Learning a new language can feel overwhelming and a big time commitment for busy people. The truth is however, its all about learning little and often and creating good habits. Here are my top 5 tips if you are a beginner looking to learn Spanish for free today!
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GETTING STARTED
1. Listen to a Spanish podcast on your daily commute to work/study, when travelling between destinations, or during your morning routine whilst you brush your teeth or make that cup of tea!
Coffee Break Spanish– Free lessons in podcast from starting with the complete basics all the way through to advanced levels. It’s likeable Scottish hosts Mark and Cara offer practical content broken down into bitesize lessons (15 minutes – enough for a coffee break!). There is also a catchy theme tune, what more could you want! Search for ‘Coffee Break Spanish’ in your podcast app or find it here
2. Start by learning a few basic words, phrases, and most importantly verbs to build a sentence with. Here are a few basic words and key verbs to get you started.
Get a ‘Word of the day’ in your inbox– a resource I found helpful early on to help broaden my vocabulary was signing up to Transparent languages free ‘Word of the Day’. You will receive a new word in your inbox daily, with that word used in an example sentence so you can start using it straight away!
SpanishDict is full of incredible resources for learning new vocabulary. Just type any word or verb you want to learn into the top search bar and it will give you the word in Spanish, all of its meanings and the option to hear how its pronounced in Spanish.
Start by learning these 10 key verbs in Spanish; Tener, Ir, Ser, Estar, Comer, Vivir, Hablar, Decir, Venir, Ver. Type them into the search bar and select the tab ‘conjugation’. Look for the first option of present tense endings for Yo (I). This will show you how to change verbs from “To Live” (Vivir) into “I live” (Vivo), to enable you to start building sentences when you have the verb + vocubulary. Vivo en Mexico = I live in Mexico.
3. Download one or more of these Language learning apps to start your Spanish learning for free today. They all have premium versions that you can pay for which have additional features, but the basic versions give you enough to get started!
Duolingo – This is a great place to start as the app provides great visual ways to learn Spanish from the very beginning and motivates you to keep going through leaderboards and rewards.
Reword – Flashcards to learn new Spanish words. You can use the multiple-choice option and once you know the word type it in. The free option allows you to do around 10 minutes daily which is perfect for building up a positive habit.
Cram – Ready made flashcards, just search for Spanish. Or make your own set. What i love about this app is that you keep going until you get them all right, eliminating the cards you have learnt and continuing to learn those you haven’t until they finally ingrain into your brain!
Google translate – everyone should have this app! You can type, say, and hover the app over an image to get an immediate translation of the word.
Learn Spanish Words (only available on Android) – fun gamification of learning new Spanish words
Putting your learning into practice
4. Join a beginners Spanish Conversation meetup group. These can be nerve wracking, especially going on your own (believe me it took months for me to work up the courage to attend one!), but they are an extremely valuable way to improve your conversational skills, and fast. It is an effective way to get over the fear factor of speaking in another language with strangers. The important thing here is to communicate, whether you are filling the gaps with similar words or English, you are still getting that practise and seeing what you remember under pressure! That glass of wine also helps get the Spanish words flowing!
The Meetup app is a quick way to find conversation groups in your area. Just create an account and then click on the ‘explore’ icon and apply filters on location, what time you are available etc. and it will show you matches.
5. Not confident enough to try out a face to face meetup group yet? Or simply don’t have the time to attend one?
Then try out my Travel in Two Method here to start practice some of the Spanish you have learnt from the comfort of your own home! It replicates the practice of Spanish conversation but gives you a common topic to talk about (Travel) and can be done at anytime you wish. Here are some basic questions to get you started.
Not a beginner? Check out this post on; How to take your Spanish to the next level
Gracias, estos consejos son muy útiles.
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