This is how you learn Spanish vocabulary (super) fast – Episode 86

This is how you learn Spanish vocabulary (super) fast

Podcast episode 86 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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As usual we’ve got another great Spanish language learning question.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

Today’s question is: what is the most efficient way to learn new Spanish words fast?

This is a question that my students have asked me plenty of times. So I’ve looked into this issue very much because I’m not just a language teacher, but also a language learner myself. I’ve learned a few foreign languages and learning new vocabulary is something that takes a tremendous amount of time.

So anything that you can improve in your technique on how to learn new vocabulary can save you a lot of frustration, and really a lot of time.

I’ve come up with five main points with regards to how to learn new words fast.

The first one is to always learn new words in context. What do I mean by that? The human brain works best when it can make connections.

Just learning words out of context is extremely frustrating, and it really doesn’t take you anywhere, you’ll forget them just as quickly.

To learn new words, you need to see them in context, hear them in context, read them in context, and then you’ll remember them a lot more easily.

Make sure that your Spanish course has dialogues, dialogues with the vocabulary that interests you. And that’s the best way to learn the new words.

Now the second point is to learn the new vocabulary with audio material.

I’ve talked about these before, but it really is absolutely essential that your Spanish course has audio material, so you can hear those new words said by native speakers.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

Not only will you hear them said properly with the right pronunciation, you will also hear them in context, and you’ll be able to remember them a lot more easily.

The audio material will help you develop your listening as well as your speaking skills.

Within audio material, the absolute best way of learning new vocabulary are audio flashcards. Courses that offer you audio flashcards are the ones that can skyrocket your Spanish at an amazing speed. They’re also much much more fun.

The audio flashcards will have extracted the words from the dialogues and the texts within the course; and you’ll be able to practise those words with drills and exercises. You’ll be able to hear the words and repeat them. Or you will do drills where you can say the words first and then you hear them said by the native speaker.

They’re a fantastic way of learning new vocabulary really fast. And it’s also a very motivating way of practising it, and going back to it.

Which is number three on my list of what to learn new Spanish words fast, and it’s: repetition.

When you learn a new word, you will almost certainly forget it very soon. Then you’ll have to learn it again, and forget it again.

And that will happen a few times before you can produce that word without having to think about it. And that will happen regardless of how smart you are, how young or old you are, how experienced you are with other languages. You will always forget your words several times before you finally remember them, and they stick in your mind.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

What’s the best way to go about repetition? You need to review the dialogues in your course. You need to review all the exercises and the drills. You need to go back to the material in your course over and over. You don’t just get a Spanish course and then go from lesson 1 to lesson 20 in one go, you need to go back to the lessons all the time.

For every lesson that you study, you need to review the others many, many times.

Roughly half of the time that you’re learning Spanish, you should be reviewing old things: lessons that you’ve seen before, dialogues that you’ve heard before, or drills that you’ve done before.
Don’t just do new things, you have to review things at least 50% of the time, if not more.

The fourth point on how to learn new Spanish vocabulary fast focuses on the nouns. And in this case my advice is to learn the new nouns always with our article. For example, don’t learn just: “mano”, but “la mano”. Don’t learn “problema”, but “el problema”.

That’s a much more efficient way of learning new words. Otherwise, you will have to go back and relearn them. It will take you a lot more time. It’s a lot easier to learn them properly from the start. So always learn new nouns with their article.

The fifth point is to learn new words, by saying them out loud. It really makes quite a big difference.

You see, when you hear the words in your head, they always sound fantastic. But when you actually produce them, when you say those words in Spanish out loud, they aren’t always that great the first time. So you have to say them over and over out loud, as if you were talking to somebody.

For example, when you’re playing the dialogues in your course, or the sentences, even the drills, try to always do that by saying the words out loud, not just to yourself, not quietly, but out loud, as if someone was there listening to you.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

That’s fantastic way of learning fast, and learning efficiently ,and actually very motivating for later on to communicate with real people.

I said to you that I had five main points on how to learn new Spanish words fast. But I’ve actually got one bonus tip.

If you’ve got a little bit of time, every so often try to write down the words that you’re learning. It will, again, make a tremendous difference to how fast you can learn words.

Every now and then, take a piece of paper, and pen or pencil, and write down the Spanish words that you’ve learned. Either copy them directly from your course, or try to remember them and copy them. Again, it will help you tremendously.

Now, knowing the techniques on how to learn new vocabulary fast is just as important as knowing what not to do.

There are two main things that you should avoid when you’re learning new Spanish words. The first one is: making lists of words.

Never ever make lists of words, it’s an absolute waste of time.

You will find some lists of words in your book or your app or your online course, very probably. But that is quite different from you sitting down and writing lists of words. That is just simply a waste of time.

Again, going back to point number one, because by doing those lists of words, you will be taking the words out of context, and you will find it practically impossible to remember any of them.

I’ve actually experimented with it myself by making lists of words and trying to remember, for instance, ten words each day.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

By the end of the week, you would think I would know at least seventy new words. Well, that’s just simply not true. If you can remember a handful, you’ll be lucky.

Don’t waste your time making lists of words.

The second thing to avoid is to learn new vocabulary directly from the dictionary. It is tempting sometimes to just open the dictionary, look up words and pretend to study them.
You won’t remember a thing after you close the dictionary.

To recap, the best way to learn new Spanish words is by:
Learning them in context
Learning them with audio material
Using lots of repetition
Studying the nouns with an article
Saying them out loud
And, if possible, by writing them down every now and then.

Find out more about my Spanish courses.