How to study Spanish?

The fact that I know English quite well not only helps me during my trips, but also allows me to live and work in the capital of Great Britain. However, recently I’ve come up with the idea to learn one more foreign language.

The first question I asked myself surely was: “How to study Spanish?”

Unfortunately, at the moment I don’t have enough time to realize my plans. Nevertheless, I’m sure that one day I’ll manage to make my dream come true, and I’ll definitely use some of the recommendations from this article in order to learn Spanish as quickly as possible.

The reasons why I want to study Spanish

I have told you about the importance of motivation for so many times that I might have bored you to death already. However, I’m confident that practice makes perfect, so I’m going to tell you this one more time: if you don’t find any serious reasons to study Spanish and remind yourself about them regularly, you’ll never accomplish this task.

Actually, this is a very common mistake, because most people find studying new language interesting only at the beginning, while learning popular phrases from movies or songs. However, when it comes to grammar rules, proper pronunciation and huge amounts of information, many of us start thinking that we don’t really need Spanish/English/French that much and knowing native language seems enough for us.

If you don’t want to belong to such people, you should find several serious reasons why learning a foreign language is necessary for you.

As for me, I’ve determined such reasons:

• Spanish is quite easy for people who possess good skills of English, as both languages are quite similar. Thus, I will have to spare less time and effort if I choose Spanish over French, for example.
• Spanish is widespread all over the world, and there are over 500 million people who speak this language nowadays. Spanish has been even granted an official status by the UNO. Considering the fact that I dream about travelling and don’t plan on hiring an interpreter to accompany me during my trips, I surely need good knowledge of Spanish.
• Spanish culture and literature deserve to be studied in the original.
• Oh, and don’t forget about hot Spanish machos! What if one day I meet one of them but our relationship will be ruined by the language barrier?
• If I improve my knowledge of Spanish, I will be able to create one more version of “Motivational-tips” and increase my audience.

How to study Spanish: find helpful assistants

To my mind, there are two kinds of useful assistants in language learning:

1. Professional teachers.
   You can find a lot of advertisements about language classes everywhere you go.
   However, if don’t want to make a blind choice, you may ask your friends or acquaintances whether some of them have recently taken Spanish lessons with a tutor or attended language courses.
   Besides, you may also look for tutors in the Internet. This will enable you to get acquainted with a teacher beforehand by reading feedbacks about him/her.
2. Native Spanish speakers.
   This issue is not going to be easy to solve, though it’s less cost-based. You won’t have difficulties finding an English-speaking person or a native English speaker in your region. However, Spanish is not that popular in our country.This is why you should make some research over the Internet. You may use a social network and post there a following message: “I’m looking for a friendly Spanish-speaking person who would like to communicate with me and improve my knowledge of this language. Sex, age, weight and height don’t matter”.

   Have you decided to study on your own? Great! However, you should consider whether it is possible to study a foreign language without professional help. I don’t think so.

   If you don’t want to study with a tutor, you should definitely use manuals for self-tuition, textbooks, Spanish-Russian/Ukrainian dictionaries and audio/video lessons. You will also improve the learning process by watching TV-series or movies in the original. At the beginning you may watch movies with subtitles, but I’d recommend you to complicate the process of studying gradually by watching TV in Spanish without subtitles.

   You may also find professional help on the websites which offer different language courses, including Spanish lessons as well. For example, you may look for such resource as “Lingust”, etc.

Interesting info:How to improve memory?

What should you keep in mind if you want to study Spanish?

“To have another language is to possess a second soul”.
Unknown author.

Every single process has nuances that should be considered in order to simplify the task as much as possible. People who start studying Spanish should follow these recommendations:

1. Don’t get obsessed with a speed of learning.
   Obviously, such popular advertisements as “Learn Spanish in two weeks” look very attractively at first sight, but usually they are deceitful.
   Nobody can argue that you may learn a minimum of common words and phrases in a few months, but if your task is to learn how to read, write and speak Spanish quite well, be ready to spend 3-5 times a week for half a year for studying.
2. If you study with a tutor, don’t confine yourself only to the lessons and fulfillment of homework.
   Try to study something on your own as well, and make as much effort as possible. Watch more movies in the original and take audio lessons.
3. Don’t stop learning until you become a confident speaker of Spanish.
   If you study hard for several months and then take a break from learning for a few weeks, all your efforts may go vain.
4. Don’t avoid face-to-face communication.
   Many people tend to avoid talking to others even if they happen to be among Spanish-speaking community. They are ashamed of speaking a foreign language because of the lack of their language skills or bad pronunciation.I’d like to persuade you that local citizens will respect your efforts to speak their native language and they will surely forgive your mistakes.
5. Don’t try to overstuff your head with information.
   Why would you need to know specialized legal or medical terminology in Spanish if you are neither doctor nor lawyer? Do you really think that one day you’ll make use of such knowledge?
   When you try to learn too much, you simply overstuff your head with unnecessary information, burying really useful words and phrases under this junk.

Obviously, you have to be prepared for difficulties on your way to success. Possibly, one day you’ll wake up with a feeling that all your lessons are unnecessary and you will start thinking about quitting.

However, if you make up your mind and decide to study Spanish, nobody will be able to stop you!