Tag Archive for: learn spanish

What you need to work on to move up a level (A1 to A2)

¡Hola, alumnos fabulosos!

 

This week I’m going to start a series of mini-blogs. In these blogs, you’ll find out what you need to work on to move up a level.

 

In each one, I’ll tell you 3 things you need to do to achieve that. Today, we’ll look at how to move up from A1 to A2.

 

1 – To be in A2, you need to avoid using English at least 90% of the time.

How do you achieve this? There are a few ways:

a) Learn more vocabulary (by reading, writing, taking notes in class, etc.)

b) Become a master of description (“What do you call that thing that you use when,” etc.), and

c) Keep your sentences short and to the point. Do not attempt to tell complicated stories in level A1/A2.

 

2 – You should be able to have a short interaction with your teacher. You will know you are ready when the teacher asks you 2 or 3 things in Spanish to follow up on whatever you said, and you understand him/her, and can answer in Spanish without checking your notes. Basically, in level A2 you should be able to start having basic back and forth interactions without having to write it all out first.

How do you achieve this? Make sure that you’re participating in class, and not giving up when you’re not sure how to say something. Use the words you know, work around the ones you don’t, and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

 

3 – Another thing you need to work on to move up a level is your present tense conjugations, and have the past tenses on your radar.

How do you achieve this?  You can do this organically by paying attention when your verb tenses are corrected in class, or you can do it by studying it (This is a good resource: Present Tense (Spanish Dict)

One more thing: the fastest way to move from level A1 to level A2 is simply to do your daily homework, that should take 10-15 minutes a day. If you do this every single day, you will move up a level in no time.

 

I hope this advice helps you in your first steps of the Spanish journey! A2 students, be ready for next week. I’ll be sharing with you how to move up to level A3 :).

 

Que pasen un buen fin de semana,

 

Carolina & Octavi

5 reasons why you should read in Spanish

¡Bienvenidos a todos!

I hope you’ve had a good week so far :).

Today, we are going to look at 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish; why you should be reading books, articles, poetry, and whatever crosses your way, in Spanish.

1 – You will learn a lot of vocabulary, because many English and Spanish words are very similar. Many expressions are very similar too. This means that you’ll be able to guess their meaning without having to use a dictionary.

2 – You’ll become familiar with verb tenses and conjugations. This doesn’t mean you will be conjugating correctly when you speak. Despite that, when you see verbs conjugated over and over, you develop an intuition that tells you when a tense or conjugation is right or wrong. As I said, this will not enable you to speak without mistakes, but it will help.

3 – At some point, you realize you can’t expect to understand everything that is being said in Spanish. The same applies to reading in Spanish. You will learn that you can’t and shouldn’t look up every single word you don’t understand. That is certainly time consuming, frustrating and not effective.

Furthermore, you will gradually become used to ignoring words that don’t seem important in order to understand a text. You will guess the meaning of others by the context, and you will look for the meaning of only some words that are crucial to understanding the gist of what you read. This is an excellent skill to develop!

4 – Another of the 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish is that there’s so much you can read, and in so many registers. Reading is not limited to books. You can read articles, the newspaper, texts you find on the Internet, etc.

Languages have many registers, or ways in which they are used. To be competent in a language, you can’t limit yourself to one or two registers. You have to be familiar with formal and informal speeches. The register used for the news is not the same as the one used for literature. Reading all kinds of texts will allow you to learn all the different ways Spanish is used in all of its registers.

5 – When you read a lot, you have more knowledge of the world. It becomes an excellent source of conversation topics, in any language.

If you start reading more in Spanish, you’ll be able to bring more topics to the conversation in class, or to participate in conversations taking place in or out of class. Besides, since you will have been reading in Spanish, you will already know the vocabulary pertinent to the topics you share with your classmates.

If you think reading in Spanish is a little overwhelming, don’t worry! Start from the bottom: books for children. I’m not joking!

