Guess how I learnt Spanish!

Hola, me llamo Carlos y soy español

Yes I am a native speaker of Spanish, I must confess! And maybe you're thinking 'well, then your experience in learning your mother tongue is not relevant to me, because I want to learn or I'm learning Spanish as a foreign language, a second language, not a mother tongue.'

However, I'm convinced that the more we try to learn a foreign language in a natural way, as if we were native speakers, the easier and quicker it will be for us to build our competence in that language.

The question is 'how do we reproduce the conditions, the environment in which a native speaker learns to speak?' Fortunately, the answer to this question is much easier today than it used to be only a few years ago, before the boom of the Internet. Yes, because the Internet can help you learn Spanish almost as if you were exposed to the language in a real, native environment. With today's technologies, you can immerse yourself easily in a Spanish scenario as often as you like.

Let me show you some tips on how to learn Spanish like a native speaker taking advantage of all these tools that the web provides today. After watching the video, have a look at the description below, where I'll share with you lots of links to very useful resources which will help you learn my language just as I learnt it when I was a baby.

Tip #1: Be ready to make mistakes

Yes, let's be frank, nobody learns a language without making mistakes. All babies make mistakes when they start speaking, and keep making them until they are corrected by someone or until they find a correct model to follow.

Mistakes are a normal consequence of any learning process and language learning is no exception. Mistakes are good, because we also learn from them. I still remember myself as a child mispronouncing words or using the wrong word in a particular context. But eventually we all end up learning from our own mistakes. On the other hand, many mistakes don't interfere with communication; on many occasions, we understand others even though they make some mistakes. So, just don't worry to make mistakes.

Tip #2: Listen listen, listen

The first and most important thing I did as a child to learn Spanish was, obviously, listen to Spanish speakers. The Internet provides many opportunities to do this, even if you're far away from any Spanish-speaking community:

• Listen to songs in Spanish and learn to sing your favourite ones. Music is fun and it is a good source for phonetic drilling, vocabulary, etc.
• Watch videos (from You Tube, etc). Alternate videos with adapted language level and videos with authentic situations where Spanish is used. Watch the news on Spanish-speaking TV channels.
• Listen to podcasts in Spanish. Some of them have self-evaluations exercises to check your understanding.

Tip #3: Interact with native speakers

Listening is good, but it is to some extent a passive activity and learning a language requires action. You need to find opportunities to start using

• Engage in real chats/conversations on the web (via Skype or Google Hangouts on air, for example). Find language exchange groups.
• Search the main social media for groups of Spanish learners like you and share with them sites, blogs or other free resources for learning Spanish. Learning in group is more fun than learning alone. Make new friends.

Tip #4: Read, read, read

Despite all the technological advances that the internet has brought, something as simple as reading remains one of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language. 

• Find texts in Spanish that match your interests. Try to combine both authentic and adapted texts. Do your best to understand what you read, but don't depend too much on dictionaries or online translators. 
• Combine reading with listening. Read transcripts of audio material of all kinds (podcasts, songs, films, etc).

Tip #5: Play with grammar

Yes, 'play' is the word, because play is much better than study. There are many internet resources where you can actually play with grammar, presented in a fun way and spiced up with some interesting exercises that will give you immediate feedback. But beware, don't make grammar the centre of your universe our you'll get bored soon. Remember that grammar is a means, not an end. By the time native speakers start studying grammar at school, they are already fluent users of the language. That's why you should also focus on language use, not on language knowledge on the first stages; after all, you want to be a Spanish speaker, not a linguist.

A fun way to learn grammar is by watching You Tube videos -like the ones you'll find on this channel, about particular grammar topics and then doing some practice self-correcting exercises. This will give you immediate feedback on your progress.