Learning Spanish – Part 13 – The 'Homestay' Experience - Living with a Local Family

Often when travellers or students visit countries within Central and South America with the intention of learning Spanish, they will often immerse themselves in the language and local culture by living with a local family whilst taking lessons at a Spanish school. This is what is known as a ‘homestay’.

‘Homestays’ can be very beneficial for students. They give the student the opportunity to interact and communicate with native Spanish speaking people in a completely natural environment. It provides a continuous forum in which to practice speaking Spanish and to practice listening to it. Not only this but it gives the student great insight into local culture and ways of life.

From my own experiences I would highly recommend ‘homestays’. I stayed with a local family in Antigua, Guatemala for two weeks whilst studying at a local school. I had my own room and was made to feel like one of the family for my entire stay. One of the best things for me was that nobody in the family could speak a word of English. I was forced into speaking Spanish all the time. Back then my level of Spanish wasn’t great but I still managed to communicate well enough.

Being forced into a situation where you have to communicate in only Spanish can act as a stimulus to the entire learning process. The desire to be understood encourages learning!

The family I stayed with were very accommodating and were more than happy to converse with me and include me in the normal family activities of the normal day. I would sit down with the family at breakfast, lunch and dinner and would often sit around the table in the evening talking or simply watching TV.

One of the benefits of combining Spanish classes with a ‘homestay’ is that you can practice or test out the things you might have learnt during that day with the family you are staying with. I would deliberately try to include new words, or specific bits of Spanish grammar into conversations I was having with the family. Often they would correct me or suggest other ways of saying what I was trying to get across to them.

Living with a native Spanish speaking family gives the student great exposure to the Spanish language as it is spoken in that particular region of the world. I have said many times before in previous articles that the more listening practice that the student can get the better. The act of listening intently for long periods of time can actually be quite gruelling but the more you do it, the easier it will become. Your brain will slowly but surely become accustomed to hearing and interpreting Spanish sounds. I talk much more about listening techniques in a later lesson.

Being in a family environment also gives the student exposure that is completely natural. Conversations that are had around the breakfast table for example are those that any family might have and are therefore completely relevant. The conversations you might have in any one typical day could probably fill an entire textbook of made up role-play exercises. The day will be crammed with continual practice and the best thing is that it wont even feel like studying!

The size of the family you decide to live with will also dictate to some extent the types of conversations you might have. It is a good idea to immerse yourself in a larger family unit if possible and one that has children. The more people you can talk to the better. I remember one afternoon sitting down with the 9 year old daughter of the family I stayed with watching ‘Scooby Doo’ on the TV in Spanish. I had a lengthy conversation as best as I could with her about cartoons and which ones were my favourites and why. It isn’t often you would get to talk about something like that!

Because my ‘homestay’ family included me in pretty much everything they did they also invited me on a night out. It was the mother’s birthday and we celebrated it by first having a traditional meal at home and then going to some bars and finally a club. It was a great experience and a lot of fun. Although I didn’t really think about it at the time it was another example of a completely natural situation where I could practice speaking Spanish.

After the two weeks were up I really felt that I had bonded with my family and I know I my Spanish benefited from it enormously. I felt more confident when speaking to people from then on and the combination of lessons and family living really helped to improve my overall level of Spanish. It really was a great adventure and an entirely worthy experience in every way. If you are looking for a complete cultural immersion experience then I would highly recommend a ‘homestay’.

In this article I have said how important it is to practice listening to spoken Spanish. The more listening you do the better. Joining a ‘homestay’ program is certainly one way in which you can achieve this. In my next article I discuss in more detail different listening techniques and how you can benefit from them.

Learning Spanish – Part 12 – Conversational Spanish Lessons

In my last article I wrote about the elements of Spanish grammar that my personal tutor and I went over during the Spanish lessons I took whilst in Antigua, Guatemala. In this article I want to talk about the conversational lessons that I attended at the same school.

During my two weeks at the school I spent Monday to Friday from 9.00am to 12.00pm studying Spanish grammar on a one to one basis with my tutor. The afternoons were devoted to different kinds of conversational lessons. These included talking in Spanish with various different tutors on a one to one basis, participating in group conversations and playing different types of word games.

Conversational lessons benefit the student in a number of different ways. In my case having conversational lessons each afternoon gave me the opportunity to put into practice the Spanish grammar that I had learnt during that morning. It is always a good thing to try and practice any new Spanish you have learnt, straight away while it is still fresh in your head. You might want to think about constructing certain types of typical sentences that help you remember different aspects of Spanish grammar better.

Speaking, listening and becoming accustomed to spoken Spanish is an essential part of the learning process and of course, having a conversation with someone allows you to do all of these things at the same time.

