Unit 2: Language Strategies

Learning to speak and understand Spanish can be a very frustrating and tedious task for people like myself whose first language is English. However, there are a few strategies which can be utilized to make the Spanish learning process a bit smoother. Personally, I have taken the initiative to use google translator to find the meaning of Spanish words that I am not familiar with. In some instances, I come across these Spanish words in social media posts and out of curiosity I want to know what is being said; in essence I am adding new words to my Spanish vocabulary. Another strategy that I have utilized is initiating conversations with friends who are fluent Spanish speakers. This can be hard at times; I feel lost as they tend to speak a bit fast. However, I try to catch on words that I am familiar with. When they are finish speaking I would ask them to repeat in English. By doing this, I am able to identify the words that I did not know their Spanish equivalent. Finally, being able to accept constructive criticism when learning to speak Spanish is also important. This is because you are informed when mistakes are made and, therefore, be able to learn from your mistakes. This is a very simple yet important strategy because we sometimes fail to acknowledge that mistakes are inevitable when learning a second language.