Introduction

Spanish language 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 the Americas, as well as territories in Africa and the Philippines. 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.

So many of you have a question: can I master Spanish in a year?  I can’t say that you would gain mastery over Spanish in 1 year, but yes if you are sincere you would have a decent level to read,write and speak in Spanish. You may attain B1 level of proficiency and become an independent learner.

As compared to French or German or Russian, it seemed easier. It’s a complex language and all languages are difficult, but Spanish has several advantages for English speakers compared to most languages:

1. Vocabulary –

A lot of is highly guessable thanks to the Latin influence on English, and in Spanish the relationship between the English and Spanish words is often much clearer than it is with French or Italian. I mean what do you think convencer or persuadir or introducción mean?

2. Phonetics –

There are sounds that are very hard. The harder pronunciations of j in some accents are difficult for some Anglophones but not all Scots and Welsh speakers have an advantage but in general most of the sounds are quite similar to English. Not identical – an English speaker will usually have an identifiable accent – but it’s not so difficult to get the sounds close enough to be understood. Compare that to French which has a lot of sounds English speakers find difficult or a tone language like Chinese (Cantonese being harder than Mandarin).

3. Spelling –

Spanish spelling is phonetic and consistent. Compare it to French. It also uses the Latin alphabet unlike Russian or Korean.

4. Indo-European –

So a lot of the basic concepts e.g. perfect tenses formed with “have” (“haber” isn’t “have” in modern Spanish but it was in Latin and is clearly a cognate), and so on are similar. If you think Spanish is hard, try learning a non-Indo-European language like Finnish or Turkish with millions of noun cases or agglutination etc.

5. Verb system –

Is complicated but highly consistent. French for example has more weird grammatical exceptions and so forth. With Spanish, the rules are pretty logical, albeit not simple.

6. Lack of noun cases –

Unlike German or Russian etc, the nouns don’t change endings according to their grammatical function. So in Spanish only hte verbs are a problem.

7. There are SOME difficulties –

E.g. the difference between imperfect and simple past can be difficult, so is the subjunctive and English speakers in general find grammatical gender a chore, but most European languages have these, or something equally difficult and even here, German for example has THREE genders instead of two and at least in Spanish “girl” is feminine (it’s neuter in German). Learning any foreign language to a high level is hard but I’d say it’s easier to get to a level where you can at least communicate in Spanish (if inelegantly) compared to most languages I know. If you think it’s hard, what other languages are you comparing it to?

On the other hand Spanish is easy if you are interested in learning it by various easy methods or I can say techniques like:

1. Join Online Communities

Your learning method will always be specific to you, but you are never totally alone. Although methods may differ, many language learners encounter the same obstacles and find themselves asking the same questions. Join online classes by downloading applications like  Multibhashi.

Multibhashi is a platform to learn languages effectively and effortlessly. Multibhashi offers more than 30 languages.

2. Build crazy Mnemonics 

Aside from coffee and algebra there aren’t many English-Spanish cognates. This means you can’t guess at vocabulary the way you might in Spanish or French, and you have to get extra-creative to make the vocabulary stick in your brain. Take the time to match the Spanish to a strange similar 

3. Keep it Smile

On the contrary, however, resist the charms of only-in- Spanish oddities you’ll stumble across in the dictionary. Your writing teacher—or anyone else receiving a letter from you—will likely not appreciate your arcane vocabulary. Spain may be famous for revering poetic expression, but they also appreciate a clear and simple writing style.

4. Set Goals

Why are you learning Spanish? The only way to pick key vocabulary from a sea of synonyms is to have a specific achievement in mind. Gossip, read a poem, charm a crush, rock the karaoke mic—pick a mission and work toward it. And then pick another, and another …

5. Say whatever you can no matter how little.

This applies to any foreign language, of course, but it’s especially true for Spanish, in which all the grammar rules and weird words can easily terrify you into silence. Fortunately, native Spanish speakers are possibly the world’s most enthusiastic supporters of language students. Even a few words will likely earn you praise and encouragement to keep chugging along through the next seven years—or however long it takes.