Spanish is an incredibly important language, especially if you are an English speaker. While English is the most spoken language worldwide (including native and secondary speakers), Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world with roughly 548 million speakers worldwide. It is spoken in most Latin America, Spain and over 57 milion people in the US! For these reasons, I think it is very important to learn Spanish as a second language. Combining english and spanish, you can communicate with 25% of the global population!

We deliberately planned to travel around South America so that we could learn Spanish. After spending about 6 months in Latin America, I have greatly improved my Spanish. I went from knowing the basics to being able to speak about more complex subjects in Spanish. I’ve also grown more confident in speaking and listening to Spanish. I can’t say that I am fully fluent yet, but I have come a long way and can communicate in a language other than English. Below I’ll break down how I have improved my Spanish, as well as some other tips that I have.

I’d say the most important thing is to balance things out, not focusing on just one of the below.

• Grammar is certainly important, and even just learning the two (or three or more, depending on how you count it) past tenses already shows that your level of Spanish is pretty good. The important thing is to understand the structure of the language, but you should remember that you can’t think of the “grammar rules” too strictly. Only focusing on grammar can lead to clunky sentences and a not a wide range of vocabulary. You don’t need to know all of the tenses to get around in a place. I think it’s good to

• Vocabulary widens what you can talk about. Also, it might be difficult to memorize all the different words for different things, but over time, with practice, you will slowly memorize them. It’s important to try to practice your vocabulary frequently, as it helps enforce the words. You can even forget simple things like “fork” in Spanish (“tenedor”) if you don’t practice it enough. 

• Listening helps you learn new words, different accents, and the general flow of how a Spanish speaker talks. Like this, you can hear different tenses and words being used. If you can’t understand people speaking, this renders all your learning in grammar and vocabulary useless. Below are some recommendations to improve your listening;

• Currently, I am listening to the Percy Jackson series in Spanish (in Spanish, the first book is called El Ladrón del Rayo).

• There are several podcasts including ‘Hoy Hablamos’ and ‘Español con Juan’. They do require a bit more than a basic Spanish level but are geared to people learning Spanish, but a much more fluid than Duolingo listening. And even if you only get 65% of what is said, you are practicing and training your ear to spanish.

• Movies either originally in Spanish or dubbed in Spanish (Make sure to put on subtitles!). A popular series originally in Spanish is La Casa de Papel. (Although this is fairly advanced)

• Remember, even if you don’t get 100% of the words, 50% can give you some of the gist of what is being said, and from there you can try to figure out some of the other words.

• Speaking is probably one of the most important aspects. If you learn all the other things but don’t practice what you learned, you develop what is known as “passive language” which means you may understand well, but you can’t speak fluently. Speaking in a conversation helps practice all the aspects of the language, from grammar to vocabulary to listening to others. Spanish, compared to English, is also incredibly easy to speak. Spanish is spoken exactly how it is written, and in some cases, letters have a different sound than in English but always follow that sound. For example, the double L, LL, is always pronounced as a Y or a J depending on the country (in Argentina, it is pronounced as a SH!)

Apps like Duolingo are really good, and I have learned a lot from this app, but they put a lot of emphasis on vocabulary and grammar while speaking is limited and the listening exercises aren’t superfluid or “natural.” For vocab and Grammar, I highly recommend Duolingo. For speaking and listening, I suggest taking Spanish classes in person when you can. By now, I have spent about 75 hours in Spanish classes in various parts of Latin America! 

Here are some of the classes that I have done around South America;

• Casa Xalteva in Granada, Nicaragua. This is a lovely school with super-friendly teachers. They can help from any level of Spanish. For most of the time, they are an after-school learning for local kids. You can help volunteer with the kids, teaching them English, practicing your Spanish, and interacting with the local kids. This feels very local.

• Vamos Spanish Academia, Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is the most “professional” school I’ve been to, and I found that they focus a lot on the grammar and how to form it. They have a lot of students and a lot of different levels.

• Mundo Antiguo in Cusco, Perú. I found this to be a good combination of the two previous schools. It was professional, but also more laid back. They organize several events outside of school, like football night, salsa dancing, and more.

• I recommend joining Facebook groups for expats when you are in a country/city for a bit of time. You will find a lot of recommendations for Spanish schools in the area. Most cities, especially large ones, will have a lot of different Spanish Schools. All of the ones that I have been to have been super friendly, interesting, and I learned a lot!

Keep in mind, that you can’t learn Spanish overnight. It's a long process, but finding the way that works best for you is very important. Another important thing is to keep with it, consistency is key. 

Good Luck Learning!