Learning Spanish p 2

Last month I was too ambitious and burned out pretty quickly. It turns out that while I may have remembered a lot of Spanish from high school, there was still many basic words I’d forgotten. I too eagerly dived in fast, head first. I tried to study an hour every day on week days and 4 hours on weekends. I attempted to shove over 30 words in my head every day. It was a lot and not much came out of it. So two weeks ago I decided to change things. I now try to shoot for a more reasonable 15 words/day and I don’t shame myself if I miss a day.

Recently, I’ve been trying to focus more on increasing my intake of the language (by watching Spanish Youtube videos with subtitles in Spanish instead of English, reading, and listening to music). I occassionally learn vocabulary via flashcards but mainly I’m trying to integrate Spanish into my life. I’m a teller so when I hand customers back their cash, I’ll try to count the cash in my head in Spanish and then I’ll count it aloud to the customer in English. At home I try to learn words for objects and directions that way I have an excuse to use Spanish more often.

A more analog approach to creating (I think?) #

I created a Notion language template to take notes while on the move but while I was able to make a habit of taking notes the first few days, this quickly languished. Writing quick notes with a pen in a notebook was easy though. I found myself wanting to jot down my thoughts as soon as they came. So now I try to carry my small noteboook with me. I’m also sticking post-its with Spanish (no English) on stuff at work (not at home).

I don’t listen to English music in Spanish as much anymore. Instead I listen and watch Spanish content with Spanish subtitles. I found this has made absorbing the concept of words better. While the flashcard method is definitely an easier and faster way to learn words, this method is better for thinkiing in Spanish. As in, I don’t translate.

A lesson I learned from Spanish After Hours is to interact with Spanish in a tactical kind of way. Aqui hay un ejemplo: when I drink coffee, I’ll pick up the mug and think (or if I’m brave enough say aloud): 'Estoy tomando cafe". Sometimes when asking for aglo, pregunatare “por favor, pasame la taza de agua”. I find this makes learning tenses much easier. Vale.

Thinking in the Target Language #

If there’s one thing I haven’t heard much of the language learning world talking about it’s getting rid of translating in your head. I think it is muy importante from day 1 to overcome this desire to translate.

When I worked at Starbucks, this was a problem my coworker who was fluent in French confessed that she still had a problem doing. This was also a problem one of the customers who had been studying French for years still had.

I’m a novice language learner so this is of course all speculative, no evidence what so ever so take everything I say with multiple spoons of salt.

How are we going to do this? #

If you are a beginner I’d suggest first before even learning words: learn the Spanish alphabet. Get comfortable with making the sounds. Listen to Spanish music and try to mimic them. Watch Spanish videos with Spanish subtitles. Spanish TedTalks are great for this as most of their videos are subtitled. Don’t worry about understanding the content. Rather try to track the subtitles with the singer/speaker. I think one of the most difficult parts of learning a language is knowing the difference between words and sentences. The simple excersize of reading Spanish with the singer/speaker should help.

Next I’d suggest learning filler words before important phrases. Por ejemplo: vale (okay), pues, bueno, bien etc. Make sure though that the filler words are consistent with the type of Spanish you’re learning (say Mexican or Spain Spanish).

After some filler words, learn some phrases that start letting you speak immediately like “Hi! How are you?” , “what is your name? How old are you? Do you have siblings?” etc.

Courses #

Last month I fell into the Tutorial Trap. I downloaded a bunch of apps and watched absurd amounts of YouTube videos. Don’t do this.Find an app that has decent reviews and stick to it. It dosn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be able to help you establish the foundations.

Currently I am using Forge along with Speakly. They are both amazing. The textbook I am using is Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish.