10 Creative Ways to Practice Spanish
Are you tired of your Spanish textbook and looking for more entertaining ways to practice Spanish?
Do you feel like you had hit a wall and need more ideas to practice at home or online?
If you’ve already switched your language settings on your electronic devices to Spanish and need something more, let’s say it, creative—keep reading.
I’ve been there. I know what it feels like to be fed up with vocabulary lists and tedious grammar explanations. I promise to give you a list of 10 fun and creative ways to practice Spanish.
In this blog post, I’ll show you how to practice speaking, pronunciation, reading, numbers, sentences and even conjugation in Spanish.
There’s something for everybody so let’s start right away!
1. Keep Your Diary in Spanish
Writing is a great way to practice Spanish (or any other language you are studying). It’ll help you practice sentences and new vocabulary. The best part about having it as your private journal is that you don’t have to worry about anybody looking at your mistakes!
If you are a beginner, you can simply write down words or verbs related to what you did during the day.
For example:
Por la mañana:
- Levantarse
- Ducha
- Café
- Desayuno
- Noticias
- Trabajo
In the morning:
- Get up
- Shower
- Coffee
- Breakfast
- News
- Work
If you’re already capable of writing simple sentences in Spanish (and not just identifying verbs), do that instead.
You can always check a word that you need and highlight it in your diary.
A word of wisdom: Don’t use online translators!
They’re not helpful at all for learning language structures.
I’ll tell you a secret: as a teacher myself, I always know if my students have used a translator, because the transitions are always so bad. So, don’t try this at home! You’ll only make it harder on yourself to learn the right structures.
Writing about your morning in the form of simple sentences could look like this:
Me levanté hoy a las 5 am. Me duché, tomé el café y desayuné algo rápido. Después, leí las noticias en mi teléfono y me fui a trabajar.
I got up today at 5 am. I took a shower, drank coffee, and I had something quick for breakfast. Later, I read some news on my phone and went to work.
Easy, isn’t it?
It’s even easier if you’ve practiced Spanish past tense verbs. If you make mistakes, even better.
After a few weeks or months you can come back to your early entries, correct your own errors and see how much you have progressed.
2. Put Double Subtitles on the Netflix Website
Yes, language learning with Netflix is absolutely possible!
There is an incredible chrome extension that helps you take your Spanish on a different level. It helps you practice your reading and listening comprehension skills as it shows subtitles in two languages. You can watch a movie in Spanish, with subtitles in Spanish, and have a translation in English below at the same time. You can change the playback speed and use a pop-up dictionary. Absolutely amazing!
3. Watch Your Favorite Series to Practice Pronunciation
Speaking of Netflix, any streaming platform is a great help to practice Spanish. Just choose your accent and look for series and movies from a specific country. It’s a question of exposure, and getting your ears accustomed to sounds that don’t exist in English.
You can stop the movie and try to repeat phrases and sentences. It’ll help you with pronunciation, rhythm and speed, and will obviously increase your vocabulary. To start with, you can choose from 5 awesome Spanish Movies on Netflix to Watch Right Now and decide if you want to try accents from Chile, Mexico, Colombia, or Spain.
4. Challenge Yourself with Tongue Twisters
Spanish sounds can be tricky and at the beginning, your tongue and throat are simply not used to pronouncing them. How much time do you dedicate to exercise your body muscles?
Well, your mouth and tongue deserve your time too and can be perfectly trained into pronouncing the infamous “double r.”
Can you pronounce this trabalenguas (tongue twister) right now?
El perro de Rita me irrita dile a Rita que cambie el perro por una perrita.
If that didn’t turn out how you wanted it to, don’t worry! It’ll get better with time.
Should you need help, read Spanish Tongue Twisters: Perfecting Your Pronunciation. Additionally, look for sites with lists of tricky tongue twisters—or even better, videos on Youtube—and build your muscle memory.
5. Write Your Shopping List in Spanish
This is an activity that everyone does in their native language at least once a week. Take the time to write down everything you need in Spanish to help practice vocabulary.
