How To Learn Spanish From Scratch
Today we will be talking about how to learn Spanish from scratch.
My goal with this article is to give you a simple regimen that can help anyone learn Spanish from their home even if they are just getting started.
So when I refer to “from scratch” I’m talking about a beginner.
Most of you who are reading articles on this website aren’t necessarily learning Spanish from scratch because you either have tried to learn Spanish before, either in school or on your own but you are still in the beginning stages.
But that’s no problem, that’s why I’m here to help you.
First, let’s dissect the problem of learning Spanish from scratch…
I’ve talked endlessly on this website about how you have to consume a lot of comprehensible input if you want to become fluent in Spanish.
In other words, you have to listen to a lot of Spanish that you can understand.
But that’s where the problem comes in, right?
Because to do that, you have to actually be able to understand the content you are consuming.
If you are starting from scratch or are a beginner, that’s where the problem comes in.
Avoid These Mistakes
Here are 2 mistakes that most people make…
#1 – They either spend a lot of time listening to Spanish, without understanding anything, thinking they will improve that way…
#2 – They immediately jump into grammar and conjugation, trying to break down every Spanish word in a grammatical sense.
Both of these activities will hinder your Spanish ability.
In fact, because most people do this and don’t see any results, they blame themselves for not learning Spanish. They then give up.
Remember, learning Spanish is simple… NOT EASY but simple.
You have to transform the content from incomprehensible to comprehensible.
How do you do this?
Well, there are a few ways…
But one of the ways you could start doing it right now is translating Spanish text into English.
I like to approach it as a puzzle.
Pretend the piece of content you will consume is a riddle that you have to decipher.
Because in reality, that’s what it is.
So your goal is to decipher the piece of content and make it comprehensible before you consume it.
I know this might seem confusing or complex.
But we do this subconsciously with Spanish music.
Why We Like Using Spanish Music As A Resource To Learn Spanish
People like using music to learn Spanish because it’s easy to “decipher.”
It’s easy to make comprehensible.
Think about a Spanish song that you want to learn the lyrics to…
What do you do?
You probably listen to the song and love it.
You then look up the lyrics, translate them, and keep listening and reciting the song because now you know what it means.
Without even knowing it, you have just deciphered that “Bad Bunny” song LOL.
Anytime you hear those words you learned from the song, you will understand them and know what they mean.
Take that same exercise and apply it to dialogue.
You want to deal with dialogue because music is not the same as the way we speak.
Artists structure their lyrics to rhyme, not necessarily to talk.
You will want to find interviews, or even movies, that deal with authentic dialogue.
And essentially, you want to see the “lyrics” or transcripts to those pieces of content.
This used to be challenging to do…
But we should be thankful and take advantage of all the free resources we have at our disposal nowadays.
I’ve written other articles already that you should check out titled How to Learn Spanish with YouTube, How to Learn Spanish with Amazon, and How to Learn Spanish with Netflix as other resources to help you “decipher” these Spanish texts.
That leads me to another reason why I am writing this article…
Because sometimes on our YouTube channel, I do videos ONLY in Spanish.
But whenever I do that, I get some pushback from some people.
They say that doing videos in Spanish isn’t helpful because they can’t understand it.
But actually, those videos are helpful.
That’s why I always put the subtitles for those videos so that they can be easy for you to decipher them.
After that you make the content comprehensible, you can consume it over and over until it really sticks.
I know doing that is not for the faint of heart…
But it will—by far—provide the best return for your efforts.
The Recipe To Rapid Improvement
So it’s simple…
Find Spanish content you enjoy, make it comprehensible, and consume it.
Oh, and just because you work with a piece of content today doesn’t mean you are done with it.
You can easily add Spaced Repetition into your learning by rewatching the same content tomorrow, then a week from now, then 3 weeks from now, and then a month from now.
This will help you remember the words and phrases from that piece of content.
The work you put in deciphering the video today saves time and helps you in the long term.
I know it takes effort, but the hardest you will work is in the beginning.
That’s because you have to spend time deciphering the content.
But after a few weeks, you’ll be amazed at how much your comprehension improves.
What happens then is that any Spanish you consume will be comprehensible.
That’s where you will experience massive gains because you don’t have to spend all your time translating and analyzing the content to make it comprehensible.
That means you can spend more time consuming it.
Long story short, you will easily be able to double your amount of consumption.
For example, when you’re just getting started, it may take you 15 minutes trying to decipher a 3-minute piece of content.
Then you spend the next 15 minutes actually consuming that 3-minute piece of content.
But when you understand more Spanish, you can spend more time—say the entire 30 minutes—consuming all new content.
So will be consuming for longer and you will be exposed to many more words and phrases.
That’s the secret recipe 🙂
Find Spanish content you enjoy, decipher it to make it comprehensible, and then consume it.
If you are really looking to take your Spanish to the next level, then check out our FREE 3 Secrets To learn Spanish faster training, where I will show you my 3 most significant secrets to become fluent in Spanish faster.
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