Set realistic, achievable, measurable, firm goals!
In order to be successful at learning Spanish, you would need to define a few critical parameters for yourself.
Identify the reasons that can compel you to stay dedicated and recognize how much that means to you! Is it just for the sake of knowledge or do you have a dire need for it?
Do you want it to speak business Spanish for a job or communicate with your in-laws? Select exercises you want to practise, screen chapters in a book you plan to go over, decide on the number of words you want to master each day (rather than an unmeasurable goal like improving my handwriting!).
The more detailed you are, the better. It will help you sail through the busy days, or on days you don’t feel like studying!
Define Short-term and Long-term Goals for your learning.
Sit down and in a calm frame of mind and think. Focus on your aims, aspirations and expectations you have from your Spanish learning.
Devise a comprehensive learning plan, where you map language learning topics with time required to learn them, in a realistic, not idealistic manner under short term and long term plans.
Evaluate the best approach you can take, to ensure you follow the learning plan, as devised. Assess the amount of time you can invest in. You could choose if you want to target your understanding of Spanish speech in news, radio, documentaries under a short term plan.
Say you want to be proficient in listening within 3-5month; plan around that!
Also, formulate your long-term goals. Think of what you would want to achieve in the long term, say fluency or expertise in the writing of Spanish script!
Subsequently, plan on how you would like to go about putting your plans into action.
Review your goals at regular intervals to measure achievement vis-a-vis your plans. Tweak your goals based on this measure as required so you know it’s all working for you as planned.
Select the dialect you want to learn Mexican Spanish or Spanish as spoken in Spain
You may experience difficulty in understanding native Spanish speakers because they might be speaking a different type of Spanish than what you have learned. Even just between Mexican Spanish and Spain Spanish, there is quite a bit of difference in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar. Both versions seem to have evolved over the centuries. So each version has its own special way of calling items and pronouncing words.
Listen to as many audio resources of the dialect you choose.
Focus on listening to Spanish to get a hang of the Spanish speech, pitch, tone, accent, speed, rhythm and to effectively train your ear to get used to sounds and identify Spanish when exposed to the language anywhere.
Listening helps you connect with the language. After hearing it adequately read the audio transcript to assess your understanding of what’s actually spoken and what you understood.
Every new language would sound nothing more than some noise at the beginning. Unfamiliar, confusing, and baffling! The first step is to become familiar with the individual sounds of the language, to learn to differentiate words from each other and to have a few words and phrases resonating in your brain.
Read along and read aloud.
After multiple listening sessions, it’s time to follow the shadowing technique.
Develop a sense of how words are spoken, where the speaker stops to breathe, and what words are conjoined and spoken together.
Read the transcript loud, along with the audio, speaking the words correctly, aping the accent as you speak!
Learning characters would not be sensible if you don’t have any sense of the words to begin with. You will get to learn the characters eventually so, you could skip the characters in the beginning; instead, try to get a little momentum in the language.
Familiarize yourself with the Spanish characters and memorise them diligently, learning a few, at a time, consistently every day.
Study consistently using Pomodoro technique, a few minutes multiple times a day rather, cramming it for 6-7 hours on the weekend.
Your daily schedule should cater to your goals and learning style.
Use Spaced Repetition System apps such as Memrise or Anki to enhance the quality of your learning.
You could either use the existing flashcards or create your own. Shorter repetitive content is better than crammed monotonous learning!
Read whatever you can get your hands on. Articles, news, blogs of interest on subjects of your choice such as food, fashion, travel etcetera.
Introduce yourself to learning Spanish culture, history, beliefs, religion, value system, way of life, socially and legally acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
Keep a Spanish dictionary handy.
You could also use Alec Tronic or other online dictionaries.
Maintain a journal or a diary.
Record phrases, fillers, conversation connectors in the journal and diary, to be able to hold your first conversation.
Don’t be deterred by mistakes!
Don’t beat yourself up for incorrect pronunciation. You can neither pronounce what you don’t register or hear, nor imitate sounds and intonations that don’t reverberate in your mind. In order to build up the ability you need to listen to hundreds or even thousands of hours to allow the brain to absorb the new language. You can’t rush this process. Trust that, it will gradually improve and get better!
Identify your unique learning style
Some people learn better through visualizations, while others may find that writing things down is what helps them. Knowing how you learn can help you learn more effectively.
Look for activities that combine listening, reading, speaking and writing
One of the best ways to learn Spanish is to work on activities that combine different areas of learning Spanish.
While you would still need to focus on the separate categories of listening, reading, speaking and writing, a combination will help you assess your learning.
Seek a conversation partner to improve your Spanish speaking
To speak good Spanish you will need to practice speaking with a native speaker who you could help you learn and improve.
Look for someone around you, in your neighbourhood, nearby community or online with apps like Tandem, Hello Talk, Italki, Languagepartners or Conversationpartners etcetera.
Make learning lively and interesting
Watch Spanish movies with English subtitles and English movies with Spanish-speaking subtitles.
Hear and sing along Spanish songs. Watch Spanish TV, Talkshows, Documentaries etcetera to enjoy learning.
