1. Read out loud ALL THE TIME. Reading out loud gives you all of the benefits of reading, plus you’ll get really good pronunciation practice. In fact, as a beginner, you should read aloud as much as possible. You may not feel it right away, but all those hours of reading out loud to yourself will help you speak Spanish more fluently.
2. Find a partner. There are hundreds of communities connecting native speakers with each other! Browse the Internet and try to find a native speaker who can be your conversation partner and language tutor. And you can be the same for them, helping this person learn your native language (and it doesn’t have to be English).
3. Patience is key. When learning a foreign language, do not expect to be making the same steady progress day after day – or week after week. In fact, progress in learning a foreign language rarely follows a straight line. You will experience struggle, setbacks and frustration because of the lack of progress – and that’s absolutely normal. Hitting plateaus is normal, so don’t let this experience discourage you. Just keep learning and never give up.
4. Post-it is your friend. Expanding your Spanish vocabulary is easy: all you need is a dictionary and a pack of post-it or anything to make labels. Simply label all things around your house. For example: la pared (wall), la puerta (door), el escritorio (desk) etc. Don’t remove the labels until you have mastered the vocabulary to perfection, including spelling.
5. Get used to flashcards – again. Haven’t used flashcards for years? It’s time to bring them back! This old school strategy still works. Make cards that are small enough to easily carry with you, and write the English on one side and Spanish on the other. Be sure to ALWAYS have some cards with you. This way, you study anytime, anywhere, be it during your daily commute or while waiting in line at a grocery store.
6. Talk to yourself -no, this isn’t crazy and there is science behind this approach. When learning a foreign language, most people tend to develop their listening skills more rapidly than their speaking skills. This is why so many language learners may be able to understand a foreign language a lot better than actually speak it. To counter this problem, you can speak to yourself in Spanish as much as possible. Since you will be alone with no one else around, you won’t feel shy to try and speak your heart out in Spanish.
7. Consistency matters. If you are serious about learning Spanish, you should be consistent in your efforts and consistently set aside the time you will spend learning. More often than not, it’s not about the amount of time you spend but about consistency. Spending 15-20 minutes learning Spanish every day is better than doing a few hours sporadically.
8. Practice makes perfect. To learn to speak the language, you need to SPEAK. There are no grammar classes to substitute the importance of actually going out there and speaking. Practice with native speakers and other language learners, and you will be amazed how these conversations will improve your progress.
9. Listen… and listen. There is such a thing as an “ear” for Spanish – or any other foreign language for that matter. The more you listen to the language and try to participate in conversations, the easier it gets to understand them. An easy was to develop a “good ear” for Spanish is by listening to Spanish music, watching Spanish movies, or watching Spanish TV.
10. Remember: you won’t be perfect, and that’s okay. Don’t expect to be perfect! Learning takes time, so when learning a new language, expect that you will make mistakes, and don’t be embarrassed by them!

Are you looking for reliable Spanish Learning Materials? Check out our FREE Spanish learning course!

As we talked about learning Spanish through music and songs that are easy to listen, today, we give you another great example.

Love her or hate her, Madonna has certainly left a footprint in music. And, as many of you know, she also sings in Spanish, and trust us, her Spanish pronunciation is good. Especially in this song, a Spanish version of her timeless classic, You’ll See. The future tense is Spanish makes the title Verás:

Do note how clear the words sound, and, as it’s pretty much the translation, we’re sure you’ll get them. And here’s the better known English version of the song – just in case.

Happy Friday! And remember that you can Learn Spanish Free wish Visual Link Spanish! Have a great weekend everyone!

Guess what? It’s time to go back to your Spanish studies. We suggest that you start nice and easy today – with some Spanish music! We’d like to introduce you to a great band to practice your Spanish comprehension skills – La Oreja de Van Gogh. These guys are Latin Grammy winners winning and a Grammy-nominated Spanish pop band from San Sebastian, Spain. The name of the band refers to the famous post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh who cut off the lobe of his own ear (look him up some time, he was a great artist and an interesting person, but that’s absolutely off-topic).

Yet, we didn’t pick this band because of their name. Speaking of Spanish pronunciation, we often hear students complain that Spanish accent is a lot harder to understand – compared to the way Mexican Spanish sounds. Let’s say, it’s not exactly harder, it just sounds a little different.

