Learn Spanish for Beginners

We’d like to be the first to congratulate you on deciding to learn Spanish. You’ve already taken the biggest step, and if you approach learning Spanish in the right way you’ll enjoy a fruitful journey to fluency. You’ll broaden your universe, be able to communicate with 406 million new people across the world, and connect with entirely new cultures. In this guide we give you a primer for everything you need to get started with this beautiful language. Ready?

But, before we start, here are some questions to ask yourself:

What do you want to achieve? How will you use Spanish?

If you don’t know why you want to learn Spanish or how you’re going to use it, you’ll have nothing to aim for and no way of knowing whether you’ve been successful. It’s worthwhile thinking about this before you start studying Spanish, as the answers to these questions will form the basis for your motivation as you learn. And as you’ll see, motivation and perseverance are two of the most important elements for learning a language successfully. Think about why you want to use Spanish, and in which situations you envisage yourself using it.

How much time do you have? When will you devote time to learning Spanish?

Working out how much time you have helps to set realistic goals. If you have an hour to spend a week, then you will not achieve the same results as someone who can work on Spanish for an hour a day. There are good and bad ways to spend time learning Spanish, but having an initial figure in mind and committing to that is an important first step. The more time you can devote, the better, but be realistic now to avoid disappointment if you feel you aren’t making progress further down the line.

Of course, doing something is better than nothing, and it’s better to split your time into small pieces, spread regularly across the week. If you decide you can spare just one hour a week, then far better to do 20 minutes three days a week than 1 hour every Sunday.

Language learning myths

We’ll start soon, but before we get underway it’s a good idea to examine some of the oft-held beliefs about language learning:

“This is the only course you will need”
There is no best course. No one course can teach you everything. Mastery comes through practice and exposure to Spanish – a good course can establish a strong base to start from, but no more.

“You should learn A before B”
There is no set order to learning the language. There is a certain natural order in which you will pick things up, but that does not mean you should learn them in that order. A common criticism of courses is that they are too rigid and structured in their approach.

Learning a language properly requires a holistic viewpoint. Students soon realise this as they forget the supposedly “easy” stuff which they covered at the start of their course. If we compare learning a language to a journey, it is not a straight line; it’s more like a spiral. We seem to go in circles, yet we are making progress.

It’s good to be structured, but the first time you have a conversation you will have to go way, way off-piste. Textbooks can give you the tools, but you will have to learn how to use them.

“You need to be clever to learn a language”
Your mindset is more important than your intellect. You don’t need to be clever, you do need to be determined and motivated. We’ve all learnt at least one language, so every able person has the capacity for language learning built in.

“You can learn Spanish as you did your first language”
You will not learn Spanish in the same way you learnt English, if you are an adult. Many courses promote themselves on the idea of learning as a child does, whereby your brain soaks up the language in the most natural way.