If you think that learning to speak Spanish is beyond you, then it might be worth removing that obstacle before you do anything else!
For us adults, learning to speak Spanish – or any other language – involves scraping the rust of some of the cogs that we like to call our ‘brain’ and believing that the task is doable.
If we hold beliefs that we can’t do things, then that is a learned pattern of thought. The good news is that we can physically alter the pathways in our brains so we don’t shut out the new learning that speaking Spanish is going to involve.
After all, if we found ourselves in a Spanish-speaking country with virtually no English speakers around, we would learn Spanish – so the mechanism for learning it is in our head. Let’s get that block well and truly out of the way!
In fact a period of three months or more living in Spain or Latin America is the best way of learning Spanish. But for many of us – including those of us who have a local Spanish-speaking community we’d like to embrace, or a career reason for learning the language quickly – we have to use other methods.
So which methods will deliver the quickest results? Well, top of the list would be an audio course that can have you learning to speak Spanish in the car, by your laptop, in your home AND out of your mp3 player. Your life has many facets, and your language-learning course needs to accommodate them.
Once you’ve formed the habit of switching on your Spanish exercises instead of music or negative news stories, then you’re well on your way. This habit will propel you towards learning Spanish quicker than you ever believed possible.
They do say that successful people and unsuccessful people share the same attitude to habits; they are both very reluctant to change them. (We’re not talking about the same habits obviously!)
The big enemy of learning to speak Spanish is going to be boredom and losing motivation. If you are taking classes with a mixed ability, you are likely to become bored or left behind unless you top up with an online audio course. It’s what you do BETWEEN lessons that counts – same as with learning a musical instrument.
If your Spanish course is just grammar and vocabulary – although both are crucial – then you may just want to play music in your car or on your iPod instead. Two weeks later you’ve forgotten you were ever trying to learn Spanish in the first place.
The best sort of online course involves lots of interactive exercises and even word games that increase your learning far better than a dry, colourless course that will turn you off. Learning to speak Spanish should be an enjoyable journey as well as a wonderful destination, so make sure you pick the best ‘transport’!
Alun Maxwell is a trainer and corporate roleplayer who helps international company executives get a better understanding of how their words and behaviours impact on others, whether it be in English or their mother tongue. He has worked in Spain, Italy and Germany to this end as well as all countries within the British Isles. Here is a great resource for anyone who is pressed for time but is very serious about learning to speak spanish.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alun_Maxwell
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