I’m Juan Diego Balam from Spanishacks.com and today we are going to talk about the 5 hacks to start speaking Spanish if you are a very beginner learner. Did you know you can have a conversation even if you don’t know a word in Spanish yet? Keep watching to the end of the video and you can receive a gift to use in your first conversation in Spanish. Vamos!  If you are the kind of person who had learned Spanish in school, but you are not able to speak the language yet in a real situation, then you need to know these 5 hacks which will make you become more confident in your Spanish speaking. Just picture yourself having a real conversation to a native speaker tomorrow. Literally, tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be better than all the progress you have made in a language school until now? But Juan, I’m just starting to learn Spanish, I don’t know how to pronounce the words and -of course- I don’t know how to start a conversation in this language. Actually, if you don’t know Spanish at all and want to start you are on the best stage of the language learning because you don’t have any pollution from grammar or the “perfection” they teach us at school we should get if we want to have a conversation in Spanish. You don’t need that shit. So, forget about that. Let’s start with the hacks to approach the language to gain motivation and make your first conversation at the very beginning of your Spanish learning. - The first hack is: Be sure you don’t have any limit belief about language learning.
I’ll go quickly with this. If you are the kind of person who think whether “kids are better than adults at language learning”, “I’m too old to learn Spanish”, “It’s too expensive to learn a language” or “Spanish grammar is so difficult”. Solve this first in your mind. Nothing of this is 100% true and we say it as an excuse for our lack of confidence using the language in the real world. Stop being the person who makes excuses and start being the person who takes action to achieve his goals. You can learn any language if you decide to do it and most importantly if you approach Spanish correctly -not by starting from grammar-. I made a video about the advantages we have as adults to learn Spanish, you can check it out to beat those limit beliefs. - The second hacks is: Look for a language partner to practice your Spanish.
- This is crucial because you need another person to use the language, right? I mean, you can keep watching movies or videos in Spanish and your listening skills will progress surely, but you need to speak if you want to achieve fluency and have conversations in this language.
- There are many websites to find a language partner. I recommend you to try italki.com. This is the best site to get serious language partners, in my opinion. I’ve found more than 26 good language partners along the 5 years I’ve been learning new languages.
- Here is how you get one after signing up:
- Just write a very good message, show interest to the person and get your first language partner. Please, don’t do what a lot of people do to get a tandem, they write a sample message and then they send it massively to anyone.
- That doesn’t work at all and it only bothers people when they realize you didn’t even take the time to read their profiles or make a personalized message. That’s why more than 50% of the people on these websites never get a convenient tandem. Or a tandem at all.
- If you are not yet sure how to write a good message on italki or any language exchange site, send me a message whether on Facebook or Instagram and I can answer the most important questions you all have. Oh, btw, I’ll let you the link to italki.com on the description of the video.
- The hack number 3 is: Use a guideline for your first conversations.
- If you are a beginner Spanish learner this is the most important hack for you.
- Use a guideline to speak in your first conversation. This guideline must contain different phrases and questions you to start and keep the conversation. Still, I need to tell you. Probably you are going to feel frustrated if the conversation lasts only a few minutes, because you are not fluent in this language yet. That’s totally normal, don’t get disappointed.
- I had a first conversation in Russian -without knowing more than the alphabet- and I could speak for 15 minutes using the guideline I prepared. That was my first try and then I could make a 60 minutes conversation -speaking like Tarzan of course- in my fifth try.
- This is better -a little bit more frustrating maybe- but better than any exercise you make in a language school or in regular language lessons.
- Spoiler alert: I’ll give you a Conversational Guideline for you to use in your first conversation in Spanish. All details at the end of the video.
- The hacks number 4 is: Use a translator to extend the conversation as longer as possible.
- All right. So, you have to keep your Conversational Guideline opened during the conversation with your language partner. This is important to trigger the conversation. But you need to extend it as longer as possible and add more phrases and questions to your guideline to use next time.
- For this purpose, you need to use Google translator or the one who suits you the best. To be honest, there is no such a perfect translator, so it really doesn’t matter which one you use. You only need to be aware of 2 facts: don’t ever translate a full paragraph and translate just words or simple phrases. This way you will avoid most of the mistakes a translator normally makes. Keep it simple.
- So, anytime your language partner replies, ask her to write that down on the chat so you can translate it, understand her and get use to listening Spanish from a native. Add those replies later to your Conversational Guideline and will have more material to use in your next conversation.
- The hacks number 5 is: Set a clear objective for your Spanish learning.
- The reason number 1 why people quit easily in their Spanish learning is because they don’t have a clear objective why they want to speak the language.
- If you don’t want to lose the motivation, then you need to sit for a moment and think about why you are actually learning this language. Write that down and make it your phone wallpaper or print it and paste it on your wall. It will take you, like 10-15 minutes but it will make a huge difference if you read it everyday and remember why you are doing this.
- If you want me to make a video about how to boost your motivation for learning Spanish just let me know on the comments down below.
These are the 5 hacks to speak Spanish confidently if you are a beginner or if you are afraid to use the language in a real situation. Now, if you want to get your Conversational Guideline to use in your first conversation just click on the link on the description of this video, write your email and I’ll send it to you in just 30 seconds. Go for it and if you had any questions you can always write me. Are you going to try to speak to a native or will you stay seated without doing anything about it? If you do it, let me know how your experience was on the comments down below. Tell me what you think, and I’ll see you next week with another hack. Don’t forget to subscribe and turn that little bell if you want to know when I uploaded a new video. Nos vemos!  |