How I Learned Spanish 

Following up on the videos I recently did on how I learned French and Japanese, here is one on how I learned Spanish. It has been a highly enjoyable association of over 60 years with this lovely language and culture. --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ My Podcast ⇢ soundcloud.com/lingosteve podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/learn-languages-with-steve-kaufmann/id1437851870 --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

I can't believe it. 2 years ago I listened to a video by Steve Kaufman and had really almost zero interest in learning a language. His enthusiasm for language learning got me hooked. Now I am spending almost 2 hours a day immersed in language learning. His sheer exuberance inspired me. I just had to get some of that good stuff what ever it was!!!

The most useful book I ever read in Spanish was a translation of Robinson Crusoe. WHY ? Vocabulary !! In the story, Crusoe talks about EVERYTHING.....all the words for tools, household implements, foods, plants, animals, weather, the ocean, maritime terms, ships, geographical terms, clothing, construction terms, body parts, illnesses etc. etc. etc. This one book was a review of ALL the basic vocabulary you might ever use....plus it's just a great story. What more could you possibly want ?

I started learning Spanish some time in 2022, but without much dedication and willingness. 5-10 minutes a day, not even every day. And then in January 2023 I flew to Alicante for 4 days and already at the airport I realised I can read and understand the signs, then I went to the bus stop and realised I can understand a little of what the ticket man was saying to me, so I opened my mouth and replied to him in my basic broken Spanish and he understood. This was the day since which I've started learning every single day and my connection went up high. Since then I've visited Spain 4 more times and always loved it.

You need to take the last 2 minutes of this video and make a separate one for it as that advice is just spot on!

Remember me I will be back in 5 years and I will be fluent in Spanish.

100% agree with what you said at the end. I think lots of people give up learning a new language because they don't meet the crazy expectations they put on themselves, because they want instant results. Learning a language is like a slow process of osmosis, where the more immersed you are the more gradually seeps in and settles. The western lifestyle however conditions us to expect instant gratification however. The most successful people love the process as much, if not more than they love the results.

Spanish was extremely difficult for me until I developed an interest in tango and began travelling to Buenos Aires, this was after pretty much flunking out of Spanish in high school and college. It's amazing how much your interest in something can play in your motivation and your ability to comprehend it. My Spanish isn't perfect yet, but I'm not confounded by it, and there is the added benefit of the recent influx of Spanish speaking people into the U.S. something that wasn't that common when I was in school.

Este tío es una leyenda. Muchísimas gracias por el LingQ, senior Kaufmann. Ojalá lo hubiera encontrado antes.

When Steve says whatever level i was at "i was happy" if i could say three things in spanish to someone i was happy... i think this is the key.. finding the joy in language .. not competing or comparing yourself...every new word learned a gift..

Was ABOUT to open a RU-vid search to find how to learn Spanish and you immediately upload the video! Universe gives me signs that I should learn Spanish :D

If you want to learn a lot of slangs in spanish I recommend "El Qhubo" a newspaper from Colombia. It's hilarious, please do not take it seriously.

Steve Kaufmann is such an inspiring and legendary polyglot who knows how to learn any language in a fun way without getting stressed out. His Spanish learning experiences were fantastic and so interesting as far as I know. Listening and reading are the key to handle and enjoy a new language, it's what I do with my English which is the language I know the most by far. I'm also interested in learning other languages, though. The path to the fluency is long and tough of course, but I know I can do it even if I trip up making unavoidable mistakes when it comes to speak English for a real conversation and listen to it carefully which I can misunderstand some familiar words or unknown words or hard phrases to catch for me. Furthermore I have a little bit of knowledge in French, Italian, Russian among other languages because I'm learning them from scratch practically. As a curious learner, I wanna keep on developing myself through several ways and I look for new opportunities to keep thinking big. By being humble and smart in fight for my goals, it'll be beneficial and helpful for my career, wellness and happiness. If you have always had several dreams, just go for it.

I would love to see some photos of you as a young adventurer in 1964 in Europe :)

I am a Russian living in Canada (so English is my second language). Was always fascinated with French, so I started to learn it, took a couple of courses, listened to a lot of songs (we grew up with French songs), read most of Alexandre Dumas. Now learning Spanish, it's not as enjoyable as French for some reason (genetics, previous lives?), but I am sticking to it. Like Steve says "you decide whether you enjoy the language" (lots of wisdom in this phrase). Lately downloaded "Los tres mosqueteros" and started to read it. When a phrase doesn't make sense I go to "Les Trois Mousquetaires" (the origin) and compare the translation. Guys, that is really fun! You'd think how different can two roman languages be, but they are and it makes it even more fun to see how the French ways of expression differ from Spanish. On top of that I do duolinguo and Steve's LingQ. We live in a wonderful time!

I've started learning Spanish since six months ago. This is such a motivational video for me.

Me gusta la actitud que tienes en el aprendizaje, te he escuchado hablar español y los "errores" que haces son bastante insignificantes porque te expresas muy claramente. À très bientôt !

