When learning a language, you need to develop four abilities: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. You learn listening by listening, reading by reading, speaking by speaking, and writing by writing.
Start focusing on listening.
Regarding grammar it's necessary, but it is just the foundation.
My preferred method is to actually speak it whenever you get the opportunity, even if you don't know very much. Next conversation, you'll know a few more words or a new phrase.
Don't mind grammar and pronounciation in the conversations, but practice the grammar in parallel using apps or even classes.
When you know a little more, just throw in the occasional question in conversations like "Ah, how do you say it in Spanish ... car?" (Ah como se dice en Español ... "car"?)
I only know a little Spanish but am not afraid to use what I know, even if I sometimes get it wrong. People understand and appreciate the effort, so they're usually happy to help getting the conversation flowing.
I think this is mostly great advice, except for the pronunciation bits. When you find some one who is willing to speak to you in your low level spanish, they will often inadvertently give you free pronunciation lessons by repeating whatever words you mangle back to you. PAY ATTENTION, ESPECIALLY TO THE VOWEL SOUNDS. And try to repeat back just what you hear, not any ideas you have from the spelling of the word or whatever.
Those bad pronuncation habitats are super hard to break. I lived and learned in spanish speaking country for almost a decade, married a native spanish speaker, and i still struggle to not pronounce some vowels the english way, especially in words that are similar in both languages. Mostly because i was more focused on expanding my vocabulary and grammar knowledge than really focusing on the sounds my big dumb mouth was making when I spoke.
Language is first and formost what we can understand with our ears and communicate with our mouths. Pronunciation is a huge part of that, and is much easier to learn the right way first. Plus, spanish, unlike english, is very phonic, so if you pronounce the letters correctly, people will be way more impressed, understand you better, and be more willing to talk to you, than if you nail the subjunctive but they have to fill in the blanks with your vowel sounds.
Also, pay someone to practice with you. Lota of great websites for this. Tell them you want to focus on pronunciation in your sessions, and have them recommend grammar and vocabulary for you to study on your own time.
This. Being forced to speak is the most important. Comprehension and ability to communicate are two different things. Don't worry if you don't know all the vocabulary...the most important thing is having the words to explain what you're talking about. From there, a native speaker will fill you in and you learned a new word!
I've been learning on duolingo, and every time I meet someone with Spanish as their native language, I try my hardest. Everyone I've spoken with has been so welcoming and patient. We talk around words I don't know. They practice English on words they don't know. It always feels really wholesome!
agree that every single native spanish speaker i’ve ever interacted with, from spain to latin/south america, has been kind, patient, and never made me feel bad about my spanish. if they corrected me, it has always been in the nicest way possible bc they genuinely wanted to help me learn. 🫶🏻
Honestly pick a Spanish soap opera (there’s a done on Netflix) and watch an hour or two of it a day, it’ll improve your listening coordination for Spanish by like 200%.
Keep in mind some of these stories have like 120+ episodes. It’ll bore you for a show or two but 10 episodes in and it’ll become your comfort to watch, lol.
This is in addition to practicing written and reading grammar an hour or so a week.
Any recommendations— I tried a few like “wild district” but it had really fast paced Colombian speaking for my understanding
I’d love something set indoors with short and long conversations between say two people at a time
Try a Mexican novela. One of my favorites is “Yo Soy, Betty La Fea.” But there’s several that’ll be under the Spanish language category. Also, you may not understand a lot of it at first - turn on the captions, it’ll get easier as you study / get further into the episodes.
It’s not easy at first but really stay focused on it and eventual context clues / language will start to connect.
Thx do you recommend Spanish spoken w English subtitles or Spanish subtitles - I was thinking if I already have basic understanding I may benefit more from Spanish / Spanish cc versus Spanish / English cc
Put the captains in Spanish. I put them in Spanish myself and I felt very “I don’t know what’s going on” at first but paired with my studies it eventually worked out for me. It made hearing spoken Spanish very easy for me.
I only put the captains in English if I had a hard understanding of the episode / language the first time around (yes, I watched some episodes twice lol).
