Spanish Language

Spanish Language

Tip no. 1 to learn Spanish Language as rapidly and easily as possible:

Immersion

As adults, when we decide we want something, such as to learn Spanish language, we want it yesterday!! It is possible to learn Spanish rapidly and easily if you keep the principles of effective learning in mind and make sure that the resources you use to learn Spanish language apply them. The next few posts will discuss these, starting today with the first principle for rapid, effective learning:

Immerse yourself in the Spanish Language

When you learn Spanish language, look for a method that will give you an immersion experience, whether it is face to face Spanish language classes, visiting a country where they use the Spanish language, Spanish language software that uses an immersion approach or other methods. Immersion works so well because when we are out of our comfort zone, our brain looks for ways to make us comfortable again and so will learn rapidly to get back to that state. Just learning Spanish words or grammar out of context is not so effective – immersion gives you the context.

Ways to learn Spanish which will give you an immersion experience include:

Reading Spanish language children’s books with only Spanish words (no English or bi-lingual books!)
Picture books are particularly effective as the pictures will give you clues about the Spanish language being used. The best way to do this is to read aloud. In this way, you practise and improve your pronunciation of the Spanish language and try pronouncing new Spanish words. I find this method to be an excellent way to learn Spanish words and vocabulary and also to get a good grasp of the grammar and sentence structure of the Spanish language.

Watching Spanish television shows
Again, this is an immersion method to learn Spanish as you only have the Spanish language and Spanish words. News shows are one of the best - as with children’s books, the pictures give you clues to the Spanish language being used. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t understand all of it, just relax and you will be surprised how much Spanish language you pick up!

Spending time with Spanish language speakers
When you are surrounded by people who speak the Spanish language, you can’t help but pick up Spanish words and learn Spanish language faster!! The extra incentive is that you really want to learn to communicate in the Spanish language and make yourself understood. It is also a good time to show off all those Spanish words you’ve learnt so far!!

You can do this by visiting a Spanish speaking country or by finding and befriending a Spanish language community in your home town. This is a really enjoyable way to learn Spanish!

Spanish classes and Spanish software or programs
Make sure any Spanish language classes or programs you use to learn Spanish are designed using the immersion technique. This means that instead of teaching you one Spanish word at a time, they give you a whole lot of Spanish language and then help you decipher what it means. You will learn Spanish words, vocab and grammar but in the context of conversation or language first and then in isolation later. Most of the best programs do this. One that I can particularly recommend is Rocket Spanish. It starts with natural Spanish language conversation in Lesson One and gets you to take part by learning and pronouncing Spanish language and then teaches you more traditionally what those words mean after you have experienced the Spanish language conversation. Programs that use multimedia also are particularly effective in delivering an immersion experience.

Spanish language classes where the teacher uses no English at all are the best immersion experience face-to-face.

In the next post, I will cover another easy to apply but highly effective technique to learn Spanish language rapidly and easily.

Till then,

Adiós!

Spanish Language