Introduction:

Spanish is considered one of the most spoken languages in the world, and it is also being used in the world of business and commercial sector. The Spanish language is spoken in both Spain and in the United States, and its variety is spoken in each region which has its own special richness that makes learning Spanish, a uniquely beautiful experience in which new discoveries are made every day. With all these factors, the Spanish language is seeing a rapid increase in its popularity and shows no signs of slowing down. Surprisingly it is being estimated that by 2060, the Spanish-speaking population in the United States will reach close to 130 million, thereby making it the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. As globalization takes its pace, knowing Spanish will add extra to your credentials and may boost your career growth. If compared to other foreign languages, Spanish is a fairly direct language to learn for an English speaker, yes of course dedication and true efforts are the prerequisites. Actually, English has many words much like Spanish, which means some words are similar. Furthermore, Spanish words are also spelled phonetic wise which means less time spent learning complicated and bewildering spelling rules and a better chance, and enough time for getting pronunciation right.

There are ample reasons why to learn Spanish and when Spanish holds these many similarities with other languages, it makes us curious to know how to learn Spanish on our own. Let’s find out the same.

• Start from Basic:

The very first step for one who starting to learn Spanish is to learn right from the basics of the language. Learn something which gets retained for further practicing. One to have a base of vocabulary words, as many as phrases, and an idea of Spanish grammar to start with. Try building your own vocabulary. While building up a strong vocabulary base, one required to consider both the “How” and the “What”. “What” is to understand what kind of vocabulary you are required to learn and the ‘How” is in the context of the ways or methods for retaining and recalling the vocabulary. It’s also a good idea to start learning the most common verbs in Spanish, as these will pop up time and again throughout your language learning journey. Also, it is advisable to start learning the most commonly used vocabulary.

• Picking up the Grammar:

The term Grammar may deter you and may make you think about getting yourself immersed in some kind of tedious learning. No one to blame. The approach so far towards learning grammar has been into learning the rules which leave you lacking the vital tools or understanding required for actual communication. Learning grammar is a crucial part of the language and cannot be neglected. Referring to any Grammar guides should be a reference, rather than teaching you something new. Even if you have learned an item of grammar, it will be a while before you can really apply it when in conversation. Try learning a phrase, and find out what grammar is hidden and the same can be checked in grammar reference, learn the rule and try applying the same in another context too. Don’t get discouraged with the mistakes, check-in the reference and try again. This is considered more efficient and will make your learning process and internalization of grammar with the sentence formation quicker and easier.

• Watch Movies:

Now the time is to increase both listening and reading skills. Watching movies with English subtitles may help beginners to have a good understanding of the meaning of various Spanish words while improving pronunciation. It will help you to speak like the locals. Watching movies will help you in learning new vocabulary, you learn several kinds of phrases or expressions used in general conversations or colloquial way, can learn right accents, pronunciation like native speakers. While watching movies, one can keep a note of Spanish words with their meanings through subtitles. Later the meaning can be checked and corrected which is better for retaining and recalling. This activity will certainly help you in retaining the maximum of the practiced vocabulary of words with their meanings. To get more acquainted with the words, sentence constructions, and better accent and pronunciation, try to watch movies with Spanish subtitles. It’s a good idea to watch any of your favorite childhood time movies again, but in Spanish, it will help you in focussing more on language than on the story. 

• Emphasis on Spanish sounds:

It rightly said, “If you can’t hear it, you can’t say it”. For learning the correct pronunciation of Spanish words, you are required to be able to recognize the sounds, and yes this is not something that you can do from a book. Go looking for some audio or video resources, there is a great range of podcasts available to show you how the words are pronounced. Such podcasts include a variety of Spanish pronunciations for every level. Listen to the sounds, and follow along with transcriptions to get an idea of how to pronounce written Spanish. Remember that good pronunciation starts with better listening.

There are many ways one can hone their language skills but to start with try following these steps, and thus there will be one day when someone would greet you in Spanish and want to talk to you in Spanish.