When you first start to have conversations with people in Spanish you will probably find the whole experience quite gruelling, especially if your vocabulary is limited! This is completely normal. Don’t forget that you are used to speaking in your first language every single day without even thinking about it and to suddenly change this habitual action is no easy task! The thing is that you have to keep practicing. It is like anything, the more you practice the better you become.

One of the great benefits of having conversational lessons is that you can take as long as is required to have the actual conversation, plus, your teacher can make sure you are speaking correctly. In real life situations this is often very difficult if not impossible to achieve. Often people will not have the patience to wait while you try to get your words out or not bother to correct you if you say something that isn’t quite grammatically correct.

The types of conversations that you can have in order to practice your Spanish are endless, which means you can practice using all aspects of Spanish grammar and a full range of vocabulary. To practice different verb tenses for example you can talk about things in the present, past and future or you could practice describing what certain objects look like if you just want to focus on specific vocabulary.

You can talk about yourself, you can talk about events in your life, you can practice describing things, asking and responding to different types of questions, you can talk about different experiences you have had, about things you would like to do, about the things you do and don’t like……. The list really is endless!

When I was attending conversational classes in Guatemala I did however, sometimes get a little board and frustrated. I think this was mainly because I couldn’t speak quickly enough, didn’t know enough vocabulary and always had to think about what I was going to say before saying it. Also I was having the same types of conversations over and over again and couldn’t really talk about anything in great detail. In order to prevent or lessen these types of annoyances the school provided group conversational lessons and encouraged the students to play different types of word games such as ‘hang man’ or ‘what am I’.

There is no point in doing any kind of study if you are not enjoying it or if you start becoming board. Varying the different types of learning activities is a good way of preventing this from happening. Playing word games are also a good way of breaking up your study routine but in a way that still allows you to practice your Spanish. Group conversations can help build your speaking confidence and listening to other students speaking Spanish can be quite reassuring. You realise that other people are in the same boat as you and you can also use the experience to test whether you think someone has said something correctly or not.

Making the learning experience an enjoyable one is important and to help achieve this the school I went to in Guatemala arranged different group activities after lessons. Some of these included visiting a local coffee plantation, going on a bike ride and going out for a meal. Getting involved in social activities is not only fun but it also allows you to practice your Spanish in less formal and natural environments.

In my next article I intend to write about ‘home stays’. When I was studying at a school in Antigua, Guatemala the school arranged for me to live with a local family for two weeks. I will discuss in what ways this type of culture immersion helped me to learn more Spanish and practice the Spanish I already knew.

Learning Spanish – Part 11 – Learning Spanish Grammar with a Personal Tutor in Antigua, Guatemala

In this article I will discuss in more detail what the Spanish lessons were like that I attended for two weeks while I was travelling through Antigua, Guatemala. I will also explain in what ways I benefited from the lessons and how they helped me move one step further towards my goal to learn the Spanish language.

The school I went to was well established. Apart from Spanish lessons the school also gave students the opportunity to participate in group excursions and they also organised accommodation where students could live with a local family for the duration of their studies. I intend to talk more about the benefits of home-stays in one of my future articles.

The first thing that impressed me about the school I went to and which was actually the norm in most of the schools that I looked at, was that all lessons were conducted one-on-one. Each student had a dedicated teacher. You might think that this would be expensive but you will be surprised at just how affordable it is! Learning more about the local economy will open your eyes as to why this is, but this is another story! (Lessons will always be cheaper if you book them on your travels. Like most things it really isn’t necessary to book in advance before you start your travels!)

Not all the teachers at the school were proficient in English but my teacher was. This was quite important. Even though all my lessons were conducted in Spanish there were times where I just couldn’t understand what was being explained to me. Sometimes my teacher had to explain things in English! Having the lessons conducted as much as possible in Spanish is also quite important however. The more exposure you get to hearing and trying to understand true Spanish / Latin American dialects the better. It might be more difficult and certainly more frustrating but it will definitely pay off in the long run.

So, what were my lessons like? At the beginning my teacher asked me what I had studied before and what I thought my current level of Spanish was. Actually it didn’t really matter what I thought too much as my teacher was able to quickly gauge what my level of proficiency was just my talking to me for a while. My teacher didn’t just tell me what he was going to teach me either. He asked me what I wanted to know and what I needed further understanding on. At the end of a discussion that included some basic get to know each other conversations we decided on a general study plan that we would follow over the next couple of weeks.

Of course it depends on the individual as to what exactly you might want to cover, but for me, I/we decided, that going over all of the basics of Spanish grammar would be beneficial. I had already studied most of what we were to discuss already, but my knowledge was full of holes. I needed to have the holes filled and my brain refreshed. The following is a short summary of what we covered.

