How to Select the Spanish Learning Method That's Right For You

It's Important to Know How You Learn. There are a lot of different ways for you to learn Spanish, and different ways of learning will work better for different people. You will have better success with some Spanish learning methods than with others. We're all different in how we take in and process and remember new information. Some people say they are visual learners. Anyway, it's worth spending a little time thinking about this and realizing which learning methods will work best for you.

Keep in mind that I don't intend to touch on things like computer programs, audio CDs, or books. These are also learning methods, but for another article...

The method you choose might depend on things like how much time you have to devote, to learning, why you are learning, and how well you need to end up knowing Spanish. Let's look at the methods now:

The Methods

Method 1 -- Learn the most popular 500 words.

This is actually a pretty good place to start. You can easily obtain lists of popular words off the net and also find books on the subject.

Knowing popular Spanish words gives you a good foundation, a good start in your learning. Knowing the 2000 most popular Spanish words will also give you a sense of accomplishment, and motivate you to continue. There's something encouraging about seeing the number of words you know going up and up.

If you find you like this method, there are software tools you can get that will count the number of times a word appears in a text document, and give you an ordered list of most popular words.

Method 2 -- Learn Your Category

Another method of learning Spanish is to focus your studying on words that fall into your category of interest or category of your reason for learning Spanish. Examples of the categories I mean would be things like Medical Spanish, Landscaping Spanish, Construction Spanish, Restaurant Spanish, Vacation Spanish, or Tourism Spanish.

Concentrating on these categories works well for many students of Spanish because they have a very specific reason for needing Spanish. You can even get dedicated books and audio CDs for most of these categories. The advantage here is that you turbo-charge your learning for your specific needs.

Method 3 -- Classic Spanish Education

A third method of learning Spanish is the Classic Education in Spanish. This method is similar to the formal English classes you took in school. You'll learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. Also, things like sentence structure and grammar. This method appeals to a lot of people and is necessary if you want to be a translator or other professional user of Spanish.

Method 4 -- Spanish Immersion

Spanish Immersion is a popular and successful way to learn. Many opportunities exist to travel to Spanish-speaking countries and stay there a length of time doing all communicating in Spanish only. This is great and you'll learn Spanish quickly and very well if you do this. Another form of immersion is to keep your radio and television tuned to the Spanish stations. After a while, you'll begin to hear words and phrases over and over, and you'll know what they mean.

Conclusion

So there are a list of different methods you can use to learn Spanish. You could find yourself using more than one at a time and maybe using all the methods at different times in your learning journey. The main point here is to be aware of how you like to learn, and how you succeed best at learning, and then do it that way. Good luck to you!