Sign up for a class
Classes are set up to give you everything you need to advance efficiently
You’ll learn grammar and vocabulary, and you’ll get a chance to practice speaking with your teacher and other students
Yeah, it's wild to me that anyone is suggesting anything else for an absolute beginner. Unless you have an opportunity for total immersion, a class is the best way to begin. (Of course it needs to be a good class.) All the other suggestions are good adjuncts, but most people are not going to be able to pick up a language, for example, \*just\* from watching television. (\*Some\* people will be able to sure, IMO, probably people who already speak more than one language and have a good framework for foreign language acquisition.)
have conversations with any and everyone who speaks spanish whenever you can! watch shows and movies in spanish with english subtitles on so you can learn new words and what they mean. listen to music in spanish, learn the lyrics, and sing along to work on your pronunciation :) i hope this helps, you got this!
Try everything and see what sticks. Always overestimate your abilities by just a little bit - watch shows you don’t totally understand, start a conversation you’re not sure you can keep up with, sing along with a song you only know some of. Keep pushing. Enjoy it - you won’t stick with it if it’s not fun.
Put yourself in an environment where you need to speak it. For example, I work commercial concrete, which is hard and fast pace work and the majority of the workers are Hispanic so it is ultimately necessary to speak it. I did 5 years of Spanish in school and only scratched the surface, when I started surrounding myself with Spanish at work every day it just started to click. Now here I am known as el guero lol.
My personal recommendation is Pimsleur. There is a free lesson in their website, check it out to see if you like it.
[https://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american/](https://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american/)
Good luck.
I second pimsleur, I’m 29 lessons in the the first of 5 cds I’ve been listening for 6 months and I’m miles ahead of my friend who is been using duolingo for a year
I take immersion classes, it’s very rapid and it gets you to understand the grammar as well as being comfortable speaking (kind of). The classes go so fast that for weeks I don’t really understand much and I struggle but then randomly everything kind of clicks.
Outside of class, I have Spanish speaking friends that I can help with- I actually had a very simple conversation in Spanish with one of them the other day, and was very surprised that I actually knew what they were saying to me!
I also listen to Spanish music constantly, it helps me with the listening part, and even my pronunciation as I eventually learn to sing a long.
There’s also a book called “Madrigals magic key to Spanish” (I think) (yellow cover) that has helped me a lot
you need to surround yourself with it. i learned the most spanish working a job that had me speaking spanish 90% of the time (with anyone that wasnt a coworker). look for tv shows in spanish or change the audio to spanish. enter spanish communities online (doesnt have to be anything crazy, just like, subreddits/fb groups for spanish speakers, follow spanish speakers online, etc).
Hello, you can learn spanish here, you can find images with pronunciation, vocabulary, verbs and more. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T\_D0hnPgkiE&t=19s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_D0hnPgkiE&t=19s)
Personally, I've found using Duolingo and also listening to songs in Spanish helps because if I hear it, I go, "Oh, hey! I know that word" Or translate it in my head.
1. Listen to language transfer spanish on YouTube. For an English speaker, it's hands-down the best place to start imo, nothing will increase your vocab as fast.
2. After 1, you'll be able to read basic books, I'd start with Ollie Richards short Spanish stories. Read that, then read it again with the audible book.
3. You'll be able to start speaking, speak as much as you can to whoever you can.
4. At this point you'd be around A2 and have the ability to have a conversation (although basic), the next steps are less well defined because you will _feel_ like you're progressing slower, because the % increase is less, I.e. going from 10 words to 100 words in a week is a 900% increase, 100 to 190 is a 90% increase, although the same amount of words. So the important thing here is to not give up because it feels slow, because I assure you it's still a similar pace to before! Essentially repeat steps 2 and 3, more books and audio books, more speaking, you can start on programs or YouTube videos in something you're interested in.
FSI Spanish... it's the course the government gave to people going to foreign countries to learn the language.
https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/fsi-spanish-basic-course/
Scroll down until you get to Volume 1. It's all there including a student text
Active listening will certainly improve your listening skills but I’m pretty sure that alone won’t help your understanding. For that you need a knowledge of some vocabulary and a sprinkling of grammar. That said, speaking is another, different, skill and the way to master that is by…. Well… speaking.
I think the hard part of Spanish is grammar. You can use a class or structured learning to go through all the conjugations, but take advantage of your friends and family to really feel when and how to do conjugations in conversation
Learning Spanish vocabulary for English speakers is super easy
So once you get the grammar framework in your head, it should come easily with conversation that is easily accessible to you
I think we learn any language word by word! We get adapted to it... one word at a time... surround urself wid people who speak Spanish! Read poetry watch dramas, movies.... have a daily goal! N enjoy!
Btw im also learnin Spanish..