La Oreja de Van Gogh’s lead singer, Amaia Montero, has a very distinct Spanish pronunciation (do note the ‘s’ sound in this song). Yet, this music is truly an easy listening, and, once you follow the lyrics for a couple of times, the Spanish pronunciation will grow on you. Don’t like this song? Go ahead and browse for your favorite artists and songs – there’s plenty of awesome stuff out there!

For now, we recommend this song. Here’s the video with both versions of the lyrics (Spanish and the English translation) pasted for you below. Enjoy and be sure to share your favorite Spanish music with us!

Ven acercate
Ven y abrazame
Vuelve a sonreír a recordar Paris
a ser me angustia
dejame pasar una tarde mas
dime donde has ido donde esperas en silencio amigo
quiero estar contigo y relgarte mi carino
darte un beso y ver tus ojos
disfrutando con los mios hasta siempre
adios me corazon
ven te quiero hablar
vuelve a caminar
vamos a jugar al juego en el que yo era tu princesa
ven hazlo por mi
vuelve siempre a mi
dime donde has ido
donde esperas en silencio amigo
quiero estar contigo y relgarte mi carino
darte un beso y ver tus ojos
disfrutando con los mios hasta siempre
adios mi corazon
no hay lugar que me haga ovitar
el tiempo que pase andando por las calles junto a hazi
ven quiero saber
porque tu fuiste sin me
siempre tuve algo que contarte
dime donde has ido donde esperas en silencio amigo quiero estar contigo y relgarte mi carino
darte un beso y ver tus ojos
disfrutando con los mios hasta siempre
adios mi corazon
no hay nada que me haga ovitar
el tiempo que ha pasado ya y no volvera
adios mi corazon

***

Come close to me
Come and hug me
Return to smile and remember Paris
To be my anxiety
Let me spend one more afternoon
Tell me where you have gone where you wait in silence my friend
I want to be with you and give you my love
To give you a kiss and see your eyes
Enjoying mine forever
Good bye my love
Come I want you to talk
Return to walk
Come let us play the game in which you were a princess
Come, do it for me
Always return to me
Tell me where you have gone
where you wait in silence my friend
I want to be with you and give you my love
To give you a kiss and see your eyes
Enjoying mine forever
Good bye my love
There is no place where I can forget
the time which we spent walking the streets together
Come, I want to know
why you left without me
Forever I had something to tell you
Tell me where you have gone where you wait in silence my friend
I want to be with you and give you my love
To give you a kiss and see your eyes
Enjoying mine forever
Good bye my love
There is nothing that can make me forget
the time which has passed and won’t come back
Good bye my love

Learn Spanish with us! Explore Visual Link Spanish today

Yo creo en Santa Clos/Papá Noel. | I believe in Santa Claus.
Me porté bien este año. | I behaved well this year (I was a good boy/girl this year.)
Me alegra estar con mi familia. | It makes me happy to be with my family.
He perdonado a mis hermanos. | I have forgiven my brothers and sisters.
Me portaré mejor el año que viene. | I’ll behave better next year.
¿Podrías darlos a mis padres algo bien? | Could you give my parents something nice?

Enjoy the Festive Season Everyone!

P.S. In case you’re not done with your gift shopping yet, let us remind you that giving your loved ones the gift of learning Spanish is a great idea and something they’ll be thankful for years to come.

Yes! There is!

Start with a Quality Self-Study Course

There are a few key things to look for in a self-study Spanish course.

First, the lessons must be enjoyable and easy to use. Learning Spanish is hard enough, so don’t torture yourself by using a boring course with hard to use lessons. Make sure the lessons are interactive, engaging, and user friendly.

Second, make sure the course focuses on the most important phrases and questions in the language. Most likely you will never need to know how to say, “The Frog Prince enjoyed swimming.” But it would be nice to know how to say, “I need to go to the store?” or “How do I get to the post office?” A course that deals directly with useful Spanish phrases will help you utilize your study time and increase your personal Spanish education experience.

Finally, find a course that fits your learning style. If you are a visual learner, use a Spanish course with visual computer lessons. If you learn better from just hearing and listening, look for an audio Spanish course. If you are not sure how you learn best, try out as many free lessons as you can and pay attention to which type helps you learn faster.

