Where Do I Begin Learning Spanish: 5 Steps To Get You Started

Over the past few weeks, several readers have written in seeking advice on how to get started with their Spanish learning program. The Internet is a rich source of information and there are more answers on it than one would care to read. Problem is, information out there is far too abundant and far too amorphous for one to even begin comprehending. Same is the case with a question like “how do I start learning Spanish?” A thousand sites present a thousand different solutions ranging from wacky and controversial to conventional and predictable. To pick the right advice from the lot is an ordeal and this post attempts to simplify the process.

Everybody’s got their own Spanish learning advice for you
Photo credit: GotCredit licensed CC BY 2.0

“Join a Spanish immersion program.”

“No, just get the best Spanish learning course and stick to it.”

“Just watch a lot of Spanish learning movies and you’ll learn automatically without even trying.”

“No, you can’t learn a language unless you go all out and start using it right away.”

“Just travel to a Spanish speaking country and spend a year there.”

“Memorize the list of 1,000 high frequency words in Spanish and you’ll be good.”

“Make friends with a native speaker.”

The list of suggestions go on and on, only confusing you further the longer it gets. All of these solutions are honest and attempt to help you get closer to your goals, but the question remains: Where do you start? Of course, one can’t try everything at once, nor is every single one of the solutions more effective than the rest. So what do you do as a rookie with absolutely zero background in foreign languages? Let’s try to demystify the process and prepare a concrete starting point for you to further build upon – a bulletproof strategy, if you will.

1. Learn some very basic grammar

Blasphemy! I have always stressed on shelving this boring monster of a task for later in your Spanish learning program; and yet I am putting it up right on top of your opening strategy. What gives? Well, it’s true that extensive grammar study has no place in your language program until you are able to comprehend at least a fair bit of what’s being spoken when you hear it. It’s also true that you didn’t learn your native language reading grammar books or memorizing dictionaries.

That being said, let’s not forget that we are not the babies we were when we started off with English (or whatever language we grew up with). When you start out with a clean slate, it’s nearly impossible for you to comprehend any Spanish you read or hear no matter how many hours you put into it. It just won’t happen! You have to have a very rudimentary concept of how the language works before you even begin. I am not talking an all-out campaign; it’s more like a very basic ammunition of the bare-essentials to help you somewhat understand the constructs. So what’s this bare essential? Here’s what you must attempt to learn right off the bat:

Present indicative conjugations: To us lesser mortals, this is the simple present tense. Don’t bother with any other tense for now. Just this one tense should be good enough to get you started.

Ser vs. estar: This is the heart and soul of Spanish and it’s hard to get much headway even as a beginner without having a good handle on these two wacky ways Spanish speakers translate the verb, to be.
Por vs. para: This duo singlehandedly reigns the Spanish preposition landscape and you must nail them early on. Grammar books would have you believe they translate into for but that’s oversimplification. Depending on the context, these could mean for, to, of, in behalf of, for the sake of, and a whole bunch of other things. See why they are crucial? Here’s a simple trick to nail them instantly.
Pronouns: You just can’t consider putting together your thoughts, however basic, in any language without having to use this part of speech at all. Ace them early on and you will go a long way with your otherwise grammar-free program. By pronouns, I mean both subject as well as object pronouns. Gulp them down as the bitter pills necessary to get started.
Some irregular verbs: These have to be ir, dar, tener, haber, and venir. These verbs conjugate a tad differently than the rest and are hence called irregular. These are not the only irregular verbs Spanish has but these are the only ones you need to mess with at this stage. Just make sure you can conjugate them in the present indicative tense and you’re good. Don’t let them faze you because they’re easier than the word “irregular” makes them look.
Articles and gender: This has to be the easiest aspect of Spanish grammar for you to get done with even as an absolute beginner. The rules are straightforward and exceptions are few. Given how ubiquitous gender expression is in Spanish and also how easy it is to learn, it makes sense to get it over with right in the beginning.

That’s it! That’s literally all the grammar you need at this stage and if my calculations speak for everyone, you should be through with them in no more than 3-5 days. That wasn’t too hard, was it?

2. Start writing some Spanish

Writing still works when it comes to learning Spanish organically
Photo credit: César Rincón licensed CC BY 2.0

Am I insane? How can you even think of writing in a language you have never learned before? Isn’t this like trying to run before you learn to crawl? It certainly is which is why it’s also fun. And guess what, it works! No, I am not talking essays and dissertations in impeccable Spanish. I am talking about just writing tiny little sentences about whatever comes to your mind. It doesn’t have to be in Spanish either – not entirely, I mean. You could think up the sentence in English and just substitute a few or all words in it with their Spanish counterparts while writing. This is how it’s done:

You want to say: I have a cute dog.

You write: Yo tener un lindo perro.

Your Spanish sucks at this moment. But that’s not the point here. You’re not trying to impress anyone. What we did here is translate just the words individually. Even if we are not familiar with the words, there’s no rule saying you can’t open a dictionary. In fact you should! So, you look up the word have and learn that it’s tener. Then you look up cute and learn it’s lindo. And finally you learn dog is perro. Since you are already familiar with the Spanish for I and a, you bring it all together as the sentence we just saw. It’s broken Spanish but it’s something. Get yourself a cookie for your first attempt.

