I understand Spanish but... i don't speak! what can i do to speak Spanish?

You are studying Spanish and understand quite well what others are saying. You even understand what I'm saying in this video. But you can't speak! WHY? It's normal, don't worry. In this video, I'm going to give you 6 practical tips so you can overcome that block and get started to speak Spanish fluently today Bye, pandas! Let's move on to the first tip. Fluency vs Speaking You have to understand that learning a new language is not a set of knowledge – grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation… No! Speaking a language is a set of skills. I always explain this idea to my students using a very good metaphor. The metaphor of the building. Imagine that you want to build a building. In this metaphor, your Spanish is the building. On the one hand, you have all the grammatical rules that enable you to speak, such as singular, plural, masculine, feminine, conjugations, por and para, ser and estar… What do you think grammar represents in the metaphor of building a structure? Perhaps the pillars, or the bricks, or the workers? The correct answer is the bricks. Yes, grammar is those pieces that allow us to build a much more elaborate structure. high, much more beautiful, and they allow us to overcome and communicate in a better way. But be careful, because the mistake most Spanish students make, and perhaps You're also doing it, which is acquiring a lot of grammar, learning a lot of grammar. And really, what do you achieve with so much grammar? You simply manage to get a mountain of bricks. A mountain of bricks is not a building; it is something, but it is not suitable for living in. Likewise, a great deal of grammar consists of a large number of rules, but they do not enable one to speak. and use the language. What do we need in order to be able to speak the language? What do we need to live in the building? We need builders. These workers are the ones who will take the bricks and place them correctly. to build a building. And what are these workers in our learning of Spanish? They are the skills. As I've told you before, learning Spanish is not a set of grammar rules, but a set of skills, that is, of building workers. And how many skills do we have? How many workers can build the building? We have seven skills that we need to practice in order to learn our Spanish. We have Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking, Fluency, Pronunciation, and Vocabulary. It is absolutely essential to develop each of these skills in order to build a structure. strong enough to allow us to speak Spanish fluently. Notice that two of those skills are Speaking and Fluency. They look the same, don't they? But no, they are not the same. Speaking is the ability to speak correctly, that is, when we speak, to use masculine forms, feminine, singular, plural, ser and estar, by and for, conjugations, that is, everything Let what we say be perfect. On the other hand, fluency is the ability to speak the language quickly. Whether we make mistakes or not makes no difference. Many people confuse these two skills and think they are the same, but they are not. A student like you can speak Spanish well and quickly. Fast and quick. Hello, my name is José, how are you? Slow and clumsy. Ah, hello, ah, your names are José. Which one of these four types are you? So, you have to remember that the ability to speak is not something as simple as I'm going to speak Spanish! No, you must practice your ability to speak well and speak quickly. Tip number 2. Talk, talk, talk. Oh, but José, my problem is that I can't speak. Your advice is to speak, but I can't speak! Error, yes you can speak. If you have a level that allows you to understand Spanish, if you can understand podcasts or television series or radio programs, if you can understand all this You have the ability to speak. If you can't speak, it's not because you can't, but because you have a mental block. Do you remember the difference we made earlier between speaking and fluency? Fluency is the ability to speak quickly, and speaking skill is the ability to speak well. Well, if you can understand Spanish, it means your level of grammar, that is, You're speaking, it's good. What is it that you're missing? Your fluency, your ability to speak without stopping. In other words, no matter how much grammar you memorize, how many exercises you do, how many things you do at work, which won't allow you to improve your speaking ability. You have to get rid of your mental block. You have to start talking. Think about the moment you obtained your driver's license. First, you took a theoretical exam. You've learned all the theory about how to drive, what a car is, and how a car works. How to start a car, and you took the exam and passed the exam. But what happened on the first day you sat in the car and tried to drive? HORROR! Why? Driving a car is exactly the same as learning a language. Theory is the bricks, and practice is the workers. You can memorize as much theory as you want, but if you don't practice driving, you won't learn The same thing happens with language. You may know all the grammar, but the only way to improve your speaking is by speaking. forcing you to speak day after day after day after day. And this brings us to our third piece of advice. Immerse yourself in the