How much time should I dedicate to studying Spanish?
Well, today I'm going to be answering this question.
Before getting started with the video, I want to tell you that tomorrow
is going to be a very important day for me, and
I'm feeling nervous, I'm excited
and, well, I won't tell you
what it's all about it but
I might show you afterwards.
But if you want to join me for it,
I'll be showing you all what's happening
on Instagram, on my Instagram story.
If not, then
I will tell you guys on here
but I would love for you to join me on Instagram, to see
what I am going to show you.
I'm not going to tell you what it is
but it's very important.
But for now - the answer to the question:
"How much time should I dedicate to studying Spanish?"
Well it depends, right? It depends on
what your goals are, on how fast you want
to advance in your Spanish progress.
It depends on why you want to learn Spanish,
it depends on a lot of things!
But I'm going to share with you
something that a teacher once shared
with me. This teacher
told me this once and I have applied this
and I've told this to my students as well
How much time should you use to study Spanish? Well...
Take the time that you
consider necessary for
studying or the time that you would usually
use for studying Spanish.
For example, one hour in the day
You have one hour in the day
and divide this time
in four. So
one quarter of this time
is going to be dedicated to
intense study.
Or rather, you can sit down with your dictionary,
with your notes, with your pencil,
you can take notes,
look up words in your dictionary:
an intense study period
focused on the language.
This intense study shouldn't
take up a long period of time, therefore
it's very short, in which you are
focused on learning words,
learning structures, improving your
vocabulary, improving your grammar. Things like that.
And it's very important that you dedicate
the rest of your available time
for studying Spanish to a more relaxed
study session, like so.
During this time, you are not going
to spend time studying
each individual word, or looking in the dictionary,
or looking at structures,
"why is it said like this and not like that?"
No. This time is for enjoying Spanish.
Or rather,
you are going to use Spanish in the same way
that you use your native language. For example,
if you want to read a book
in your native language,
do you analyse it word for word?
Or look up all the words in a dictionary?
No. In your native language, surely
you sit down to read, you might have a snack
while reading, and you enjoy the activity.
Or another example: if you're going to watch TV,
sit down, relax and try to
understand the general meaning.
Enjoy that series, or that film,
but do it in Spanish
or in whichever language you are learning.
Be relaxed about it.
Don't study or analyse every
phrase or every word.
No. Simply train your brain
to understand directly what
is happening, without translations
or without mental exercises.
So, to sum up:
whenever you study Spanish
or you want to use Spanish for learning
Decide how much time you are going to dedicate
to that activity
From that time, divide... divide that
time into four. And you are going to use
a quarter of that time for intense study,
and the rest of the time,
go for a more relaxed study,
to practise using the language.
And so, that's my response. A piece of advice
that I got from a teacher in university years ago.
Now I can share it
with you guys. I hope it helps you out
and well tomorrow
is the big day, with the very important thing
that I'm going to do that I don't want to tell you about yet
but you might know
in the future, and if you follow me on
Instagram then you'll find out!
See you guys tomorrow!