The world’s best way to learn Spanish.
Spanish is a global language with nearly 500 million native speakers, mainly in Spain and America. It is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It 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. 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.
If you’re reading this blog, I assume you still have unanswered questions despite trying everything from learning Spanish – a Spanish class, flipping through textbooks and worksheets – but it hasn’t made you content or happy! Probably because despite as many efforts you’re right where you started far from speaking like a native speaker! First of all let me put a few anxieties to rest. Remember if you aren’t born in the place your target language is spoken chances are you can only get as close to speaking the language as a native! LIKE A NATIVE!
Remember as an adult, you will never get an exact native accent; because the native speakers pick that up during their childhood learning. So come to terms with that, drop false hopes, accept the fact and move on. Work your way to near native fluency. Don’t be delusional, no matter what someone says.
This also goes to prove and show the mismatch between your expectations, time invested and the results achieved! Also, there’s no universal method to learn! What worked for others probably didn’t work out for you.
Thus, it is time to try the world's best method of learning a language!
In my opinion, the world’s best method to learn a language is through Travel immersion. It is a method learners all over the world swear by, for all and any language to learn. And Spanish is no exception.
Let’s talk about the Classic Method, to begin with! This method helps a learner immerse themselves in Spanish-speaking culture by taking a job transfer, accepting a new job in Mexico, Spain USA or any other Spanish speaking countries. Students could also check out summer programs abroad with their university or take admission into a college or university of their choice to start learning the language. For a longer duration, someone less than 30years or younger could choose to live as an Au Pair with a Spanish family for a year. All you need to do is make a decision, pack your bags to stay at that place for a minimum of six months or a year. One could also use work exchange sites such as workaway and many more to barter bed and boarding for a few hours of work. However, if you’re feeling overly committed and are well qualified, then teaching English abroad could well be a great option. However, in the real world, not everybody has that kind of resources or blessings! Luckily, you can create the same opportunity without ever having to leave your ‘la casa’!
The only known drawback to the immersion approach(besides high costs) is the overwhelming effect it has on some of its patrons, as a result of the cultural shock or anxiousness it brings to them. People tend to overthink and fear that they would soon land up in a new country/state, and be unable to express themselves or ask for something due to the language barrier. In such cases we suggest a classroom base immersion method which could be complete or partial, followed by a week or two of travel to Spanish-speaking countries, to develop comprehension and speaking skills.
The classroom immersion method ensures that you do not have to travel across the world to learn a language and you can do so from within your comfort zone. In the full immersion training method, all the classes are conducted strictly in the target language and students are provided with notes or CDs as a reference to follow and understand the lesson and context better. However, in the partial immersion method, the lesson is conducted in the target language but it is also explained in the commonly used language of the country.
You could significantly cut down your travel costs using sites such as Tandem, mylanguageexhange.com, conversationexchange, Couchsurfing.com to stay (and speak!) with friendly natives, which could do wonders to your Spanish learning. Speaking the language is the best ever choice if you wish to learn a language faster. You could choose to select conversation building words and phrases, conversation connectors and fillers to build your vocabulary and transfer them to flashcard apps like quizlet.com you could use podcasts such as ivmpodcasts, player.fm audiobooks, various online audios, various online videos, online Spanish playlist from Spotify, take help from Omniglot.com all of these could be the real solid resources to build up your Spanish language. Alternatively one could adopt immersion methods, that give you the same benefits of immersion added to reading Spanish books, watching Spanish movies or listening to Spanish audiobooks and music!
Looking at the segregation of languages done by FSI USA, Spanish falls in group 1 of languages that are closely related to English, and a 575-600 or greater number of hours is enough to learn the language to a decent level. Romance language speakers have a greater chance to learn Spanish in a shorter period of time, since Spanish is quite similar in grammar and literature to them.
