Is your New Years resolution to learn a new language?
It’s a common goal, especially for those of us who love to travel, but often we give up after a few weeks of studying and never feel confident enough to actually speak the language. Maybe this year we need to do things differently.
Music is a fantastic way to study another language and increase your fluency. You learn new vocabulary including local slang, improve your pronunciation, immerse yourself in the culture, and best of all it’s fun! I find listening to Spanish music a really motivating way to begin a study session; music lifts my spirits and inspires me to carry on.
Two of our favourite language learning products are discounted this week as part of the holiday season, so if you were considering buying one of these now is the time to do it.
Benny Lewis’ Language Hacking Guide completely changed our approach to language learning. His controversial advice has real results (if you follow it!) – he advocates getting out from behind your study books and speaking the language from day one. If you have struggled to learn a language in the past this is the guide for you.
I’ve been curious about Bueno, entonces for a while – I’d heard good things about this new breed of Spanish course and had enjoyed their free You Tube Karaoke videos – so when the opportunity to get hold of a review copy of their entire course came along, I was more than happy to take a look.
Bueno, entonces is a unique way to learn Spanish. It’s an audio/video course where you learn alongside David, a cheeky Brit, who has travelled to Buenos Aires to learn the language with Jimena, his attractive teacher who he can’t stop hitting on. The soap opera storyline is a great idea and keeps you wanting to continue – it can be quite rude and is often laugh-out-loud funny – and the languague used is refreshing as you learn how Spanish is actually spoken, complete with modern slang and and vocabularly that you’ll really need.
I have taken group Spanish classes in England and Buenos Aires and had a number of private teachers but my best experience so far has been taking classes at Sucre Spanish School. I had heard that Sucre is a good place to learn Spanish, and although I was already confident with grammar, I decided to take a week of conversation classes to take my Spanish to the next level. I didn’t regret my decision and in just ten hours of classes I felt a dramatic improvement in my confidence and fluency.
We are Simon Fairbairn & Erin McNeaney a couple who sold everything and left the UK in March 2010 to travel the world forever. We write about our travels and our journey to become digital nomads. Read more...