1 – Subject personal pronouns (I, he, she, we etc)

2 – The verbs ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ (to be) – Used with the ‘gerundio’ (verbs ending in …ing in English)

3 – Regular and irregular verb formations (present, past and future simple tenses)

4 – All other verb tenses (concentrating on the more usual ones)

5 – Gender – Nouns and Adjectives and word order of.

6 – Direct and indirect object pronouns (me, him, her, it etc)

7 – Pronunciation

8 – Prepositions (to, at, in, on etc), and conjunctions (and, but, or, if etc)

9 – Different types of words – Definitions and how they are used in speech.

Studying all of the things listed above a second time was invaluable for me. I was benefiting in a number of different ways. I was able to validate the things I thought I already knew, I was being corrected on the things I thought I already knew but didn’t, I was remembering things I had learnt at some point in the past but had forgotten about, I was remembering things I had read about before but had never actually used and I think more importantly than anything else I felt like I everything for the first time was falling into place. The language seemed to make sense to me!

My teacher helped me achieve a far better understanding of Spanish grammar than I had had previously. Another reason why having a personal tutor helped me to do this was that I was able to bombard him with questions about why certain things were the way they were. In a very short space of time I had answers to questions that I had pondered over by myself for a long while.

Even though Spanish grammar is for the most part very logical I realised more than ever that I needed to have an open mind when learning Spanish in general. It is not always a case of translating one word for another from English to Spanish or vice versa. The structure of English and Spanish grammar is often very different. Sometimes you just have to accept this and try not to worry about why the language is structured in the way that it is!

My grammar studies were conducted in the mornings, I think for about 4 hours a day with as many breaks as was necessary. Each evening after class I used to write up my notes from that mornings lesson into something that was more legible. Although this might be the last thing you want to do I think it helps because you are re-affirming everything you learnt that day and are writing things down on paper in way that makes sense to you. For a long time afterwards I used my notes to refer back to!

In my next article I intend to talk more about the two weeks I spent in Antigua, Guatemala attending Spanish classes. In particular I will talk about the benefits of conversational lessons.

Learning Spanish – The Benefits of Attending Spanish Classes Instead of Self Study

There is no reason why anybody shouldn’t be able to learn Spanish by themselves without having to attend language classes or take private lessons. There are certainly ample learning resources in the form of textbooks or online material that can guide you through the entire learning experience. The question is which method of learning works best for you! In this article I explain why I decided to attend classes at a Spanish school in Guatemala even though I had previously studied most of the material they were about to cover via some form of self-study!

After spending about a month or so in Mexico I decided it was time to head further South into Guatemala via Belize. Mexico was my first experience of being in a Spanish speaking country and trying to communicate using the Spanish I had learnt from a text book back in the UK. Not only was the Spanish I learnt in Mexico invaluable but the entire experience taught me a lot about different learning methods and in particular the benefits of learning via cultural immersion.

Although I had done some previous self-study in the UK one of the biggest problems I encountered when trying to communicate in Spanish in Mexico was not knowing enough vocabulary and not being able to structure my sentences properly. I was putting words together but in the wrong order or I was using verbs in the completely wrong tense, or just using a verb in its infinitive form because I didn’t know any better!

These are some of the reasons why I decided that I needed to do some repeat studying. I basically felt that I had forgotten a lot of the things I had previously studied! This type of problem is of course a very common one. Nobody can be expected to learn and retain absolutely everything they have studied. To forget things is completely normal!

There are many reasons why we might forget the things we learn. Many of these reasons stem from bad learning techniques. I talked about some of these things in more detail in an earlier article, but generally speaking using a variety of techniques (written, oral and listening), and using different types of quizzes and exercises generally works better than just reading from a textbook.

One of the things I could have done was to spend more time each day by myself with my head in a book going over Spanish grammar and trying to learn and remember more Spanish words. Even though I could have used a number of different techniques to best achieve this, the idea still wasn’t very appealing! Something that was much more appealing and logical, especially as I was already immersing myself in Latin American culture was to attend classes at a Spanish school run by local Spanish speaking teachers.

I am not suggesting that attending language classes will work better than self-study. As I said before this really depends on the individual! There are however some real benefits of having someone teach you Spanish face to face rather than trying to learn entirely by yourself.

The obvious advantage of being taught by a real person is that a person can talk back to you and answer your questions if you don’t understand something. A real teacher can explain things in more than one way or in a way that makes you understand better. Textbooks cannot change the way they explain things based on who it is that is reading the book!

Another great advantage of being taught by a real person is that you can put what you have learnt, into practice immediately. You can get instant feedback on whether or not you have understood something correctly.

