy yourself? Get off that hamster wheel / rat race, I don't know why we have so many rodent analogies, but take yourself off of that. Breathe deeply in the sunshine once in a while. And really start to figure out where and how you can disfrutar; where and how you can enjoy certain things. And if you are interested in joining me, and as I disfrutando in the present participle (because I'm always enjoying right in this moment, right now, Spanish), please let me know. My monthly membership programs have now been opened for a waitlist. So come and join and learn how to have fun in your Spanish journey. As Daddy Yankee says, pasito a pasito, suave-suavecito, and that is exactly where I will take you. So not only are we actually going to learn some of the grammar, we're going to practice in a very safe space, practice conversation, practice, really whatever you would like speaking, there's going to be a movie night, there's going to be book clubs. So there will be some literature for all of you bookworms out there. And not only that, but it's going to be fun. Because one thing, one area of feedback that I never planned on having or creating, but this piece of feedback has been looping back with every single client and every single person that I meet. Which says, You do this really fun. I had fun, and I wish that there was a better word for fun. Well, there is... disfrutar. Goce.
22:47
Because it really doesn't even start to match the connection that we have. So if you're ready to get out of your comfort zone, just a little itty bitty bit, please let me know. Come join us at the Deseo program. Be sure to check the show notes for the word, the breakdown, conjugation, and some example sentences, as well as all of those sinónimos or synonyms. And until next time, un abrazo fuerte. Gracias otra vez, and thank you so much for coming along with me on this ride to Una Palabra Sola. Be sure to check out the show notes for additional worksheets and materials. If you have a word that you would like me to review, please feel free to let me know at aprovechar language solutions.com. Hasta la próxima vez; until next time!