MY_Blog_student_1_160330

Are you thinking of learning Spanish on your own? Then you will like this article because we are going to see how to learn Spanish from home in 10 easy steps.

Step 1: Get organized

Before you get into Spanish prepare all the materials you will need. Whether printed or online, choose the ones that are appropriate to your level. It’s important having everything ready before getting into trouble.

Step 2: Plan Yourself

Once you have the materials divide them over time and decide when you will work out what. This will help you motivate yourself and not wasting time thinking: “let’s see … what do I study today?”. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals and try to be realistic.

Step 3: Commit yourself

This is the key step. You have to commit to dedicate to Spanish a minimum of daily time. If one day you can only 15 minutes it’s ok. But let them be at least 15 minutes every day. In this article we will tell you some tricks to concentrate and thus “earn hours” to Spanish.

Step 4: Lock Up

It’s important to study in a comfortable isolated place where you can speak out loud. That’s because if you don’t practice everything aloud then you will learn to read Spanish but not to speak Spanish.

Step 5: Release the pen

Writing is completely secondary. Don’t write when you are studying. The more time you are talking and the less you write the better for your Spanish. Just dedicate 10% of your monthly study on the writting skills; it’s more than enough.

Step 6: Listen

Listen, listen, listen. This is the basis of everything else. Think about how you learned your mother tongue: you’ve been listening for months before saying your first words and, of course, before reading or writing them. So listen to all the Spanish you can. If you don’t have a level try to focus on the radio, documentaries or TED talks more than on films and series; the latter are complicated to understand and run the risk of demoralizing you.

Step 7: Listen to yourself

As we said before talking out loud is fundamental. But if you don’t have a teacher to correct you the logical thing is that you make mistakes all the time. To avoid it record yourself speaking Spanish; then listen and compare yourself to what a native speaker would say; this is good so you can identify your mistakes and prepare to work on them.

Step 8: Review

The basic structures of Spanish (this, that, the verb to be, the simple present, etc.) are used in day-to-day conversations more than complicated things like the third conditional for example. As much as you progress with your Spanish don’t stop reviewing the basics each and every day. It’s not enough to know it; you have to know how to use it without making mistakes. Never go to the next step if you don’t defend yourself in the current one.

Step 9: varies

When studying don’t do the same thing all the time or you will end up bored. There’s lots of different exercises you can do; don’t spend more than 10 minutes doing the same.

Step 10: Jump to the Real World

Get your Spanish out there without fear. We know this is very easy to say but if you don’t overcome the sense of ridicule and start speaking Spanish in real life you will not get it. Look for exchanges in your city, make native friends, whatever you think! Throw yourself into the pool and take off the shame.

One last thing…

If you want to learn Spanish from home and instead of taking ten steps you prefer to give only one then get a good teacher who can go to teach you.

The support of a qualified teacher will motivate you, will plan and dosage your workload, and will correct you and awaken in you a true passion for the language.