How to Learn Spanish? Well, how Did You Learn English?

Why should it be so hard to learn another language, like Spanish? You have already learned one language, shouldn't the second one be easier? Well, it can be, if you approach it correctly...

Usually, when you start to learn Spanish in a traditional school, they give you a few basic words first. And then they quickly get into teaching you grammar, verb conjugation and vocabulary.  But wait a minute!  That's putting form over substance!  How to learn Spanish? or any language for that matter?  Well, you already know one language, else you couldn't be reading this!. How did you learn that?

You learned English by listening to native speakers, imitating what they said and how they said it.  You learned by conversing, trying to express your needs, your ideas, your observations.  You learned how to talk first.  A six-year old can talk pretty well, before he learns to read! 

You should approach learning Spanish the same way.  That is why interactive courses using digital media, such as Rocket Spanish, are so effective and popular.  They start you off with the basics of conversation; Hello, good morning - Hola, Buenos días, and go on from there, adding ideas and how you express these ideas in words. 

You don't need to know the formal rules of grammar to converse, you just need to know how to say what you want to express.  So you say it differently if you are speaking of more than one than you do if you are speaking of one only.  You learned that as a child and did not even know the words "tense", "number" or "gender".  If someone asked you then, "What is grammar?", you might have answered, "The lady who lives with Gran'pa."

You learned to say "a dog" "two dogs" and "lots of dogs".  You learned it not by mastering the rules, but by knowing that's how you say it if you want to be understood.  One dog, two dogs.  In other words, you got the substance first, linking the idea with how you express it.  You learned the "rules" and refined the form later.

When you learned English you started out with simple sentences.  Then gradually you learned more and more complex sentences and later, you got into the rules, the "Why/" of saying it that way to be correct.  But you had learned the language first, then used the rules to organize and improve what you already knew.  That makes sense, because the primary function of language is to communicate.  Basic communication is more important than the rules of form. That's why we learned it first in our first language.  We should learn it again, in the same way, with our second language!

These principles apply when you are learning Spanish.  So Rocket Spanish uses that method.  Go directly to what you want to say, get the pronunciation right, converse, expand on that.  Keep expanding.  Go from idea directly to the expression of that idea.  Don't get hung up on rules.  The formalization comes later.

The traditional methods of trying to first establish the rules, then learn the language within that framework is backwards and awkward.  With traditional methods you focus on getting it right, which works to inhibit the free flow of conversation and ideas, makes you hesitant, thinking about verb conjugations rather than what you are trying to communicate.  That makes learning a language slow, boring and too much like work. 

Rocket Spanish and some other adult education digital media courses use the natural, conversational approach, making it easy and fun.  Also, you get some conversational ability, something you can actually use, fast!  That gives you confidence and enthusiasm to learn more.  That's what makes Rocket Spanish so superior to traditional methods of learning.

The idea is to approach your learning of a second language in the same manner you approached learning your first language.  It's the natural way.  Consequently it is easier to absorb, makes more sense, lets you feel your abilities grow and expand.  This gives you a sense of accomplishment and greatly encourages you to keep on getting better.  That is why Rocket Spanish and the others that use these methods are so effective in helping you learn fast and enjoy it!

Jorge Chavez
http://Language-Center.ya23.com

Jorge Chavez has been an internet entrepreneur and marketer since 2002. He operates six websites, is involved in affiliate marketing, is 58 years old, has credentials in engineering, management, accounting and internet security. He is bilingual English-Spanish and has monolingual friends, relatives and clients who only speak Spanish and others who only speak English.