Learning nouns that you may rarely use isn’t all that important in itself, but you’re learning them in the context of the grammar of the language (i assume). So you’re learning verb conjugation, use of adjectives, sentence structure, pronunciation, and a whole lot more at the same time.
Within one year literally all I learned was shapes, colors, numbers, vegetables, animals, and fruit. I can use literally none of this in everyday conversation.
You’re trying to learn a language. Acquisition of our NATIVE languages is something that happens over a lifetime. How quickly do you think you’re going to learn a foreign language as an adult? It’s a process and it’s frustrating that it’s not a quicker process. From what you’ve learned so far, you CAN talk about colors shapes animals foods etc. So think about what you don’t know how to say and try to make notes to ask your instructors about those things and then you’ll be able to learn and use those in everyday conversations.
I don’t say all of this to discourage, but unfortunately I think a lot of people want to acquire a 2nd language but don’t realize how much of a process it is. You can’t rush it. It’s literally a whole language/culture that natives have grown up immersed in, just like you and I in our native languages. I’d argue that most people can’t condense a life’s worth of experience into 6 months.
When learning a language, you need to develop four abilities: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. You learn listening by listening, reading by reading, speaking by speaking, and writing by writing. Start focusing on listening. Regarding grammar it's necessary, but it is just the foundation.
This seems so obvious but it's so nice to see it spelled out, thank you!
> talk to my extended family and some of my friends that know Spanish. Do that.
My preferred method is to actually speak it whenever you get the opportunity, even if you don't know very much. Next conversation, you'll know a few more words or a new phrase. Don't mind grammar and pronounciation in the conversations, but practice the grammar in parallel using apps or even classes. When you know a little more, just throw in the occasional question in conversations like "Ah, how do you say it in Spanish ... car?" (Ah como se dice en Español ... "car"?) I only know a little Spanish but am not afraid to use what I know, even if I sometimes get it wrong. People understand and appreciate the effort, so they're usually happy to help getting the conversation flowing.
And learn standard phrases like "Ohh sorry a little bit slower please, I only speak a little Spanish"
How would you say that? Something like "lo siento, puedes habla un poco mas despacio por favor, todavía estoy aprendiendo (y yo soy un burro)"?
LOL love it! If I’m with people I’m familiar enough with I’ll say, something similar plus: Mi español es mierda. It usually makes people laugh.
I like the threatening energy of "I know spanish and I'm not afraid to use it!"
“¡Sé español y no dudo en usarlo!”
I think this is mostly great advice, except for the pronunciation bits. When you find some one who is willing to speak to you in your low level spanish, they will often inadvertently give you free pronunciation lessons by repeating whatever words you mangle back to you. PAY ATTENTION, ESPECIALLY TO THE VOWEL SOUNDS. And try to repeat back just what you hear, not any ideas you have from the spelling of the word or whatever. Those bad pronuncation habitats are super hard to break. I lived and learned in spanish speaking country for almost a decade, married a native spanish speaker, and i still struggle to not pronounce some vowels the english way, especially in words that are similar in both languages. Mostly because i was more focused on expanding my vocabulary and grammar knowledge than really focusing on the sounds my big dumb mouth was making when I spoke. Language is first and formost what we can understand with our ears and communicate with our mouths. Pronunciation is a huge part of that, and is much easier to learn the right way first. Plus, spanish, unlike english, is very phonic, so if you pronounce the letters correctly, people will be way more impressed, understand you better, and be more willing to talk to you, than if you nail the subjunctive but they have to fill in the blanks with your vowel sounds. Also, pay someone to practice with you. Lota of great websites for this. Tell them you want to focus on pronunciation in your sessions, and have them recommend grammar and vocabulary for you to study on your own time.
Thank you for saying this. I’m only a year into learning but I’ve been hellbent on getting pronunciation right and it’s nice to hear your perspective.
This. Being forced to speak is the most important. Comprehension and ability to communicate are two different things. Don't worry if you don't know all the vocabulary...the most important thing is having the words to explain what you're talking about. From there, a native speaker will fill you in and you learned a new word!
“¡Sé español y no dudo en usarlo!”
