1) Watch 5 - 10 minutes of any video with relevant topics to yourself per day.
This can be achieved by using a video platform such as Youtube. Type in Spanish, common suggestions are showtalks, cartoons, cooking shows, etc. But honestly find something that you like or are knowledge about. Only this way, you will avoid getting bored or super overwhelmed with people speaking fast in a foregin language.
Focus only in the words that you know. Make sure you're able to hear the words you would recognize when writtten. Your listening and speaking skills should match in level.
Translate a word only when it's said multiple times in a video. Don't stop the video during every sentence. Just listen! That's the goal of this activity.
2) Write 1 - 3 paragraphs per day.
This can be achieved by using a notebook or a computer. Choose a topic you want to focus on, for example if you want to practice the past tense, then write about what you did that day.
Make sure you work on improving one aspect of the language at the time. If you're practicing tenses for example, then your goal is to get conjugations right, don't waste time translating other words to make the sentence sound more natural. Just focus on getting the conjugations correctly while writing the paragraphs.
3) Change your electronic devices to spanish.
Go to settings and change the language, it doesn't need to be all devices at the same time. Ease into it, until you're comfortable with it.
4) Switch to Spanish mode/Create habits.
Speak Spanish with yourself. Are you cooking? Well, name the items you remember. Leche, harina, yogurt, etc. You're checking the time? then say it in Spanish. Son las 8 pm, for instance. Are you grocery shopping? then say it! Voy al supermercado. You just woke up on a tuesday? well, say it in Spanish! Hoy es martes. You're driving your car on a very hot day? Say it in Spanish as well! Hoy hace mucho calor 🥵
Think in Spanish, use the world as your canvas. You see a man walking while waiting for your Uber? Use it to practice Spanish. Un hombre. Umm. What is he doing? caminando. What is he wearing? una camisa azul, pantalones negros y zapatos blancos. Is he tall or short?, etc.
5) Lable your items in Spanish.
Do you like to writting things down or taking notes? why don't you label your house items in Spanish? That way you will see the words every day next to the items rather than in a notebook.
6) Get aquanted with the culture.
Learning a language goes beyond the words. Music, food, people, comedy and history shape a language. So, follow latinamerican famous people on social media, follow meme or comedy accounts. Listen to Spanish music, learn about fun facts about the culture, and the countries. Use videos or articules to learn about the difference between your culture and the new one. Embrace the language and eveything that revolves it.
7) Track the progress.
Record yourself speaking whether on video or audio and review it months later to see how much your pronunciation and speaking skills have progressed.
Go over the same materials you've worked with in the past every now and then. You will notice how much you can understand in comparison to back then.
1) Greetings and farewells
Learn how to say hi and goodbye. This is a culturaly relevant topic. Not saying hi or thank you, can be percieved as rude in the latinamerican culture.
2) Common questions.
Learn how to ask people questions and understand what people are asking you.
3) Pronunciation.
Learn how to pronounce words and understand people when they speak.
4) Verb conjugations
Pronouns (click here)
Present tense (AR verbs) (ER verbs) (IR verbs) (irregulars)
Presente progresivo (link)
Past tense indefinido (link) and Past tense imperfecto (link)
Future tense using "ir" (link)
Conditionals using "would" (link)
5) Numbers
Learn from 1 - 20 first, then 10 by 10 until 100. After that go from 200 until 1.000. Lastly, try to mixed them like 1.945.
Learn how to use ordinal numbers, from first to tenth is enough.
6) Cognates.
Use words that you already know in your favor. There are thounds of words similar from English and other languages to Spanish.
7) False cognates.
Avoid saying something embarrasing or using words with a total different meaning just because it sounds or looks like a word you know. Also, learn about common mistakes.
8) Talk about yourself.
Learn how to talk about yourself, your family, your job, your interest, etc.
8) Day to day topics.
Learn how to talk about the week, months, amount, location, adjetives, things, etc.
9) Day to day phrases, connectors.
Learn how to make your sentences smoother.
10) Gramatical gender.
Learn how to use the gender of a word correctly.
12) Objetos directos e indirecto
13) Versus
Learn how to use words accordingly to its context. Such as, ser vs estar. Muy vs mucho. Saber vs conocer. Creer vs pensar. Todo vs cada. Mirar vs ver. De vs desde. Otro vs otros. Esto vs este, etc.
10 click here
11 click here
1) What to focus on?
Find materials appropriate for your level. Languages are put into categories from A1 (lowest one) to C2 (highest one). So, if you're just starting, try to find materials designed for A1 students.
In the beginning, it's hard to define the line of what to learn but in general avoid learning everything at the same time, focus on specific areas you want to improve on and take it slow. At the end of the day, this is a long term investment, so take it slow.
Avoid wanting to break down every single sentence you encounter. If you see a word over and over, that means it may be important so it's worth translating it but don't try to figure out every word.
2) Being too critical
Don't be too hard on yourself! Learning a new language feels like being a baby again. Don't know how to conjugate or spell, unable to articulate, etc. No one starts speaking the language from day one, it takes time. Each person's journey is different. And remember this isn't a race. Learning a language requires consistancy and decication so it's ok to call out yourself when needed but not being able to remember a word or making the same mistakes many times is a normal behaviour among students so take it easy on yourself.
3) Using translations.
Being able to understand is important but our brains are tricky and in order to remember things in the long term we need to activate different parts of it by attaching the memories to a sound, image, movement or sense. That's why we can remember something either very good or very bad that happened many years ago but maybe not what we had for lunch a week ago.
Use translations for hard concepts like "however" but if you want to learn how to say apple, then watch a video of a person making a fruit salad in Spanish. Your brain will appreciate it better than seeing the plain translation.
Translate words and not full sentences. Try to fill in the gaps with your own knowledge. Challenge yourself!
Translations are not reliable for certains sentences. So, use translations as a reference but don't focus on the literal meaning. Otherwise, it can get very confusing.
1) KLEO (Best for conversation, vocabulary, grammar - beginner)
2) DUOLINGO (Best for vocabulary, reading - beginner)
3) ELLA VERBS (Best for conjugations- beginner)
4) LingQ (Best for reading, vocabulary - beginner)
5) Forge (Best for grammar - beginner)
NOTE: PLEASE READ REVIEWS AND DO RESEARCH BEFORE PURCHASING ANY PRODUCT.
1) Easy Spanish Step-by-Step (Best for grammar)
2) Short stories in Spanish for beginners (Best for conversations)
3) 501 Spanish verbs (Best for conjugation)
4) Spanish for Dummies (Best for conversations)
5) Getting Started with Spanish (Best for self-teaching)
NOTE: PLEASE READ REVIEWS AND DO RESEARCH BEFORE PURCHASING ANY PRODUCT.