I have a confession to make: I didn’t start learning Spanish 2 years ago. Before you blame me for clickbait, don’t go yet! The truth is that I was first introduced to the Spanish language when I entered secondary school, 17 years ago. Don’t shoot me yet! However, I was never good at speaking Spanish.

I only seriously began trying to orally communicate in the Spanish language 2 years ago. You can ask my neighbours, in 2021, I wasn’t even able to form a proper sentence on my own.

I made friends.

There is a reason why when anyone talks about language learning, you’d hear them say, “Immerse yourself in the language!” Immersion works! Simple as that. My son and I used to chat with our Venezuelan neighbours, when they would pass in the street in front of our house. We soon began to visit them for short increments. Soon enough, I went from just knowing random vocabulary that I didn’t know how to piece together, to learning common phrases, to learning how to hold short conversations. The best part is that my toddler, learned many short phrases too! Some of his favourites are: “¡Mira!” “Ya va. Ya va.” “¡Ven aca!” to name a few.

I listened to Spanish music.

I began listening to popular songs and artistes that I remembered from my childhood. eg. Enrique Iglesias & Shakira (an all-time fave!). Back then, I didn’t understand a word of what they used to say. I discovered Reggaeton, with artistes like Daddy Yankee, which is more similar to the upbeat, Caribbean music that I know and love.

My Venezuelan friends introduced me to Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, and a very ‘Malandro’ version of reggaeton (to be honest, I’m still not sure what that particular genre of music is called).

Fastforward to 2023. Now, I finally can understand what Enrique Iglesias was singing about all those years ago in the song, Bailando. Today, some of my favourite artists include, Camilo, Evaluna, Maluma, Pedro Capó and Karol G among others. You can never go wrong with playing a Salsa Music Mix on Youtube.

I used the Dictionary and the Translator.

You may be asking; how do you learn a language if you keep running back to the translator every chance you get? But, give me a chance to explain. When I don’t know what word to say, “¿Como se dice…………?”, I look up the word in my offline dictionary and get confirmation from the person that I'm speaking to, that I found the correct word for the given context. Then, I take a mental note of what word to use the next time. With the translator, I pay close attention to where adjectives, prepositions, and pronouns are placed in a sentence. 

Don’t feel ashamed to use the translator or to pull out your dictionary. Create a vocabulary list. When using the translator, make sure to pay attention to the grammar, and sentence structure in particular. Do not rely too heavily on the translator because it tends to make simple mistakes (because it is artificial intelligence and not a human translator that can pick up on the subtle nuances of context).

I watched TV.

When watching DirecTV with my father, I used to repeat everything that was being said in Spanish during the commercials. This technique is referred to as ‘shadowing’ in the language learning community. Even when I didn’t understand what was being said, I would grasp better pronunciation and intonation. This way, I learned a significant amount of vocabulary and phrases. 

When my dad and I would watch TV programs in Spanish, I used to try very hard to see which words I recognized off the top of my head. As a result, I also learned a great amount of vocabulary from context. The Animal Planet Channel is single-handedly responsible for teaching me words such as, “mascota” and “salvaje”.

I watched Youtube.

Sometimes, I would watch an interesting video directly in Spanish, and follow the same learning methods I used for TV. This works best if the captions are also available in Spanish so that you can see the spelling of the words at the same time.

To be honest, many language teachers are boring. I discovered people that teach Spanish to English speakers on Youtube. Some of my favourite Spanish teachers on Youtube are Hola Spanish, and Español con Juan.

I took an online class.

April Castellano, conducts English-to-Spanish, and Spanish-to-English Classes, through her business, Habio Marketing. During the Corona Virus Pandemic, I took Spanish classes with her online. These classes were really helpful and built my confidence in forming sentences and speaking the language. April Castellano is an exceptional teacher! She is very patient and understanding with her students.

I utilized learning apps on the phone & computer.

I think that Duolingo is the most underrated language-learning app! It is so easy to use! It not only teaches you to speak, but also to listen, read and write a language, while simultaneously teaching you vocabulary and grammar. Duolingo teaches you how to phrase the vocabulary and grammar learned into sentences. Duolingo’s gamified design makes it very fun and extremely motivational too. I have integrated Duolingo practice time into my daily habits. This app helps me to etch eveything that I have learned so far into my memory.

Special mention to ANKI flashcards app. Expect a blog post soon on how I use the ANKI flashcard app to study Spanish.

I studied.

Sorry to break it to you, no matter how boring studying may be, it definitely speeds up the learning process. Studying verb conjugation, took me from only being able to speak in the present tense, to learning the future and conditional tenses, to learning the imperfect and preterit tenses, and when is the appropriate time to use them in the past tense. I also studied the past perfect tense. Studying clarified the difference between “ser” vs. “estar”, and in which context to use  “por” vs. “para”. I use the Complete Spanish Grammar and the Collins Easy Learning Spanish Dictionary as my study guides.

I have achieved intermediate to advanced fluency in Spanish so far, and intend to achieve close to Native fluency in the near future. Wish me good luck! The best part is, that my son is learning the language with me too! 

PUBLISHED: 11th August 2023 by Lichelle Hills.