When do you need to learn spanish?

Do you need create Spanish lesson plans tomorrow? next week? months from now? or are you planning a trip to Puerto Rico and want to explore beyond the tourist areas? Do you want to teach Spanish? Perhaps you've met someone, and speaking Spanish will secure your friendship and beat the language barrier. What ever your reason is, you need to plan with the appropriate instruction and remember that you aren't going to be "fluent" like Don Juan in mere months. You will however, be able to get around and even read some basic Spanish in as short as a few weeks depending on your aggressiveness.

Don Juan was a Spanish Womanizer(this is not the real Don Juan in the picture). I hope to be as smooth as he was, minus his unlawful acts.

Being Realistic

Realistically it's going to take you about 3 months no matter what course or lesson you choose to partake in. Usually your going to be doing 30 minute lessons each day, with half of the lesson being a modified regurgitation of the previous. They (being the companies creating the lessons) designed them this way because research has shown this is the easiest way for us to remember. You could however just learn a few simple questions for a holiday trip. But you will feel much more confident if you can communicate properly in the native language to your destination.

I remember making some Spanish friends and I thought I would dazzle them with my new found language skills. After I attempted to say "como estas usted? yo entiendo solo un poco." They smiled, and then laughed. I felt so embarrassed and they responded to me in English to make it even worse. At that point i decided to not test my skills until i had finished the course. Sure enough I had finished a few weeks early and was able to uphold a small conversation. My friends now routinely talk to me in Spanish and I am learning more and more all the time!

Something they don't tell you

Make sure you designate a period of time EACH DAY! Yes each and every day, to learn Spanish. The more you make it a habit, the better. I've seen all kinds of claims "do it at your own pace" but this doesn't mean do it for 2 days and take a week off. If you take lessons every day for 10 days and then only once every 3 or 4 days, you will be amazed at how much you forget. BUT DON'T CRY, because it's ok, you most likely will retain 60% of it. "60%? that's it?" Yep 60% but that's perfectly ok. When you start taking lessons you will see that a lot of the material is repeated in different ways. This is so that it doesn't become stale and keeps your brain working.

A good idea is to do the audio Spanish lessons either while exercising, after waking up, or as the last thing you do before sleep. These have been proven times for maximum memory retention. I myself have tested many times, and while exercising and just before bed seem to be the best for me.

Don't Panic! As Spanish uses the alphabet, some words are very similar to English, so it is one of the easier languages to learn.