There's nothing like a year (or more) abroad to improve proficiency in a language and to make the leap into breaking into fluency. There are things I miss about classroom and lecture days, like being in a learning environment that's more about learning and less about class management (which is what it's largely been since October teaching English in a school), and being able to learn Spanish in a progressive and linear fashion rather than through the odd word clandestinely snatched from a conversation in a classroom (I'm not even allowed to tell them I've been learning Spanish since I was their age or to speak a word of it within earshot of them.) But I'll admit I was a lazy student in school and at Uni; I was interested in Spanish and enjoyed learning it, but if there was something I didn't understand, I just ignored it - something that needed to be learned by heart, I just didn't bother. No wonder then that progress was slow and that by last September I didn't have nearly as much to show for several years of Spanish as I should've done. Only since living here and being involved in a community of Spanish speakers who don't understand English have I begun to make a real effort, and here I want to show some tips about how to make good progress in a language while living in the country, and beyond.
1. Vocab tests. There's nothing more annoying than recognising a word and having to look it up for the umpteenth time. I've accumulated a very long list of new vocab from words overheard, words read in books and newspapers, things heard from films and videos. The ideal is to learn 10 words a day but in my vocab book there are 24 lines per page so I divide it in half for 12 words a day. I repeat these words again and again until they're memorised (10 times is a good standard), and at the end of the week have a weekly test of all the words from that week, and in this way it actually sticks. It's an even better idea to make a sentence from each word so that it can be remembered in a particular context, which also helps to revise verbs and tenses.
2. Reading books in Spanish. Kid's books are great and are generally much cheaper than these 'comprehension stories for Spanish learners' books. I began with Monsters University in a short, illustrated volume designed for children who are beginning to read independently, which meant it was simple enough to read fluently but still had plenty of words I didn't know. Now I'm working through a book about medicinal plants, something I know a fair amount about already, so I can pick up vocab about something I have a genuine interest in. Then I'll work though the Diary of Anne Frank and The Hobbit, books I've already read in English. It's a good idea to read about something you know about or have read before or you're likely to get lost and it won't be fun.
3. Videos and films. Netflix has plenty of Spanish language films (quality iffy, granted, but then a lot of Spanish language films are.) However my favourites are El Orfanato, Mar Adentro, El Labyrinto del Fauno. I'd much rather watch a Spanish film than an English one dubbed into Spanish - they just look daft and fake, and watching Spanish films you pick up on idioms and cultural differences you otherwise wouldn't. Youtube has hundreds of documentaries and films in Spanish and I particularly enjoy National Geographic series in Spanish.
4. Make Spanish friends. The particular community I've latched onto don't really speak English and in any case I'm expected to speak Spanish. The Spanish Reclaiming group leader is German and speaks perfect Spanish, but slowly and clearly enough for me to understand most of what she says. When I'm with her I feel like if she can do it, so can I. I have conflicting thoughts about immersion:
Cons: A common mistake to make about moving to a country of your target language is thinking you can just let the language wash over you and you'll just soak it up like a sponge and it'll just sink into your brain by process of osmosis. That's how small children pick up other languages so easily, right? Well, no, they're working very hard to remember these words, and are also in a stage of life where rapid learning of large chunks of information is a normal part of daily life (we oldies are a bit out of practice.) The result is being bombarded with a lot of Spanish that you just don't understand, which is incredibly daunting. I've been laughed at, I've had people roll their eyes at me for asking them to repeat whatever it was they just machine gun fired at me, and on still not understanding, I just have to smile and nod and hope it wasn't a question, or else hope the ground opens up and swallows me. Expect people to be impatient that you're difficult to communicate with, that you don't seem to have much to say, and to completely forget how exhausting it is trying to keep up with what's being said for hours on end. That's the price to pay m'fraid!
Pros: But there are advantages to immersion once you have a good enough grasp of the language.You can pick up on words you recognise but wouldn't have been able to translate from English (but beware of false friends.) You can get a firm sense of how a sentence structure should sound and you can tell instantly when it's wrong, something you can't really learn from a book. It improves listening and speaking skills better than anything else and helps to make genuine connections with others.
5. Learning songs/ poems/ short texts. This is a good way to improve speaking skills and can be done at home on your own. Learning songs helps with your accent, widens vocab and is fun at the same time. I could for example learn a poem I love or a paragraph from a book that really speaks to me, and repeat it again and again until I can recite it from memory. The advantages are work on intonation and accent, and being able to speak fluently without tying your brain (or your tongue) in knots trying to get the words out, and speaking with confidence.
6. Study buddies or exchange partners. A few weeks ago a friend of a friend sent me a frantic email saying that he was going to the UK on his own in April to collaborate in putting together a workshop and needed me to teach him English in 4 months. It's doable if he works hard and the priority for him will be on being able to understand what's being said to him and on being able to make himself understood. We meet every Friday and I teach him practical things that he'll need to know and help him with grammar, pronunciation and appropriate vocab. He had a basic understanding already of English and he's working hard and learning quickly. I don't charge him because I need Spanish speaking practice and am learning how to explain English grammar in Spanish. Also because we have plenty in common we can have genuine conversations about what we love and about what's going on in our community rather than forced, abitrary exchanges about nothing that interests us. We really want to understand each other!
I have to be at a level of near fluency by September as a requirement of my course and if I don't hop to it I'll feel like I've been wasting my time here in Madrid. Put in place incentives for yourself like Spanish speaking friends with mutual interests, reading and watching things about topics that genuinely interest you, doing things that you'll enjoy and will actually make you want to learn are the way to go. Feel free to add any more suggestions in the comments below. :)
Happy learning!
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