Although it is not essential, being taught by a teacher that is a native speaker of Spanish can also be an advantage! This isn’t because they will necessarily know more, or be better teachers. Actually it is often the opposite! Native speakers of Spanish might know less. They can tell you how the language should be spoken without thinking about it but they might not be able to explain to you why it is spoken in the way that it is! This is because they don’t need to understand the grammar that underpins the language. They just speak it naturally! Of course any good Spanish teacher whether a native speaker or not should be able to teach you Spanish grammar.

Being taught by a native Spanish speaking teacher means you can practice listening to how the language is actually spoken! Listening is a very important part of the entire study process and the more accustomed you get to hearing real Spanish the better.

The Spanish language school I decided to go to was situated in Antigua, Guatemala. My choice of school was dictated by location more than anything. It was the obvious choice after leaving Mexico! I had read that not only was Antigua a good place to study Spanish but it also offered a rich colonial history and was surrounded by several volcanoes, one of which (Pacaya), was continually active and could be visited via a guided tour.

Antigua is home to a number of different well-established Spanish schools that are geared towards teaching Spanish to foreigners. The specific school that I chose in the end was larger than some of the others and was able to provide accommodation and different guided tours as part of the entire study package.

In my next article I intend to talk in more detail about the Spanish language school that I attended in Antigua, Guatemala. I will explain how the lessons were conducted and how I befitted from the different teaching styles that my teacher and the school in general used during my two weeks of study there.

Learning Spanish – Part 9 – Learning Spanish Through Cultural Immersion

In my last article I talked a little bit about the benefits of learning about Spanish / Latin American culture and how it can help you with your Spanish language studies. I then went on to talk about my early experiences of trying to communicate in Spanish to the locals of Tijuana in Mexico. It was at this point that I realised that learning Spanish was probably going to take a lot longer and require more effort than I had previously anticipated!

In this article I want to talk about the benefits of learning Spanish through direct exposure with native Spanish speaking people. If you had to, you could probably learn the Spanish language without ever picking up a Spanish textbook! It might take a very very long time but eventually through direct contact and social interaction with other people who already speak the language it could be done. The basic human desire to communicate would prevail.

Learning Spanish through mimicking how someone else speaks the language will mean that you end up speaking Spanish in exactly the same way as they do! On the whole this might not be a bad thing but you don’t want to pick up any bad language habits or speak in an incomprehensible accent. On the other hand you do want, to be able to understand what native Spanish speaking people are saying and you also want them, to be able to understand what you are saying! In this sense a little bit of mimicking is probably a good thing.

Not being understood is a common frustration that many students suffer when trying to communicate with native speakers of Spanish. A lot of the time the Spanish spoken may be 100% grammatically correct and yet people still do not seem to understand it. This may be because the Spanish is spoken in an accent that is completely foreign!

Trying to communicate to a native speaker of Spanish, wherever it might be in the world makes you realise just how important pronunciation is! Not only do you need to know new Spanish words, you must also make sure that you know how to pronounce them correctly. I mentioned in one of my early articles how important it is to routinely do this early on in your studies. Of course if you are in another country and people don’t understand you, this will force you, and therefore train you, to speak clearly and correctly right from the start!

As I travelled through Mexico I really tried to speak to as many locals as I possibly could. Don’t shy away from communication in Spanish just because you know it is going to be a struggle. The more practical experience you can gain from both speaking and listening the better.

My early conversations with people were only very basic ones. Mainly because if I attempted to show someone that my level of Spanish was better then it really was then I knew I would be shooting myself in the foot. If people think you can communicate well, then they are far less likely to make an effort to speak slowly and clearly. In the beginning this is exactly what you need people to do!

Typical conversations that I would have with people were mostly about asking for things in a shop or restaurant, asking for directions to a place I wanted to visit or talking about journeys. Immersing myself in the country I was in meant I had to talk about these things just to survive. They were also the types of conversations that were short and not very complicated! I would prepare myself for the entire experience before hand. I knew exactly what I was going to say before saying it and I knew what types of answers I was likely to get from people.

A lot of the time I would deliberately ask people questions that I already knew the answers to, just to see if they would understand what I was saying and whether or not they would give me the answer that I was expecting. I would also ask the same question to lots of different people to see if they would reply in the same way. Then I would try and get the same information out of other people but I asking the same question in a slightly different way. The great thing about asking different types of questions is that you only have to alter them slightly to be able to adapt them to another completely different type of situation.

A lot of the time I didn’t understand the answers to many of my questions but at least this gave me the opportunity to ask the person I was speaking to, to repeat what they had said. Even if I had understood what someone had said I would sometimes deliberately ask him or her to repeat it just for practice!

This type of practical exposure is a great way of getting yourself started. It not only gives you first hand practical speaking and listening experience but it also builds your confidence in preparation for more complicated conversations that you will have as time progresses. Exposing yourself to native Spanish speakers is also great because it shows you that the Spanish you are learning actually works. You can use it and people understand it. This acts as a great confidence booster and gives you added incentive to improve and better yourself.