You could also take advantage of the following courses offering classroom immersion training:
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone is one of the most popular language immersion tools used by beginners at schools, businesses and government organizations. The program works by using interactive software packed with images and sounds—giving you an unparalleled immersion experience that imitates the way in which a child learns their mother tongue, no translation, no instructions. The online program offers you a variety of games, tools and resources and the ability to speak with other learners around the world. It also allows you to schedule 20-minute lessons with an online trainer! Rosetta stone’s new program for intermediate and advanced learners encourages them to achieve a C1 level proficiency. It offers programs that last up to 30 minutes and booster lessons in between lasting anywhere from 5-15 minutes, to enable everyone to learn. On the flip side, while it’s really good, it’s also a costly course. Watch out for their amazing offers and deals throughout the year! Rosetta Stone also offers student discounts.
Assimil
Assimil a language course founded in 1929 by Alphonse Chérel, includes both audio and a Language book. The book guides you with translations from Spanish to English and follows on from the audio lessons with activities to further reinforce language learning. Each track in the audio resource is only a few minutes long, so even someone with busy schedule can do it. The Assimil audio lessons are 100% in the target language and this creates a total immersion experience. Assimil uses a method that places great emphasis on learning sentences, to facilitates the native or natural way of learning -listening, repeating and then using knowledge and mind to figure out what the new vocabulary means. Assimil offers programs for Kids and Business Spanish. You can test out your knowledge by completing the activities and follow your progress as you continue with the course.
FluentU
FluentU app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play stores. It claims to use a natural approach, by using real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks with interactive subtitles —and turns them into personalized language learning lessons, that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. It aims to teach Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people without scripted content. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly or play the mini-games found in the dynamic flashcards, like “fill in the blank.”. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. The clips are relatively short, between 1-10 minutes in length, and fits into your daily schedule. There are also longer mini-series and movies broken into installments. FluentU is primarily based on audio and video materials, but there are plenty of text-based tools for active learning too.
Pimsleur
Using methods invented by Paul Pimsleur, a French professor and linguist, Pimsleur employs interactive audio learning methods with native speakers pronouncing a sentence or having a discussion teaching Latin American Spanish. With each lesson being up to 30 minutes long, focusing on core vocabulary, with the science of spaced repetition and the focus on most-used Spanish vocabulary.The software does come with a booklet for a few sessions that use reading, however, the emphasis is on learning through the audio provided.
Michel Thomas
A polyglot linguist Michel Thomas developed a Learning method, based on listening rather than using books and memorization techniques. It relies on a mentally relaxed student so they could retain more information naturally. The course is entirely audio-based, in both Spanish and English, and follows Thomas and two students as he teaches them sentence structure, verbs and vocabulary. Sans the long-winded explanations, grammar is presented in conversation practice that helps to master the tricky verb forms and gives the listener a surrounding experience, while they are asked to repeat the words, and recall certain things. It’s all about listening and repetition, repetition, repetition. Nothing needs to be force-memorized and surprisingly it works! The course comes in various levels: (1) Start Spanish, which is a basic course with 50 essential Spanish words, (2) Total Spanish, which is the ideal beginner course providing 12 hours of audio, (3) Perfect Spanish, which is for elementary/intermediate learners and (4) Masterclass Spanish which provides 2 hours of one-on-one Spanish lessons with Michel Thomas.
This is great for learners who don’t have much time to set aside for language learning, and each lesson is under 10 minutes long so there’s no reason you can’t pop the CD into your car on the way to work or transfer the files onto your iPod and learn Spanish while you go for your daily run!
Finally,
Spanish vocabulary has also been influenced by Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula, with around 8% of its vocabulary having Arabic lexical roots. It has also been influenced by Basque, Iberian, Celtiberian, Visigothic, and other neighbouring Ibero-Romance languages. Additionally, it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly other Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, Mozarabic, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Occitan, and Sardinian, as well as from Quechua, Nahuatl, and other indigenous languages of America.
There are millions of people across the world learning this new language despite its adversities and complications. They are giving it their all to learn effectively. You could learn from the many ways they are managing to fit learning Spanish in their schedule, trying multiple ways to get effective learning. Try each possible method to pick up Spanish faster if you aren’t able to learn it in the world’s best way of immersion!.
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