Improving Spanish
How should I increase my Spanish vocabulary and fluency? Should I read more books?
4 Answers
Mardle's answer regarding writing words down is great for visual learners.
I am a totally auditory learner. What I do (as Mardle suggests) is to create
little sentences with each new word that I use, only I do it by speaking it,
that way I hear it also, and it gets recorded in my brain. A written list that I
do carry until I have the words mastered is just to remind me of which ones
I have to learn.
I know it works, because after only five or six years of learning, I had English down pretty well, and now most people I meet and deal with never guess that I learned English as a second language. I increased my English skills by having a dual Major --English/Spanish.
It is difficult to answer not knowing your level, first language and where you are based. When you first start you need a few joining words like and /but [Spanish has two for but] lots of nouns and a few adverbs and adjectives and of course verbs - estar/ser/hacer/ ir/decir are some of the obvious ones. Some people name/label everything in their home. As you progress you want some phrases and fillers. Go beyond nice/pretty/slow fast etc. However, you need to find a way of making them stick and at first even if you look something up if it is a word you won't use even at the next level make no effort to learn it. I think reading is good - articles from a newspaper are good as you may already know the story in your own language. I like reading blogs - here is one I enjoy based in London: guirilandia I also like picking language up from twitter - you do not have to be a member. Pick a Spanish speaking author or actor you like and google him or her. If you are interested in Spain the Police twitter feed is good and sometimes funny policia
I could give more tips but as I do not know your level I may end up suggesting something too difficult for you at the moment or too easy.
You do need to repeat the words either by using in sentences, writing it down or checking a list regularly until the word is in your brain
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Fluency comes in two flavor (to make it easy), there is written fluency and spoken fluency.
Reading and listening facilitate comprehension but does nothing as far as fluency goes.
OK?
