Time to Learn Some Spanish

If you stay in Spain for any length of time, either permanently or as a frequent visitor, it is only polite to be able to speak to the locals in their own language.

It is very easy to make excuses about being too old to learn (rubbish), or that the Spanish speak too fast (it's a foreign language and they always sounds fast in the beginning), or some other reason to try to opt out of what you would probably consider to be an obligation for visitors to your own country: to learn the language of your country.

All nonsense, for you are perfectly capable of learning at least some basic Spanish and once you have that, you can continue to more adventurous conversations.

The thing is, you are not going to learn Spanish by reading a teach-yourself book or by going to evening classes. That's not how you learned your own language, so why do you think it would be a good way to learn Spanish? Okay, if you don't live here permanently, you might use these approaches to get some sort of start under your belt, though don't expect much more than that, for such methods will also require that you have a knowledge of grammar (you do know what the subjunctive voice is, don't you?).

No, the best way to learn any foreign language is to learn it in the same way you learned your own language: use it! Take every opportunity you have to stumble out a few words and to listen carefully to the native speakers. Don't worry about making mistakes: you make plenty of them in your own language (everyone does), so why worry about them when you are learning another language?

And don't just take my word for it. Here are some thought from an Irish polyglot. And a lot of sense he makes, too!

If you're still not utterly convinced that you can go out into the big wide world and actually speak Spanish with Spaniards, there's a great free course available that will give you an excellent start. No, it doesn't worry you with any grammar or tests or any other scholastic nonsense. Instead, it encourages you to make active use of the language right from the beginning, so that you get used to hearing others speaking Spanish, both native speakers and English speakers. You also yourself speaking Spanish and this is important, because in the beginning it's strange to hear yourself speaking something other than your own language. Thus you pick up the language in a natural way. The course is called Say Something In Spanish and if you give it a go I'm sure you will be surprised at how much Spanish you pick up in just the first lesson.

(And if you're really in for a challenge, there's a similar course called Say Something In Welsh).

David Neale