Guide to speaking Spanish like a native speaker

I’m sure you have at some point Googled “how to learn Spanish“, “tips to learn Spanish” or “Guide to speaking Spanish“. The result of your search will have been an endless list of recommendations that you don’t know how to order.

That’s when you give up and close all the windows you have open in your browser and say to yourself: “I haven’t cleared up my doubts, I’m not convinced by the advice or the contradictory information”.

Well, in this guide I am going to explain to you what I DO and DON’T recommend to speak Spanish like a native speaker.

Recommendations to start learning to speak Spanish

To get you started with this guide to speaking Spanish, here’s what I DO recommend:

• Read books, magazines, articles or newspapers in Spanish. I know that this is difficult and that sometimes we don’t have enough vocabulary or grammatical skills to read certain topics. It is normal and you just have to be patient. It’s good that you don’t just read things at your level, read something at a higher level than you have and make an effort to understand what the text you are reading says. For this I recommend that you find a comfortable place, take a pencil to make notes and write down everything you don’t understand. After that, do a search of everything you have written down, you will see how your level increases!

• Watch films or series in Spanish. In the previous tip you will greatly improve your reading comprehension and learn new words. If you also watch films, series or listen to podcasts in Spanish, your level of oral comprehension will increase a lot. Previously, I have a post in which I recommended you to the best films and series to learn Spanish.

Get in touch with native speakers. If possible, make a friend who speaks Spanish. If you are not in an environment that allows this, sign up for Spanish classes or conversation classes. Depending on your objective, start learning Spanish in a structured and guided way with a native Spanish teacher who specialises in the Spanish language.

Mistakes you shouldn’t make if you want to learn to speak Spanish

On the other hand, in the guide to speaking Spanish I explain what I do NOT recommend you to do:

• Don’t translate. When we are learning a new language, we tend to translate everything literally. We want and want our mother tongue to resemble the target language so that it is easier to learn. Depending on the language, we may be able to establish some similarity, but we have to learn the meaning of that language. The key is to learn how the language you are learning works. Remember that for this to happen, your teacher does NOT have to speak a language other than, in this case, Spanish.

• Don’t Google: “learn Spanish for free”. It is true that nowadays there are many free resources for learning languages. This is good because they can reinforce or complement our learning. However, I recommend that you sign up for Spanish classes to achieve meaningful learning. When you learn Spanish with a teacher who is a specialist in the language, I assure you that your level will increase much faster.

• Don’t sign up for general courses. When I say “general” I mean that many schools offer courses that are already created and always follow the same structure and the same syllabus. Every student is different and it is necessary that the teacher adapts to you, your needs and your particular objectives. In this way, you can have a tailor-made course and learn Spanish in a way that is more focused on your interests.

In addition, if your objective is to prepare for the DELE exam, our school has a specialised teacher trained at the Cervantes Institute who will guide you and prepare you in all the tasks to successfully take the DELE exam. She will also provide you with the information you need to register for the DELE exam in 2022.

If you follow these simple recommendations from the Guide to speaking Spanish, you are on the right track. If you need to know more and need a personalised plan, contact me.

We will have a 30 minute free trial class where we will talk about you, what you want and how you want to achieve it.

Let’s start learning this exciting language!