21 Ways to Learn Spanish on Your Own at Home
Are you trying to learn Spanish on your own but feeling stuck?
You’re not alone!
Considering that more than 21 million people on this planet study Spanish as a foreign language, some tried-and-true tactics to achieve fluency on your own do exist and have proven to be successful for other learners.
The best part? Many of the ways you can practice Spanish at home are actually easy and fun.
All you have to do is define your goal, set up your plan for attack, and then go for it!
In this blog post, you’ll gather tips on how to set the right goals for you at the right time and discover 21 fun, creative, and entertaining ways to practice Spanish at home so that you can learn it on your own.
Know Your Goal
Your goal is a guiding light that accompanies you during the whole learning process and helps keep you on course.
When it comes to learning Spanish, defining your goal is crucial to success.
To figure out the goal that’s right for you, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want to achieve with your Spanish?
- Do you want to be fluent or just conversational?
- Do you want to be able to read and write in the language?
- Will you have to conduct business meetings in Spanish?
Once you’ve defined your goal, the next step is to work towards it in increments. For this, it’s important to make a plan and follow it, because it’s so easy to get distracted—or worse, bored!
Need a plan? Check these out next:
- 12 Awesome Hacks to Meet Your SMART Goals in Spanish
- How to Track and Measure Your Spanish Learning Progress
Here are 21 interesting ways you can practice Spanish on your own and meet your goal.
But First, What’s Your Level?
What’s your level of fluency? Are you a beginner, intermediate, or advanced learner?
Depending on your level, you’ll find some handy ways to practice Spanish and support your studies at home in the lists below.
Feel free to skip to your level of Spanish or read them all to get inspired!
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
7 Ways to Practice Spanish at Home for Beginners
1. Watch TV Shows and Movies in Spanish
It’s time to indulge yourself and watch all of your favorite Spanish TV shows and movies! It’s an excellent way to train your ear to understand specific Spanish accents, while you learn new words, phrases, and weird but common idioms.
To make it even more effective, turn on the Spanish subtitles—that way you can read what you hear to reinforce new vocabulary.
Need something to watch? Check out the Netflix comedy El Vecino.
(Not for you? Here are more ideas.)
2. Learn Spanish Tongue Twisters
I love this tip because it’s fun, easy, and useful. Tongue twisters help you with pronunciation issues (that dreaded rr sound). Because they’re short and easy to remember, you can practice Spanish by repeating them anytime, anywhere.
Try this: Tres tristes tigres comen tres tristes platos de trigo.
3. Label Everything In Your House
This tip works well no matter your age, but it’s especially fun for kids. Label every household object you can see in Spanish. Table, carpet, door, book, everything. Not only do you increase your vocabulary awareness this way, but you also create a whole atmosphere in Spanish around you which—soon enough, you’ll see—drives your brain into thinking in Spanish.
4. Use Language Apps
Language apps are a great way to practice Spanish because they’re accessible, easy to use, and have quick exercises that you can do while on the bus or waiting for an appointment. Apps for every fluency level and every age cover topics from grammar-centered exercises to listening and pronunciation.
Top apps to consider:
5. Listen to Music in Spanish
This is less of “Livin’ la vida loca” and more of “te amo tanto que me siento tonta” type of songs. In other words, don’t settle for easy Spanglish songs that won’t challenge you. Instead, go for the difficult songs that get the gears between your head turning!
Don’t want to wait? Start with this song!
6. Get a Tutor
Hiring a tutor is one of the most effective ways to practice Spanish, because it’s live, interactive, and tailored to your specific needs as a student. If you choose to learn with a native Spanish professional, consider signing up for a free trial class with us at Homeschool Spanish Academy! We’re an online Spanish institution with 150+ certified Spanish teachers native to Guatemala. Our classes are accessible, scheduling is flexible, and our programs are affordable. Check out our programs page and pricing page for more information.
Want to know more about signing up for a free class? Look no further…
7. Play Games
You can learn a lot by playing video games, online games, or board games in Spanish. Learning through gaming is one of the most progressive approaches to education, and nowadays the possibilities in this area are endless.
Can you think of a better way to practice than playing family-favorite board games in Spanish?
Some might even step it up a notch and consider gameschooling in Spanish.
7 Ways to Practice Spanish for Intermediate Learners
1. Get a Spanish Language Partner
A Spanish conversation partner is one of the best ways you can find to practice Spanish. The idea is to find either another intermediate Spanish learner or a native Spanish speaker with whom you can have conversations in Spanish—either online or in real life. If your conversation partner is native Spanish, they may expect to have conversations with you in English in return. This way, both of you practice your target languages with each other.
