Your Guide to Cultural Fluency

We know memorizing new words can be challenging, so here are a couple of tips to make the process easier for you.

 

Learn vocabulary by theme.

By learning new words by theme, you will be able to have a conversation on a certain topic with another Spanish learner or, at least, you can write a short email or message about it. Learning by theme helps you piece a better narrative and logical flow of words in your mind, making it easy to tell a story or use the words in conversations immediately after you learn them.

 

Focus on the most commonly used words first.

Start with Spanish words that frequently appear in conversations. The first time you learn a word is called initial contact, and you cannot expect to remember vocabulary after just this one time. A better method is to make a list of all your new Spanish vocabulary to revisit at regular intervals over the next week. This process of repetition will help you transfer the knowledge to your long-term memory.

 

Use Flashcards

The reason why flashcards are so often cited as an ideal study tool is because they are so effective for many learners. Plus, it is no longer essential to make physical flashcards there are a variety of free apps available to create flashcards for your smartphone and tablet!

 

Learn Song Lyrics

If you are more of an auditory learner, learning through song lyrics could be a useful technique for you. Find songs that are easy to sing along to and contain at least a few new words. This will both put the vocabulary into context and provide a new way to remember vocabulary through sound.

 

Practice Your Spanish

Strike up a conversation with Spanish speakers whenever you get the chance, and make an effort to use as many new words as possible. If you are unable to speak to others in Spanish often, you can write down sentences or, even better, talk out loud to yourself and practice your pronunciation, it works trust us.