Thank you so much for this video!

Very inspiring video. Thank you, Steve!

Thank you!!! These are the words I needed to hear!

You're so awesome Steve! So inspirational. I'm going to get back into language learning ^_^ I hope you have a good weekend!

Love you Steve! Thanks so much for all your insight. You are truly amazing

WOW!! What an adventure!! Brave!!

My mother language! Lo habla muy bien... felicidades!

What a life you've lived Steve. I always loved learning from you, I think you're the best language influencer/tutor/commentator (Whatever word fits the bill) on RU-vid, but I never knew you had such an adventurous life. Loved listening to your stories. Would love to hear more :)

After listening to Steve I always come away feeling inspired to carry on my language learning journey. Thanks Steve 👍🏾

Thank you very much Mr. Steve

I have heard it a few times, I listened and it was funny, I read and it was interesting, even though everything was not comprehensible. Filling in the blanks if fun, so is finally getting it. Thanks for sharing your journey, Steve.

Saludos desde Argentina Steve !!!!!!

When I listen to your experience I feel so grateful for being able to learn languages in this century. I'm learning Korean now and there's so much free material I don't know what to use!

Steve your world is very fascinating, thanks a lot for your enthusiasm! Spanish is going to be my next goal after Portuguese 👍

Muy interesante Steve! Me encantaría hablar contigo en español algún día sobre los idiomas y tu experiencia

absolutely correct! Love and only love to a language can motivate yourself, making mistakes when speaking or writing, it doesn't matter, don't be shy. DON'T be afraid of MAKING MISTAKES !

Thank you so much for your videos Mr. Steve. As a graduating high school senior who has a dream of becoming a foreign service officer and living my life learning languages and traveling, these videos have proven to be very helpful to me as I try to determine which language I should study in university. Keep up the great work Mr. Steve!

Gracias por compartir tu historia y conocimientos Steve. Tenes que volver a Argentina algún día 🇦🇷

What a great story!!!!

Enjoy the language is one of the most important step in the process getting a new language. When I start learning English a year ago untill now I just have been studying in ways and with contentes that pleased me, its has been like that since the beginning when I hadn't find out yet the better methods for me till now when I know what work on. Then I did some choices that probably getting me into a superior development in some of the 4 skills than other, por exemple, my listen is pretty down thant my reading, because I prefer reading a lot, its where I am happyest setting eforts to improve. That way I find myself enjoying the process, and doesn't mind if it make me learning lesser. Also I don't mind all the plenty of mistakes committed, when you are learning there are no why try be perfect at all, you need just give your best.

3 minutes before mentioning linq, has to be a record. In all seriousness, I did love the video :)

saludos de Chicago IL. Felicidades Señor deberas que tiene usted un Español muy muy bueno. admirable su trabajo y muy apreciados sus comentarios y consejos.

How about doing one of these videos for Finnish, Indonesian or Vietnamese? You did learn these to some extent, did you not? Would be interesting to hear of your experiences with the languages, interactions with natives, or even of travels to the countries

Steve, you have my grandpa’s voice but in a different language. Feels like I’m listening to my grandpa speaking English. 😊

I love books tips!

I remember reading La Barraca but it was another book by Blasco Ibanez that stayed with me, Los Cuarto Jinetes de la Apocalipsis. That book and Zola's L'Assommoir profoundly affected me. I am a very different person for having read them. People, be careful what you read for what you read can make you and it can break you too.

Su español es excelente, igual que su explicación. Gracias.

Please share more of your stories from the 1960s and that hitchhike

I am now 76 years old and have been learning Spanish since I was 15 years old. The Spanish language is the great love of my life. I studied French in college for only three years but have had almost no exposure to French since those days so I have not maintained it.

Struggling with your TL can be demoralizing and frustrating. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the process. I do intend to reflect fondly on these days when I reach mastery. Maybe I’ll make a video telling people how I reached the summit. I’m gonna make the same video when I get my black belt.

Mr Kaufmann, just an idea, it would be very interesting to see you doing a Russian video series. Do you often find Russian speaking people over there in Vancouver?

Let’s go Steve!!!!!😤😤😤😤💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

Destinos is where it's at for Spanish. It's freely available at learner.org. It's a telenovela designed to teach Spanish using comprehensible input. It's 52 episodes each 26 minutes long. It starts simple and gets slowly more complicated. I watched the whole series 4 times. After that there's easy spanish podcasts and regular telenovelas. I learned most of my Spanish from watching telenovelas.

Steve, como le va con los diferentes acentos que tenemos los hispanos en los diferentes paises de Latinoamerica, Chile habla un español diferente al de Argentina y Mexico con su acento tan particular, los Panameños tenemos dichos que probablemente solo entendemos nosostros, jejeje es como otro idioma en cada pais.

thankyou one on Italian please

Tour spanish Is exelent. Tanhk you.

Do you suggest to first study Spain Spanish or Latin American Spanish?

