Want to learn Spanish, but it seems like a big challenge and you’re not sure if you can do it? All those new words, phrases and even gender for nouns?! It’s insane. Learning a new language can be difficult and quite scary, but don’t worry, this article will give you some easy tips to make your Spanish learning journey fast and easy.
There are many ways to learn Spanish in the comfort of your own home, you don’t have to move abroad or pay to attend a university to learn the language anymore. There are many apps, and textbooks available designed to make learning a new language fun.
This article will provide you with 8 simple tips to help you learn, and master Spanish in no time!
If you’re wondering how long does it take to learn Spanish and how to become fluent? Keep reading to find out!
Table of Contents
Tips to Learn Spanish Faster
1. Build Your Vocabulary
As with any new language you learn, you need to be able to form sentences, and in order to do that, you need to know basic words and extend your vocabulary. To build an extensive vocabulary you can take note of new words you read or hear, write these down and look up the definition, by doing this you will soon have many new words in your Spanish vocabulary arsenal!
A good place to start is by learning common greeting words, nouns and pronouns. These words are the foundation of any good sentence and are a vital part of learning the language.
Some simple greeting words and personal pronouns are listed below to get you started:
- Hola (Hello)
- Adiós (Goodbye)
- Por favor (Please)
- Gracias (Thank you)
- Yo (I)
- Tú (you)
- Él (he)
- Ella (she)
For a more extensive list of important words and phrases to learn, and help you build your Spanish vocabulary check out this page: top Spanish words to learn.
2. Practice by Having Conversations
Learning a new language can be fun, especially when you’re doing it together with other people!
The best and fastest way to learn a new language is by having conversations with other people, who understand the language or even fellow Spanish learners. Go find yourself a language buddy and start talking! You can even nail conversational Spanish in only 5 steps!
Having a conversation with other people forces you to think fast, not only to understand what is being said but also to respond appropriately, if you are speaking to a native you will also get some pronunciation practice, which will help you adjust and learn the right way to pronounce certain words, finally by working more and more Spanish conversation into your daily life, it will start to feel natural and as the language starts to integrate into your life, your confidence in your Spanish skills will skyrocket!
3. Immerse yourself in Spanish
The next step in your Spanish learning journey is to immerse yourself in the language. When I had to learn the chemical names and formulae of certain common household objects, like table salt, I stuck sticky notes to each object with the common name as well as the chemical name and formula on it, and every time I had to use salt I would read the words on the sticky note aloud. Now you might be wondering “How is that related to learning Spanish?” Well, you can use the same trick I did to learn the words for common household objects and tasks in Spanish!
Doing this will enable you to remember the words faster since you’ll be seeing and using a few of these objects daily and it will also help you to greatly expand your Spanish vocabulary.
Some other ways to immerse yourself in the Spanish language to help you learn more words, is by watching Spanish TV shows with the subtitles in your native language, or you can switch your phone’s language setting to Spanish, I’m sure you use your phone a lot during the day, and this way every time you use your phone you’ll learn something new in Spanish!
4. Find a personal tutor
Learning a new language can be quite scary and intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Having a tutor to help and guide you is a great way to learn a new language fast, especially if you see the tutor on a regular basis. With some fear caused by the recent global pandemic of covid-19 you might not want to see a tutor face-to-face yet, well you’re in luck there are many resources where you can find a tutor to help you learn online! AmazingTalker is an online learning platform that teaches all languages, including Spanish in a fun and effective way. Go check out this list of the Top 10 Online Spanish Tutors.
Online tutoring offers a great variety of benefits like a flexible schedule if you have a busy day at school, university or work you can schedule a meeting whenever it’s convenient for you, and it saves you on traveling costs to see the tutor in person, and you can access these learning and tutoring services wherever you are in the world!
5. Focus on the most used Grammar
As a beginner Spanish learner, you might think that cramming every single grammar rule there is, and knowing these grammar rules perfectly before you start is the way to go, but it’s not, in many cases Spanish grammar is very similar to English grammar and you can get very far with just a basic understanding of Spanish grammar.
Yes, grammar in Spanish can be quite tricky, but we all thought English grammar was difficult when we started learning that, and let’s face it there are probably a lot of grammar rules in English that we don’t even know about because we don’t use them. So don’t get too stressed out over the ins and outs of every single grammar rule.
Check out these two videos for a simple explanation of some basic Spanish grammar:
6. Read in Spanish
Reading is a wonderful way to relax and learn new words at the same time, no matter what language you’re reading in, you’re bound to find a word or two in there that you’ve never encountered before. Reading gives you an idea of how sentences are put together and how all these words you’re learning are used in context. By reading Spanish books, newspapers or even articles you’ll be expanding your vocabulary and learning grammar rules all in one place!
If you can find the audio version of a certain book or article you’re reading you can follow along as you read and listen to the pronunciation of words, this will also help you grasp pronunciation and many other important aspects of the Spanish language.
There’s no time like the present to start reading in Spanish!
7. Form a learning schedule
We’ve all made schedules in school or even work to help break down those masses of work into smaller, more manageable portions of work to deal with on a day, and to ensure we get through it all in time. The same goes for language learning – by making a clear learning schedule for yourself you break down the language into “bite-sized” sessions of an hour or two of focused learning a day. Start off with an introduction to the language and slowly work up to more difficult topics as you grow more comfortable with the language.
A schedule is a great way to help you remember to sit down and get your daily dose of Spanish learning in. By following a learning schedule daily, Spanish will become a part of your daily life in no time!
Following a schedule can be difficult at times, but stick with it and the results will be amazing!
8. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes!
“Ugh, I keep getting this wrong!”
We’ve all no doubt heard the expression that says we learn from our mistakes. Well, this is actually true and can be applied to any area of learning, including learning a new language. Nobody got the hang of riding a bicycle the first time – you had to keep falling down to eventually learn what you were doing wrong and fix it.
As with riding a bicycle, learning Spanish won’t be perfect the first time around, you’ll make mistakes along the way and that’s okay! Making mistakes forces us to revise what we’ve done, and figure out a solution to our problem. By revising our previous mistakes over and over again, we are able to draw from our mistakes and problem-solve with ease.
Mistakes are what make us stronger in the end.
Vamos newbie vamos!
Learning how to speak, read and write in Spanish can take time and it will require a lot of effort from your side, but it is possible and offers many benefits to you as you aim to move to a Spanish-speaking country, or just to become a polyglot. By staying focused and dedicated throughout your studies, you will reach your desired goal in no time! If you follow these 8 simple tips given above, your Spanish learning journey will be really easy. Remember that it is okay to make mistakes when learning, it’s all part of the process.
If you’re looking to start learning Spanish now, why not go over to AmazingTalker and start your Spanish learning journey now!
