And in my case, it got me hooked on some awesome Spanish-speaking musicians like Andrés Calamaro, Vicentico, Joaquín Sabina, Anita Tijoux, Calle 13 and Gustavo Cordera. Spanish radio can be a great way to make your commute go faster. Just get a ton of post-it notes and stick them to as many items as possible with their names in Spanish. One fun way to do this is to label your house. You can also transform your home into a Spanish learning hotspot! I’d also eat in Spanish restaurants, drink in Spanish cocktail bars and I even joined a Spanish conversation group at one point. Before leaving London, I used to go to a lot of salsa clubs, and I remember having a great time. If you can’t travel abroad, travel to places in your hometown where Spanish-speaking people hang out. The most well-known immersion method is traveling to a Spanish-speaking country since it forces you to start picking up the language to survive everyday interactions. Then, I’d look the words up in my dictionary, note down the translations and reread the chapter. I’d read a chapter, underlining anything I didn’t understand. I read anything I could get my hands on, but I loved reading novels by Paulo Coelho, translated from Portuguese to Spanish. Reading at home was the single most useful activity I did early in my learning. And probably the best way to do that is by reading novels. You’ll first need to study the basic core vocabulary that comes up in almost every conversation.īut once you’re past topics like colors and days of the week, you’ll start wanting to build your vocabulary to include words you could encounter in a wide variety of scenarios. Whenever I came across a section that troubled me, I’d keep going back to repeat the exercises until the grammar began to sink in. I set aside one hour at the end of every day to go through the exercises. It’s full of short explanations and exercises and all the answers are in the back of the book. It also has explanations related to plurals and gender. It was excellent for learning the basic tenses, prepositions and popular phrasal constructs. I found a really simple grammar book and CD for beginners called “ Hugo Spanish in 3 Months.” And doing the exercises in a textbook will help you solidify the rules in your brain. Grammar is a technical and detailed topic, so it’s a subject that a textbook can handle more thoroughly than most resources. And on the iOS and Android apps, there are speaking questions that let you use your device’s microphone to practice pronunciation. The program reinforces what you learn with personalized review quizzes that use spaced repetition. Learn from Authentic Videos with FluentUįluentU is a language learning program which uses authentic videos-like TV clips and movie trailers-to immerse you in Spanish by showing you how native speakers use it in real life.Įach video comes with interactive subtitles, which let you click on words you don’t know to instantly see its definition and add it to your personalized flashcard deck.įor me, FluentU has increased my confidence when I’m not in a Spanish-speaking country and have little opportunity to talk with native speakers.Īnd the videos are from authentic native sources, including clips from TV shows like the ones I saw in Argentina. One of my all-time favorite Argentine movies from the ’80s is “ Made in Argentina.” I love listening to the Argentine accents in this movie and watching them drink mate from their PH patios. Thankfully, two countries with the clearest Spanish accents-Mexico and Spain-are also the most prolific producers of Spanish language films. Watching films also improves your knowledge of regional accents while you sample different Spanish-speaking cultures. And once you’re beyond the beginner level, try watching Spanish movies with Spanish subtitles.īy reading and listening at the same time, I was really able to improve my pronunciation. If you’re a beginner, try watching Spanish movies with English subtitles. Spanish films and TV are a great way to build your vocabulary while improving your comprehension. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬlick here to get a copy. What Is the Fastest Way to Learn Spanish?.Common Questions About Learning Spanish. ![]() Change the Language on Your Phone to Spanish ![]() In this post I will explain exactly how to learn Spanish using the same 18 techniques I used, from listening to Spanish music to chatting to language exchange partners. ![]() The key is to throw yourself into the deep end-in my case this was deciding to live abroad in Venezuela, but there are a ton of other ways to reach fluency. I learned to speak Spanish, and it took a long time and a lot of personal dedication. How To Learn Spanish in 18 Effective (and Interesting) Ways
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