If you are a native English speaker, there is a good chance that English is the only language that you speak with any fluency. It is fair to say that it is the cause of a lot of frustration for a lot of individuals. Especially in Europe, it seems that just about everybody speaks English easily (and about another ten languages too), especially if they’re young. The idea to teach yourself Spanish or any other language can seem intimidating.
When an English speaker decides that he or she wants to learn another language, the choice seems endless. Therefore most people try to find an incentive to pick a particular one. Without such an incentive, it can be very difficult to persevere after the initial enthusiasm has worn off. Such an incentive could be having friends who speak a particular language, a fascination with music from a certain country, or the possibility of living in, working in, or travelling extensively around a country in the future. Alternatively, you might just play by numbers and think that the safest bet is to pick one of the top five spoken languages in the world. For example, you might learn Chinese Mandarin which is up and coming and extensively spoken, instead of Dutch which is spoken mainly by people who are also fluent in English!
One of the most popular languages to teach oneself nowadays appears to be Spanish, especially amongst the backpacker community. There are many reasons for this. For example, Latin America is an extremely popular destination these days and on the most part it is not an area where the percentage of English speakers is high. In fact it can be relatively difficult to get around without at least a small knowledge of Spanish. Another factor is that it as an extensively spoken language. In fact the USA has the second largest number of Spanish speakers in the world because of its large ethnically Hispanic population. So if you are living in California or Southern Florida for example, knowledge of Spanish may be very desirable. The main thing, as you can see, is that people who learn Spanish usually feel that they are going to be in a situation where they can use it in a practical and tangible way. This is a massive motivation in helping perseverance.
If you want to teach yourself Spanish, there are lots of ways that you can get started. For example, if you are travelling in Latin America there are a plethora of Spanish schools in countries such as Guatemala, Ecuador and Peru amongst others. In such situations it is normal to spend any time from a week to months in such places, effectively learning during an extended trip or vacation. The great thing here is that you get to immerse yourself directly into the language with locals who probably don’t speak English. You may simply want to try out your language skills during a trip.
Should you not have the time, inclination or money to learn Spanish in another country, traditional methods can also be helpful. There are masses of teach yourself Spanish books in all bookstores, often with DVDs or CDs that can be used to help with pronunciation and listening skills.
The internet is also a wonderful resource for learning a language. Many of the resources traditionally found in a book, can now be found for free online. For example, there are online translators and dictionaries at the click of your mouse. Another great online idea is to tune into a radio station from a Spanish speaking country. For example, you can go to the website for Radio Nacional de Espana, Radio Nacional de Colombia or Radio Continental of Argentina, click on the ‘listen live; (escucha en vivo) link and listen to native Spanish speakers talking about everyday things. This is also a great way for picking up the different accents spoken in different countries. You will soon notice that an Argentine accent is very different to that of a Spaniard from Madrid! You will also notice that if you pick one of the national networks (such as Radio Nacional de Espana), that the speech is much clearer than more colloquial stations. Be warned though, that even after spending a lot of time learning Spanish from a book and DVD, it can be very difficult to pick up more than context when listening to radio. Don’t let this put you off. Stick at it and it will become more natural over time.
So overall, we can see that the option to teach oneself Spanish is very popular when choosing to learn a new language. If you are going to a Spanish speaking country, I recommend that you learn some basics before you go there, improve it for a couple of weeks in a school whilst there, immerse yourself completely with locals whilst carrying a dictionary, then when you return home, keep listening to the radio online so that you are even better when you are undoubtedly in a Spanish speaking country the next time!
