Some tips to learn Spanish
Have you ever found yourself in a situation when you realized you don’t know what happened to the language you wanted to learn so much and now the only thing you may remember is how to say hello?
The typical thing that happens when you learn a new foreign language that you don’t really need in everyday reality is that you leave it (and usually in a very short period of time). Nowadays the most popular and most required languages in the business world are English, Spanish and German. Usually the work is the reason why all people get down to studying a new language including Spanish.
Despite all our good intentions, we’re just humans. We all sin and we betray ourselves. The typical promises we never keep are “tomorrow (or on Monday) I’m going to buy myself a book for self-learners and I’m going to start studying Spanish” or “I’m going to take a course so that I can revise all the things I’ve learned a year ago and get myself a diploma. This way my CV is going to look more attractive to my future employers.” We all know how these promises end. They die the minute they are born. Maybe you buy that book or you look for some information about language courses and keep going for one week. (Exceptions exist, but there aren’t many of them.)
We recommend you to learn Spanish in group so that the group would push you forward and help you improve more quickly. If you like the idea and your chosen language is Spanish, you can take one of our courses and have a good time! Believe me, once you have fun, you learn very quickly. Besides, in a group you can experience funny situations and live moments you will never forget.
In case you prefer studying on your own, the most important part is to find a good cause. One that is strong enough to beat even the boring grammar parts and excuses such as “I have no time”, “I have to go to work”, “tonight I’m going out with my friends or “I spent all my free time with my boyfriend”. Once you find a motivation, you can jump right into a sea of foreign languages.
We are going to suggest you some methods that could help you learn with more efficiency. We would like to make you clear that not all the methods are useful for all people, but the important thing is to give it a try.
I’m sorry to tell you that there will be some moments of boring grammar and vocabulary tasks in the beginning, but once you pass it, the world becomes more entertaining. You can start to listen to music in the language you are learning and use the pleasant melody to memorize some new words. You can practice your new knowledge by living for some period in Spain or another country where Spanish is the official language. This is a good way to talk to the natives, see for yourself that your effort is paying off and it also motivates you to continue studying. Speaking of funny method to learn, we suggest you to see Spanish movies or some TV series in the original version. You can also watch it with subtitles so that you are sure about understanding it well. If there are some words you don’t know, don’t panic. It’s normal not to understand every part, in some time it won’t be any problem for you.
Your friends can help you, too. If you convince them to study with you, you can watch the movies together, talk about them, explain some grammar one to another or even sign up for a course together! Speaking of courses, there are also many different types of them. You can go to group courses, take individual classes or sign up for a special classes that consist in living with your teacher in his house. This way you learn more quickly and more naturally because you live her/his daily routine with her/him. The most important thing is not to be afraid of making mistakes in the spoken language.
The polyglots (people who speak many languages in passive and active way) agree that the best way to learn new language is to fall in love with it and its culture. What you can’t forget, of course, is to practise it every day.
What we highly recommend is that you switch the language of all your devices – your phone, email, even Facebook into Spanish. Since you already know how they work you won’t have any troubles changing the language and you will easily remember new words because you see them frequently.
What helps to some people is to have visual contact so that they could learn them. When you are learning even your house can help you with it. Why don’t you try placing stick notes with translations into another language on everything you use or you have in your house?
We have mentioned some useful ways to learn and now it’s your turn. You can try them and if they don’t work I am sure you can find many more on the internet o by asking people who have managed to learn more languages. We hope you have a great desire to explore new things, no fear and a lot of courage!
In case you find yourself interested in taking one of our courses and learn Spanish in group, individually or via skype, you can write us an email to info@institutohemingway.com.
