Tips for Fast Progress in Spanish for Beginners

Learn the Castilian language? ¡Claro que sí!

There are 570 million Spanish speakers in the world today, mainly in Spain, the United States and the Latin American continent: 470 million have Spanish as their native language, 73 million have it as a second language, while “only” 21 million people learn it as a foreign language.

Learning Spanish for beginners means studying the world’s second most widely used native language after Mandarin Chinese. By 2050, the United States will be the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country in terms of speakers.

The linguistic and intercultural area of Cervantes’ language continues to expand and there are now more Spanish speakers in the United States (52 million), Mexico (127.5 million) and Colombia (48.65 million) than in Spain (46.5 million).

This is an excellent tool for intercomprehension between peoples!

After English, it is nowadays the second most studied language, and for good reason: being a Spanish speaker opens more doors than learning German, which is only used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

A language of communication, Iberian is also the fourth most used language on the web after English, Chinese and French, but it is the second most used language on social networks.

What if Spanish became the international language, supplanting English?

For the time being, speaking Spanish also allows you to know the national languages of twenty countries in the world, from Puerto Rico to Valencia, from Venezuela (although we do not recommend going there at the moment) to Bolivia, to Uruguay and Guatemala.

Acquiring language skills is not that difficult, as long as you have the right linguistic tools. This is precisely the purpose of this article: to give some indicative keys to learn Spanish quickly, or at least as quickly as possible.

If you want to sunbathe in the Canary Islands in winter, a low level will be fine: just know how to get by in the street, in the shops, to rent accommodation.

But to engage in – and follow – a Spanish conversation with native speakers, it will be a different matter and you will quickly realize that certain elements will be missing: pronouncing words, the tonic accent, avoiding false friends, not stammering over words, etc.

First of all, it is necessary to define how to memorize:

• Visual learners should not choose “audio” classes, such as those found on podcasts. Instead, turn to flash cards, films with subtitles and highly visual classes,
• For an auditory learner, it is better to listen to music, download podcasts and listen to audio books. Use free audio-visual aids available on the Internet to enhance your education,
• If one is a kinaesthetic learner, then the learner will need to have interaction in their learning methods. Take classes where you talk to other students and teachers, order a software program where the student plays games, or simply interact with Spanish speakers as much as possible.

Here are our 5 best solutions for learning Spanish at top speed!

1.     Learn Spanish by taking private lessons

The first method to learn Spanish easily will always be this one for us: take Spanish beginners courses!

Obviously, this is the best way to learn Spanish for beginners, if you have a good teacher.

2.     Learn Spanish quickly on a language trip

What if we jumped at the chance to go directly to a country where Spanish is an official language?

Spain (Alicante, Salamanca, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Andalusia), Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala: dream destinations are accessible to anyone who has learned more than the basics in high school.

3.     Is the Internet the best method for learning Spanish?

The language learning method, learning Spanish online for example, is mainly used by people who want to learn Spanish on their own.

However, it is also suitable for people who are taking language courses and want to practise on their own as a supplement. With Spanish language podcasts, for example

4.     Interacting with Spanish people

As well as travelling to a Spanish-speaking country, talking to Spanish people is an excellent way to improve your Spanish.

Rather than using a screen and/or headphones to listen to and imitate Spanish speakers, why not go directly to Spanish speakers?

5.     Learn Spanish while having fun

It’s a fact that we learn faster when we have fun!