To learn any language you have to have some kind of a) guide and b) practice.
The guide can be a book, a teacher, a group class or even our online Spanish classes! It needs to be something that you do regularly in order to progress, little by little, and start gaining confidence.
From these sources you can get some practice but most of the time, students feel like it’s not enough. At one point in the learning process, you need to start immersing yourself in the language in order to make the strides that will motivate you to continue even further.
A good thing to do is to see if there is someone in your life that already knows the language you are trying to learn. If you are that lucky, we suggest you start testing your language skills. Just keep in mind that making mistakes is part of the process and you will definitely learn more by making them. However, sometimes you just don’t have native speakers around you to help you out with conversation practice and getting the language nuances that will make you seem like a pro.
For those cases we recommend the following five tips:
1. Follow cool pages on social media
Go on Instagram, Twitter and/ or Facebook and search for terms like “learning Spanish”. You will most likely be presented with a variety of pages you can follow and use to practice on a daily basis. Here are a couple that we recommend:
a) Our Twitter has small and useful pieces of information. Easy to digest and incorporate to your routine
b) This instagram account posts coloquial phrases that you can hear in Argentina and provides a very funny literal translation to them. This is a good way of familirizing yourself with informal Spanish.
c) This one is a little more advanced because the instagram account doesn’t provide translations but it’s worth it’s weight in gold for its cultural contribution. This Instagram account posts funny or sweet things people hear strangers say on the street.
2. Listen to music in Spanish
It’s always good to immerse yourself in the language and why not do it through song! You will soon be surprised about how much you understand of the lyrics! Our school has a Spotify account where we publish different Spanish-themed playlists! Have a look!
3. Narrate your actions to yourself
Talking to yourself can be a bad look but it’s worth it if it means you can practice Spanish! Try naming the things that surround you in Spanish and then move on to verbs. Soon enough you’ll be making up full sentences! The good thing about this is that you will come up with clear, to the point doubts that you have, and you can check yourself by writing them down and asking your teacher during your next class!
4. Read/ watch something with a familiar plot
Do you have a favorite movie or book that you know by heart? Great! that’s the one you need to find in Spanish! If it’s a book it will most likely have a Spanish translation. If it’s a movie or a TV show maybe you can start with Spanish subtitles and then move on to Spanish dubbing. In any case, you already know what’s going on and you can pay attention to the language part!
5. Read/watch something that you don’t know the plot of but seems easy enough
This one builds up on the last tip. Now that you feel more comfortable with the language, try finding a short story or even a children’s book that seems easy enough and you can always move up from there. Having done this, you can increase the difficulty with reading longer things or trying out some online newspapers.
I hope you find these useful and that they help you out!
With Vamos Academy you can:
Learn Spanish in Madrid
Start your TEFL Certification Online @ Vamos Academy