A Few Tricks to Help Your Self-Study Spanish Education

Here are a few study tricks to help you no matter what Spanish course or Spanish education curriculum you use:

• Try not to cram all of your Spanish studying into one day. Studying instead for 30 to 45 minutes a day, three to five days a week, will allow you to retain more of what you study and solidify it in your mind.
• If you don’t have access to someone who speaks Spanish with whom you could practice, a great way to practice your listening and comprehension skills is by listening to Spanish radio. Find a Spanish station and just listen for about 15 minutes. As you listen write down any words you recognize and try to guess the topic being discussed. This may be difficult at first, but as your vocabulary increases you will find you can pick up more and more. This exercise also works well with Spanish TV .
• Remember repetition is the key to learning a foreign language. Don’t hesitate to repeat a section a few times. Mastering the words and phrases you are currently studying will increase your ability to learn what you study in the future. So keep at it.

Use these suggestions in your personal study. They will help you teach yourself Spanish and help make your personal Spanish education a success.

Get a free online Spanish lesson

First, you can install Spanish keyboard and switch to it when you have to type in Spanish (you’ll have to install Spanish as additional input language through the Control Panel, which only takes a few minutes). You’ll have to get used that some letters and punctuation marks are positioned differently than on the English one you are used to.

Another option would be using  “Alt” functions will allow you to use accented letters and other Spanish symbols on your keyboard. These shortcuts are particularly helpful when you are just starting to learn Spanish and can’t perform at a fluent level yet.

To get these to work properly, make sure you hold down the “Alt” key the entire time you type in the numbers (that is, if you are not annoyed by having to type 4 numbers to get one little accent). We suggest that you try both options to figure out which one feels right for you Browse this website for best real estate in Thailand.

Spanish Accented Letters and Other Symbols

So, there are Tu and Usted.

Tu is an informal and friendly pronoun, used when talking to a person you call by their first name. The word Usted used in cases of formal speech, or when you do not know a person well. Addressing anyone with a title in their name, you should use Usted.

Here’s our video to help you memorize the use of the Spanish pronouns

And here are some useful expressions and tricks to keep in mind:
• por la mañana – in the morning (no specific time)
• de la mañana: in the morning (specific time)
• por la tarde: in the afternoon (no specific time)
• de la tarde: in the afternoon (specific time)
• por la noche: in the evening or night (no specific time)
• de la noche: in the evening or night (specific time)
• la mañana: morning
• el mañana: tomorrow, future
• mañana por la mañana: tomorrow morning
• pasado mañana: the day after tomorrow
• Thailand - Tailandia
• anoche last night
• la noche anterior, anteanoche: the night before last
• el lunes que viene: next Monday
• la semana que viene: next week
• el año que viene: next year
• el lunes pasado: last Monday
• la semana pasada: last week
• el año pasado: last year
• al mediodía: at noon
• a la medianoche: at midnight
• alrededor de: around
• de día: days
• durante el día: during the day
• a tiempo: on time
• en punto: exactly, on-the-dot
• tarde: late
• temprano: early

No longer will you wonder what you need to do that day. The Visual Link Spanish software is full of fun games that will keep you learning and motivated. We will help you become conversational. We will help you gain confidence to practice with others. Day 1 is set to begin on Wednesday, January 18th. We will post the video each day right here on the blog.

Dave and I are excited to work with you on this new daily program.

We are officially going to start the idea we presented last week of teaching you Spanish with a Guide/Instructor and Personal Trainer.

STARTING DATE: Wednesday January18th! (Be sure and let friends, relatives, barbers, beauticians and dog groomers know about it.)

There will be no cost to follow the lessons that we will lay out for you. You simply watch the daily prerecorded lesson and I will give you tips and show you what lessons in the software you should be learning to keep up (I will be your Guide/Instructor). You will need to have the Visual Link Spanish lessons to follow along with what we teach. You can order them in the online store.

After going through the recommended lessons, you’ll be able to come to our blog and leave your comments about the lesson and Jake (your personal trainer) will give you direction, answer questions and get you pumped up to learn more. So far, it looks like we will have a couple of guest bloggers who have volunteered. We will contact them and get their comments, as they go through the course, that we can put up on the blog.

We have a lot of people excited about this. Please keep in mind that this is a new thing, and we are experimenting with this type of delivery – please be patient with us. We would also love your suggestions along the way of how we can improve things.

Our goal is to help and motivate you to learn Spanish.

¡Hasta luego Amigos!