Learn spanish fast like this in 2023 - and how to keep going!

Hola and welcome to Pro Spanish. If your goal in 2023 is to reach a conversational level of Spanish, there are two main things you need to look out for which can get in your way and stop you from achieving this goal. Number one is not having an effective Spanish course, something that's progressive that can take you step by step, and two, your own constancy and consistency. So for the first one, obviously I'd recommend my own Pro Spanish Levels 1 to 6, but I'm happy to say that's not the only option. First I'll show you now how to guarantee consistency so that you will never give up, and if you've got that part covered, the willpower, the constancy, and would prefer to go straight to experiencing how fast you can learn with the right method, then skip forward to this time frame, and our more advanced subscribers, there's an advanced part for you too, so you can skip forward to this time frame. But if you think that you might not have the willpower, the consistency to keep going for as long as it takes, then keep watching. So the approach I'm about to talk about is something that I would personally recommend. I've seen it have great success in both in school and outside with adult learners. The key is to make your Spanish learning an elastic habit. Now I wish this was my own idea, but it's actually based on a book by the psychologist Stephen Guise called Elastic Habits. I think it's great. So very briefly, before I give you your own suggested plan of action based on elastic habits, over the next few weeks, there are going to be a lot of people who follow this pattern. You start off with a very strong commitment to doing an hour a day of Spanish or a new language you want to learn, or a new instrument you want to learn, and you're really pleased with the daily habit you've established. You're consistent, you're doing an hour a day, your goal feels very realistic and very attainable. But then life comes along and you have too much work on one day, or another day you can't spare an hour, so you have to put it off until the next day, or you're tired and you just can't focus, so you skip a day or two. And each day that we're not able to match that initial habit that we established, we feel like we failed. And eventually we lose momentum, we lose the habit, and we come to see the goal as unachievable and eventually give up. There's nothing new, we've all done it many times. The problem was that the habit, it was very rigid and it was brittle, and it soon shattered under the pressure of normal life. By contrast, if we establish an elastic habit from the beginning for our Spanish learning, and so we'll be able to in spite of all the bumps and pressures of everyday life. So I'll talk you through a concrete plan now, which you can follow or adapt for your own needs. And after that, I'll show you how quickly you can make progress, put the two together, and you'll be speaking conversational Spanish in 2023. First thing to notice is that there isn't just one option, one habit. There are nine possibilities, nine options. And if you just do one of them in a day, you're keeping your habits going. So first of all, you can decide whether you're going to be able to do a mini, a plus, or an elite. And a mini should always be something that you can always do no matter what. So bar being laid up in hospital, you will be able to do this. And on my plan, this is dedicating five minutes. So with just five minutes, you've done your habit of the day, and you've kept going. And a plus would be 10 minutes, and elite would be 30 minutes. And you can adjust this for yourself. So you may have a lot of time available, and you may decide to have your elite as an hour. But the point is, you should always be able to do something every single day, even if it's just five minutes, because this is what keeps the momentum going. And this is what keeps the progress going. Because even if it was just five minutes every day for one week, where you couldn't manage more, progress would be made, and the consistency would still be there. So first you decide what level of input you're going to be able to put in that day. Is it going to be mini, plus, or elite? And then you choose from the three options going along. So let's say you can do more than a mini, but you're not going to be able to manage an elite that day. So you may decide to do 10 minutes of the Spanish course that you're following, or 10 minutes vocab learning, perhaps revising previous lessons, or 10 minutes watching a Spanish TV programme. The next day you may have more time, and so you will do an elite. And maybe you'll decide to do 30 minutes of your Spanish course, or 30 minutes of vocab learning, whatever it might be. And we need to keep in mind all the time that this is elastic, so you don't have to do just one. One day you might decide to do a sprint, a plus sprint. You may do 10 minutes of your Spanish course, 10 minutes vocab learning, and 10 minutes watching a Spanish TV programme. Or another day you may do 5 minutes of your Spanish course, 10 minutes vocabulary learning, and 30 minutes watching a Spanish TV programme. The point is that you're flexible about the habit, that you always do it. So the mini is something that you will always be able to do. And the other