Top 10 Tips to Learn Spanish

Learning a new language brings benefits to your brain. As you acquire new words and structure sentences to set your ideas, you are establishing new connections, maintaining your brain cells active and starting to exercise your memory. 

Why Spanish?

Learning Spanish is great for young learners because it is something different with a special thinking structure which will improve intelligence and problem-solving abilities.

You can learn to communicate with people who speak the third-most spoken mother tongue in the world, as approximately 500 million individuals speak Spanish.

You can enjoy the diversity of Latin American cultures, learning words like "papalote", "kite" in English, from the náhuatl word "papalotl" meaning butterfly; or "cacao", from the Mayan culture, referring to the chocolate seed.

You can acquire flexible thinking because of the language structure, stimulating your creativity and intelligence. And, if you use the proper resources to learn this beautiful language, your chances of success are guaranteed. 

1. Be in contact with Spanish learners
   
   Being in an environment of Spanish learners will bring confidence in your own language acquisition process where you will find friends who are learning, correcting mistakes and improving their speaking abilities.
   
   You will also have a variety of topics coming from Spanish-speaking communities like México, Argentina or Spain that will enlarge your cultural knowledge and you will do it with friends who are part of your learning circle!
   
   
2. Prioritize learning ordinary useful things
   
   Learning Spanish from a native expert teacher will help you focus on important knowledge and useful sentences, such as introductions, how to ask for directions, how to navigate selling and buying activities and other real-life conversations — giving you the capacity to apply theory to practice and vice versa. 
   
   Your preparation will get you ready to interact with people when you visit a Spanish-speaking region, and to use words or phrases of typical regions like "chaval" (referring to a young person in Spain) or "orale" (a typical Mexican expression to draw attention).  
   
   So, let's be ready to learn ordinary useful things!
   
   
3. Music is always important to make language fluid
   
   Learning typical songs like "Caminito de la escuela" by CRI-CRI or "La Patita" by the same author will help you acquire fluency and excellent pronunciation, stimulating your memory through rhymes and pleasant experiences. 
   
   Don't lose the opportunity to have fun using this great resource!
   
   
4. Practice, practice, practice
   
   Any language should be not just learned but used. Theory combined with practice will reinforce the usage of the language and speaking it constantly will keep you active. Conversations, group interactions, games, trivias, worksheets and any other language exercise will refresh the content acquired and make you conscious of your own progress, elevating your self-esteem. 
   
   It's time to practice, practice, practice!
   
   
5. Listen, read and speak
   
   The perfect combination for becoming a fluent speaker is to listen, to read and to speak the new language. 
   
   In order to gaing expertise, you need to be able to use these three abilities in ordinary situations, for example: listening to a Spanish radio station, reading a Spanish magazine or speaking with a native speaker.
   
   Listen, read and speak, the complete combo!
   
   
6. Play in Spanish and latin games like "basta" or "zapatito blanco, zapatito azul"
   
   When we play, we learn.  The content you absorb becomes something enjoyable that will last in your memory. This is the dynamic center of any course for kids, so be ready to play and learn at the same time.
   
   
7. Act it out
   
   Depicting a character with his/her dialogues will enhance your language abilities, because you are thinking like another person in a specific situation, stimulating creativity, and bringing plasticity to your brain. 
   
   The acting could be about famous Spanish characters like "El Zorro" or about typical ordinary situations like ordering in a restaurant. The important thing is that you use the language in several environments. 
   
   Besides these benefits, art expressions are fun and you will have a great time when acting it out!
   
   
8. Be informed of news within Spanish-speaking communities
   
   Knowing what’s going on within a certain community will help you understand its society and contemporary topics, and will lead to acquiring vocabulary, expressions and ordinary sentences of the present day. 
   
   We live in a world where interactions between nations are more common, so learning the language of a group majority makes you more influential!
   
   
9. Practice with an expert who will teach the correct phonemes of this beautiful language
   
   Your pronunciation will be outstanding and better if you learn when you are a kid. So, if you’re learning later in life, it’s better to learn from native and fluent speakers.
   
   Our 5 vowels are easy to learn, as each vowel corresponds to only one sound. 5 vowels and 5 vowel sounds.
   
   On the other hand, our two letter combinations like "ll" in "llanta" or "rr" in "carro" can only be taught by an expert Spanish speaker. 
   
   So, if you want to be an expert, learn from one. 
   
   
10. Participate in interactive dialogues where you will have the opportunity to reinforce and correct mistakes
    
    Pre-structured or improvised dialogues will help elevate your confidence and make corrections to every mispronounced word, or undefined concept or phrase. 
    
    You wouldn't even notice you are improving your Spanish-speaking ability, because you will learn while you speak. 
    
    So, let's participate in an interactive way!

Final Words

​Now that you know the top 10 resources to learn Spanish, be ready to experience a great class where you can learn, enjoy and practice. 

Learning a language with its culture will make the process more interesting! So, don't hesitate to acquire new tools to expand your influence in the world. 

If you’re ready to start your Spanish learning journey, contact us for a free consultation. Come and learn Spanish!

MINERVA SUAREZ

Writer
​Music & Language Learning Center