How to Learn Conversational Spanish Fast

Need to learn conversational Spanish really fast? Here is a fast and effective way to go about it...

If you really need to (and want to) learn Conversational Spanish fast, you can.  Here's how.

First: Budget yourself about $200-$250 and a goodly chunk of time for the project.  Then proceed as follows:

For fastest learning, you first have to quickly build a "core" or foundation of basic spoken Spanish from which you can expand.  You need to get beyond "buenos días" to simple sentences and correct pronunciation. You need to make a solid first start and do it right so you don't have to back up and re-learn something later. 

Get 2-3 interactive audio Spanish courses.  You can download these from the Internet and start with them now.  First get a solid complete one like Rocket Spanish or maybe Learning Spanish Like Crazy and take the first few lessons. Pay particular attention to the pronunciation.  Practice pronunciation until you get it right.

Either of those learning courses will cost you about $100 for the downloadable version.

Also get the eBook, "How to Learn Any Language" ($30) and read it.  You always progress fastest when you spend 10-20% of your time studying how you learn and studying the process as well as the subject.  Also the book will give you more details, understanding and ideas than we have space to go into here.

From that foundation, expand out.

Second: Get two or three of the fast-learning courses like Spanish Language Speed Learning Course, Learn How to Speak Spanish, Synergy Spanish, Surefire Spanish, etc.  Go through the first 3 lessons or so of each.

The initial idea is to go over the basics 2-3 times from different perspectives, and immerse yourself in basic listening, sentence structure and pronunciation. Do not translate to and from English in your head. Try to go directly from the idea in mind to the way you express it in Spanish. Cut yourself loose from your English and soak in the Spanish.  You want to learn to listen, speak and think in Spanish.

Learning a language is much more than just an intellectual endeavor. Like driving a car or swimming, you need a little theory and a lot of practice. Focus on adapting to the requirements of the new environment and getting your responses automatic, without having to consciously think about them.

The new language is different. Don't fight it, don't look at it from the English-speaking point of view. Don't question it or compare it; accept it as it is and go with it.  Immerse yourself in it until it buoys you up.

Third: Once you have the basics down pat and have a vocabulary of 2-4,000+ words, you then have two options, depending on your situation and resources.  With either option you are going to need to get involved in real conversations with native Spanish speakers at the same time you continue studying.

1. You can take the time to go all the way through the learning program's course material one time and then jump into conversations.

2. Or you can start conversations as soon as you have the basics.

Either will work but early involvement in real conversations is preferrable. 

Ideally you could find a romantic friend of the opposite sex to help you.  If that is not practical, go find a native Spanish speaker with whom you can practice. Foreign students at universities can be really useful here. Hire one as a one-on-one tutor.

You can also find Spanish chat-rooms on the Internet.  Get a subscription to Skype (Internet telephone company) that will let you have telephone conversations for free with almost any part of the world. At the chat rooms let it be known that you are learning Spanish and want to converse with someone.  Ask for volunteers.  There will almost always be some.

Also, rent movies on DVD that have both English and Spanish soundtracks and subtitles. This will help you in listening and understanding.

When you can understand 80-90+ per cent of what is being said in the Spanish sound track in the movie, you will be ready to visit a Spanish-speaking country or area and go to the next stage; immersing yourself in a Spanish-speaking environment for hours or days at a time.

Depending on how hard you work at it (and on how hard or easy languages are for you) you should have basic conversational Spanish in a couple of weeks, be at intermediate level in a month or two and be more or less fluent within 90 days. 

Jorge Chavez Learned Spanish after he was 30, now is bilingual, with clients, friends and family who only speak English, and others who only speak Spanish. http://rocket-spanish.ya23.com