I 'Graduated'. Now what?
So after three months I have finally finished all of SpanishDict's Spanish lesson (¡Muchas Gracias, Paralee!). But what do I do now? Throughout the learning proccess I have watched many other videos in Spanish and also kept many notes from lessons, went over them, repeated out loud, used the dictionary frequently and so on. And yet, coming up with a sentence takes a huge amount of time and effort, not to mention the end result still has many errors. On a 'what kind of a learner are you' test that i've found I got the 'virtual' type. That, and I also have troubles making out meaning from context. I know a few people from Argentina with whom I would die to practice my Spanish, but I still have too many thinking-pauses in between each word. That is if I even know the words, and so for that I guess i'm not ready yet. I was thinking on concentrating on vocabulary now, learning independently, and also finishing all the grammer practice quizes. So basically, I am here asking for your recommendations as for what methods to furthermore use, be it out of your experience, or just some ideas. Learning Spanish is very important for me! Thanks very much!
5 Answers
I think that most it is easiest to read Spanish, medium difficulty to understand spoken Spanish, and most difficult to speak Spanish. So your pauses are normal, and to be expected. Here are things I find helpful:
- Flashcards - to increase your vocabulary. The best kind are the ones that have a picture on the front and the word on the back.
- Read Aesop's fables from http://edyd.com/ and make flashcards of the words you do not know. Then read and listen to them on http://librivox.org/ (click 'LibriVox Catalog' then search for 'Fabulas de Esopo'. Finally, listen without reading until you can understand the fable. I like studying this way because it progresses from easiest to most difficult, the fables have tons of useful vocabulary, and they are short so I don't feel overwhelmed.
- Get the news weekly from "News in Slow Spanish". Listen to the podcasts for free, or pay a bit of money and get the written transcripts as well. As with the fables, read first, make flashcards and learn the vocab, then read/listen, then listen without the "crutch" of written text.
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When your vocabulary and listening have improved...
- Watch movies with the Spanish soundtrack enabled. Some will be hard, some will be impossible 
- Read Spanish books on a Kindle with a Spanish dictionary installed. When you come across a word you don't know, touch it and the Kindle will show you the definition.
- Watch telenovelas online
- Listen to Spanish radio online
As far as spoken Spanish goes:
- Make a 30 minute "date" with your Argentinian friends, and set a topic for each session. Talk about the stuff Paralee talks about. One day, talk about your hobbies. Another day talk about your family. Take turns asking questions and responding. 30 minutes will be an eternity at first.
- As you go about your day, describe (to yourself, in your head) what you are doing, what you are seeing. Have pretend conversations with yourself in your head. Talk to your pets out loud in Spanish. Your dog doesn't care if you speak English or Spanish, doesn't care if you stumble, and you get practice thinking on-the-fly and forming Spanish sound combinations.
- Start training yourself to think in Spanish, instead of translating in your head back and forth between Spanish and English.
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Here's one way I do this. Let's say I'm in the garden picking peppers. I imagine a friend is standing beside me, while a small group of two or three other people is a bit farther away. I think of myself, and what I'm doing, and I say "Cojo pimientos hoy." I say it out loud, because I'm in the garden by myself and I need the practice forming the sounds and hearing my voice speaking Spanish. The more familiar it becomes, the easier it gets. Then I imagine my nearby friend, and I say to them "Cojes pimientos conmigo." Then I imagine the small group and pick out one of them and I say "Coge pimientos." Then I imagine the entire group and think "Cogen pimientos todo el día." Then I think of all of us in the garden, and I say "Cogemos pimientos juntos."
Then I might say "Ayer, cojí pimientos sola." and I go through all the preterite tenses, picturing the people and the action as I say each sentence. Then I might do imperfect: "Cuando cogía pimientos, hacía sol." Then the future and conditional. Sometimes I ask myself questions and answer them "Cojes pimientos hoy? Sí, estoy cogiendo pimientos." The important thing is to picture in your mind's eye the people doing the action and the time frame in which the action is taking place.
You would be amazed how much Spanish you can practice in ten or twenty minutes of talking out loud to nobody. The repetition is extremely helpful. Do this while washing dishes, folding clothes, vacuuming the rug, washing the car, driving to the gym....
Practice, practice, and more practice. I know it can be frustrating in the beginning stages, but you've got to stay persistent. Things will get better and feel more natural, and your vocabulary will increase in time.
Is your struggle only with speaking or also with writing? I would advise you to get a workbook of some type where you can practice your sentence formations. I have one called "The Ultimate Spanish Review" and I've found it helpful in some ways. Also, you can try alternating between answering the questions aloud and writing them (so, answer verbally then write it, and vice versa).
If you don't wish to buy a book, you can practice speaking aloud throughout your day; basically, narrating your life, lol. It's good practice. You can also keep a journal/diary in Spanish so you can practice your writing/sentence skills. My mind is going a mile a minute right now (totally scattered) so, I'll just list some more ideas:
- Read books/blogs/how-to's that are in Spanish (aloud and/or in your head).
- Practice translating books/etc in Spanish to English (I would start off with simple kiddie books).
- Write (or tell!) your own short stories in Spanish
- Talk about your day (solo) or you're plans for the day, tomorrow, next week, etc.
- Try to practice with a Spanish speaker when you can and learn from your mistakes.
HTH some
Hello Carmel
From your profile I can see that you have very few points.
This would indicate that you lack a lot of vocabulary.
I suggest you do some flashcards.
Hey Carmel I am from Argentina. Let me give you a couple of ideas !)We speak a very, very peculiar Spanish, if you live in USA better practice some "Mexican Spanish" because is what you are going to need the most. 2) A few months is nothing to learn a language, it took you 6 or 7 years learn some English, and always is a new word, dont worry and take your time! 3)If you have the time, go and volunteer in some place that need translators from Spanish to English, that is what my daughters did and if you get stuck with some difficult words you can do exactly what my daughters did, call me !
Hola carmel1, this is just a suggestion, but you might try going to La Taberna de don José once a day and write something interesting that we can all read. That way, you are practicing your writing and we will be practicing our reading skills. Cheers!
