Learn Spanish Fast

Hi everyone,

I’ve set up this website to help anyone who wants to learn Spanish fast and needs some ideas and guidance on how to get going.

Here are 4 absolutely essential tips to follow if you are serious about learning Spanish fast. From practising, to goals, to choosing the best lessons:

Tip 1: Know Exactly Why You're Learning!

You must have a very clear idea of why you want to learn Spanish before you even begin. Many students don't really know why they're studying Spanish, except having a pretty

Want to Learn Spanish From Home? Click Here!

vague idea that they want to get good at it. Learning with only a vague intention to improve is ok, but if you want to learn Spanish fast you need to be focused and have a clear picture of what you’re heading towards.

If you can do this you will be that much more focused right from the start and your mind will absorb the new language much faster. Consider these questions:

Is your goal to get fluent in everyday Spanish conversation? Do you need the basics for a holiday to Barcelona in two weeks? Are you learning for your Mexican girlfriend? Or are you planning to learn Spanish fast as a second language to improve your prospects of employment or promotion?

Most people want to be able to speak and understand spoken Spanish, but it might be more important for you to read or write Spanish. Which is it for you?

Try and make a very specific goal for yourself. For example, if you want to be fluent – you could aim to be able to hold a 20 minute conversation with a native speaker. If you are learning for professional reasons, you will want to aim for one of the most recognised exams in Spanish fluency – you should investigate the specific skills necessary to pass these exams now, so that your mind can get a clear picture of what you’re going to need to

Tip 2: Classes or Home-Study course?

Don’t assume you should go to a Spanish school to learn Spanish fast. Shared classes can often slow you down for a variety of reasons:

-  A language class moves at the pace of the slowest student, or at very best the average student. If you are seriously motivated to learn Spanish fast you will quickly get frustrated by the pace – as I mentioned, most students do not have any specific goals and are happy to learn very slowly.

-  Teacher attention is divided between 10 to 20 other students.

-  You spend time travelling to and from Spanish classes.

-  You are usually limited to a few classes a week. And you cannot learn when you please.

I recommend a good Spanish home-study course. Provided the course is of high quality, then:

-  You can learn much faster, at your own pace.

-  Your lessons are much more focused, without distraction.

-  You can study in your own time, as much as you want.

-  You can listen to lessons in the car, when jogging, etc.

-  You save time and money. You don’t have to travel to and from classes – a big reason for students dropping out of Spanish classes is the effort of the extra travelling.

This is the best Spanish home-study course out there. I highly recommend it for learning fast:

Want to Learn Spanish From Home? Click Here!

If you do decide to go with class-based lessons, and you still want to learn Spanish fast, I recommend you at least follow these steps:

1.  Seek a school with daily homework assignments that eliminate (effectively kick out) students from the class who don’t perform. You must try and avoid a school which slows down the class for the worse students at all costs.

2. Ask the school about all the above points (the pace of classes, divided teacher attention, number of classes per week, etc.). Explain to them that you need to learn Spanish fast, and ask if their classes are the best thing for you. If you aren’t satisfied with their answers, don’t use that school!

3.  Get yourself on an intensive course, if you have the time.

4. Use a well-recommended private Spanish teacher, if you can afford to. Private teachers can be quite expensive, be wary if they are cheap – they might not be very good!

Tip 3: Create pressure.

A task like learning a language takes as long as the time you give it.

What this means is that if there is an important reason you must be speaking decent Spanish in two months. Then you will achieve it in two months. But if you vaguely want to reach that level in a few years (as most students do) then it will take a few years!

If you really want to learn Spanish fast, create some sort of pressure for yourself. Tell a Spanish friend that in two months you will be able to spend a whole day talking to him in Spanish only. And ask him to hold you to it. Or plan to have a holiday in one month to your nearest Spanish-speaking country (depending on which side of the Atlantic you live).

Doing something like this will focus your mind beautifully when you are learning.

You'll be happy to hear that it is fortunately much easier to learn Spanish fast than it is to learn English – up to a certain level.

The English language is full of irregularities and words with unusual pronunciations. Whereas Spanish follows simple rules, and regular verb patterns, that make it easy to learn quite a lot very quickly. Also, the pronunciation is phonetic – the words are pronounced exactly as they are written, which makes speaking much easier for the beginner to get the hang of.

If you have a short-term goal to meet, you will be able to learn these patterns in the Spanish language very rapidly, and you’ll be speaking it confidently in no time.

Tip 4: Get in the deep end!

This is by far the most important of all these tips. If you are learning any language, especially if you want to learn Spanish fast, you simply must force yourself to practise in the real world!

There are hundreds of Spanish students who have spent hours and weeks and years in Spanish classes, but simply cannot even understand a native Spanish person when they meet them. Let alone hold a fluent conversation with them.

This is not because Spanish is a hard language to understand. It is because they never experienced real Spanish before in the real world! Classroom Spanish is not real Spanish. Spanish is a living, breathing form of communication, with subtleties to the sounds that you can only learn through conversation.

You must be different and try to talk with native Spanish speakers right from the beginning.

I know it's not so simple to just drop everything and head off to Barcelona! But a close second choice is to get yourself a good ‘intercambio’ partner in your area. This is a native Spanish-speaker who will meet up with you regularly to both practise your Spanish and his or her English.

It is relatively easy to find yourself an intercambio partner. There are Spanish speakers in every city who would be interested. Look on Google, and around your local community notice boards. Explain to them your goal to learn Spanish fast and be able to understand a native speaker talking at normal speed.

Apart from actually moving to Spain, the combination of a good home-study course and a good intercambio conversation partner is the very best way to learn Spanish rapidly.

If you do this you will be head and shoulders above 95% of Spanish students, and you will learn Spanish... fast!

Hasta luego!

Marco Andreas

Want to Learn Spanish From Home? Click Here!