What is the proper way to learn Spanish on your own?

Spanish is a global language with nearly 500 million native speakers, mainly in Spain and America.  It is the world’s second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese, and the world’s fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi. 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. 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. 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.

Further your learning by listening to a lesson, reading along, and reading out loud. Then re-read and speed up your speech. Do this again and again until you can speak faster. Try your best to pronounce words correctly, but don’t exhaust yourself over it. 

Music plays an immensely important part in our life. 

It is so evident from the fact that Alzheimer patients who forget the names of their loved ones, situations, have been known to recollect song lyrics and tunes! Song lyrics can also help you to improve your vocabulary. Also, singers tend to pronounce the words more clearly than people. By memorizing songs, you will learn the pronunciation better! 

Seek other reliable audio resources online that can help you learn. 

A learner who wishes to learn to Spanish should listen to Spanish news as it is spoken more formally and clearly. They are also a great way to add new vocabulary words to learn! 

Capture new words in a journal or diary to refer back to! 

Ensure you start by adding day-to-day used words that you hear in Spanish audio, movies so as to be motivated to build small sentences.  Remember, One of the best ways to improve your speaking is to improve your vocabulary!

Listen to Spanish talk radio/podcasts/ audiobooks/audio clips

Utilise your spare time whether it will be waiting in a queue, walking your dog, washing your car etc. Use all such time to listen to the podcast, audio clips, basically any audio resource you can lay your hand on, to be able to gather more vocabulary and correct accent. 

Gather the Right Materials to learn 

Old language versions aren’t in use anymore; therefore I suggest you learn the Modern Standard version of a language. Get yourself the right resources that help you learn to speak Spanish properly. 

Further your understanding and learning via the shadowing technique to repeat dialogues that you hear. 

You can also turn on subtitles so that you can follow along and speak with the actors. TV shows in particular are also a great way to learn colloquialisms that you may not learn in a formal learning environment

Use SRS to excel 

I could suggest proven apps such as Anki and Memrise where you can learn through existing decks or create your own!

Try Mnemonics to improve your learning 

Mnemonics is another popular method to further your learning by memorizing the existing Spanish words, phrases into something,  known and common in your own native language. 

Watch videos to understand the natural speech patterns,  rhythm, pitch, tone, modulation of speech. 

Apart from this,  the videos will also help you listen to the words and recognize them during repetitions. Eventually, when you start speaking with native speakers you would be a little relaxed and would be able to follow a few, if not all, words at the speed they speak. 

Practice, practice, practice! In the end, it is the only practice that is going to help you learn the language. 

Watch Spanish TV shows/ Movies/Talk Shows. 

Watch English movies with Spanish subtitles and Spanish Movies with English subtitles to get a good understanding of the language in an entertaining way. 

Start by learning the basic alphabets, progressing naturally to word building, phrases, idioms and slangs in the language 

Empower yourself to read small two-letter, three letter words, with children books so you can get confident with speaking the words. This will further strengthen your vocabulary as well as enable you to read; record yourself, playback,  correct your mistakes and repeat until you get the hang of it! 

Try the Pomodoro technique! 

Spending 45 minutes at spaced intervals, 3 times a day, every day, rather than spending long hours at a stretch on the weekends. 

Find a conversation partner to converse with and seek feedback from to improve your learning. Look for conversation partners around you, in your neighbourhood, any community near you; if you don’t find one I suggest going online on Conversationpartner, Tandem, Languagepartner, Italku, Hello Talk etc. Review again and again. 

After you are confident about your pronunciations and the accent, I recommend you talk aloud and record yourself. Then hear yourself again and correct your mistakes, to re-record yourself. You may continue doing this until you get the right pronunciations in one recording

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. Its 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. 

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