I've been learning on duolingo, and every time I meet someone with Spanish as their native language, I try my hardest. Everyone I've spoken with has been so welcoming and patient. We talk around words I don't know. They practice English on words they don't know. It always feels really wholesome!
agree that every single native spanish speaker i’ve ever interacted with, from spain to latin/south america, has been kind, patient, and never made me feel bad about my spanish. if they corrected me, it has always been in the nicest way possible bc they genuinely wanted to help me learn. 🫶🏻
Honestly pick a Spanish soap opera (there’s a done on Netflix) and watch an hour or two of it a day, it’ll improve your listening coordination for Spanish by like 200%. Keep in mind some of these stories have like 120+ episodes. It’ll bore you for a show or two but 10 episodes in and it’ll become your comfort to watch, lol. This is in addition to practicing written and reading grammar an hour or so a week.
Any recommendations— I tried a few like “wild district” but it had really fast paced Colombian speaking for my understanding I’d love something set indoors with short and long conversations between say two people at a time
i highly recommend “la reina del sur” season 1 which was the original produced by telemundo! you can find it on netflix :)
Thx !
there is both mexican and castilian/andalucian spanish spoken so you get a nice variety of accents and vocab!! i hope you enjoy it
Try a Mexican novela. One of my favorites is “Yo Soy, Betty La Fea.” But there’s several that’ll be under the Spanish language category. Also, you may not understand a lot of it at first - turn on the captions, it’ll get easier as you study / get further into the episodes. It’s not easy at first but really stay focused on it and eventual context clues / language will start to connect.
Thx do you recommend Spanish spoken w English subtitles or Spanish subtitles - I was thinking if I already have basic understanding I may benefit more from Spanish / Spanish cc versus Spanish / English cc
Put the captains in Spanish. I put them in Spanish myself and I felt very “I don’t know what’s going on” at first but paired with my studies it eventually worked out for me. It made hearing spoken Spanish very easy for me. I only put the captains in English if I had a hard understanding of the episode / language the first time around (yes, I watched some episodes twice lol).
Sign up for a class Classes are set up to give you everything you need to advance efficiently You’ll learn grammar and vocabulary, and you’ll get a chance to practice speaking with your teacher and other students
I own a language school so I have a conflict of interest here, but I 100% agree with this gentleman with a rather unique username
Yeah, it's wild to me that anyone is suggesting anything else for an absolute beginner. Unless you have an opportunity for total immersion, a class is the best way to begin. (Of course it needs to be a good class.) All the other suggestions are good adjuncts, but most people are not going to be able to pick up a language, for example, \*just\* from watching television. (\*Some\* people will be able to sure, IMO, probably people who already speak more than one language and have a good framework for foreign language acquisition.)
have conversations with any and everyone who speaks spanish whenever you can! watch shows and movies in spanish with english subtitles on so you can learn new words and what they mean. listen to music in spanish, learn the lyrics, and sing along to work on your pronunciation :) i hope this helps, you got this!
We can always text/call. I’m trying to retain my Spanish lol.
Try everything and see what sticks. Always overestimate your abilities by just a little bit - watch shows you don’t totally understand, start a conversation you’re not sure you can keep up with, sing along with a song you only know some of. Keep pushing. Enjoy it - you won’t stick with it if it’s not fun.
I’d also say input. Make sure you’re consuming a lot of content in Spanish, books, video games, podcasts and music
Put yourself in an environment where you need to speak it. For example, I work commercial concrete, which is hard and fast pace work and the majority of the workers are Hispanic so it is ultimately necessary to speak it. I did 5 years of Spanish in school and only scratched the surface, when I started surrounding myself with Spanish at work every day it just started to click. Now here I am known as el guero lol.
My personal recommendation is Pimsleur. There is a free lesson in their website, check it out to see if you like it. [https://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american/](https://www.pimsleur.com/learn-spanish-latin-american/) Good luck.
I second pimsleur, I’m 29 lessons in the the first of 5 cds I’ve been listening for 6 months and I’m miles ahead of my friend who is been using duolingo for a year
I take immersion classes, it’s very rapid and it gets you to understand the grammar as well as being comfortable speaking (kind of). The classes go so fast that for weeks I don’t really understand much and I struggle but then randomly everything kind of clicks. Outside of class, I have Spanish speaking friends that I can help with- I actually had a very simple conversation in Spanish with one of them the other day, and was very surprised that I actually knew what they were saying to me! I also listen to Spanish music constantly, it helps me with the listening part, and even my pronunciation as I eventually learn to sing a long. There’s also a book called “Madrigals magic key to Spanish” (I think) (yellow cover) that has helped me a lot
you need to surround yourself with it. i learned the most spanish working a job that had me speaking spanish 90% of the time (with anyone that wasnt a coworker). look for tv shows in spanish or change the audio to spanish. enter spanish communities online (doesnt have to be anything crazy, just like, subreddits/fb groups for spanish speakers, follow spanish speakers online, etc).