very important aspect to this is that you need to record your progress. So you should have a calendar printed out, and each day you write down mini, plus, or elite. So you can just put M, P, or E, whatever, however you want to record this. And seeing the days build up, you'll have a real sense of achievement, you'll see your own resolve and consistency, and it will be a really motivating factor for your learning. Okay, so that is how to ensure that you keep going, that your willpower doesn't fail you, that you keep this habit elastic. But all of that is meaningless unless you have a course that you can follow and make progress. So I'm going to teach you some Spanish now. You're going to see just how quickly you can learn, and what you do learn will be immediately useful to you, whether on holiday, travel, or if you're living in Spain or a Latin American country. We're going to start off with four very straightforward verbs in Spanish. You don't need to try to remember them. Throughout this lesson, just go with the flow, follow the instructions, and you'll end up learning it without really having to make too much effort. So, to come is venir. Venir, to come, like to come to the party, venir. Venir. You notice that the v is pronounced like a b in Spanish. Venir, venir. So venir, to come. Hablar is to speak. I always say, think of blah blah, hablar, to speak. You could have hablar espanol, to speak Spanish. But for the moment, it's just hablar. The next is the verb to be. To be or not to be. To be, ser. S-E-R, ser. To be, ser. And to do, it. And it's all one word. So we have to do, and then it, just stuck on the end. So to do it is hacerlo. So hacer is to do, and lo is it. So hacerlo, to do it. We're going to move along now. The word for kind in Spanish is amable. Maybe think of amiable. Amable is kind, but we're going to learn so kind. So kind. Tan amable. Tan amable. So we have rapido, for fast, and that's nice and easy because it's like rapid. So tan rapido. Tan rapido, so fast. Tan rapido, so fast. Next, we're going to have so soon. And again, soon is very easy to remember. Pronto, pronto, soon. And you can guess, so soon is going to be tan pronto. Tan pronto, so soon. So we have so kind, tan amable, so fast, tan rapido, and so soon, tan pronto. Tan pronto. And finally, a different one, and it's with me. With me is conmigo. One word, conmigo. Okay, let's just have a quick look at what we've got so far. How would you say to come so soon? To come so soon. Venir tan pronto. Venir tan pronto, to come so soon. How about to be so kind? What would that be? To be so kind. Ser tan amable. Ser tan amable. Again, let's go to the very start now. You probably know that the word for thank you or thanks in Spanish is gracias. Gracias. But we're going to learn how to say thanks for or thank you for doing something. And it's gracias por. So gracias por, thanks for. And in Spanish, we don't say thanks for coming. We say thanks for to come. Thanks for helping is thanks for to help. So what would it mean if I said gracias por venir? What does that mean? Gracias por venir. Thanks for coming. Gracias por venir. Thanks for coming. What about thanks for being? Gracias por ser. Gracias por ser. Now in this next phase, look at the table and we're going to build our sentences up. So starting with, how would you say thank you for? Gracias por. How would you say thank you for coming? Gracias por venir. And in case you're not familiar with pro Spanish lessons, it's important that you pause and think through your answer before hearing it from me. So that whole process is what helps you learn. So we're at the stage where we've got gracias por venir. How would you say thanks for coming so soon? Gracias por venir tan pronto. And let's hear that again. Gracias por venir tan pronto. Okay, next one. What is it for thanks for? Gracias por. And how would you say thanks for being? Gracias por ser. And how would you say thanks for being so kind? Gracias por ser tan amable. Gracias por ser tan amable. Okay, one more in this phase. Thanks for is gracias por. Thanks for doing it. Gracias por hacerlo. Thanks for doing it so fast. Gracias por hacerlo tan rápido. Gracias por hacerlo tan rápido. Okay, in this next phase, just listen and try to work out what is being said. You can look at the grid or you can look away. It's up to you. Okay, the first one. Gracias por hablar conmigo. Thanks for speaking with me. Thanks for talking with me. And in the UK, we might say thanks for talking to me or thanks for speaking to me. Let's try this one. Gracias por venir tan rápido. Gracias por venir tan rápido. Thanks for coming so quickly, so fast. And what would this be? Gracias por hacerlo conmigo. Gracias por hacerlo conmigo. Thanks for doing it with me. Obviously, it works out like thanks for to do it with me. Okay, now in this next part, you're going to say the Spanish, so make sure you pause to give yourself some thinking time. How would you say thanks for being so kind? Gracias por ser tan amable. Gracias por ser tan amable. How would you say thanks for coming with me? Gracias por venir conmigo. Gracias por venir conmigo. A quick pause there while I mention our very popular Levels 1 to 6 course. This takes the complete beginner or a near beginner right up to a conversational level of Spanish in a series