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- 25 Tips to Learn Spanish for Your Trip to Colombia
As emphasized several times on this website, it is important to learn Spanish if you are going to have the best time in Colombia.
Even if you are not coming to Colombia to date the women here for something casual or serious, learning Spanish can still be very beneficial.
After all, you’d be able to get around easier and meet more people if you speak the local language.
And if you are reading this article now, it likely means that you speak English.
Now if you speak English well enough, then learning Spanish honestly should not be too hard for you given the similarities between the two languages
So what can you do to learn Spanish in a more efficient manner?
When I say learn Spanish, I mean to be able to get to at least a conversational level.
You don’t have to be fluent in the language to enjoy your time in Colombia or your time with Colombian women.
So let’s break down 25 different quick tips that you can use to improve your Spanish without having to spend thousands of dollars in college courses!
Tip 1: Buy This Spanish Learning Book
If you want to learn Spanish, you need to get a good grasp of the Spanish grammar and vocabulary. This is a book by Higher Vista Learning that has all of the grammar you need to know. This book is easy to use and has plenty of useful vocabulary also.
Tip 2: Watch Movies in Spanish with English Subtitles
This is a good method to practice listening in Spanish. When learning the language, you need to practice listening to it. Even when I learned all the grammar and some vocabulary for the first time, it was still hard for me to converse in Spanish.
Why?
Because I didn’t have as much practice listening to it. So listening to movies in Spanish can be quite helpful.
Plus you will get access to new words you didn’t hear before and can learn those also.
Tip 3: Penpal
As said before, you need to practice the Spanish language. One way to do that is to find penpals that you can practice with.
There are different websites online that serve this purpose but I recommend a website called Interpals. It works well for this purpose and will help you practice easy enough.
Tip 4: Online Radio
Listening to online radio is another way in which you can again practice your listening skills in Spanish. Now thankfully, we have numerous online radio stations that we can listen to. On my website, I recommend the websites TuneIn and Radio.es for those who want to listen to online radio in Colombia.
It’s a good way to practice your listening skills in Spanish and learn more about Colombia before your trip to this country.
Tip 5: Use Online Tutors
If you are learning Spanish and find a certain grammar concept very difficult, you can always use the help of people online to correct any confusion you have.
First, you have Fiverr. On this website, you can likely find someone to pay at least $5 USD or more to answer any questions you have. Also, there is the website Italki where you can use the services of an online tutor for just a little bit of money.
Tip 6: Send Me an Email
Now I don’t have the most time in the world and I’m not a native Spanish speaker but I have been speaking Spanish for well over 10 years.
So if there is ever anything you are not sure about in the Spanish language, send me an email and I can answer quick questions. I can’t guarantee I will respond quickly but I can try. Plus, this might save you money from an online tutor.
Tip 7: Learning Spanish with Colombian Women
In this article I wrote, I go into detail on a very specific way to practice writing, listening, reading and speaking in Spanish.
You can read the article for all the details but it basically says that you can meet women online using Tinder Plus or one of the Cupid websites. These women will ideally be based in Colombia or some part of Latin America.
Then you get their numbers from these websites and basically practice your Spanish with them. Then if you ever decide to visit their country, you can go on dates with beautiful women as well while still practicing your Spanish. All around a great way to meet women and practice your Spanish in my opinion.
Tip 8: Attend a Cheap Spanish School
In Colombia, there are numerous Spanish schools that you can attend. They also exist in other Latin American countries as well.
You will likely be spending somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe $100 to $300 USD for what some of these schools offer
But prices will vary depending on school and how many hours of instruction you prefer to get
All around a cheap way to learn Spanish with formal instruction
Tip 9: Duolingo
This is a free online tool that you can use to learn and practice new languages, including Spanish. They teach grammar on here.
Also, they have plenty of practice problems for you to work on to improve your Spanish grammar and vocabulary understanding.
Tip 10: Buy These Books for Colombian Slang
If you are going to visit Colombia, I recommend you learn some of the Colombian slang before you even get here.
That way you will be able to better understand the language and what people are saying.
Though I have an entire article here on books you should buy to improve your Spanish, I’d also recommend you purchase this book and this book for learning Colombian slang.
Tip 11: Enjoy These Free Spanish Audio Tools Online
Keep in mind that there are plenty of free Spanish audio sources for you to practice listening to the language online.
I’d recommend you try checking out the BBC Mundo Broadcasts, FluentU and Spanish Obsessed. All of these are online places where you can find audio in Spanish to listen to.
Tip 12: Use Youtube
Youtube is another website where you can get free practice listening to the Spanish language. For listening to Colombian speakers, I’d recommend you search the following Youtube channels
Sebastián Villalobos
Pautips
CarlosVivesVIVO
Enchufetv
Fausto Murillo
However, keep in mind that there are plenty of Youtube channels with Spanish speakers from all over Latin America. So do spend the time exploring different channels and finding content in Spanish that you like.
Tip 13: Have a Deeper Motivation to Learn
In my experience, I started learning Spanish in high school a long time ago and didn’t take it seriously because I didn’t think I’d ever use it.
I simply didn’t have much motivation to learn Spanish but had to take the class anyway back then.
Well, my life turned out differently and now I use it every day given I live in Colombia.
Which, since I started living here, has been a huge motivation to really improve my Spanish obviously. And so if you want to learn Spanish more effectively, I’d recommend you find a deeper motivation to learn it.
That will simply motivate you to take it more seriously and not give it up.
Tip 14: Spend Significant Time in Latin America
Picture of Barranquilla in Colombia
As you might have understood by this point in the article, I strongly recommend getting real practice speaking and listening in Spanish.
