Ciao Pandas!

Let’s play a game. How do you study Spanish?

• You read books?
• Do you watch series in Spanish with subtitles? 
• Do you play Duolingo?
• Do you take online classes with a Spanish teacher?
• Do you listen to podcasts while doing daily tasks?

Well then let me tell you YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!

Not because I say so but because science says so. You see, if you want look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie you have to work your muscles. Right? biceps, shoulders, abs, legs. Now, could you tell me how many “muscles” you have to work on to improve your Spanish?

SEVEN! whaaaat!? SEVEN! Science has proven that there are 7 areas that you must practice in order to improve a language:

• Listening
• Reading
• Writing
• Speaking
• Fluency
• Pronunciation
• Vocabulary

And guess what. you have to work on all of them in order to improve your Spanish.

You see, if you only work your biceps and ignore the rest of your body, you will look like what we call in Spanish, a croissant guy, and therefore you’ll have a deformed body. So, if you only work on your listening or your speaking you will get a deformed Spanish. So you have to make sure that you work on all 7 parts of the language if you want to achieve fluency.

Let’s review the way you have been learning Spanish.

• Reading books: Reading and vocabulary.
• Watching shows in Spanish with subtitles: Reading, pronunciation, and just a little bit of listening (come on! Be honest! When you watch La Casa de Papel with subtitles you are mostly reading, not really listening).
• Playing Duolingo: Nothing!
• Taking classes with a teacher: Grammar (which is not even a part of the language. Grammar is something you can learn but cannot improve).
• Listening to a podcast on your commute: listening.

You see how this Works? This is why you feel stuck with your Spanish. This is why you forget most of the Spanish you learn. This is why you freeze when you have to speak Spanish with someone.

So this is the task for you today. I want you to list everything you’ve been doing for your Spanish lately. And then, think about how you can work the parts that you are not working on. So that way you make sure you work the 7 parts of Spanish. If you do that, I promise you’ll see results in no time.