of very easy-to-follow steps. All the lessons on this YouTube channel are supplementary, whereas the core Levels 1 to 6 is very much a step-by-step program delivered by the same teacher as all the other videos on the ProSpanish YouTube channel. And while the style is very similar to what you'll be used to from these videos on the channel, the key difference is that every lesson carefully builds on the previous lessons so that you can really feel that progress of going from very little or no Spanish up to a level where you can confidently hold a conversation in Spanish. So again, that's available exclusively from ProSpanish.co.uk. One of the keys to this method is the sequencing. So I've set it up so we're able to expound out very fast. So let's add in now, necesito, I need, and I decided, decidí. So decidí, I decided, and I need, necesito. And again, don't worry if you feel overwhelmed by the amount of language. If you go with the flow, it's all very manageable. So we've got gracias por, thank you for, necesito, I need, and decidí, I decided. So let's just do a couple of words first. How would you say I need to speak? So just I need to speak. What would that be? Necesito hablar. Necesito hablar. And I'm sure you know what Spanish is, espanol. So how would you say I need to speak Spanish? And you know what so fast is? Tan rápido. So what's fast by itself? Just rápido. So how would you say I need to learn Spanish fast? What would that be? Necesito hablar español rápido. Necesito hablar español rápido. How would you say I decided to be kind? I decided to be kind. So we're not going to have so kind, tan amable. We're just going to have kind. I decided to be kind. What would that be? Decidí ser amable. Decidí ser amable. I decided to be kind. How would we say I need to do it quickly? What would that be? I need to do it quickly. Necesito hacerlo rápido. And we saw earlier that with me is conmigo which makes with you nice and easy because it's contigo with you. How do you think you would say I need to speak with you? I need to speak with you. What would that be? Necesito hablar contigo. Necesito hablar contigo. And if we want to say I don't need or I didn't decide, so just turning it into a negative, very easy, we just add no at the beginning. So no necesito. I don't need. No decidí. I didn't decide. So how would you say I don't need to speak to you or with you? No necesito hablar contigo. No necesito hablar contigo. We might even say I don't need to be so kind. I don't need to be so kind. No necesito ser tan amable. No necesito ser tan amable. So you can see how quickly with this methodology, with this kind of approach, you can build up, expand out, and very quickly you're reaching a conversational level of Spanish. And so before we move on to the section for our more advanced subscribers, a quick reminder that the Levels 1 to 6 Pro Spanish course is available exclusively from prospanish.co.uk. Entonces no vamos a cambiar lo que teníamos antes, pero sí que vamos a añadir alguna cosita. Primero, ojalá pudieras. Ojalá pudieras. Y esto significa I wish I could or if only I could. Pudieras is the subjunctive. It's the imperfect subjunctive from poder, to be able to, so it ends up as could. And the imperfect subjunctive follows ojalá. And like many other words in Spanish, ojalá comes from Arabic. So ojalá pudieras is I wish I could or if only I could. Y después tenemos como si tú pudieras. Como si tú pudieras. As if you could. As if you could. You know, we wouldn't normally need the tú, the you there, because pudieras with the s tells us that it's you. So we know that it's used for emphasis. In the same way as in English, we say as if you could, as if you could. So the tú is emphasizing the you. Como si, as if, tú pudieras. You could. Como si tú pudieras. So how would you say, como se dice, I wish you could do it with me. What would that be? Ojalá pudieras hacerlo conmigo. Ojalá pudieras hacerlo conmigo. Also meaning, if only you could do it with me. Y como sería, as if you could do it so quickly. Como si tú pudieras hacerlo tan rápido. Como si tú pudieras hacerlo tan rápido. How about, as if you could be so kind. As if you could be so kind. Como si tú pudieras ser tan amable. How about, if only you could come with me. Ojalá pudieras venir conmigo. Ojalá pudieras venir conmigo. Let's add a bit extra in. How would you say, as if you could speak Spanish that fast or so fast. Como si tú pudieras hablar español tan rápido. Como si tú pudieras hablar español tan rápido. How about, if only you could come soon. Or it could also be early. Ojalá pudieras venir pronto. Ojalá pudieras venir pronto. And pudieras is you could, so we can just knock off that s and have pudiera and that would be, if only I could. I wish I could. Entonces, como se dice, if only I could do it that quickly. Ojalá pudiera hacerlo tan rápido. Ojalá pudiera hacerlo tan rápido. How about, as if I could speak to you. As if I could speak to you. Como si yo pudiera hablar contigo. Como si yo pudiera hablar contigo. How about, I wish I could be that nice or that kind. Ojalá pudiera ser tan amable. Ojalá pudiera ser tan amable. And that concludes the first Pro Spanish video of 2023. As mentioned earlier, if you're looking to become a confident and a competent speaker of Spanish, head over to ProSpanish.co.uk