Teach yourself Spanish: Can you Learn Spanish at Home Successfully?

 Millions of people worldwide are eager to teach yourself Spanish for a variety of reasons.

What do people usually do when they want to start with Spanish?

They subscribe to a Spanish class. This is a traditional decision and it’s considered normal and logical. For most people it’s the only reasonable way to study and learn a language.

Why do people go to Spanish classes?

They like spending a couple of hours in a classroom of a language school, they like to be guided by a teacher, they like to be among classmates – thus they both can talk in Spanish and feel kind of safer as well.

But is that the way you can learn Spanish fast and easy?

The answer is NO.

A single level of a Spanish class usually takes about 2 months…and after this time, you are often persuaded to take up the next level, since you’re not happy with your skills.

You join a Spanish class. You might have your lessons in the evenings, when you are usually tired from your day at work. Or you might have Spanish classes at weekends, when you actually need a rest.

One thing is sure – you dedicate a couple of hours every time you go to your Spanish class but you often cannot work effectively in class and are not able to put all your willingness and passion in the learning process.

Your teacher might use outdated and ineffective methods. Your classmates might be either not motivated as you, or have poorer skills than you. So, you are going to get bored and frustrated to see you’re wasting your time with people who have lower abilities.

The similar situation could happen if your classmates are better than you in Spanish – you fall behind them and you feel again frustrated and disappointed.

Ok, let’s talk about conversational Spanish. You’ll be lucky if you chance on a native Spanish teacher for your classes. Actually listening to the teacher in class seems to be the only benefit.

You cannot develop your listening skills by listening to your classmates since they are in the same situation as you (I guess none of them is a native Spanish speaker anyway!). You don’t have even real opportunity to talk in class, since among a group of people you’ll hear your own voice just a couple of times per a 40 minutes period!

You see how much negative energy could be accumulated if there are too many external factors you depend on. Instead of directing your energy to learning and improvement, you spill it to face things you could definitely avoid.

I don’t think I’d exaggerate if I say that subscribing to a Spanish class can kill all your enthusiasm, willingness, ambition and passion of a person who wants to learn Spanish as fast and easy as possible.

You like this beautiful language and you perfectly know what you need it for – you are aware of how Spanish would match both your needs and your personality.

By teaching yourself Spanish however you gain the following:

• You have your freedom to choose when you start your regular learning session and how long it will take. You study in the most convenient time for you, and you study for shorter periods, putting in however much more capacity and attention.
  

• You choose your learning method according to your needs and learning style. What is more, you know how to tell apart a good learning program from a bad one.

• You can listen and talk as much as you want. As long as you are an ambitious person and as long as your self-learning tool allows you that, you can develop your listening and speaking skills much faster than in a Spanish language class.

• You don’t depend on other people.

• You can track your progress, you can pay special attention to all difficult moments, so that you can correct them in the most effective and agreeable way.

• A good self-learning program is normally always cheaper than traditional learning Spanish in class.
  
• Studying Spanish on your own is much more effective than studying in a class – in a shorter time you progress more, for a less amount of money.

• Last but not least – after your beginner’s Spanish self-study course is over, it’ll be much easier for you to make the next step and move on to what comes next – the real self-study phase comprising the rest of your life.

You’ll have developed certain self-study habits – learning new words and phrases, successfully applying them in practice, taking the benefit out of every opportunity for learning and practicing and ability to track your progress.

It’s much more difficult to switch to a self-study mode after your Spanish class is over – you cannot get used to the lack of teachers and classmates and to the fact that it’s no point keeping a low profile and expecting someone else do your work for you.

Along with the benefits, there are enough challenges for every Spanish self-learner to cope with:

• You’ve got to be a proactive person - you’ve got to take responsibility for your success, be ready to take the risk to learn without a teacher, search actively every opportunity to expand and practice your Spanish.

• You’ve got to be motivated – you are in clear what you need Spanish for, you want to learn it as fast and easy as possible, but you are also ready to dedicate to your end goal some time everyday. You are not afraid of hard work because you know it’s worth and good results will come soon.

• You’ve got to choose the right self-learning program for you, so you need to do some research.

• To benefit from your freedom however, you’ve got to study regularly – every day if possible, to be able to see the results as soon as possible.

• You should listen a lot and speak as much as possible, without being afraid of looking foolish or making too many mistakes. The more time you spend tinkering at Spanish – that is the more involved you are in it – the more you’ll learn. Your success will drive you forward.

The good news is that the above mentioned features are not innate, they do not constitute any talents or special abilities.

You can acquire them easily and in a natural way as long as you have set some clear targets to you – you want to learn Spanish, you need to learn Spanish, you like Spanish and you want to achieve a certain knowledge level in a given period of time.