You must have a real desire to learn the Spanish language in order to become motivated and to stay motivated. You should have in mind a particular reason for learning Spanish. Is it to further your business or work prospects? Are you going on holiday to a Spanish speaking country? Do you want to communicate with Spanish speaking friends or neighbours? Perhaps you would like to watch Spanish Movies or read Spanish books. Whatever the reason, keeping your goal firmly in front of you will help maintain your motivation.



It is also a good idea to break your main goal of learning Spanish into a series of smaller steps and set a time frame in which to reach each of those steps. There will be times when the going gets tough, but keeping your goals in mind will help you to stay focused. Also as you master each of the steps your feeling of achievement will continue to grow.

The Spanish language being phonetically excellent means you will find little difficulty with pronunciation. Also because many words have been borrowed from the Spanish language, English speaking students will find they already understand the meaning of many of them.

As a student of the Spanish language you will find you don't just learn words, you learn how to put them into context. You will focus on sentence structure (not just vocabulary) along with complimentary words to form phrases and sentences.

You can find lots of free help by doing a search on Google, but unless you are extremely motivated these will only take you part way towards your goal.

Some useful tips for studying the Spanish language, (or any language):

" Make a realistic lesson plan-any good course will include plans which you can if necessary modify to suit your needs.

" Put audio tapes on to an Ipod or similar so you can listen to them at your convenience -while you are on a bus or train traveling to or from work.

" Work through the course systematically. This is better than picking out parts of it. Courses are designed to build your understanding and confidence in an organized way.

" Use flash cards.

" Some courses include games you can play which make it fun to learn new words.

" Make a practice of spending time each day learning the language, even if it is only 10 or 15 minutes it will keep your mind focused on your goal of learning Spanish.

" Listen to podcasts about learning the Spanish language. Again a search on Google will provide you with choices.

" Practice reading out loud. Find an area or room where you will not be disturbed and read sections of the language aloud. It will build your confidence and fluency in speaking Spanish.

To get a well structured course, flexible enough to cater to your individual needs and which includes enthusiastic support, it is better to invest in a paid course. While some can be quite costly there are also excellent courses which won't cost you the earth. Courses which you can download from the internet will, in general, cost less than formal courses offered by a school or private tutor and provide excellent value for your money.

If you wish just to be able to carry on a casual conversation, there are programs available which offer an interesting and fun approach to the job of learning to speak Spanish. You can quickly learn sufficient every-day language to enable you to enjoy your travels to Spain or to Latin American countries.

For your job, to talk to friends and neighbours, communicate with pen pals; learning Spanish can bring you much pleasure and satisfaction.

Norm Pavelka.

Spanish is a popular language to study as a second language because it is relatively easy to learn and it opens up exciting new vistas to those who make the effort to learn it. Learning Spanish should easy and fun.