How to Learn Spanish: Six Ideas For The Adult Learner

Although it is harder for an adult to learn a new language than it is for a child, there are plenty of ways for the adult learner to become fluent in Spanish. How To Learn Spanish Tip #1: Take A Class Many community colleges offer classes in Spanish for a nominal charge. Being in a classroom environment allows you to rapidly learn conversational phrases and vocabulary and to practice with a teacher and with your classmates. How To Learn Spanish Tip #2: Buy A Language CD If you don’t live close to a community college, purchasing a language CD is well worth your money. Look for a CD that teaches basic language skills without too many bells and whistles. You can add the fancy stuff once you’ve got the basics mastered. How To Learn Spanish Tip #3: Sign Up For An Online Class If you don’t live near a community college but need a lesson plan to keep you motivated, sign up for an online Spanish class. Many sites offer free trial lessons so you can find the ones that are best suited to your learning style. How To Learn Spanish Tip #3: Listen To Music With Spanish Lyrics Music stimulates a different part of our brains than, say, vocabulary drills, so listening to the Spanish lyrics is a “back door” way for your brain to absorb the language. How To Learn Spanish Tip #4: Watch Spanish Television Whether you’re watching a much-loved movie, a news program or a talk show, you’ll eventually begin to get the gist of certain words and phrases, and hearing Spanish spoken outside of an academic environment is certainly more fun and colorful than hearing a dull, academic voice conjugating verbs on a language CD. How To Learn Spanish Tip #5: Practice, Practice, Practice All the Spanish lessons and CDs in the world will go to waste if you never actually speak the language, so make it a point to practice your Spanish at least half an hour a day. If you have Spanish-speaking friends or co-workers, ask them to speak Spanish with you. If not, practice with your partner or child. If all else fails, read Spanish stories aloud to your pet or to an empty wall. How To Learn Spanish Tip #6: Embrace Mistakes Thomas Edison once said he did not have more than ninety failures while inventing the light bulb, he just learned more than ninety ways that didn’t work. When you first start practicing and taking risks with a new language, you’re bound to make mistakes. That’s part of the learning process. The key to learning is to be gentle with mistakes, jubilant with successes, and have fun while you’re doing it. There are many reasons to want to learn to speak Spanish. Whatever yours may be, these six tips will put you well on the road to becoming a fluent Spanish speaker.