by August Flanagan

Created on: January 19, 2010

A couple of years ago I spent three months in Central America, took a couple of weeks of Spanish courses, and returned to the United States without having learned how to speak Spanish. 

I decided that I was going to make a serious effort to learn the language, and now after a little more than a year of studying I consider myself nearly fluent (I am currently living in Mexico).  Along the way I discovered a few tips and resources on learning Spanish that I think you will find incredibly helpful.

1. Unlike other subjects you might study you can’t actually learn to speak a language from a book. You can learn grammar and vocabulary (obviously important), but you still will not be able to speak.

2. Speaking and listening to the language is the best way to improve your ability to speak and understand the language.

3. Find a good teacher and take some language lessons.

Finding a good professor who understands the difficulties of their own language, and understands how to guide you through the learning process can be a bit challenging. Don’t commit to spending all your time with the first professor, or the first language school that you try out. It’s usually pretty easy to tell after two or three classes whether you have a good dynamic with your professor. If you don’t, then don’t try to fight it. Kindly explain this to your professor, and then go find a new one.

4. Do SOMETHING in your new language every single day.

Yes, that is an incredibly vague statement, but learning a new language is pretty vague task when you consider everything that actually goes into learning a language.

There will probably be days when you are really tired, and don’t feel like putting in a ton of effort, and that’s OK. It is a long process so take days off from “All new language all the time” mode. Just make sure you do something for a few minutes, such as:

Read a news article online, or read two or three pages of a book (Harry Potter was the first book I ever read in Spanish).

Listen to a radio program or conversational podcast.

Watch a movie in the language you are learning. (Tip: Set the subtitles to the language you are learning. Listening to the words while reading them is a great way to train your ear.)

Review vocabulary lists (I like using online Spanish flashcards).

Make up a short conversation between two people in your head as you go about your daily routine.

Finally, I have found several resources invaluable

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