Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Tip no. 2 to learn Spanish as rapidly and easily as possible:

Last post, we talked about immersion as an effective way to learn rapidly and easily. Today, I cover another essential rapid learning technique:

When you learn Spanish, engage your physical body and your emotions as well as your mind.

This may sound new and a bit bizarre to you, but psychology and the science of NLP have proven that we learn faster and more easily when we use our bodies and our emotions as well as our mind. Using your body and your emotions to learn Spanish helps you learn on more than one level. In fact, when you use your emotions to learn, you imprint the learning so that it becomes unconscious, that is, you will use your new knowledge effortlessly. Wouldn’t it be nice to come out with the right Spanish words in the right situation without agonizing over it!!

Here are some ideas to use your body when you learn Spanish:

• walking or pacing when you are learning Spanish words or listening to Spanish language.
• Listening to Spanish language tapes or pronouncing Spanish words while you are exercising.
• Even just moving your hands or toes with small movements while you are watching Spanish television or listening to Spanish language audio will help you absorb more.
  

Engage your emotions when you learn Spanish by:

• Using your imagination. For example, just say you were learning vocab to do with the market and the names of different foods. Feel what it would be like to be in a Spanish marketplace surrounded by Spanish language while you learn the appropriate vocab. Picture it in as much detail as you can; hear the sounds, smell the smells, see the sights, see yourself picking up la manzana, feel the texture of it, imagine the taste of it while you learn the Spanish words for it and all the other fruit and vegetables. You will be surprised how much you retain by using this method.
• In a conversation or dialogue that you are reading, read it aloud and pretend you are one of the characters. Feel what they are feeling, imagine the setting you are in - again, in as much detail as possible.

Programs that use multimedia, words, pictures and sounds, like Rocket Spanish make it much easier to engage your emotions as they are giving you far more stimuli to use than straight books or tapes. If you would like to find out more about Rocket Spanish, click here.

I know all this stuff about emotions and using your body sounds wacky, but try it- it works!! This one tip can super-accelerate your journey to learn Spanish and make sure you have lots of enjoyment along the way. The best way to learn Spanish easily and quickly is to involve all of yourself in the task – mind, body and emotions!! It might not seem “adult” but it’s more fun! And fun is certainly part of the Spanish culture! So give it a go – really, I’m serious – just do it!!

Adiós!

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Tip no. 1 to learn Spanish as rapidly and easily as possible:

Immersion

As adults, when we decide we want something, such as to learn Spanish, we want it yesterday!! It is possible to learn Spanish rapidly and easily if you keep the principles of effective learning in mind and make sure that the resources you use to learn Spanish apply them. The next few posts will discuss these, starting today with the first principle for rapid, effective learning:

Immerse yourself in the Spanish language

When you learn Spanish, look for a method that will give you an immersion experience, whether it is face to face Spanish classes, visiting a country where they use the Spanish language, Spanish software that uses an immersion approach or other methods. Immersion works so well because when we are out of our comfort zone, our brain looks for ways to make us comfortable again and so will learn rapidly to get back to that state. Just learning Spanish words or grammar out of context is not so effective – immersion gives you the context.

Ways to learn Spanish which will give you an immersion experience include:

Reading Spanish language children’s books with only Spanish words (no English or bi-lingual books!)
Picture books are particularly effective as the pictures will give you clues about the Spanish words being used. The best way to do this is to read aloud. In this way, you practise and improve your pronunciation of the Spanish language and try pronouncing new Spanish words. I find this method to be an excellent way to learn Spanish words and vocabulary and also to get a good grasp of the grammar and sentence structure of the Spanish language.

Watching Spanish television shows
Again, this is an immersion method to learn Spanish as you only have the Spanish language and Spanish words. News shows are one of the best - as with children’s books, the pictures give you clues to the Spanish words being used. Don’t be frustrated if you don’t understand all of it, just relax and you will be surprised how much Spanish language you pick up!

Spending time with Spanish language speakers
When you are surrounded by people who speak the Spanish language, you can’t help but pick up Spanish words and learn Spanish faster!! The extra incentive is that you really want to learn to communicate in the Spanish language and make yourself understood. It is also a good time to show off all those Spanish words you’ve learnt so far!!

You can do this by visiting a Spanish speaking country or by finding and befriending a Spanish language community in your home town. This is a really enjoyable way to learn Spanish!

Spanish classes and Spanish software or programs
Make sure any Spanish language classes or programs you use to learn Spanish are designed using the immersion technique. This means that instead of teaching you one Spanish word at a time, they give you a whole lot of Spanish language and then help you decipher what it means. You will learn Spanish words, vocab and grammar but in the context of conversation or language first and then in isolation later. Most of the best programs do this. One that I can particularly recommend is Rocket Spanish. It starts with natural Spanish language conversation in Lesson One and gets you to take part by learning and pronouncing Spanish words and then teaches you more traditionally what those words mean after you have experienced the Spanish language conversation. Programs that use multimedia also are particularly effective in delivering an immersion experience.

Spanish classes where the teacher uses no English at all are the best immersion experience face-to-face.

In the next post, I will cover another easy to apply but highly effective technique to learn Spanish rapidly and easily.

Till then,

Adiós!

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Here is some other links you may find useful to help you learn spanish :

Rocket Spanish
Spanish Language

Adiós!

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Learn Spanish

Welcome to my learn spanish blog. I love learning new languages! - and I have discovered in my learning that if I am going to stick to anything, it needs to be fun! So if you want to learn spanish and want to have fun doing it, you have come to the right place! You will find interesting spanish words, facts about the spanish language and reviews of software, websites and other resources to help you learn spanish.

Adiós!

Sujo

Learn Spanish