You'd Be Fluent If You Knew This — Transcript

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1. 0:00Today I want to talk about something key to learning Spanish, or any other language,
2. 0:08faster. I'm going to explain something that worked really well for me when
3. 0:15I started learning English, and what I see with my students every day. Keep in mind that I didn't
4. 0:23learn English until I was about 23. I went to many language schools, and
5. 0:33I almost always failed my English exams. I always felt stuck, and I
6. 0:40realize now that my parents tried everything they could to get me to practice and study English.
7. 0:49But back then, I just couldn't. I don't know why the words just wouldn't stick in my head.
8. 0:58I couldn't have a natural conversation with a native English speaker, and as I mentioned before,
9. 1:06I failed almost all of my English exams. Today I'm going to talk about something key
10. 1:13to learning Spanish, or any other language, faster. I'm not going to give you a
11. 1:21magic formula because, honestly, it doesn't exist, but I am going to share something that worked really well for me
12. 1:30when I started learning English at 23. For me, there are four
13. 1:38very important words. These words are listening, context, structure, and native speakers. Let's get down to business.
14. 1:49The first thing you should know is that the first thing you should do when you're practicing a
15. 1:57language from the very beginning is listen. Many people start a language thinking that they have to speak a lot
16. 2:08and practice speaking a lot, and that's normal because they want to speak from day one, they want
17. 2:16to answer quickly, they want to be able to ask questions too, and that's great, but there's a small
18. 2:25problem. Before you speak, you have to be able to understand. Imagine you know how to say phrases
19. 2:34in Spanish, for example, "Hello, my name is Albert, I'm from Spain, I'm 27 years old," and that's perfect.
20. 2:45But then a native speaker is going to ask you something, and they're going to say it much faster than you do. They're not going to
21. 2:54say, "Hello, my name is Albert, I'm 27 years old." They're not going to say it like, "Hello, my name is Albert,
22. 3:02I'm 27 years old." And even though these are typical phrases, if we're talking about a natural conversation, you probably won't
23. 3:11understand the question. And what happens? You're going to freeze up. And this is very common. Many students
24. 3:20know how to speak and can have a conversation for one, two, or three hours, but when they have a
25. 3:27real conversation, they get lost. And the most important thing is that it's not because they don't know Spanish; many times it's because
26. 3:37they haven't trained their ear. That's why my advice, and it's number one, is to start listening to Spanish from
27. 3:47day one. You don't need to listen for an hour every day. Just 5, 10, Fifteen minutes a day is more
28. 3:57than enough. And you don't need to understand 100% of everything. The important thing is to grasp the general idea.
29. 4:07You don't need to watch a movie in Spanish without subtitles. When you watch a movie,
30. 4:16it might be in English, for example, and you're starting to learn Spanish, what you can do is,
31. 4:23every 10 or 15 minutes that you watch it in English or your native language,
32. 4:33start by turning on Spanish subtitles every 5 minutes, and then gradually
33. 4:42increase it to 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes. This is the most typical approach for fans
34. 4:51of series or movies, but there's much more to it than that. There are also videos on YouTube
35. 4:59that you can listen to. There are countless podcasts, interviews, and programs of all kinds.
36. 5:08You don't have to watch boring listening exercises if you don't want to. And this is the most important thing of all: don't
37. 5:16just listen to Spanish teachers speaking. It's great to listen to teachers. Obviously,
38. 5:24they help you speak clearly and express yourself. It will be easier, but you also need to listen to
39. 5:33native speakers. And although it might be difficult at first, this isn't a one- or two-month sprint. Learning
40. 5:41Spanish is a lifelong journey. You have to get into the habit of watching content,
41. 5:49whatever it may be, but in Spanish. And as I mentioned before, it has to be something you enjoy
42. 5:57watching, because if something interests you, you'll stick with it longer. It's not just about listening to
43. 6:06boring audio and repeating the same thing over and over again. You have to start watching content that
44. 6:13native speakers actually watch, and even if you don't understand everything, your brain will start to recognize these
45. 6:22words. At first, you understand a word, then you understand a phrase, then you understand...
46. 6:30The general idea is grasped, and little by little you begin to follow the conversation between the two native speakers better.
47. 6:39And that's what learning is. You don't need to understand everything 100%. You need to get used to the
48. 6:48language. The second point, and for me it's also very important, is context. And this word
49. 6:57is fundamental for me when you learn a language. Context—don't study isolated words.
50. 7:06For example, don't just study "quedar." The verb "quedar" means "to meet," which isn't wrong,
51. 7:15but you need to use it. Make a sentence: When am I actually going to use the verb "quedar"? For example, "
52. 7:25I've arranged to meet a friend." Also, ask a question: "Hey, who are you meeting?"
53. 7:34And then, how would you answer? "I've arranged to meet a friend downtown." That's much better,
54. 7:44right? Word, sentence, question, and answer. Again, word, sentence, question, and answer.
55. 7:55Because in a conversation you don't use isolated words; you use sentences, you use questions,
56. 8:02you use answers. So, when you learn a new word, take a moment and think,
57. 8:11when am I actually going to use this word? In my context, not in Tom's or Pedro's, or
58. 8:21Maria's, no, when am I going to use this? In what kind of conversation? With whom?
59. 8:30Another example: if you learn the expression "me apetece" (I feel like it), don't just write "me apetece." "I feel like" doesn't create
60. 8:41real sentences. "Me apetece tomar un café" (I feel like having a coffee), "me apetece salir hoy" (I feel like going out today). "Me apetece ver una serie en español" (I feel like watching a series
61. 8:51in Spanish), and now also with questions. "Ey, ¿te apetece salir?" (Hey, do you feel like going out?), "Te apetece ver una película" (Do you feel like watching a movie?), and "Qué
62. 9:03te apetece hacer hoy" (What do you feel like doing today?). And this is what really works: studying so you can
63. 9:12speak. And this also applies to grammar. Many people study endless lists of
64. 9:20verb conjugations, the best connectors, the present tense, the present perfect, the imperfect,
65. 9:26the conditional. Ugh! Even I get stressed, and it's normal for a student to feel overwhelmed by all this.
