Top 5 Spanish Study TipsBy Megan McGuire/All Seasons Lessons, Inc. www.allseasonslessons.com 

1. Don’t get frustrated! Easier said then done, right? Well, I know all about getting frustrated while trying to learn Spanish. I come from a family where only English was spoken-so I know! There is no “set-pace” for learning Spanish. You need to learn at the pace that works best for you. That’s where taking community college/university classes can become difficult. They tend to move at a fast pace. If you can keep up with that pace-great! If you can’t, you may want to pursue other opportunities. There are tons of great online and private resources available. Check out my website: http://www.allseasonslessons.com. I have companies listed on my “Resources” page and also on my blog: http://www.blog.allseasonslessons.com. 

2. Don’t watch Spanish TV if you are a beginner! They speak extremely fast and are using an enormous  variety of grammar and vocabulary. It’s only going to lead to frustration and aggravation. Who needs it?! 

3. Study Study Study!!! Yes, you have to do it. No, you do not have to spend hours on end. Chunk your study sessions into short periods of time. If you have note cards with vocabulary to memorize, I recommend studying them during television commercials. Who wants to work all day and then come home and study all night? Not me! Keep your cards with you while you are watching TV and only study them during the commercials. Memorization is best achieved when you study for short, frequent periods of time. Please refer to my blog for other study tips: http://www.blog.allseasonslessons.com 

4. Only study what you need/want to learn, specifically if you are in business and are only interested in learning specifics related to your field. For example, a real estate agent doesn’t need to learn all about shopping at a grocery store if they are only interested in communicating with their Spanish speaking clients. There are many companies that offer career specific Spanish lessons. My company offers a complete Spanish for Real Estate program: http://www.allseasonslessons.com/products.html. 

5. Watch career specific Spanish television. What?! You just said not to watch Spanish television! Okay, let me explain: using real estate agents as an example, you can occasionally find cable access channels that will run local real estate shows advertising homes for sale in the area. They have the same type of shows in Spanish. It’s a great, safe way to utilize and recognize vocabulary you’ve learned. Once you have completed a career Spanish program, I would then recommend delving in and watching these programs on TV. The objective is to utilize your time and not waste it on something you don’t understand or will only frustrate you. The majority of the words being spoken will be ones you are familiar with and learned in your program. Plain old Spanish TV programs are not going to give you the same exposure or result. Another example: if you’ve completed a career specific automobile sales Spanish program, watch one of the dealership’s cable access programs. They run them in both English and Spanish. It’s a great opportunity to revisit vocabulary and phrases you’ve learned. Plus, it gives you the opportunity to listen to someone else, besides your instructor, and decipher what they are saying. Instructors enunciate and speak slower on purpose. Unfortunately, not all native speakers you will work with do that. 

Good Luck-Buena Suerte 

Publisher: Megan McGuire All Seasons Lessons, Inc.
Phone: 480-330-9551Megan@alllseasonslessons.com

Copyright, 2007 - www.allseasonslessons.com- All Rights Reserved 

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Here’s a little power point presentation…its good practice! It allows you to control the speed so you can look up the words you don’t know. Plus there are a lot of cognates (words that look/mean the same in English and Spanish). My recommendation: Go through it once and see what you can figure out from the content clues (pictures and graphics). Second time through jot down/look up the words you don’t know. Don’t fret if you don’t understand what it is saying-that is how we learn-by practicing!!!!

Great study tip!!! For those of you that are studying grammar, you know that Spanish nouns have “gender”. There are masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Why not use blue note cards for the masculine nouns and pink for the feminine nouns?

I know-who has time?! Who wants to do it?! Review your vocabulary cards every day for a few minutes and you’ll see how much more you retain and how much quicker you learn.

While studying, split your cards into two piles “vocab I know” and “vocab I don’t know”. Why spend any more time studying when you don’t have to? Only focus on what you DON’T know. This will significantly cut down on how much studying/reviewing you have to do. Once you’ve conquered all of the vocabulary, go over them again to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.

Studying…yuck! Who wants to do it? Who has time? I’d prefer to watch tv Actually, that’s just it-watch tv and study too! When studying, its best to break your studying into “chunks” (short periods of time).  A perfect way to do that is when a commercial comes on, pull out your materials and study for the 3 or so minutes until your program comes back on. The objective is to study for brief amounts of time-and not all at once. Watching tv and then taking a break to study during commericals is a perfect way to accomplish this.

Happy Studying (and tv watching)!