The best way to do that is to actually live down here or spend a decent amount of time in a country down here in Latin America.
This might be more difficult depending on your budget and free time you have to travel but try to incorporate it into your life if at all possible.
Incorporate time to travel and the budget to do so because your Spanish will improve greatly by being able to practice it every hour of everyday down here.
Tip 15: Read These Beginner Books
To improve your reading skills in Spanish, I recommend you try reading some of these beginner books.
Such as this book or this book for example.
Or try reading this book that also has an audio edition
All of which are on Amazon and are well suited for beginners to the Spanish language.
Tip 16: Practice Writing
You want to also remember to practice your writing skills in Spanish also. One of the benefits to doing this is that it will make it easier to remember certain vocabulary and grammar rules.
So take a journal and write down some sentences each day into it using vocabulary in the sentences that you want to remember.
While doing this, make sure your sentences incorporate certain grammar rules so you can practice both Spanish grammar and vocabulary each day. It should only take 30 minutes a day at most to do this. Maybe even as little at 10 minutes. Every little bit helps.
Tip 17: Read the News
If you want some free resources for practicing your reading skills, then go to my “Resources” page here.
Near the bottom of this page you will find “News Sources.” Here, you will see plenty of free online news sources from Colombia that you can practice reading as they post content every day.
Not only does this allow you to learn what is happening in Colombia before your trip but also helps you practice reading in Spanish.
And keep in mind you can find online news sources from any Latin American country from what I know so take advantage of it.
Tip 18: Find Local Friends in Your Area
If you are lucky, there might be people you know or people in your area that speak Spanish fluently. Simply associate yourself with some folks that speak Spanish if you don’t already.
If you two are on good terms, I’m sure they will be willing to practice Spanish with you occasionally. All around it can be good practice for speaking and listening in Spanish.
Tip 19: Have Realistic Goals
Are you going to be fluent in Spanish after one week of learning it? No.
Should it take you 5 years to learn Spanish to a conversational level? No.
It should take you a lot less and you should aim for it that way.
But just be realistic also. You have your own schedule with a job and everything else in life so you can’t constantly be practicing Spanish most likely unless you live down here.
So write down realistic goals for where you should be Spanish wise after certain amounts of time. I’d say personally that you could probably be conversational in Spanish within 6 months (maybe less).
Tip 20: Pick an Easy City in Colombia to Practice Spanish
As written about in this article I wrote, some parts of Colombia are harder to practice Spanish than others due to the accent.
For example, on the Caribbean Coast of Colombia, the people there are going to be a bit harder to understand than people in Bogota or Medellin.
In short, the best cities (or areas) that you can practice your Spanish in Colombia are the following in my opinion: Bogota, the Coffee Triangle, Medellin, Bucaramanga and the Caribbean Coast as last.
There are reasons why I chose these areas though and you should check out this article I wrote as to why I think these places are ideal.
Tip 21: Exchange Events in Latin America
In Latin America, you will occasionally find “exchange events” where foreigners meet local people to practice a foreign language.
These events are usually held at bars in my experience and are mostly an excuse to drink and meet local women.
However, they can make for good areas to practice your Spanish also so give them a try if you ever come across one while down here!
Tip 22: Escape the Bubble
If you are going to spend any time in Colombia or other parts of Latin America, you want to make sure you avoid putting yourself in an “expat bubble.”
Way too often you see other foreigners only spend time with other foreigners while spending time or living down here.
If you want to improve your Spanish, you also need to make friends with local people that can practice Spanish with you. Ideally, these local friends do not speak English very well so that you two are forced into speaking mostly Spanish.
Tip 23: Use Meetup
When in the US or even Latin America, Meetup can be a good tool to meeting new people and making friends at local events.
This also includes language events for finding people that want to practice certain languages. So make sure to attend one of these events so you can practice your Spanish at one of them and even make some new friends.
Tip 24: Write New Words Down
If you come across a word you don’t know, make sure to write it down on a piece of paper. This will greatly improve your vocabulary as you come across more words in Spanish.
And over time your language skills will improve.
Tip 25: Check Out Some Podcasts
If you want to practice listening in Spanish, I’d also recommend you try some of the podcasts that you can find online as another resource for learning this language.
In my opinion, the following podcasts are some of the best you can find online
- Finally Learn Spanish – Beyond the Basics
- Notes in Spanish
- Coffee Break Spanish
- Spanish Pod 101
- Insta Spanish Lessons
Ultimate Lesson – Practice!
In short, I hope you caught on the overarching theme here of this article when it comes to how to learn the Spanish language.
It involves practicing it!
I remember when I first started learning Spanish in high school and college.
And I got good grades and always understood the grammar and vocabulary.
But when I arrived to Colombia for the first time over a decade ago, I got my butt kicked trying to understand what people were saying in Barranquilla.
Simply because I had no actual practice listening and speaking in the language.
So while using the textbooks is all fine for learning the grammar and vocabulary, you need to leave the classroom eventually.
And practice the language down here.
I remember when I had my first Colombian girlfriend, my Spanish skills exploded and I was much better at speaking and listening in Spanish.
For me, that was the final push I needed to really see more dramatic improvements in my language skills building up to that point.
And that’s because I got a lot more practice out of that experience.
Afterwards, with all the years of living down here, my Spanish has continued to improve a lot year by year.
And so ultimately, if you put in the work to practice the Spanish language, you will become good at it eventually.
Now if you have any insight or questions of your own regarding learning the Spanish language, let me know in the comment section or send me an email.
Thanks for reading and take care!
Hasta luego parceros,
Seth
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