66. 9:35But my advice is, don't try to rush things. If you only know the present tense, practice the
67. 9:43present tense a lot and make it super powerful, super strong. Become an expert in the present tense. Talk about your life.
68. 9:53I live in context, I work in context, I study Spanish because of context. And this is
69. 10:03perfect. And once you have a good grasp of the present tense, we can move on to the past. Yesterday I was in context,
70. 10:14this weekend I saw in context, last year I traveled in context, but always with real sentences.
71. 10:25Don't study grammar just to know the rules and when to use them. Study grammar to
72. 10:34actually use them. The goal, as you and I both know, isn't to know these endless lists,
73. 10:42but to talk to people. Also, something that worked really well for me when I was learning
74. 10:50English is that when I watched programs, series, and movies in English with English subtitles,
75. 10:57I would come across words or expressions that I hadn't seen before, right? And that were at a
76. 11:06very high level that I wasn't able to understand. I would write all these words in my notebook
77. 11:14, and then I would make sentences thinking, "When am I going to use it? When am I really
78. 11:22going to use this word?" But obviously, sometimes it's very frustrating when you watch an
79. 11:29hour-long movie and there are so many words. Relax, don't rush. You can jot down three or four expressions
80. 11:36or words from this movie, series, or program and make sentences you'll use in the future.
81. 11:43Imagine for a moment that in the movie you're watching, a Spaniard says, "Oy, qué fuerte."
82. 11:51And you don't know what it means. Well, now with Google you can find out almost everything, even with IAS
83. 11:57(Intelligent Approaches). With GPT chat, you can look up what it means, what its meaning is, or what similar meanings exist.
84. 12:04But it's super important not to ignore all of this, not to disregard it, but to write it down and then build sentences.
85. 12:13For example, "Qué fuerte," "Qué fuerte lo que pasó ayer," "Qué fuerte esta historia." "Oh, qué fuerte,
86. 12:22no lo sabía." This way you learn structures and phrases that real native speakers use. You can also read,
87. 12:30and I hate to say it, but these days people are losing sight
88. 12:36of the idea that reading is entertaining. They prefer something much faster, like watching a program or
89. 12:44series and then going to bed and falling asleep. And reading, getting engrossed in a book... It's
90. 12:54not as popular anymore. It's a shame to read. It helps a lot, but don't just read for the sake of reading. Read something
91. 13:03at your level. You can read a short article; there are many websites that do that.
92. 13:10There are news articles in English and Spanish, and you can see the translations. You can also read
93. 13:17a short story of 5 or 10 minutes each day. There are also books adapted to different levels available
94. 13:24online. Reading also means reading subtitles in a video, and when you find a useful phrase,
95. 13:32save it. You don't need to memorize an entire text. Look for the phrases you're actually going to use, and that
96. 13:41's the key. I'm also going to give you my A1 level Quizlet so you can start practicing at home.
97. 13:50It's completely free, and you can start memorizing all the words that appear at the A1 level
98. 13:58in context. This isn't an advertisement or anything;
99. 14:06it's simply to show you that this method really works. But remember, an app
100. 14:14can help you memorize—in this case, it's Squizlet—but you're the one who has to use it. It's
101. 14:20an internal exercise that you have to do yourself. You have to make sentences, you have to ask
102. 14:26questions, you have to give answers because you can have Duolingo, you can have Valbel, there are
103. 14:32thousands of apps these days, but you have to be able to build your own words and
104. 14:39your own structures. And the fourth point, which is the point that many people ignore and I don't
105. 14:47understand why, is to have a conversation with yourself, to talk to yourself. It sounds very
106. 14:56strange, but it really works. For example, in the mornings you can say, "Today I'm tired, I'm going
107. 15:04to make coffee, tonight I'm going to watch a series in Spanish." Or you can also plan your day in
108. 15:13Spanish. It doesn't have to be overused phrases, but you're starting to use Spanish and you're
109. 15:21starting to think in Spanish. You can also ask yourself questions, "What am I going to do today?" or "What have I
110. 15:28done today?" And then you can answer, "Well, I'm going to go tennis practice, I'm going to meet my friends for
111. 15:36coffee. I'm going to work seven and a half hours at my job. I'm going to take a break." Or in the past tense, "
112. 15:45Today I worked seven and a half hours." I met up with my friends for coffee and watched a
113. 15:55video in Spanish. Practicing on your own will give you the speed you're really looking for,
114. 16:04because often it's not that you don't know the word, the problem is that sometimes we take
115. 16:11too long to respond or think of it. So, here you need to repeat the question, the answer, and the
116. 16:21entire sentence. And there's also something else to mention: it really helps to have a teacher,
117. 16:30to help you with conjugations, structures, and those secret formulas
118. 16:35we have for learning Spanish, but the teacher can't study for you, can't speak for you.
119. 16:44So, after these lessons with a teacher, you have to do some internal work and you have to
120. 16:52start using the language because the teacher isn't going to be there to speak for you. And these are my
121. 17:01tips for learning to study any language, in this case Spanish, in a way that
122. 17:09really works. I hope you liked this video. Give it a thumbs up if you like this
123. 17:16type of content, if you enjoyed this video, and leave your own opinion and
124. 17:23method in the comments. Also subscribe so you don't miss any other videos, and we'll see you in the next one.