Cultura: Pasatiempos e ir de vacaciones
In Spain and Latin-American countries people have a lot of pastimes, but the biggest one is soccer. It has been a sport that has been established since the end of the nineteenth centaury. It has brought people together as well as big rivalries. Fans during these games can become extremely emotional during a game. Each country has two teams that are the biggest rivals. An example, are Real Madrid vs Barca (Barcelona), two teams from Spain. The game is so ingrained into the culture that children as young as 5 are playing outside with their friends (with adult supervision of course). 
Other sports are played in Spanish speaking countries of course, but soccer is the most popular. Once Spanish speaking country that differs in that, is Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, baseball is the most popular sport. The sport began in 1898, and has gained great popularity. You can see some families that will support a specific team for generations and watch games with friends and family at a bar, at a home party, in the street.
DISCUSSION
Think about your own pastimes and what you like to do with your friends and/or family. Look at the questions below and discuss with a classmate, or with the whole class;
- What is the national pastime of the country where you are from?
- What is your favorite pastime?
- How does your national pastime compare to soccer? do fans do the same things?
Licensing and Attribution:
Cultura content on this page was remixed from Español por el mundo by Gemma Morawski and Ani Alcocer, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.