In total I spent about a month in Mexico and after a while I was able to have very basic conversations with people. A lot of what I said to people was in broken Spanish however. At this point I wasn’t really able to structure my sentences properly and I knew that I was saying things that were grammatically incorrect. One of my biggest problems was that I was trying to structure sentences in the same way that I would have structured them in English and a lot of the time it simply didn’t work!

It was at this point that I decided it was time to get back to some serious studying. I needed to learn more about Spanish grammar. Being able to communicate in broken Spanish was a good start but I wanted to do much better! In my next article I want to talk about some of my experiences at a Spanish language school I went to in Antigua, Guatemala.

Learning Spanish – Part 8 – First Encounters in Mexico

In this article I want to talk about what happened to me during my early attempts at trying to communicate in Spanish with the native Spanish speaking peoples of Central America. After spending six weeks ploughing through a basic level Spanish text book and learning as much Spanish vocabulary as my memory would permit I thought I was ready to take on the Spanish language for real!!

I actually started my trip through the Americas in the U.S. I spent some time in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego before heading south to the Mexican border on route to Tiajana. Although I didn’t actually converse with anybody in Spanish in the U.S I did learn a lot about the Spanish conquest of this region before the English took over!

You might be wondering what that has to do with learning Spanish! Well, the point is that learning Spanish shouldn’t just be about learning how to communicate in Spanish. One of the best ways to keep yourself enthused about your studies is to immerse yourself in all things Spanish. Learning about Spanish history for example and in my particular case about the Spanish conquest of the Americas is a great way of adding substance. It kind of validates and gives purpose and added reason to why you are learning the Spanish language in the first place.

This might all sound a bit deep but the truth is that cultural immersion really can help you to understand certain things about the Spanish language that you might not be able to gain from a textbook alone! Plus, if your anything like me you’ll simply love learning about Spanish history and the conquest of the Americas as a matter course.

Before I went to the U.S I didn’t realise just how much of the Americas that the Spanish were originally in control of. Their rule extended the entire Pacific coast from Southern Argentina right the way up to modern day Alaska. I also didn’t realise that the names of some US cities are actually Spanish names! San Francisco (Saint Francis) Los Angeles (The Angles).

The further south that you go in the U.S the more Spanish influence there is. In Florida and L.A, Spanish place names are common and some road signs are even translated into Spanish.

So, with a little Pre-Columbian history under my belt and my self study crash course in Spanish I caught a bus south from L.A direct to the Mexican town of Tijuana just over the U.S / Mexican border. To start with I didn’t really get much of a chance to test my Spanish out on anyone. The taxi drivers, the owner of the hostel I stayed at and the bar staff at all the bars I went to all seemed to want to talk to me in English! This wasn’t that surprising however! Tijuana has a reputation for being a bit of a party town for young North Americans looking for a good weekend!

I tried to speak a little Spanish to the locals but couldn’t string sentences together quick enough. I think most people could see I was struggling and decided to make it easy for the ‘poor gringo’ by speaking to me in English! It wasn’t until I decided to head south again further into Baja de California that I got my first real opportunities to speak.

I went to a local bus company to book a bus to the next town south, called Ensenada. This time I was on my own; no-body spoke a word of English. I then attempted to explain to the lovely young Mexican girl that attended me that I wanted to catch a bus to the next town south. The only thing was I didn’t know how to say it properly. I didn’t know the word for ‘catch’ or ‘get on’ and had forgotten even basic words like ‘to go’ and ‘ticket’. All I kept blurting out was ‘ummm…..bus…..ummm…bus….. Ensenada!’ I must have looked like a bumbling fool and I certainly felt like one!

Of course the lovely young Mexican girl understood that I wanted to go to Ensenada by bus, even from my mumblings, but the next challenge was figuring out the bus timetable and how much it was going to cost me. If this wasn’t bad enough I couldn’t understand a word of what the Mexican girl was saying to me in Spanish! In the end the Mexican girl had to write numbers down on a piece of paper (thank god numbers are the same in both English and Spanish I thought!) After a period of time, which seemed like forever I eventually paid my pesos and reserved a seat on the next bus out, which was in a few hours!

Admittedly I had only just arrived in the Spanish-speaking world and I hadn’t really done a lot of studying so I probably shouldn’t have expected much! Later I was told that the Mexican accent could be one of the hardest in Latin America to understand as well. But, the thing was, I was pretty annoyed and shocked at just how useless I was! So from that day onwards I promised myself that I would find a little time each day during the rest of my travels, (not difficult as a backpacker), to improve my Spanish skills. I knew I had a long way to go but I was determined to do it!