If you are a beginner to Spanish, your level is probably that of a 2 year old. Thus, you need to read what a 2 year old would read. As you progress and learn more, you will be able to switch to fairy tales and such, and later to novels for adolescents.

Take your time and make sure you find something that fits your level. You will know it is your level when you understand 70 or 75% of what you read, but it still represents a bit of a challenge :)

There you go! 5 reasons why you should read in Spanish!

Have a great weekend!

Octavi

“La conversación del día” on Facebook

¡Hola a todo el mundo!

Did you know that every single day of the year Pura Buena Onda has an interactive question of the day? La conversación del día on Facebook is a fantastic way to practice your Spanish. Let’s look at five reasons why you may want to dedicate 5 minutes a day to this:

 

1 – Usually, students read and talk a lot in Spanish. Writing is another important skill, but we rarely practice it. With our question of the day, you can practice your Spanish writing skills.

FYI. There are 4 skills when it comes to learning a language: reading, speaking, writing and listening. Writing and speaking are what I call “active skills”. Those skills demand more from us. We need to use our brain and put sentences together. That’s why it’s good to write and speak in order to learn Spanish.

 

2 – You can do it every day or whenever you like. It’s not like a 60 or 90 minute class. You choose the time you want to spend with it. You can also choose the length of your text, or what you want to write.

 

3 – Writing is an active skill, but unlike speaking, you have more time; time to think how you put sentences together. You can look for words in the dictionary. You decide if you want an elaborated sentence or a simple one. It’s still an active skill, but not as demanding as speaking.

 

4 – A teacher will correct one or two mistakes on the following day. This will enable you to find mistakes that you often make. You’ll learn what you might need to work on in order to improve. Just make sure you answer la conversación del día on Facebook on the day it’s posted, if you want to be corrected.

 

5 – It’s a good way to make sure you’re practicing your Spanish even on the busiest day. You don’t need much time and you can do it on your phone. It’s easy and convenient, so you can turn it into a consistent habit.

 

Now that you know what you know, I hope that you will try to answer la conversación del día on our Facebook page. Let us know what you think about it :)

 

Have a good week and see you next time!

 

Octavi

Should you NOT be studying to improve your Spanish?

Hola de nuevo, chicos y chicas:

How are you doing today? Have you been studying Spanish? Good for you!  Or should you NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish???

If you are a beginner or lower intermediate student, yes, keep studying! But maybe you need to stop if you are an intermediate student trying to reach an advanced level, or an advanced student trying to become fluent. Why do I say this? Let’s find out in today’s blog.

The language learning journey begins…

When we start learning a language, we use many resources. We usually have books, we use apps like Duolingo, we listen to podcasts like Coffee Break Spanish, and we watch Youtube videos for language learners.

All those things are very useful. However, once you get to an upper intermediate/advanced level, it will not help you to advance.

Think about it: most of those resources and tools are aimed at beginners and intermediate students. If you are not a beginner or a low level intermediate student anymore, it’s not suited for you. At that point, you need to do something else. Otherwise, you end up being stuck in the same level for YEARS, potentially forever.

What do you have to do once you get to an upper intermediate level?

Should you NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish???  Well, you kind of have to forget about studying Spanish. Yes, that’s right! When you get to that point, you shouldn’t learn Spanish in the traditional way. What you need to do is to incorporate the language into your life.

Incorporating Spanish in your life doesn’t mean more studying. What you need to do is to start living your life in Spanish. How do you do that?

Instead of reading books on HOW to learn Spanish, you read books IN Spanish. Don’t to Podcasts that TEACH Spanish, listen to podcasts for Spanish speakers. Instead of watching Youtube videos about grammar, follow youtubers that do their videos in Spanish for a Spanish speaking audience.

So basically you have to ditch the student mentality and make Spanish a part of your everyday life. Read the news in Spanish, watch TV in Spanish, Listen to Spanish-language radio stations…live your life in Spanish everyday like a native speaker would. You should NOT be studying in order to improve your Spanish!

Have a good week and see you soon!

Octavi