language. You need to immerse yourself in Spanish in order to speak it every day. Thirty to forty years ago, it was impossible to immerse oneself in a language, and the only option was to travel. the country. That's why you may have heard the argument that To learn Spanish, you have to travel to Spain and live there for a long time. Traveling and living in the country is a good idea, but nowadays it is almost impossible. We have work, we have family, we don't have money... It's difficult to go live in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, or Venezuela to learn the language. The good thing is that nowadays, with technology, it's possible to live a Spanish life wherever you are. in the world If you live in the United States, in Australia, in China, in Germany, it doesn't matter because with With technology, you can immerse yourself in the language. There are many free resources available on the Internet for listening to, reading, speaking, and writing Spanish. for free, as if you were living in Spain. I recommend that you go to my website and then go to the free resources section. There you'll find hundreds of free websites to immerse yourself in Spanish. For example, podcasts, television channels, radio stations, magazines, newspapers, courses and much more. Advice number 4. **** the errors. The greatest fear that all of my students have when trying to speak Spanish is making mistakes. There is absolute panic about the possibility of making a mistake. Maybe you also have this panic. What will happen if I make a mistake? The person I'm talking to will think I'm stupid. The person will laugh at me. I'll make a fool of myself. Those are nonsense. An extremely important thing you need to learn is to step outside your comfort zone. It's impossible. I repeat, it's impossible to learn a new language within your comfort zone. Impossible. Why? Because to learn a language, as I've told you before, it's necessary to speak, it's necessary to to practice And when you practice, you're going to make mistakes. It's natural. You learn by making mistakes. What happens if I don't speak and don't make mistakes? That I don't practice. If I don't practice, I don't improve my language. Therefore, making mistakes is a requirement. Of the seven billion people in the world, no one has ever died. due to a mistake in a language. The worst that can happen is that you feel ashamed because the mistake has led to some type of confusion And I assure you that you will learn that lesson immediately. So, you have to take it as a challenge. Rebuke yourself. I don't like stepping out of my comfort zone. But I'm going to challenge myself. Today I am going to talk to a person in Spanish. I am afraid. I am very, very afraid. But I'm going to try anyway. It's a personal challenge. And tomorrow with two people. And the next day with three people. You will soon get used to making mistakes. And little by little, you'll improve your Spanish without even realizing it. As I've told you before, there are a thousand ways to find people you can talk to. Technology allows us to immerse ourselves in the language. But to talk to people, you need people. And we don't always have people available. You are the only person available 24 hours a day. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that you develop the habit of speaking to yourself in Spanish. When you go down to do the shopping at the supermarket, when you're driving, When you're cleaning the house, talk to yourself in Spanish. And do the same thing you would do in a conversation. When you don't know a word or can't remember a conjugation, stop and check it. Look for that information. And finally, let's move on to the sixth piece of advice. Consistency. We have already discussed the importance of skills for building the structure. That is, the builders. These builders have to go to work every day. If you have very good bricks and very good workers, But they only work one hour per week, so the building will take a very long time to construct. It makes sense, doesn't it? So, why do you practice your Spanish one hour a week or two hours a week? You have to speak Spanish every day of the week. The more you practice, the more confident you will feel about yourself. And the faster you will be able to acquire the habit of speaking Spanish. Remember that learning a language is not a passive thing. Forget about me taking Spanish classes with a teacher two hours a week! It is not enough. You have to take the initiative. You must be proactive and listen every day, read every day, Write every day, and above all, speak every day. There are many online resources that allow you to speak Spanish every day for free. Moreover, if you live in a major city such as New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Rome, Beijing, Sydney, there are many Hispanic neighborhoods in all those cities. There are language exchange bars, there are restaurants, there are shops. Where you can practice your Spanish in a real and completely free way. So you no longer have any excuses. Now it is time to eliminate excuses and work on your Spanish. Remember, if you can understand Spanish, then you can speak Spanish. You just need to get rid of that mental block. Very well! You've done it! Congratulations! Now you can watch more videos to keep practicing. That's all for now! Bye, pandas!