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Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish vocabulary, spanish verbs, spanish flash cards

A great way to memorize new Spanish vocabulary and verbs is with flash cards. As you learn new words and Spanish verbs, create a flash card for them. And try practicing both ways - meaning, read in English and guess at the Spanish translation, and also read in Spanish and guess at its meaning in English.

The great thing about flash cards is that you can take them with you wherever you go. While you’re waiting at the doctor’s office, or trying to kill time on your flight.

What I like to do is go through a set of flash cards until I get everyone correct from top to bottom without one error. If I make an error, then I restart from the beginning. This is really helpful because it promotes repetition.

Try to learn in groups of 10-20 words/phrases. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or become frustrated by not being able to get through all 10-20 flash cards without an error.

Remember, always keep things reasonable, don’t overdue it and have fun! That’s what learning Spanish should be about!

Technorati Tags: learn spanish, speak spanish, language mistakes

Wait, did I just say to learn Spanish by making errors??? Yeap, it’s true. But let me clarify what I mean. Like learning anything new, the best way to learn Spanish is to simply do it — speak Spanish, practice it, listen to it, write it and read it. And you will make errors. You will make mistakes. But the key is to not let yourself become discouraged. Don’t let fear of making a mistake keep you from speaking Spanish or even trying. The best learning experiences come from trial and error. The idea is to recognize your errors or mistakes, fix them and then try and try and try again.

Technorati Tags: spanish, reading Spanish news, reading Spanish books, spanish vocabulary

One of the best ways to improve your vocabulary will be to read whatever you can get your hands on. Make it a mix of literature and news articles. For literature, start with a book in which you’ll feel comfortable reading without having to look up every other word in the dictionary.

Some sites that I use to read articles in Spanish include:

MSN Spanish

Terra

The ultimate question comes down to this: Is it better to read and try to guess at the meaning of words you are unfamiliar with or to stop and look it up midstream?

The answer is it depends. There are benefits to both strategies. By reading fluidly without stopping every other minute to look up a word, you not will save time and be able to read more, you won’t frustrate yourself when it takes you 20 minutes to read one page. This, however, could be a sign that you’re not ready for that reading material.

The benefits of actually stopping, looking up the word and then continuing is that you’ll feel better understanding what you’re reading.

In the end, you have to do what feels most comfortable to you and not frustrate you at the end. Learning Spanish should be fun and you should enjoy what you’re reading.

In the past, I would read a page and when I came across a word that I didn’t know, I would simply just write it down, and like this, at the end of the page, I would have a list of words. Then I’d look them all up and re-read the page. Again, this can be a long process.

One thing you can do is look up only those words that you think will significantly change the meaning of the sentence.

In the end, reading will help you tremendously improve your Spanish vocabulary and expose you to many Spanish idioms and Spanish idiomatic phrases.

Technorati Tags: spanish, language partner, spanish listening comprehension

Practice makes perfect. There’s nothing more to say. And the best way to do this is find a language partner. But caution yourself in finding a fellow classmate who is also learning Spanish with you. Because he/she will be around the same level as you, you risk yourself picking up bad habits or learning something incorrect.

The best language partner is going to be a native Spanish speaker, especially if he or she would like to improve his/her English. This makes for the perfect match because you’re going to improve your Spanish listening comprehension and you’ll have someone with whom you can ask questions, have doubts resolved, and more importantly, have someone to correct you so you don’t develop bad habits.

I recommend meeting up with a language partner 1 or 2 times per week for maybe 1-2 hours, generally speaking Spanish for 30-60 minutes. However, don’t limit yourself to just this. What happens is that the more you meet with someone and you can visually see them speaking, you will start understanding them really well, but only when you see them. That’s why it’s also important to set aside some time during the week to talk over the phone. It’s important to train yourself to listening to others without the visual image. These days with VoIP (voice over IP), you can find language partners from around the world and communicate this way, or through messenger services like MSN, Yahoo or Skype.

Speaking of these, you can practice your written Spanish by chatting with native speakers. This is also a great way to learn new vocabulary.

So in sum, do yourself a favor and find a language partner - but make sure that partner is a native Spanish speaker!

Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish listening comprehension, spanish movies

A great way to learn Spanish is to simply watch Spanish movies. For those who don’t get the chance to spend time in a Spanish-speaking country, the key is to surround yourself as much as possible with those who speak Spanish. Remember - it’s all about repetition! This is where movies come in. With subtitles, you accomplish two things: 1) you are training your head to Spanish sounds and pronunciation, especially how fast a native speaker might speak; and 2) by reading the subtitles, you connect the meaning of what is said with what you just heard in Spanish.

I recommend watching 2 spanish movies per week. It definitely makes for a nice break from the books, and if you choose a great movie, it’s entertaining!

There are a bunch of great movies in Spanish. I like The Motorcycle Diaries, Y Tu Mama También, Nine Queens, and there are a ton more out there!

A neat trick that I recommend in really improving your listening comprehension is watching one chapter in a DVD of a movie three times. Each chapter should be about 10-15 mintues, so you’re only going to spend about 30-45 minutes on this drill. Here’s what you do:

1) The first time you watch the chapter, turn on the subtitles and just follow them, understand what they are saying. Your goal is to end the chapter knowing exactly what is going on and what the characters said to each other.

2) Now watch the chapter again. This time, even though you are going to leave the subtitles on, you’re going to pay more attention to listening to what is being said in Spanish, and you’re going to try and guess what they are saying. Only if you feel you need to, look at the subtitles, but don’t rely on them like you did the first time.

3) Last time to watch this same chapter again - but this time, turn off the subtitles. You are going to listen to the dialogues 100%. By now you should already know the scenes and what is being communicated.

Basically what this drill does is train your brain to new sounds, but also connect these sounds and words with meaning. Do this 2-3 times per week and I guarantee your listening comprehension will develop quickly.

You can also try reversing the process. Watch the chapter without subtitles the first time, the second time with subtitles, but still just listening, and the last time, reading the subtitles.

Remember, the key learning any language is not just being able to communicate what you want to say, but understand what others are saying!

A really great way to improve your listening comprehension skills is by listening to Spanish music. The goal, however, is to be able to listen to it and write out the song lyrics in Spanish. This may take some time, and you may become frustrated as you listen to the same part a million times over and still can’t distinguish the word. But keep at it. Start with slower songs, songs in which the pronunciation is much clearer and where it is easier to distinguish the words.

This Spanish listening comprehension drill will really help you improve your listening abilities, especially when it comes to speaking with native Spanish speakers.

Good luck and please let me know if this helps!

Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish songs, listening comprehension, spanish listening drills, spanish song lyrics

What I recommend is purchasing a notebook with dividers and start organizing lists of spanish verbs, spanish adjectives, spanish prepositions, spanish idiomatic phrases as you come across them. This way you’ll always have a reference to go back to. And the best part of doing this is that you’ll start remembering that you had previously marked that word in your notebook and this will play into the previous study tip about repetition.Every now and then, I even like to review my old notebook and go down the lists. I started creating the lists as I came across new verbs and adjectives from my Spanish lessons, from looking them up in a dictionary in order to complete my Spanish homework, and later from reading Spanish books and novels.

Even if you believe you can rely on your memory to get you through, I still recommend making a list of words that you have the most trouble remembering.

Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish homework, spanish adjectives, spanish preopositions, spanish idioms, spanish idiomatic phrases, spanish books, spanish novels

When it comes to learning Spanish, or any language for that matter, it’s all about repetition just as if you were learning to play a musical instrument or improve your backhand in tennis - the more you do it, the better you’ll become. It’s all a matter of muscle memory, in this case the muscle being your brain.

A good way to memorize a new word or verb or new phrase is to use it and use it often. I remember when I started learning Spanish, everything I learned, I would immediately put it to use — even if that meant talking to myself or to the wall.

Other helpful tips to memorize vocabulary is to add post-it notes on various objects and things in your house. This way every time you see it, you’ll also see the Spanish translation of it. I did this to memorize things in my bedroom, like the t.v., the window, the door, the desk, etc. And it worked.

The point is this — studying a language involves layers, and to effectively move on to the next layer, you have to have been able to utilize the prior layer well. So it’s very important to learn what you learn quickly, but efficiently. And that’s why it’s all about repetition.

If you get stuck on a word or phrase or verb conjugation, write it down and then try writing it over and over again 20 times and each time say it outloud. Repetition!