You can even divide it into sections like vegetales (vegetables), frutas (fruit), carne (meat), lácteos (dairy), etc. You can check prices online and try to write them in words to practice numbers, and pronounce them out loud.
After coming back you can sum up your spendings and check cuánto te gastaste (how much you spent). You can also dive into Exploring the Market in Spanish as well as The Ridiculously Long List of Vegetables and Fruits in Spanish, and download some helpful lists with vocabulary and phrases to practice Spanish.
6. Follow Spanish Language Tweeters
There is no better social media channel for practicing the art of speaking Spanish than Twitter.
You don’t need to have friends in a Spanish-speaking world to talk to them. Just follow whoever you want and start being a part of the conversation.
Other platforms are usually more about sharing pictures and experiences, whereas Twitter is to talk, rant, and exchange opinions.
Here are some tweeters to start with to practice Spanish:
- @hsaonline – have a chat with other Spanish learners and Spanish teachers and read about hints on how to improve your language skills.
- @TheSpanishMemes – memes in Spanish are great for beginners. Short phrases and you’ll feel proud if they make you laugh.
- @realmadrid – engage in conversations with other football fans. Soccer, I mean.
- @CNNEE – read and talk about politics and culture of other countries. Read short headlines by CNN, and click into the full article if you dare.
You can also check other Spanish Speakers to follow on Social Media to boost your language learning powers.
7. Get Yourself a Penpal
You might remember, or might have heard, about times when people exchanged letters with their peers all over the world to practice language skills. You can still do this while using modern technologies to your advantage.
It’s generally less stressful than real time conversations as you can check any words you need. Some sites also provide you with a virtual keyboard for foreign characters. You can try with a free profile on My Language Exchange and practice speaking with native speakers or other learners.
You can read more about Finding Your Ideal Language Partner and improve your Spanish without spending any money.
What’s more, if you’d like to try out a free class with Homeschool Spanish Academy, you can start speaking Spanish with a friendly, certified teacher from Guatemala today.
8. Follow a YouTube Channel
The best way to practice Spanish or any other language is through a content that interests you. Look for Youtubers who talk about things you like, boost your vocabulary and listening comprehension.
Try out Spanish Academy TV where we provide Spanish lessons, read-alongs, and vocabulary support!
You can find channels on absolutely everything: videojuegos (video games), cómo tejer (how to knit), cómo cocinar (how to cook), cómo entrenar a tu perro (how to train your dog) and obviously cómo aprender español (how to learn Spanish).
9. Play Online Games to Practice Conjugation
Spanish conjugation is always trickier to practice and usually more boring. But it doesn’t need to be this way.
There’re plenty of websites that allow you to play games to memorize and practice Spanish grammar in a more entertaining way. You can set up a free account on Baamboozle and play conjugation games created by others or even create your own ones with words that cause you trouble.
Memrise is also great to help you remember Spanish Grammar Concepts, which uses complex algorithms to make sure you won’t forget anything the next day or in a year.
If you feel like that’s not enough, choose from 40+ Online Spanish Games for Kids That Are Educational and Fun. Games for kids are absolutely fantastic to practice Spanish conjugation and other skills and vocabulary.
10. Take a Mock Test to Prepare for Official Exams
For those of us who love learning languages, we may want to prove our language skills with an official certificate.
DELE Spanish Diplomas are official titles that will get you a paper certifying the degree of your competence of the Spanish language. Not everybody knows that you can take online free level tests to check your starting point and later, download sample papers for each of the six levels.
All the levels are divided into parts that will check different skills, such as reading or listening comprehension, so you can see how good you are in each one of them.
Practice Time Bonus
I’ve promised to provide you with 10 fun and creative ways to practice Spanish that are proven to improve your skills. If you’re ready to start talking today, encourage yourself to sign up for a free class and finally have a 1-on-1, real-time conversation in Spanish with one of our friendly, native Spanish-speaking teachers! You’ll be able to talk about whatever you want with our teachers who are always eager to share their secrets on how to practice Spanish in a creative way.
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