Commuting is one of the most common things in the world. Everyone has to commute and while commuting, some of us listen to music, some others read, and some others just think or dream. There are ways you can get the best out of the time that you spend getting from one place to another. You can actually practice Spanish while you commute, here we give you some tips:
Listen to music
There is plenty of time at least tolisten to one song while you commute. If you love music like I do, this is the thing for you. Listening is the best way to learn a language; however, how can you practice your Spanish while getting to your destinations listening to music?
Instructions:Take some time before you leave the house to get a few songs and their lyrics. You can download them, or you can use YouTube in your mobile device to look for a song with its lyrics. Once you have the lyrics, try to get the sense of what the song is talking about; it could be, by reading the lyrics and comparing them to what you already know.
After you have the lyrics and the song, you can do two things: \1. Read the lyrics of the song until you can remember them, and then sing the song out loud.
\2. Listen to the song a couple of times first, then read the lyrics to understand how some of the words are pronounced, and after this, listen and sing the song out loud.
Note: Singing out loud helps you remember things faster.
Warning:Apply this if you commute by walking, or driving your own vehicle. If you’re using public transport, you may get in trouble. So, just sing the lyrics of these songs in a soft voice, when you are on public transport.
Recommendations:Listento a song that sounds good to you, you will need to listen to it a lot of times, and this will encourage you, to keep listening in Spanish when you are tired.
Skills:The skills that you would be working on are listening, reading and speaking.
Say things out loud
On previous post, we talked about how important it is to learn sentences, and in this section, we are going to talk about how important it is to repeat those sentences out loud.
Sentences help people get and transmit ideas. Sentences repeated out loud help you remember things easier, let me explain to you how! When you say things out loud, you are not just using your brain, but you are also using the muscles in your face to learn something. Besides that, you are not just saying things but also hearing what you say. This important because when you use your body to learn (all of your muscles), you learn faster and you remember easier.
Recommendations:Get some phrasesthat you are interested in learning, listen to the pronunciation of this phrases, and put them on a piece of paper. Every morning repeat from five to ten of this phrases out loud, and you will get to remember them in just a few weeks.
Skills:The skills that you would be improving are reading, speaking and your memory.
Call a Spanish-speaking friend
This is the reason why you are putting so much effort, you want to learn Spanish to be able to speak this language. So, even if you know just a little bit, call a friend. When you get on your transports make a quick call, it can be just to say, “Hello”. You can also ask your Spanish-speaking friends about their families, work, and study. Anything you know that can be interesting to both of you.
Warning:Don’t call the same friends every day or every week, they will get tired of you.
Recommendations:If you have more than one friend that speaks Spanish, select a different one to call each week and let them know the purpose of your calls. However, if there’s only one friend that Speaks Spanish, call him every two weeks and in the rest of the time that you spend commuting, try to apply some of the other suggestion that we give you on this article.
Skills:The skills that you will improve are listening, speaking and personal relationships.
Write sentences or phrases in Spanish
OK, so it’s time to test your memory. how many of the things you now know can you write? Probably not that many, but while you commute, you can practice writing in Spanish and you can make it fun. You can start by writing the first thing you learned in Spanish, it may be hard because it could have been a while ago, but this will force you to remember things, and you will be able to remember them in the future.
When commuting look around you and try to write the things you see, “El letrero, la mujer con el niño, un hombre corriendo en la calle, etc”. Make a description of the people you see, what they are wearing, the way they look, etc. Use your imagination and maybe write about what they are thinking. There is plenty of things that you can write about.
Recommendations:If you don’t know a lot of wordsin Spanish, set the goal to write a letter to a friend, and put some work to use the appropriate vocabulary in the letter. If you do know a lot of words, I strongly suggest that you use your imagination, it will be the most enjoyable thing you can do. You can also write a journal each week, and then after a few months read it, and correct the misspelling and grammar in it.
Skills:The skills that will get to next level applying this, will be writing, reading, memory and your imagination.
Listen to recordings
There are a few Spanish podcast that you can download or maybe listen to online, there’s also some YouTube videos that you can listen to while you commute. You can also record yourself, and then take the recordings with you wherever you go and listen to them, it doesn’t have to be music all the time.
You can listen to discourses on topics you like, maybe stories like the ones we have in this course. The things that you listen to will help get more vocabulary, and they will help you develop your Spanish hearing and comprehension.
Warning:Do not listen to someone that speaks too fast or too confusing. If you want some advice about what to listen to, you can write to us an email and we will be glad to help you find something that suits your Spanish level.
Recommendations:If you are on a basic level, try listening to things like lectures for children or simple conversations. If you are a more advanced student, we invite you to try outthis lessoncompletelyfree, you can download it, and practice while you commute. If you like it, (we know you will) there are four more lessons here, in this coursethat will help you learn Spanish while you commute.
Skills:The things that will improve your Spanish are listening and your Spanish comprehension.
These are some of the things that you can do while you commute to get your Spanish to next level. If you have more ideas, please feel free to leave us a comment below or send us an email; we will reply as soon as possible. Keep tuned for more tips on learning Spanish here at spanishtomind.com