2. Read in Spanish
My dad used to say that I should read everything I could get my hands on. From the newspaper to the cereal box. The same principle applies here. Read everything you can find in Spanish, from online stories to popular novels or even some classics. Reading in Spanish helps you to understand the structure of the written language better, and this will show up when you have to write in Spanish.
Check out our top list of Best Intermediate Spanish Books for Adults (B1-B2).
3. Keep a Language Journal
Find a nice little notebook that you can carry anywhere you go and use it to write down every new word in Spanish you learn. This way, if you’re reading and find a word you don’t understand, you can simply write it down in your journal and look up its meaning later.
4. Listen to Podcasts in Spanish
Podcasts in Spanish are great tools to expand your vocabulary and get used to the speed and flow of the language. They have the added benefit that you can listen to them (and practice Spanish) while doing something else like commuting or cooking.
Some of our favorite podcasts include:
5. Test Your Verbs
Conjugating verbs is one of the hardest-to-master grammar concepts in Spanish. So, constantly testing your mastery of verbs is not a bad idea. You can find many conjugation tools online to help with that.
6. Set Your Devices to Spanish
Simple and useful. It works a bit like labeling objects in Spanish. The idea is to set your world to Spanish. If you watch TV in Spanish, listen to music in Spanish, everything around you is labeled in Spanish, and your phone communicates with you in Spanish, you’re bound to start thinking in Spanish!
7. Hang Out With Native Spanish Speakers
Making native Spanish-speaking friends is probably the second-best way to practice Spanish (the first one would be to get into a romantic relationship with a native Spanish speaker, but you can’t force that, right?).
Hanging out with your friends, listening to them speak Spanish, and actually having conversations with them in Spanish are excellent ways to use all your newly acquired Spanish knowledge in the real world.
7 Ways to Practice Spanish for Advanced Spanish Students
1. Travel Abroad
Choose a Spanish-speaking country, buy a ticket, get on a plane, and go have the adventure of your life in a place where everybody speaks Spanish. Put to good use all those hours of study, and practice Spanish while making friends, asking for directions, or simply ordering some food.
2. Write in Spanish
At the advanced level, you should be able to express yourself in Spanish through writing. Try to write short stories, your life story, or letters to friends. Proficient writing in Spanish is the best sign that you’re an advanced learner.
- Best Essay Writing Tools in Spanish
- 45+ Creativing Writing Prompts in Spanish
- How to Write a Poem in Spanish
3. Serve as a Tutor
What better way to practice Spanish than teaching it? As an advanced learner, you’re now qualified to serve as a tutor to kids or beginners, and help them go through the same process you just went through. You can find good options online to become a Spanish tutor.
4. Enroll in an Online Course from a Spanish University
Use your Spanish knowledge to keep learning useful stuff. With the advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on sites like edX or Coursera, now you can find hundreds of free college courses online. Choose a course that aligns well with your interests and take your Spanish to the next level.
5. Have a Culture Week
Choose one Spanish-speaking country and try to learn everything about its culture during one week. You’ll learn lots of things you didn’t know about this country and will discover that every culture is a world in itself.
This idea has many benefits.
Can you imagine eating delicious Mexican food? Or perhaps you love watching telenevolas or Argentinian films.
Just one week to learn and try everything related to that culture. And you can always choose a different country the next week.
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6. Chat in Spanish
This is different from getting a language partner. Here, I’m talking about getting into public chats in Spanish and engaging in conversations with complete strangers. Even just listening to the conversations between these complete strangers can be useful.
Let’s face it, learning Spanish can be a long process and sometimes we need to think outside the box to keep things interesting!
7. Join a Spanish Club
It could be a conversational club or a Spanish book club, but the idea is to find other people with the same passion you have for the Spanish language and culture—and hang out with them. This is part of the transition from simply learning the language to normalizing it in your daily life.
Practice Spanish Today!
If you’re serious about your goals, just choose the best way for you to practice Spanish and introduce it into your everyday routine. Learning Spanish is a process that includes many parts, but practicing what you have learned is one of the most important ones.
Join one of the 40,000 classes that we teach each month and you can experience results like these
“This is the best way for your kid to learn Spanish. It’s one-on-one, taught by native Spanish speakers, and uses a curriculum.”
– Sharon K, Parent of 3
“It’s a great way to learn Spanish, from native Spanish speakers in a 1-on-1 environment. It’s been fairly easy to schedule classes around my daughter’s other classes. The best value for us has been ordering multiple classes at a time. All the instructors have been great!”
– Cindy D, Parent of 3
“HSA offers very affordable, quality, one on one classes with a native speaker. My son has greatly benefited from taking classes. We have seen his confidence increase as well as his pronunciation improve, because he learns from a native Spanish speaker. HSA has quick, personal customer service. Our family has been very pleased with our experience so far!”
– Erica P. Parent of 1
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