Is Learning Spanish Difficult?
I’m sure you think yes and no.
Well like any other language, you need commitment and dedication, but that does not mean it can’t be fun!!
Of course being part of a Spanish course is essential so that you can learn vocabulary (idioms and expressions), phonetic, grammar structures and one of the most important reasons is you get to practise all of that with other people.
Attending to a course helps you in all those factors, but it’s never enough if you don’t make use of it in your normal life, out of the school hours. How can we make learning Spanish more interesting and fun? This is what our blogs are about. Below are some of the tips I use when I learn a language and also some ideas I always suggest to my students:
- Read Spanish books or papers. If you like reading what’s going on in the world, why don’t you read the latest news on a Spanish paper? You can visit their online site every morning while having breakfast. If you prefer books, you can start from lower levels and then challenge yourself to read something that you would read in your mother tongue.
- Watch films made in Spanish. There’re thousands of them from Spain, Argentina, Mexico, etc. – see blog about Pedro Almodóvar and Spanish Film Festival.
- Music, music, music. It’s everywhere, it’s a great part of our life, why not listen to Spanish music? You can find different types of Spanish music such as flamenco, folk, pop, indie or even great rock bands too!
- Spanish Exhibitions help you understand not only the language, but also Spanish culture.
- Social events. There’re many Spanish festivals: food, cinema, music, etc. It gives you the opportunity to meet other people with the same interests.
- We love travelling! Try to find a little gap in your diary to escape to one of the beautiful countries where people speak Spanish. In that way you are not just enjoying the most wonderful holidays but also practising everything mentioned above.
A normal day:
Unfortunately we can’t do what we love all the time, but we can give a little twist to our standard routine when learning a language. You can find excellent tips in Amaya’s blog, I have added some others if you want to have a look:
- When you are in the train on your way to work: look at the people and objects around you discreetly and try to describe them by using the vocabulary that you know.
- Read the signs on the streets and buildings, try to translate them into Spanish. If you can’t, now you have this task for homework!
- Use all the applications for your phone or tablet: duolingo,memrise, busuu,
- Write your daily must do list in Spanish: “tengo que …”, “debo …”, etc
- If you are lucky to have a friend that speaks Spanish, speak to your friend as much as you can!
Now, after all that information do you think that learning Spanish is difficult?
And what are your ideas or tips to learn?
I hope you enjoy the blog.
¡Hasta pronto!
Sara
Vamos Let's Learn Spanish. Spanish courses in London. Spanish courses in Valencia.
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9 Comments
Keep on learning Spanish
Have fun learning Spanish as we upload the A1 and A2 episodes of Cava Baja, our cartoon soap in Madrid.
For higher levels, we'll test your Spanish with specially written articles from topics we find of interest from the news each week.Plus we'll keep you in touch with Hispanic culture in London, our teacher blogs and social events in the school. Have fun learning with Vamos.
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Very useful! This, in combination with Amaya’s tips, weekly practice in a course and passion about the language you are studying, will definitely help you to reach your goals 🙂
The time we apend in the underground it’s kind of wasted, much more if we don’t have anything to entertain ourselves. Looking around and trying to describe things in Spanish sounds like a great idea! Also if you had forgotten your book or ipod at home, you won’t get irritated as you can easily entertain yourself doing this!
Very good ideas, Sara :). I especilally like the one about to keep thinking in Spanish after the Spanish lessons at Vamos and during the week when travelling in the tube or walking in the street, and trying to translate the signs and expressions we see into Spanish. It might also be a good help for future trips to Spain!
Another good idea is to place post-its at home with names of objetcts and furniture, for example: “estantería”, “basura”, “puerta”, etc.
Does someone have more ideas?
😉
Good post Sara, ¡me gusta! 🙂 I have another tip: use the dictionary! You will never forget a word if you use the dictionary to learn it 😉
I definitely like the music one!! It’s how I learned English. Reading lyrics, focusing on new vocabulary grammar and pronunciation. It’s definitely one of my favourite ways to learn!!
Thinking in Spanish or the language we are learning helps a lot too. Keep your mind busy with some Spanish!
Watching one video a day from websites like http://www.videoele.com/ will definetly make the difference and it only takes a few minutes!
I sometime find that a paper (physical) dictionary is better for learning new vocabulary as you can see additional translations, and sometimes translations of idiomatic phrases, next to the word for which you searched.
Secondly, every weekday morning I look up a website called dilbert.com, which has a Spanish version, and I read and try to translate / understand that version before I read the original English version. I make a note of any new vocabulary in a smartphone app. Such multilingual websites also exist for international newspapersnewspapers.
Thirdly, I listen to Spanish songs/playlists on Spotify and use lyrics websites if I get stuck (which happens pretty frequently!)
Lastly, when I’m travelling by car or by tube I listen to recordings of lessons in Spanish and let my ears become accustomed to the sounds of the language – if I’m alone, I’ll do my best to imitate those sounds.
Sorry about the long post – I hope that these hints help!
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for this great advice 🙂
Sara, Bryan is one of Andrea’s level 9 students.
Thanks to you all for your comments!
I’m glad you like the blog and hopefully this blog gave you some new ideas or good tips to help in your journey learning Spanish 🙂
Bryan, I’m very happy to hear about all your dedication and commitment! If you keep on working this hard, I’m sure your Spanish will be excellent very soon!
Thank you for your tips and let’s hope that many students use them to improve their learning 🙂