So, you’ve decided to learn Spanish as you’re fed up of always resorting back to English (or hand signals) after a lame attempt to communicate with locals when you’re on holiday. Good for you! You’ve found a course or tutor to get you started and you’re off… But you soon realise that one or two 60 minute lessons a week just isn’t going to cut it for you, after all you want to be FLUENT in time for your next holiday right?
Wrong.
As much as it would be amazing to be fluent in a year, in reality it’s just not going to happen. So let’s begin by making sure you don’t have too high expectations, I mean you do also have a life right!
First of all you have to set yourself realistic language learning goals. So instead of saying I want to be fluent by this time next year, set yourself a more attainable goal. Something like “I would like to be able to hold a basic conversation and understand more when I’m being spoken to”. Yeah! That’s more like it.
The secret to learning a new language is finding what learning style works for you and be CONSISTENT with it. So. here’s my list of 5 Things you can do to boost your language learning:
- 15 minutes per day on Duolinguo – this is an awesome (free) app for boosting your vocabulary!
- 30 minutes per day on Memerise – a gem of a resource (again free) that you can tap into every day to keep that consistency going.
- Change the language of your SatNav to Spanish. Might sound scary, but so long as you know where you are going listening to the SatNav voice is a great listening activity.
- Watch an episode of a Hispanic TV series (novela). Fluentu have put together a great list on their blog of shows especially for language learners.
- Document your progress either by writing a short sentence or recording a short video of you speaking. When you look back over these it will boost your confidence when you see how far you have come.
It may feel as though you are making no progress in the beginning, but the time you spend making sure those foundations are solid learning the basics is soooo important for long-term success and a good comprehension of the language.
Don’t be dismayed… it will come 🙂
And if you’d like some accountability, free resources and peer-led support join my Facebook group and continue the language-learning journey with us there
https://www.facebook.com/groups/821510401268060
¡Suerte!