What I’m doing to improve my Spanish, and what it taught me about language learning.

Recently, I’ve decided to focus intensively on my Spanish skills. Let me walk you around my journey for bit.

My story

I never really studied the language, even though I managed to absorb quite a lot with time, immersion, friends and my French and Italian speaker background. When it came to speaking extensively, I really struggled with formulating complex thoughts, telling past stories and sharing anecdotes.

When I met my new hispanoablantes (Spanish speaking) friends in May, and since my partner speaks native Spanish, I felt the urge to get better at it in order to be myself in their language, without using English of French as a plan-B.

After a few weeks of intense immersion hanging out with Spanish speakers for extended amounts of time almost daily, I made a plan.

What I’m doing

Finding a real teacher

My first step was to find a native qualified teacher. I really needed to do strong grammar reinforcement. I found Romina on a Facebook groups for foreigners in Valencia.

Our lessons happen twice a week, we speak only Spanish, and after just a few hours I already feel like the veil of ignorance has been lifted. I’m finally able to organize my knowledge and visualize the grammatical aspects of the language more clearly.

Improving my grammar

As I always tell my students : in order to remember what you learn, you need to repeat it an insane amount of time. This is why I do online conjugation exercises as often as possible.

While doing the exercises, I proceed to write on little cards the new verbs I discover. I write them in their infinitive form and, if I feel like it, I may write the irregular form of the past participle, or a short phrase containing the verb in order to stimulate my memory.

I never write the translation.

Personal photo : my verbs cards

On my free time, I pick-up random cards and try to write sentences with them, conjugating them with various tenses and subjects. I use my whiteboard (I’m a teacher, of course the whiteboard is my soft spot!) or my notebook and then read them out loud to my partner who will correct me and ask questions to test my knowledge.

Personal photo : examples of sentences I wrote using my cards

Recently, I’ve been actively working on my past tenses which has always been a real challenge for me since I never studied formally. Up until now I’ve mostly been able to understand the past tenses when people speak, and even learned a few forms thanks to constant repetition. However now, I actually know the proper endings and I’m trying to use them as much as possible.

I try to practice complex thinking and tenses by writing. I recently wrote a 2-page text about what I did during the weekend. In the process of writing that text, I searched for 7/8 new words and will focus on those during the next few days and try to include them next time I speak to my friends.

Working on my listening and vocabulary

I try to listen to the Easy Spanish podcast while I’m in public transports or at the gym; it’s a very effortless source of input for me. When I hear an interesting sentence, or expression I add it to the note I have on my phone. The podcast is really interesting since the hosts both come from 2 different countries, their accent and place is different (Mexican and Spanish)

Screenshot from my note dedicated to Spanish

After reading advice from the Polyglots community on Facebook, I downloaded the Quizlet app to create my own flashcards with the new words I discovered. The app offers very interesting feature such as a learning mode, a testing mode, and a few different playing modes (match name and definition, quizzes etc). I’ve never been a fan of forcing vocabulary learning on me, or anyone, but I want to see if it’s worth it eventually.

Screenshots from my Spanish words collection on Quizlet

How I feel

I’m planning to move to Valencia, and even though I know I won’t suffer from cultural disconnection since my partner is part Spanish, I do feel like owning my identity in a foreign language is always a challenge. This learning journey is being extremely fulfilling so far.

The biggest chance for me right now, is being surrounded by native speakers from different countries, with different slangs and accents. I don’t think I’d be able to progress so fast without this amazing context.

What I find the most interesting, is that as a teacher, I never get the chance to know how my students feel like. I can of course imagine, and try to do my best to fulfill their needs, but I am never actually in their shoes!

Ever since I’m learning Spanish with Romina, I’m developing this sense of understanding with my students, and I feel like it’s making me a better teacher.

Actually, working by myself, I also never get the chance to see how my fellow language teachers work, which makes this whole experience highly beneficial. I can learn Spanish, understand my students more, and get to see a colleague’s work up-close !

What about your French journey ?

Yes I know, you might wonder how me learning Spanish is going to impact your French learning. Well, I think this experience has highlighted a few tips I can now recommend, since they’ve been tested and approved!

Tip n°1 : Write in French just for yourself.

Tip n°2 : Create your own data base with flashcards (paper or online)

Tip n°3 : Find yourself a French environment through online communities, foreigners meet-ups etc

Tip n°4 : Listen to French as often as possible, check out my personal recommendations

Tip n°5 : Refine your grammar, you may need it more than you think !

Working with a teacher is not enough. The amount of work you allocate to your studies will define your progression and success. So, hopefully these tips serve you well! Remember, practice makes perfect 😉