“We can’t all afford to travel to a Spanish-speaking country to immerse ourselves in the language,” says Ira Riklis. So what real options are there for truly learning the language in a way that applies to our lives? The key is to learn the way a child does, by observation and applying those observations to your thought process. Get yourself out of thinking in English and into thinking in abstract, that way you avoid struggling with internalized translations.The most commonly known Spanish word is ‘hola’ which means ‘hi’. If you’ve known this long enough and say it often enough, you will not need to stop and think of ‘hi’ in English and then take an extra step to translate, you just know that a greeting is ‘hola’. This applies to conversation, where most people struggle the most and become self conscious. The most important thing you can know about learning a language is not to stop and translate in your head before speaking, just say it as fast as you can. You will make mistakes, but those are how you learn. Worrying about saying it right will only keep you from actually becoming a speaker.

A great product out there that I’m sure everyone knows about is Rosetta Stone. At a little under $500 for the first 5 levels, it’s a bit pricey but it actually works. The instructional booklet recommends two hour sessions, but I recommend half an hour sessions a few hours apart from each other twice a day. No one likes to be tired, taxed or frustrated and this way you reward yourself by feeling accomplished twice a day. You can find it at any major software retailer.

You can also try www.studyspanish.com, a free online study guide that works pretty well for checking up on grammar and pronunciation. Go on www.amazon.com and find yourself children’s story books written in Spanish, sort of their equivalent to ‘See Jane Run’ and start to associate images and spelling with meaning. Turn up the volume to Spanish foreign films such as ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and really listen to phrases and words that get repeated often, I know a lot of people who learned Japanese just by watching subtitled anime.

Most importantly, remember that learning a language is like learning to think differently, not just adding another word to your vocabulary. Keeping that in mind will make you more successful at learning any language.