Learning Spanish – Part 7 – Essential Elements of Spanish Grammar and Verb Tables

In my last article I started to talk about Spanish verb formations. In this article I want to talk specifically about verb conjugation books and a little about learning Spanish grammar in general.

For the most part the Spanish language is highly ordered. You can pretty much dissect any Spanish sentence and understand why it has been constructed in the way that it has, simply by learning some fundamental concepts about Spanish grammar. Once you understand those concepts you can use them to formulate other sentences.

My intention here is not to discuss in any great detail the workings of any particular aspect of Spanish grammar but rather to indicate those elements of Spanish grammar that are pretty much essential if you want to gain a good understanding of how the Spanish language works. Below I have divided these elements into four categories.

Spanish verb formations – Different tenses.
Gender – Forming masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives. Verbs and gender.
Types of words – Using prepositions / conjunctions / adverbs etc.
Sentence formation – How different words fit together in a sentence.

All of the above elements of Spanish grammar were included in the basic level Spanish textbook that I used when I first started to learn Spanish and in every other textbook that I have seen since.

I mentioned in my last article that you will want to buy a Spanish verb conjugation book in order to learn how Spanish verbs are formed. Not only can you use these books to understand and learn how different verbs should be formed in different tenses but you can also use them to learn which verbs fall into different formation categories. You can instantly tell for example if a new verb you have learnt is regular or irregular.

Verb conjugation books provide a constant reference. Every time you learn a new verb in Spanish how will you know how that verb should be formed in different tenses? You will have to refer to a verb conjugation book. Although you can often guess how a verb should be formed by looking at how it is spelt and whether it ends in AR, ER, or IR you can never really be sure.

Even when you have learnt how different verbs are formed in some of the most commonly used verb tenses you still may have to refer to a verb conjugation book to see how that verb is formed in a tense that is used in speech far less often!

Even when you are highly proficient in Spanish it is still quite likely that you will have to refer to a verb conjugation book from time to time. Even native Spanish speaking people have to use them occasionally! The truth is that there are thousands of different verbs that can be formed in so many different ways that it would be almost impossible to know and memorise how every verb should be formed and used in all types of situations!

A good start for anyone learning Spanish verbs would be to concentrate on commonly used verbs. Look around you and think about different types of everyday situations where you need to use a verb in order to communicate. Very quickly you will have a list of several hundred everyday verbs. Once you have done this you then need to learn which ones are regular and which are irregular. You can use your verb conjugation book to do this.

Before I embarked on my trip to Central and South America I did buy myself a Spanish verb conjugation book. However, after travelling for a while I ended up buying another one. This is because the first one I bought didn’t include all possible verb tenses, probably because some verb tenses in Spanish are rarely used. There is for example two different ways that the past subjunctive tense can be formed in Spanish. Some verb conjugation books might not show both methods of formation and some don’t even show the past subjunctive tense at all!

So, when buying a verb conjugation book be sure to check that it includes everything you need to know. If you don’t know exactly what to check for take a look at the verb tables on Spanishexperto.com. These tables contain all the different verb tenses that you will ever come across when learning Spanish.

So far in this series of articles I have talked about some of the things you might want to think about before starting to learn Spanish, such as mental preparation. I have also touched on different learning techniques and have pointed out some of the areas of study that you will inevitably engage yourself in if you are serious about learning Spanish.

I have also barked on about my basic level Spanish textbook that I studied before my trip to Central and South America. After finishing this basic level textbook and arming myself with a fair selection of different Spanish words I thought I was ready to take on the Spanish language for real. I couldn’t have been more wrong! In my next article I intend to talk about what happened to me when I first tried to communicate with the native Spanish-speaking people of Tijuana in Mexico.

Learning Spanish – Part 6 – What’s The Best Way to Learn Spanish Verb Formations?

In my last article I started to talk about a Spanish textbook called ‘Pasos’. This was the textbook I used when I first started learning Spanish. When I started studying from it I didn’t use it to its full potential. This was really down to time constraints and the fact I was about to embark on a long trip to central and South America. I wanted to finish the book before I set off.

The point of the article was really to warn others against falling into the same trap if possible. This particular Spanish textbook and others like it are full of quizzes and exercises that are designed to test the reader’s ability to retain and understand the information that is being taught. I didn’t spend enough time working through the various chapters or attempting all of the exercises. In hindsight I know it would have been better to spend as much time as I needed in order to cover everything that the book had to offer.

In this article I want to talk some more about the same Spanish textbook, in particular about how it dealt with teaching Spanish verb formations. Learning how to form Spanish verbs can be very frustrating for native speakers of English. This is because they are formed very differently. In Spanish it is often not necessary to use subject personal pronouns (I, you, he, she etc) with verbs like it is in English. Look at this simple example:-

I live in England. = Vivo en Inglaterra.

