How to Learn to Speak Spanish

Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet. According to some figures in fact, Spanish has more native speakers than English. Learning to speak Spanish therefore offers many benefits, and the trick to becoming fluent is immersion. But the most important factor in learning how to speak Spanish is simply knowing how to have fun!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Motivation to become fluent.
• A good Spanish language learning course.
• Access to other Spanish speakers (native Spanish speakers can be easily found online!).

1. Figure out why you want to learn to speak Spanish and what you plan on doing with it once you are fluent. Spanish, like other Romance languages, has a different grammatical structure than English, for both speaking and writing. Try to determine whether conversation or literature is more important to you so that you'll know how to proceed.
2. Learn the pronunciations for the alphabet in Spanish. Spanish letters are not the same as English, so it is important to grasp this before beginning. Learning Spanish alphabet pronunciations is relatively easy and can be done on your own. Take a look at the Learn to Speak Spanish blog below for some simple lessons on Spanish language pronunciation.
3. Find good Spanish language resources to use. Before diving into a language program, learning a little bit about Spanish from websites and books is a great way to become familiarized with important fundamentals of the language. The Learn to Speak Spanish blog below has several lessons and other tips for getting started.
4. Buy a good Spanish language course. Having a good language course to help you learn Spanish is absolutely crucial for two reasons. First, it provides you with a structure to follow that is necessary for progressing from a beginner to advanced level. Trying to learn Spanish on your own in a haphazard way will just lead to a lot of frustration since you will not know what to focus on. And secondly, it will keep you motivated. Some language courses are better than others and will have certain learning tools that are entertaining, such as games. Fun exercises, along with the ability to see yourself actually progressing from one lesson to the next will help keep you motivated, and coming back for more.
5. Try to immerse yourself as much as possible in the Spanish language. This can be done by watching Spanish television, finding other Spanish speakers to speak to, or traveling to a Spanish speaking country. You can easily find other Spanish speakers online that are willing to chat with you in Spanish, either with instant messaging or video conferencing.