How to Learn Spanish: My Top Tips

On my last day in Spain I want to share with you my tips on learning Spanish: things you should consider and how best to go about it.
I did lots of media interviews while I was here. Here are the links to each interview:
Cadena Ser Catalunya “Aquí amb Josep Cuní”:
play.cadenaser.com/audio/1569...
Cope “Herrera en la Cope Barcelona”:
www.cope.es/emisoras/cataluna...
Radio 4 RNE “De boca a orella”:
www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/de...
Onda Cero “La Bruixola”:
www.ondacero.es/temas/steve_k... www.ondacero.es/emisoras/cata...
Tarragona Radio
www.tarragonaradio.cat/contin...
Nius Diario
www.niusdiario.es/sociedad/ma...
TV Girona
tvgirona.alacarta.cat/lentrevi...
Catalan News
www.catalannews.com/life-style...

[@Vember813]

Recently started learning Spanish after a year of learning French, so this is perfect many thanks!

[@sergeipetrov5572]

Hello Steve! Thank you so much for the tips on learning Spanish! So far I learn English, but I have a dream of studying Spanish in the near future. Your video came to me just in time:)

[@rubenmorenog7223]

Long time without listening to you in Spanish. Thanks for sharing the links

[@joanbonadavergara398]

Thanks for you recommended to learn català. It's a beautiful language, as well.

[@chrisbournea7056]

Thanks for the tips, Steve!

[@lukejm5721]

Thank you Steve, this is very reassuring advice 👍

[@manuelalejandrocarvajaldur8592]

Muchas gracias steve fue muy grato escuchar las entrevistas de la radio y aprender nuevos tips 🤗 me gusto mucho . Saludos desde chile.

[@denysantos9012]

Brasil here

[@StevenHorton]

Cualquier persona sabe la razón porque el elige usar palabras diferentes que yo habia escuchado a menudo?

[@budekins542]

Listening to the LingQ mini stories dozens of times is superb advice.

[@marisafm]

Senyor Kaufmann, gràcies per voler apendre la nostre llengüa, el català. :)

[@spanishconyolanda3814]

Welcome to my country Spain, Steve! and thanks for yr tips on learning Spanish. You are right.

[@lewessays]

Thanks.....I needed the motivation :)

[@nildo1319]

Great tips

[@jeffreybarker357]

Appreciate seeing apps that offer European Spanish. A major gripe I personally have with Duolingo. Well done.

[@danthegamer3819]

Thanks for the tips! they were really helpful and I was able to almost master the pronunciations for the Spanish language, but I am far from mastering the full Spanish language. Blessings!

[@JorgeGarcia10847]

I love speaking spanish a lot! ¡Me encanta hablar español! 👍

[@stevenkbuses]

Nice tips!

[@Bones0]

As I've been going through the mini stories on LingQ, I've become fond of listening to them without reading and instead trying to type out the conversation based only on what I'm hearing (looping multiple times). When I've written all I can understand, I read the transcript to see what I missed or misunderstood. Is this an effective method to improve listening and comprehension?

[@markchavez9458]

Wow I really like that! I going to have to try this.

[@bekhzodturk3064]

Yes it is.

[@alejandraleon5575]

That's awesome! I'll try it!😊

[@spencera1129]

Genius

[@spanishclasses4013]

Gracias!

[@rossjesus1315]

Great video Steve Could you possibly do tips and difficulties for learning Italian?

[@Manuel4Languages]

Two consonants together in words IF you are a romance language speaker, that's it. EVERYTHING if you come from another language background I guess

[@zahleer]

@@Manuel4Languages Le doppie sono troppo difficili.

[@wolseathe29]

Hola Steven en la entrevista de la cope han escrito tu app como LIGO, y en la entrevista tb lo dicen asi.

[@gojakla12]

This guy is a genius!

[@MiekaFastingWeightLoss]

Thank you for the tips 👍🏽

[@hijrannasrat1225]

تشکرآقا!