This is how you begin and gradually get better. Keep a target of at least 20 sentences each day, every single day. Rain or shine. Follow this routine like religion. Gradually as you progress, you’ll notice a certain decline in the number of times you’re having to refer to the dictionary for simple thoughts like the above. Since you’ll be writing about things in your daily life, there will be a lot of recurring themes meaning you’ll be using certain words repeatedly which will reinforce them to your memory. Isn’t this the most organic way to build a vocabulary?

3. Read some Spanish

No, not the news or Classic literature. At this stage, you’re better off sticking to books meant for kids. Try fairy tales. Try short stories written for first-graders. They might sound stupid but you’re not gunning for wisdom and art here. You’re gunning for engagement. You must engage with Spanish. Kids’ books are the best at this stage because the language they use is as rudimentary and fluff-free as it gets. They have short simple sentences with an average of no more than 5-7 words each. That’s perfect to develop a good feel of how Spanish works.

You will not understand one bit of what you read without a dictionary, of course, which is fine. Since most fairy tales have a recurring theme, certain words (such as princess, monster, wizard, kingdom, happy, love, beautiful, handsome, etc.) will hit you over and over again. These are the words you’ll internalize over time because your brain doesn’t want you to rush for the dictionary all the time. Reading will also help you understand and organically learn how common verbs conjugate in the past tense since that’s the tense most of these writings are in.

You should also throw some Spanish language comic books in the mix to make it more fun. Actually they are real good as the graphical content has a better potential at keeping you engaged than pure text. And you’ll also learn a different kind of grammar reading comic books. While most fairy tales are in the past tense, most comic books are conversations and involve a lot of imperatives. That’s a very important segment of grammar to learn and comic books can drill it into you without you even realizing.

At this stage, you should aim for at least one page, or 200 words, of material each day. Stick to this goal for at least a month and then you can and should gradually increase it by one page a day every week until you hit 20 a day. This will be slow enough to keep you from getting overwhelmed and yet rapid enough to keep you on your toes avoid a learning plateau.

4. Always Spanish

Watch all the movies you want – so long as they’re in Spanish
Photo credit: Nacho licensed CC BY 2.0

There’s a reason this site is named Always Spanish. I can’t stress enough on how critical a no-holds-barred immersion is to your Spanish learning strategy. Let me warn you, life without English – at least at this stage – can and will be mighty frustrating. But languages are not learned without grit and determination. You have to avoid English like the plague and embrace Spanish like your life depended on it.

So, the idea is simple: Spanish music, Spanish shows, Spanish movies, and even Spanish on your computer. As much of your daily life must be in Spanish as possible. Give up on English music and English shows. You will even change your social network language settings to Spanish from English. It’s easy to make services like Facebook talk to you in Spanish. I admit it’s inconvenient but I also assure you, not as inconvenient as it might seem at first. And the rewards are beyond what you’ve imagined!

Since I said no English, what about your news? Should you give up on the English newspaper you can’t imagine your mornings without? At this stage, I wouldn’t recommend that but eventually, yes. Maybe after a month of strict immersion regimen, you should switch over to consuming your news only in Spanish. Actually, you must. So one month of English news and then Spanish. If you live where there’s no Spanish newspaper, try Google News^® in Spanish. That should be good enough.

5. Acquire a core Spanish vocabulary

Scores of articles have been written, both here and elsewhere, on this topic. Vocabulary is what makes a language and it broadly consists of two major components. There’s a very small core vocabulary and a much larger passive vocabulary. Core vocabulary is what you’re aiming for here. In fact, that’s what you’re going to be holding on to for a very long time because a native Spanish speaker rarely uses more than 2,000 words of the core Spanish vocabulary. Over 80% of all you hear and read in Spanish (unless you get into literature and scholarly discourses) is made up of these words alone.

With this realization in mind, it makes sense to internalize them early on in your program. But memorizing words by reading them off a bland word-list or a dictionary is a horrible way to go about it. Try some tact. Make it fun and make those words work for you. You are not going to remember much, let alone have fun with them, unless you apply them. What I mean is learn them in context and use them immediately upon learning. Make sentences with them. Even if they are stupid sentences. Even if they are grammatically wrong sentences. The more you use them, the more they become second nature to you. A whole book has been written on how to make the process a cakewalk using mnemonics and context. I strongly recommend getting yourself a copy. But more importantly, I ask that you at least try applying these principles on your own. Even if you don’t buy the book, it’s possible to come up with your own tricks as long as you keep an open mind.

So these are the 5 steps to get you started with Spanish. With these, you’ll have a good enough sense of direction and you won’t feel as lost as you did until now. Remember, the key to rapid learning is non-stop engagement. Stay involved with your learning and don’t give up no matter what. Can it get boring at times? Of course it can, just like learning anything. But that’s when you need to spice up your game with your own innovations and stay focussed. Don’t let anything convince you that language learning is for the “chosen ones.” Think you can do that for me?