Learning a language, like any skill or physical activity, requires a lot of effort and dedication. And although the road can be long, it is also worth the effort. In this post we want to give you some tips to improve your oral production more effectively but you will still have to work hard and constantly.
1. Practice more often
Although it sounds obvious, it must be recognized that many people think about how to learn faster and not how to practice more often. The problem is that we can’t commit to a set amount of time to improve our vocabulary or grammar. It is very easy to take a day or week off and then get frustrated because we are not making progress. Remember that the problem is not your lack of ability to learn but your lack of commitment to sit down and do the hard work.
2. Learn conversational vocabulary
Incredibly, Spanish has approximately 100,000 words but the vast majority are rarely used while a small group of 1000 words can form up to 80% of the Spanish spoken on a daily basis. In other words, with only 1% of the vocabulary you already have a comfortable basis for communicating. Therefore, if you focus on learning the most used words you can greatly accelerate your Spanish speaking process and with less effort.
3. Learn conversational grammar
Like vocabulary, it is not entirely necessary to learn all the grammar of Spanish in order to have conversations in the language. The subjunctive mood, for example, is the most difficult for many to understand since other languages do not have an equivalent to compare it to. Although it is very useful for communicating certain things, it is not as widely used as other tenses and it is possible to have conversations and be understood using other tenses without the need to use the subjunctive. Again, don’t waste time trying to memorize endings that you won’t always use and focus on what is most used in everyday speech.
4. Work on your listening skills
Improving listening comprehension requires a little more effort and time, we can’t take a shortcut but we can practice active listening. This refers to listening carefully and several times in a row to a discussion where you can answer questions related to the topic of the discussion. The best option is to have conversations with another person but if you don’t feel ready for that yet, you can listen to podcasts and pay attention to the discussion.
5. Ask questions and make mistakes
As in all languages, people build relationships and communicate when we ask questions, seek common ground, give advice, maintain eye contact and exchange our impressions on a variety of topics. It may seem difficult to do this in a new language but once you get used to making mistakes and trusting your abilities you will see a change in your attitude and confidence when speaking with others. Remember that we first learn to crawl, then to walk and a long time later to run. And all of this is achieved through practice, trial and error.
We hope that with these tips you can see progress in your Spanish skills. It is important that you start to be more conscious about the actions you do every day and that you compromise to practice your Spanish in a constant way and with quality content.
You don’t need to waste time on vocabulary and grammar that you won’t use regularly. Focus on the things that will really help you have a level of vocabulary that you feel comfortable with. Remember that to have conversations with other people and consolidate your skills you don’t need much and that learning comes with repetition and consistency.
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