[@bozenasawa3490]

I would like someone to explain to me (really EXPLAIN) how to learn Spanish (written and spoken) withount learning ITS CONJUGATION FIRST !!! The conjugation of so many verbs in so many tenses we use daily (with their many forms, exceptions etc). I have subscribed to this channel and value it because I agree with its main train of thoughts: aquiring foreign languages in a natural way (reading, listening, enjoying the process ) . However, I am very surprised that the grammar is so totally ignored. Well, it may work in case of English which has a very simple grammar. Maybe even in German though I will not discuss German because my German has become too rusty over the years of not being used and I am no longer familiar with its rules. BUT SPANISH is my new language ! I have experienced enough of it to dare to share with you my 3 cents. SO: I started learning Spanish from scratch on November 1, 2023. Ignoring the grammar entirely I had read and listened to some KZbin channels for two months for ca 2 hours (sometimes more) almost every day. And what? And at the end of December , went to Spain (I live in Poland) to accomplish an important mission , opened my mouth repeatedly (different people, dates and places) and...went MUTE repeatedly. I was TOTALLY SHOCKED and SHOCKED the audience !! No, nothing psychological about it. Just all those verbal forms (estuva, estera staba, hago, hare , iba etc) were fighting in my head for a chanct to SALIR first and....blocked the door of my CEREBRO. Seriously frustrated (I was on an important mission which did not get accomplished! ) I decided to change my approach to the acquisition of Spanish. Upon my return to Poland at the beginning of February I have been giving the Spanish conjugation at least 1--2 hours every day. Checked my progress a few days ago and the result ceased my worries : Finally I can write a sensible entry in my Spanish language diary without using a grammar book or a dictionary. I am aso able to read literature in Spanish. However, I am still not out of the woods. If you have a good advice for me and others , please offer it. I cannot take it easy. I must learn Spanish fast.

[@gregtomkins5938]

Half million? More like half BIllion.

[@ghy518]

He probably meant billion

[@litozulueta6013]

Some 600m.

[@elietrinidad6633]

To resume, iits true that he sying don't worry if you can' roll your tongue its a difficult sound i suppose the more difficult in Spanish i am a Spanish speaker i can tell you that even its the last soun that kids learn some last till 7 or more even they are some adult that can't pronounce it correctly, i am not if not nessary "yep" but with time can do it

[@damacx]

Hey Steve, any chance of Haitian Creole or Swahili getting added to LingQ in the near future?

[@jeff7775]

Check out Language Transfer for Swahili. Free app. Just worked through his Spanish course and found it very helpful.

[@lorihindi2549]

When are you getting Hindi on LingQ, Steve? x

[@Thelinguist]

I definitely want to. Can you help us find content. Maybe we should just pay someone to do the mini stories for us.

[@lorihindi2549]

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve yep 👍 can definitely help to source content. Feel free to email me on my KZbin email.

[@Benvenjtos]

Try this Tres tristes tigres tragaron trigo en un trigal. Three sad tigers were swallowing wheat on a wheat field.

[@aprilmaclean7102]

Been speaking Spanish for yrs with my husband and daughter s , Colombia 🇨🇴 I speak ok fine defend my self ..but past preensent etc forget it

[@yarathofficial404]

Is it a good idea to learn Spanish and Portuguese at the same time? If yes, what is the best method to learn the two languages at the same time?

[@gift884]

These languages have the same vocabulary, that's why this learning will be useless

[@sabirarizwan7530]

Some people say don't learn more than one language at a time. How long should one wait till moving on to the next language?

[@ajj5965]

I've heard that you should get to a higher level in that one language before moving on to another. Like if you're in the level A1 in Spanish for example maybe try to get to A2 or B1 before adding in another language. Hope this helps, and good luck on your language learning!

[@wadepatton2433]

Lydia Machova (watch her speeches at the polyglot meetings) says to learn 10 languages learn 9 and then just add one. She says that polyglots learn one language at a time. I am going to try that. My schooling in languages didn't work so I'm going to tackle Spanish and then when I feel somewhat conversationally fluent in Spanish (when I feel "at ease" around Spanish speakers), I'll consider learning another one. Good luck.

[@luamfernandez6031]

How long you want :)

[@luamfernandez6031]

It's more difficult to learn spanish being english speaker or learn english being spanish speaker? Or is it the same?

[@elleil4693]

I think it's a little easier to learn English, because they don't have so many conjugations

[@phoenix-king779]

@@elleil4693 bro ONG. Like 1 verb have 10 conjugations.

[@jeff7775]

It seems to me the easiest language is always the one you learned as a baby. Without exception.

[@reverendbluejeans1748]

This guy must be loving his life

[@richardrhodes7299]

Gerald Davis you don’t love yours?

