How to learn the Spanish language at home in India?
Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages of the Indo-European language family, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Modern Spanish was then taken to the viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire beginning in 1492, most notably to America, as well as territories in Africa and the Philippines. It is also a Romance language, with nearly 500 million native speakers, mainly in Spain and America. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin and has one of the smaller degrees of difference from it (about 20%) alongside Sardinian and Italian. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. It has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly other Romance languages such as French, Italian, Mozarabic, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Occitan, and Sardinian, as well as from Quechua, Nahuatl, and other indigenous languages of America.
Let's now see how are you can learn Spanish at home
Identify your reason and passion for learning Spanish. Here are some really good reasons I can think of, to learn Spanish:
To travel the world. Spanish is an official language of Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Cuba Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay, Equatorial Guinea, and Puerto Rico.
To have conversations with Spanish-speaking family members or friends.
To read Spanish literary works (“Don Quixote” — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “El amor en los tiempos del cólera” — Gabriel García Márquez, “Ficciones” — Jorge Luis Borges, “La vida es sueño” — Pedro Calderón de la barca, “La ciudad y los perros” — Mario Vargas Llosa, “El Lazarillo de Tormes” — Anonymous)
To connect with Spanish native speakers.
To get an inside view of Spanish culture.
Immerse yourself without leaving your home. Here is what you can do to immerse yourself in Spanish:
Turn your smartphone into a Spanish speaker. Switch the language settings on your phone to Spanish. You can do the same with your computer.
Look for Spanish speakers in your city. Look for a community of Spanish speakers. If you are lucky you may find one near you.
Watch Spanish TV and movies. Switch on the subtitles to speed up your learning.
Read articles and books in Spanish. “Corazón tan blanco” (A Heart So White) by Javier Marías, “Niebla” (Mist) by Miguel de Unamuno, “El obsceno pájaro de la noche” (The Obscene Bird of Night) by José Donoso are helpful for accomplishing reading.
Listen to Spanish radio and podcasts. You can learn a lot of Spanish by listening to Spanish songs.
Creating your own Spanish phrasebook that’s relevant to your life
You’ll learn Spanish much faster if you focus on words and phrases that are relevant to your life. Add a lot of fillers and conversation connectors to help you build your first conversation.
Plus, when you have real conversations in Spanish (I’ll come to that in a moment), you’ll be able to talk about yourself.
That’s why I recommend creating a personalised Spanish phrasebook. This is a collection of words and phrases that are relevant to you.
Using Spanish hacks to make ‘the Unknown World Language’ Spanish turn into a ‘Girl Next Door’ Spanish.
Language hacks are shortcuts that help you learn a language faster. They’re ideal if you want to learn to speak Spanish. Here are a few of my favourite language hacks that can speed up your Spanish learning:
Spaced Repetition Systems (SRS). SRS is a great method for memorising vocabulary and phrases using virtual flashcards. I suggest the SRS tool, Anki, is free and allows you to create your own flashcards, so you can build a deck from your personalised Spanish phrasebook.
Mnemonics. A memory palace is an effective way to burn Spanish words onto your brain.
The Pomodoro Technique. Break up your study sessions into 25 minute chunks. This gives you better focus, so you learn more in a shorter time
Speak up
Spanish includes only a few sounds that differ in speech from English. And it’s no big deal. It’s a phonetic language that’s easy to get hold of.
Some language learners let this hold them back. They feel embarrassed about saying things wrong and making mistakes.
Push through this fear by speaking Spanish even when you feel silly. You’ll learn Spanish much faster that way.
Learn how to have real conversations with native Spanish speakers
No matter where you live you can still find people, either online or offline, to speak with in Spanish. I like to search for native Spanish speakers on:
Italki. This is the first place I go to find Spanish tutors and pay for one-on-one lessons (reasonably priced).
Meetup.com. Most major cities have a Meetup for Spanish speakers or Spanish learners. CouchSurfing is another of my favourite ways to meet Spanish speakers.
HelloTalk. This free mobile app helps you find Spanish speakers who are learning your native language.
Focus on the Easy Aspects of Spanish
Spanish really isn’t easier or harder to learn than any other language, but you can quickly forget this if you only focus on the difficult aspects of Spanish. Whenever you get discouraged, think about all of the ways that Spanish is actually an easy language to learn. Spanish is an easy language because it:
Spanish is a phonetic language pronounced just as it’s written.
There are thousands of cognates like English – words that sound the same and have the same meanings.
Basic grammar is straightforward and with the right approach and proper language learning methods, one can excel in Spanish Proficiency Tests, be it DELE or SIELE.
Spanish is much more flexible in word order than English, in that the same sentence can be arranged numerous ways, even though their translation in English sounds awkward.
Spanish is written in Latin, just as English.
Finally,
Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is also used as an official language by the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Community of Latin American and the Caribbean States, the African Union and many other international organizations. Alongside English and French, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Despite its large number of speakers, Spanish does not feature prominently in scientific writing and technology, though it is better represented in the humanities and social sciences. Additionally, Spanish is the third most used language on internet websites after English and Russian.
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