Quick, simple,cheap ways that can help anyone learn Spanish!
1) Post-it notes! – If you’re trying to expand your Spanish vocabulary substantially, buy a pack of post-it notes and set yourself a quota per day of new words or phrases that you hear or happen to come across.
Quick, cheap, simple way to learn a few words a day!
2) Context, context, context! - Conventional teaching of Spanish (and most languages for that matter) has focused on memorization of word after word after word. Does this seem a little irrational to you? It sure does to us because first of all think about how many words there are in the Spanish language…Do you have time to memorize them all? We sure don’t. Secondly, the most common frustration we have run into upon providing translation services is that certain words and phrases just can’t be translated! Right off the bat you must understand the profound meaning in the concept you are trying to convey through the words you are saying. Don’t worry so much about the individual words but rather focus on the meaning of those words grouped together
3) Submersion really is the key! If you want to become fluent, Spanish can’t just be a thing you pick up every once in a while when you have free time. It must be your life! Think of fluency as flowing through your blood. Think of it as a part of you. As such, it is something that is always going to be with you and in order for that to be possible you can’t start any different than how you plan to end up with it (i.e. you must be willing to learn and use it at every moment because when you become fluent that will be the result!). The biggest immediate submersion tip we have for the new, intermediate, or even the almost-fluent Spanish learner is to use music. The variety of Spanish-language music is massive and there is definitely a genre that can fit your personality! The best way is to get an mp3 player or just a mixed CD filled with a variety of different types of music in Spanish and whenever possible (when you’re walking, when you’re on a plane, when you’re relaxing for the night, when you’re eating lunch, when you’re getting ready in the morning, when you’re running, when you’re driving, etc…) listen to only this music! Some people might think of music as just music, but music, if you really think about it, is a complete breakdown of context of spoken language. This is because music is full of emotion—something very profoundly attached to context that cannot be learned from reading a dictionary! In each of our customized learning strategy programs developed for our clients, we include an extensive list of music recommendations based on the initial client personality and learning style evaluation
4) Context (again)…When learning a new word, you obviously are going to learn all of its English meanings right? Well how about you consider this…Why don’t you try reversing the mentality that you must learn all the English meanings and learn 4-5 Spanish synonyms for that Spanish word that you’ve just learned? Even if you don’t memorize all the individual meanings of the synonyms, what this, in turn, has done is establish a contextual network in your memory of a group of words that belong in the same train of thought and when you arrive to a situation in which you find yourself in a context that calls for that idea/concept/thing to be expressed in a single word, you will have a plethora of words in your vocabulary that is neatly tucked away and grouped together in your brain that will come to mind as a group and you will be able to express yourself by choosing from a much wider vocabulary than just a single word…For example, if you learn that the word “rumbo” means course/path/direction/heading (with subtle implications of destiny) in English, why not immediately associate that new word with Spanish synonyms embracing approximately the same concept/thing like “dirección, camino, curso, destino, calle, carretera…” Even if the final words start fading away from the specific concept that’s okay! You are building a network of context in your brain that connects more and more as you learn more and more and with that interconnected network you will be able to further distinguish between which ones to use and not to use in certain situations. (Everything starts “clicking” and connecting a lot more than most people might think! Just think about it – If your personal learning quota for the day is 5 Spanish words and you learn 5 synonyms for each new word, in turn you have grown your vocabulary 5 times faster than you normally would have!)
5) Visualize the new word (CONCEPT)! Don’t think of it as learning a word because that is memorization! For one, memorization is boring and we can guarantee that you will not learn the language by memorizing a dictionary front to back because it’s almost impossible to stick with it! For two, it’s not effective to just memorize a definition because it does not always specify enough context or you might forget to look at the context it lists in the dictionary. This is very common actually! For example, if you learn the word “rumbo” to mean course in English and then you subsequently want to use rumbo in a Spanish sentence when you are trying to say “I’m taking a Spanish course (class) this semester” by saying “Estoy tomando un rumbo de español este semestre,” it would not have the intended meaning! That’s not to say that the Spanish sentence doesn’t have any meaning, necessarily, but it does mean that it changes the meaning if it still could make sense. In this case, for example, although the Spanish translation sounds a bit odd (and would most likely cause the listener to be a little confused), it could in a very, very, very rare and still slightly questionable case imply something about the how the speaker is going to lead more of a life in which he or she uses more Spanish this semester (we say rare and perhaps questionable case because if the speaker wished to convey this concept there is obviously a better and less confusing way to verbalize it and would most likely be done using the verbs llevar or seguir and the noun vida…although the rumbo option could be accepted as poetic/literary). In any event, the intended idea was not conveyed. The purpose of this explanation is that you have to visualize the contextual concept of the word you are learning! When you learn a new word, even if you don’t have fancy notecards or software programs with visual aids to correspond to new words, just mentally picture the idea/concept/action! Not only will you have a network of related words in Spanish that come to mind when you need them, but you will also have a network of contextual visualizations interconnected in your mind! This is how you obtain the ability to think in the language instead of always translating from English!
*For an in-depth explanation of any contextual issues or if you would like us to develop a mini-program or even a full program for you let us know! Our name says it all – Dos Rumbos means that we’re willing to establish a new “road” and run with it for you! Dos Rumbos means that we’re willing to customize to your needs and go against what conventional programs have tried to “shove” at you!*