[@reverendbluejeans1748]

@@richardrhodes7299 I just think this guy is having a lot of fun with his youtube and his company and his traveling and learning new languages. If things don't get better for me then I am going to move to Puerto Rico.

[@richardrhodes7299]

Gerald Davis you have power and control over your situation Gerald I know you can get to the place or situation of your desire if you create a burning desire for it, make a plan to get it, and then never stop working until you achieve it. Steve does look like he’s having a great time, but that’s because he’s living and doing things that fulfill him. Find what does that for you and do that as much as you can. I’m with you there on Puerto Rico I want to meet Bad Bunny so bad (music artist). All i want is for you to love your life. No matter where you are you can love it as long as you know where you are going ❤️

[@reverendbluejeans1748]

@@richardrhodes7299 Thanks very much Richard. Are you the author Richard Roads .

[@richardrhodes7299]

Gerald Davis no I’m the author that wrote the making of the atomic bomb. My pleasure Gerald if you ever need to talk you know where my comments are ❤️

[@podolanko7]

I've noticed, that the Slovak language is inc beta and there is nothing to it. What can I/someone else do to you know.. "fix" that?

[@muhilan8540]

Steve I can understand a fair amount but I can't speak

[@jancovanderwesthuizen8070]

There is A LOT more than half a million Spanish speakers, perhaps you meant to say half a Billion

[@Thelinguist]

I guess I goofed. Happens quite often.

[@jancovanderwesthuizen8070]

@@Thelinguist yeah no harm no foul

[@reverendbluejeans1748]

Quem não ama este gato?

[@juanpilanz]

You’re great Steve but you’re mistaken on what relates to differences within Spanish dialects. From an Argentine linguist, regards

[@lusca6177]

Any tips to learn greek? 😅

[@magedelaraby6740]

Same 😂

[@SamiP-ik7vj]

Learn the script and the pronunciation (by repeating after KZbin videos) and then start to build your own notes (due to all the irregularities..) with the help of resources such as the lessons at 50languages com (/ phrasebook / em / el /), Foundalis (. com / lan /), Wikitravel Greek Phrasebook, Wiktionary (/ wiki / Category:Greek_lemmas) and books such as "Greek: An Essential Grammar" from Routledge + "333 Modern Greek Verbs" (these two are both freely Previewable at Google Books and the latter contains a commendable amount of sentence examples).

[@lmelior]

I haven't learned Greek, but definitely add Language Transfer (www.languagetransfer.org) to your toolbox. There is a complete Greek course, 120 audio tracks which are typically 8-12 minutes long, completely free of charge. It's difficult to describe, but what he does is relate and contrast various words, structures, and ideas between English and your target language. It's great for building those connections that help you remember, like Gabriel Wyner talks about in Fluent Forever. He emphasizes building up words and sentences instead of Pimsleur-like memorization/repetition. I'm currently going through his complete Spanish course and it's been extremely helpful tying together and building upon the things I learned earlier. Do note that I wasn't starting from scratch, though I'd forgotten much, so I don't know how well it works if that's your situation. I'm planning on trying one of his other courses at some point, if only just to find out. He does use a great deal of English and often (thanks to Steve's advice!) I just want to listen to my target language. So you'll definitely need supplemental material, but it's a great resource, and, again, completely free of charge.

[@alwayslearning7672]

I think you mean half a billion...480 million speaks approx.

[@prince223681]

We need to fight to put the world's 3rd most spoken language in Lingq Hindi/Urdu

[@Thelinguist]

Can you help us find one male and one female voice to record the mini stories in Urdu and Hindi and To translate these from English? We would also like to have other content in these languages also let us know where to find online dictionaries. If we have all of this we will put the languages up. We can provide compensation. email me [e-mail]

[@spoudaois4535]

English subjuntive : If I were not if i was

[@nadiamayer11]

It depends. Americans use was and it's considered correct

[@thelanguagecaviller3657]

Nadia Mayer In colloquial speech sure. In writing, were is the only acceptable option.

[@muhilan8540]

You said half a million instead of half a billion lmao

[@DJSt3rling]

0:16 Half a million Spanish speakers??? Try 450 million lol

[@cometier]

He probably means half a billion

[@GuillermoSilvaSilva]

*Spanisch ist eine unmoegliche Sprache.*

[@kavo1363]

Wieso!? Ist meine Muttersprache ❤

[@hannahperry2445]

Great tips