Notice in Spanish no word for ‘I’ is used. This is because much of the time the way that a Spanish verb is formed will automatically indicate what subject personal pronoun is being referred to (I, you, he, she etc). At first this can seem very confusing and then later on it can still seem very confusing! The difficulty is that there are so many different ways that one single verb might be formed. Not only does the verb change depending on which subject personal pronoun it is used with but it also changes depending on what verb tense is being used (present, past, future etc).

Unfortunately, you will have to learn how Spanish verbs are formed even to have a very basic conversation. There is no escaping it!

Spanish verbs can be split into those that are regular and those that are irregular. The benefit of learning how to form Spanish regular verbs is that once you know how to form one verb in one particular tense you can apply the same formation rules to all regular verbs. You only need to know how to form the verb once!

So, what are the best ways to go about learning how to form Spanish verbs? There are without doubt a lot more regular verbs in Spanish than there are irregular ones so learning the formation rules that apply to regular verbs is probably a good start. Some of the most very common verbs in Spanish are irregular however, so sooner or later you will have to study these too!

The Spanish textbook I was using started to introduce verb formations right from the very beginning but didn’t include any detailed explanations about them until perhaps half way through the book. I was putting sentences together using different verb formations without really knowing why. Of course a sentence without a verb is not much of a sentence so being subjected to them right away was unavoidable.

To begin with it is probably a good idea to start making sentences with verbs by concentrating on remembering what the verb in it’s infinitive form means rather than trying to learn how it is formed in different tenses.

Infinitive verb examples – (to live = vivir / to eat = comer / to talk = hablar)

You are still learning, simply by remembering what lots of different verbs means. Later on at a point, which best suites, you, you can begin to look at different verb tenses and formations. For me, the Spanish textbook I was using didn’t explain in sufficient logical detail how verbs were formed. I was keen to understand this quite early on in my studies. My textbook approached the subject on a piecemeal basis, which seemed a little too disjointed for me. I would have preferred to learn about verbs as a separate topic rather than having them introduced them bit by bit!

Whichever way you decide to learn about verbs, one thing you will almost certainly want in your possession is a verb conjugation (formation) book. This is a book that will tell you how every conceivable verb in the Spanish language should be formed in all tenses. (Some books are more in depth than others!)

Verb conjugation books and more about what my basic level Spanish text book taught me is what I intend to continue talking about in my next article.

Part 5 – Learning Spanish – Using Text Books to Their Full Potential

In my last article I talked about two different approaches to learning Spanish; ‘parrot fashion’ or by studying Spanish grammar. In this article I want to talk a little about what I learnt from a basic level Spanish text book in 6 weeks before I embarked on a long trip to Central and South America.

Having hindsight is a wonderful thing! It isn’t until now, after spending a number of years really getting to grips with the Spanish language that I can appreciate how learning Spanish might be best achieved. Certainly being aware of your limitations, what you hope to achieve and when you hope to achieve it and being mentally prepared for the ups and downs of the entire experience are certainly worth considering before you get started.

I said before that a good way to get started is to start learning new Spanish words and phrases without worrying too much about Spanish grammar. Well this is true but if you’re serious about learning Spanish then you will eventually have to start studying Spanish grammar.

The text book I used in order to obtain a basic level understanding of Spanish grammar was called ‘Pasos’. I am not necessarily advocating this book over any other as I have seen several other text books that adopt similar approaches to the same teachings. The book didn’t just dive into talking about Spanish grammar right from the beginning either. It eased me into it after a couple of chapters or so. The first couple of chapters taught me some basic greetings and how to introduce myself without getting too technical!

I was learning new words and phrases without necessarily understanding why certain words or sentences were constructed in the way that they were. One of the biggest problems I encountered at the beginning was trying to absorb and remember all the new material I was learning. One reason for this was because I didn’t have the luxury of time and I was trying to take a lot of things in over a short period of time.

An important part of the learning process is finding a way that best allows you to absorb information without becoming board or loosing concentration. The text book I was using gave me time to reflect on each area of study by engaging me in different activities. The activities included multiple choice quizzes, and various word association exercises. A student is far more likely to remain enthused about studying if they can learn via a variety of different types of exercises and quizzes.

Of course quizzes and exercises are not used in the learning process just to keep the student enthused. They are also used to test whether a student has remembered what they have been taught or whether they have correctly understood, and assimilated what the intension of the lesson was. In one respect they give the student the chance to see if they have remembered new Spanish words or phrases for example.

In later chapters in my Spanish text book the exercises and quizzes were more focused on making sure that I could apply the things I was learning to different situations. Often this would involve seeing if I could formulate sentences using correct verb formations. The formation of Spanish verbs is something that I intend to write more about in my next article.

