Learn Spanish, 16/08/2017
Whatever your motivation or background: whether it’s because you’ve only just arrived in Barcelona, you want to talk to other people, you would like to live a full life in Spain, you’re looking for work or purely for pleasure, learning Spanish isn’t easy. So, here we give you 5 pieces of advice to learn Spanish. However, you have to remember that learning a language doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process. Try not to get frustrated – you will get there!
If you take these tips on board, you should be able to pass the first level of Spanish:
Include Spanish in your day-to-day life
Do things that you would normally do in your own language, in Spain. Don’t get stressed out! You can always use a mixture of your own language and Spanish. Make Spanish part of your everyday life, when you’re hanging out with friends, watching series, listening to music, etc. If you love going to the cinema or watching series, watch them in Spanish, or with subtitles.
Incorporate learning Spanish into your hobbies. If you love music, listen to music in Spanish or on the national radio stations. You can (and should!) configure your phone, computer and social networks to appear in Spanish. If you do this, you’ll be reading Spanish every day.
Speak with natives
Go out in the city, get to know the people and interact with them. There are lots of places in Barcelona where you can practise Spanish for free: bars, pubs, parties and even the beach. In Spain, people are very open.
Also, you can look for someone who knows Spanish and wants to learn your language. You can do an Intercambio (language exchange) where you teach them your language and they teach you theirs. You both benefit and you can also look for new Spanish speaking friends on social networks.
Follow up!
To keep track of your progress, you should take notes of what you’re learning. Make personalized lists of new phrases and vocabulary you learn. By doing this, you will always have the expressions you use most often to hand and you can keep track of your progress. You can also take note of how words are pronounced and the errors you make (along with their corrections). Notes serve as a good record of what you’ve learnt. Take time to review them.
Be realistic
You cannot go from knowing very little to knowing everything in a second. You aren’t going to be able to carry out every aspect of your life in Spanish. The best option is combine it with your language and to set realistic goals.
You must set specific and achievable goals in the short, medium and long term. In addition, you should keep track of what you have achieved. Especially, you have to pay attention, listen to the language, and this will allow you to notice your mistakes and to correct them.
You can do it
Talking fluently in a new language is difficult, but with concerted effort, you can achieve it. For this reason, you must have confidence and even if you don’t say everything perfectly, you should look for opportunities to speak Spanish and practise whenever you can. It’s normal to make mistakes, and it means that you’re working and learning. You develop language skills if you talk.
In addition to these 5 pieces of advice to learn Spanish, if you join one of our courses, you won’t have any problems achieving the level!
At BCN Languages, we have been teaching courses of Spanish for foreigners for more than 15 years. You will learn in a fun way, with communicative and effective methodology and didactics. Moreover, the school offers DELE (Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language) exam Preparatory Courses, where you can officially certify your level.
If you want to find out how to prepare your Spanish level, you can consult our website, where you will find all the information.
