Spanish Language Classes In Houston

Is Immersion A Shortcut?

Many language experts recommend immersion as the fastest way to become fluent in Spanish; move to a Spanish-speaking country, live with a host family and have every interaction in Spanish. The idea is that, without English to fall back on, the desire to speak Spanish will become a real necessity, a sink-or-swim survival pressure. You will have to learn how to speak Spanish because there will be no other option.

But is it really that simple? Plenty of people have tried and failed to learn a language, even with immersion. Physically being somewhere is not, in itself, a learning tool. Immersion works because the best way to learn Spanish is to hear it and practice speaking it every day in the context of your normal life. When people talk about immersion, what they really mean is learning by doing – to get away from an academic approach and live the language. If you know how immersion works, you can start learning Spanish no matter where you are.

Turning Off The Blahblahblah Filter

Our brains are incredibly good at focusing on details, but this is only possible because our brains are even better at ignoring stuff. It’s the reason you can have a conversation in a noisy cafe; your brain can separate the signal from the noise. The problem, when learning a new language, is that your brain treats unfamiliar new sounds like background noise, telling you, “It’s just static.

Be a Bilingual and Increase your Job Prospects in Texas

The most important thing that immersion provides is a constant stream of your target language. You will hear it all the time, you will read it everywhere and most importantly you will see people speaking it all the time. No two languages are pronounced exactly the same, which means that the speakers of different languages literally have different strengths and weaknesses in their face muscles.

A Spanish-speaker can roll her r’s because certain muscles in her tongue have had a good workout, whereas an untrained native English-speaker trying to pronounce perro is like a scrawny kid trying to bench press; the necessary muscles are not developed yet. This is why it is so helpful to watch a native-speaker talk. Her mouth provides a clue as to what to do with your mouth when trying to pronounce the same words. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”. Not only must your brain become familiar with the strange new sounds, your lips, tongue and throat must as well.

Why Learn Spanish? Know what others are speaking around you, specially your employees and friends!

There are as many answers to this question as there are people who learn second languages. Do you want to enjoy the films of Luis Buñuel without subtitles? Do you want to hike in the Andes without a tour guide? Are you about to meet your new Mexican in-laws? Do you want to learn the lyrics to every Celia Cruz song ever recorded? Are you conducting some, um, “business” in Colombia? There is no one reason, but you need to know your reason.

This is essential because it will help you stay motivated and focused. You can memorize and pay more attention to things that are relevant to you. If you want to learn Spanish in order to travel in South America, memorizing business terms won’t inspire you to keep trying. In addition to picking up core vocabulary and phrases (1000 – 3000 words that are necessary for everyday speech) you can stay interested in Spanish by learning to talk about what matters to you.