Another very important method of learning that my text book allowed me to engage in was through listening. The book was accompanied by several CD’s. Each CD contained different listening exercises that related to each area of study. These exercises not only made the entire learning experience more varied and therefore more enjoyable but were also vital in making sure I was exposed to the language in a way that was as natural as it could be.

It is important to remember that if you are serious about learning Spanish then you not only want to be able to speak it but you want to be able to speak it so that native Spanish speaking people will understand you. This means you have to work on your pronunciation right from the very beginning. You don’t want to practice saying things in Spanish over and over again if you are pronouncing badly. This will only instil bad habits that will become more difficult to shake of later on.

It is also important to remember that you want to be able to read and understand the Spanish language, not just be able to speak it. This is another reason how attempting a variety of different exercise will benefit you. Don’t just focus on being able to speak well. You will be surprised to find out how difficult it can be to write in Spanish if all you have done is learn how to communicate verbally.

When I first started working through my first Spanish text book I have to admit that I skipped things and I didn’t attempt all the different exercise that were provided. As I said before this was in part due to time constraints, but looking back I can now see how important they all were. If you choose to start your learning experience by working through a Spanish text book like I did or even if you are using this method as part of a bigger strategy my advice would be not to rush things and to make sure you make the most of everything the book is trying to offer you.

In my next article I intend to talk about the sections of my Spanish text book that were more focused on Spanish grammar, in particular on how different verb tense are formed.

Part 4 - Learning “Parrot Fashion” or Learning Spanish grammar?

In my last article I started to write about some of the first steps I took when I decided to learn the Spanish language. In this article I want to talk about two different approaches to learning a new language that you may want to think about before you dive head long into a text book or start trying to memorise hundreds of Spanish words.

The way that people best absorb and retain information differs from person to person but generally speaking our brains work better if the information we are trying to absorb is presented to us in a way that is informative and interesting. If the human brain attempts to learn by being continuously presented with factual information it will very quickly suffer from Neural System Fatigue; that is, our ability to remain interested in what we are trying to learn will quickly be lost.

New information is best absorbed by the human brain if it triggers our human emotions. Learning facts anecdotally is one method of achieving this. The key is to provide the brain with stimuli. It is far more likely that the brain will absorb new Spanish words for example if those words can be related to something else or if they forms part of a small list of other similar words. Trying to learn hundreds of unconnected words at once is likely to be less effective. I will talk more about learning vocabulary in later articles.

So what stimulus works best? How does the human brain react to different types of stimuli? Well, this of course is what differs from person to person. We are all different. Something that interests me might be the most boring thing in the world to somebody else!

Often you will see teachers and text books trying to teach Spanish by following two different general approaches. The first approach is what I like to call, teaching “parrot fashion”. This involves the student processing and remembering new Spanish words and phrases and then simply repeating them our loud. Certain words and phrases can be associated with different topics. The student can simply learn a particular word and remember that that word is only used in particular situations without necessarily understanding why.

The second approach to learning is more methodical. It requires the student to learn a new word or phrase and then to understand why that word or phrase is being used in the way that it is. What we are really saying here is that the grammar of a language is important. We can learn Spanish by trying to understand some fundamental points about the structure of the language.

So which method works best? The truth is that you are unlikely to be able to learn Spanish effectively without having some understanding of Spanish grammar. In reality it will probably take you far longer to learn Spanish if you simply rely on trying to remember when certain words and phrases are used in speech.

A good example of how useful learning Spanish grammar can be is when trying to learn different verb tenses. The way verbs are formed in Spanish is very different to the way they are formed in English. I will talk more about this in later articles. The great thing is that if we learn certain rules about how one particular verb should be formed in one particular tense in Spanish then quite often we can apply this rule to hundreds of other verbs too.

By learning Spanish grammar we can form words and sentences without necessarily having to learn hundreds of words individually. Following grammatical guidelines and applying rules will ultimately allow us to learn new words more quickly.

The problem is that learning Spanish grammar for many is quite boring! It essentially requires that the human brain absorbs technical and factual information. Without varied stimuli learning Spanish grammar might take a very long time.

To avoid losing concentration and becoming board it is probably best to mix both approaches to learning Spanish. This is especially true at the early stages of the learning process. By learning Spanish words and phrases “parrot fashion” at least the student feels immediate satisfaction by being able to communicate. Learning the basics using this method is probably best. It doesn’t take much for anyone to learn how to say hello and introduce themselves!

I mentioned in my last article that when first learning Spanish you shouldn’t get too bogged down with how different words and phrases are formed. The point is that you want to feel enthused about learning. However, if you are serious about learning Spanish then at some point you will need to learn Spanish grammar. Don’t rush it and make sure you provide your brain with the stimuli that it needs. In the next article I intend to talk more about different types of stimuli and how I managed to keep myself enthused when I first started to learn Spanish.