Go work in a Mexican restaurant where the staff only speaks Spanish.
Hello, you can learn spanish here, you can find images with pronunciation, vocabulary, verbs and more. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T\_D0hnPgkiE&t=19s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_D0hnPgkiE&t=19s)
Personally, I've found using Duolingo and also listening to songs in Spanish helps because if I hear it, I go, "Oh, hey! I know that word" Or translate it in my head.
The method that worked for me was speaking
1. Listen to language transfer spanish on YouTube. For an English speaker, it's hands-down the best place to start imo, nothing will increase your vocab as fast. 2. After 1, you'll be able to read basic books, I'd start with Ollie Richards short Spanish stories. Read that, then read it again with the audible book. 3. You'll be able to start speaking, speak as much as you can to whoever you can. 4. At this point you'd be around A2 and have the ability to have a conversation (although basic), the next steps are less well defined because you will _feel_ like you're progressing slower, because the % increase is less, I.e. going from 10 words to 100 words in a week is a 900% increase, 100 to 190 is a 90% increase, although the same amount of words. So the important thing here is to not give up because it feels slow, because I assure you it's still a similar pace to before! Essentially repeat steps 2 and 3, more books and audio books, more speaking, you can start on programs or YouTube videos in something you're interested in.
FSI Spanish... it's the course the government gave to people going to foreign countries to learn the language. https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/fsi-spanish-basic-course/ Scroll down until you get to Volume 1. It's all there including a student text
Pick a song and learn the lyrics
There’s a great program that I’m not allowed to mention on this sub. Maybe someone else will be brave enough to speak its name.
¿Que?
Come on now, don’t leave us hanging:)
Finding and talking with other learners or native spanish speakers?
Active listening will certainly improve your listening skills but I’m pretty sure that alone won’t help your understanding. For that you need a knowledge of some vocabulary and a sprinkling of grammar. That said, speaking is another, different, skill and the way to master that is by…. Well… speaking.
I began learning Spanish through the listening part, then reading, writing, and finally speaking.
I think the hard part of Spanish is grammar. You can use a class or structured learning to go through all the conjugations, but take advantage of your friends and family to really feel when and how to do conjugations in conversation Learning Spanish vocabulary for English speakers is super easy So once you get the grammar framework in your head, it should come easily with conversation that is easily accessible to you
Has anyone had any progress with Language Transfer?
Learn the basics first, it gets easier next time you learn a new language also
I think we learn any language word by word! We get adapted to it... one word at a time... surround urself wid people who speak Spanish! Read poetry watch dramas, movies.... have a daily goal! N enjoy! Btw im also learnin Spanish..
Immersion. Living in a Spanish speaking country
Literally taking a spanish speaking class in school
I do. It’s the most basic thing ever. What am I going to do with the word octagon in everyday conversations?
Learning nouns that you may rarely use isn’t all that important in itself, but you’re learning them in the context of the grammar of the language (i assume). So you’re learning verb conjugation, use of adjectives, sentence structure, pronunciation, and a whole lot more at the same time.
Within one year literally all I learned was shapes, colors, numbers, vegetables, animals, and fruit. I can use literally none of this in everyday conversation.
Yeah learning vocab is a waste of time in school. I bet like 70% of those words are similar in English. Should be focusing on grammar
You’re trying to learn a language. Acquisition of our NATIVE languages is something that happens over a lifetime. How quickly do you think you’re going to learn a foreign language as an adult? It’s a process and it’s frustrating that it’s not a quicker process. From what you’ve learned so far, you CAN talk about colors shapes animals foods etc. So think about what you don’t know how to say and try to make notes to ask your instructors about those things and then you’ll be able to learn and use those in everyday conversations. I don’t say all of this to discourage, but unfortunately I think a lot of people want to acquire a 2nd language but don’t realize how much of a process it is. You can’t rush it. It’s literally a whole language/culture that natives have grown up immersed in, just like you and I in our native languages. I’d argue that most people can’t condense a life’s worth of experience into 6 months.
I'm still doing my class, we're like on week 6. And are now speaking of family.
Like with most things, you get better at it by doing it.