LA FORMA EN COMO LO EXPRESA ES MUI RECONFORTE

Un gran consejo, Steve. La Costa Brava ya no tiene nada que ver con la de los años 60, pero todavía sigue siendo hermosa.

مرحبا ستيڤ ، كيف أنت ؟ أتمنى لك دوام الصحة .. أودُّ أن أسألك سؤالاً عن علاقة اللغات اللاتينية كالإيطالية والفرنسية باللغات المشرقية كالهندية والعربية ؟؟

I have a goal to learn & talk Spanish fluently in 3 years 😊. I speak 4 different languages and Spanish will be my 5th. Hope so 😊.

I am learning spanish alongside japanese and french. Since its not my priority right now, I found speaking it very enjoyable, however badly. All comes the attitude like Steve said in the last few mins.

Hopefully you see Mr. Kaufmann, and please anyone else who knows Spanish or uses it natively!!…..I’ve been doing a structure course and although it works on grammar it isn’t really going into it deeply where you get confused, more so makes you aware. So my goal is to finish this course do a vocab course while simultaneously reading and listening “reading and listening simultaneously” constantly. I’ve come to feel like translation after a point is not smart bc English is not Spanish. To me it makes sense to catch on to how Spanish speakers say things by reading over and over how they say them in different contexts; rather than always being in the mindset of okay here’s what I want to say in English now translate. Seems counterproductive. I’m fluent in American Sign Language so I have some baseline of knowing how learn another language successfully. i just feel like I need the structural understanding to be able to make the input comprehensible. To see reflexive pronouns and know that’s what it is. To see me lo and know “it to Me” and to know that can be on the end of a full verb or in front of all of it. Basically knowing where one chunk begins and ends. I’m not even a month into this process so know I know I’m truly a beginner regardless if I’m doing 4-6 hours a day. Thank you to anyone who responds!

I can say lots of things in spanish but when they speak back to me, my problem is understanding. I will try your input method.

La Barraca, gracias.

It is my dream to go to and maybe live in Brazil for a couple months, maybe years. I wish I had the money to do so 😔

maybe someday I will learn it ,but right now I want to learn languages with different writing systems,so I'm a native arabic speaker,I learnd English,I'm learning japanese ,I want to learn ,russian,korean ,and hebrew ,but I would love to learn Spanish one day

Sounds like Steve had a vibesy life!

The problem with the Spanish language is that there are so many accents and variants. We have European Spanish (castellano) spoken in Spain ( Europe) with its different accents depending on what part of Spain you are in. Then, there many other Spanish speaking countries located in South America where they also have different accents and slang etc. I've seen people who learned Spanish from Colombia travel to Spain and do not understand a word from someone who speaks European Spanish.

At what age did you become fluent? Im 31 and im doing 2 hours a day trying to break through intermediate to fluency

I 'm Chinese,working in Shanghai, i'm learning Spanish when having the free time, the problem is i cannot use the Spanish lanuage here,especially the world is locked now as the Covid. Is it very important to master Spanish????? Quiero estudiar Espanol con amigos aqui,vivo en Shanghai China.

Steve which language are you around C1/2?

❤️❤️❤️

I’m learning Spanish currently. 102 at university. It’s horrible. The way linguist teach in school is a waste of time. I’m going to be signing up for Q tonight!!

As a chinese that is fluent in Japanese. The first time speaking Japanese to a Japanese person feels like talking for the first time to a human. Now I really wish I could learn spanish.

Is anyone here English who has learned spanish? What advice would you give someone who wants to learn it? Looking for advice, books, videos, anything to help. Thanks!

a quien quiera practicar su español estoy dispuesto a ayudar, saludos desde Venezuela

The way you talk about learning languages before Lingq reminds me of "Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!" Dictionaries are stone age at this point.

Can anyone help me to improve my English🙂

Been following and watching you for a while sir, yet I still don't know what your mother tongue is. You sound like your native language is of Germanic family, to my ear it does at least

How did you have money to travel all over europe

Ok 👍🆗️

Hitch hiked on a boat? Sounds like Arya's journey from Game of Thrones.

أنا أستاذ لفة عربية من الكويت ..

While everyone has a reason to learn the very popular languages like Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese, etc. very few people including myself care enough to explore outside the popular domain. I'm learning Indonesian among others (without LingQ), the language of the 4th most populous country and what some agree to be one of the easiest. I enjoy learning official languages of countries most people never bother with, and if Steve ever learns some of these, I can rest easy knowing I have more experience and am better at the language than him, ready to call out his rookie mistakes.

Is the LingQ technical team actually doing something and making progress to add new languages to the platform or are they just stalling? People want to learn certain languages, but since some won't use any other resource besides LingQ, then it goes without saying: the longer the delay, the more opportunities everyone misses.

Steve: spend time in Mexico.

Yesss First time the firsrt

:)

If you put it at 2x speed he sounds Irish 😂

Have you heard that Moses McCormick died? He was only 40!

First

Spanish is whatever I say… …yo soy contento 😊 Esa es la actitud 😎 N 🇦🇷 es C 🇺🇾 es B 🇬🇧 en A 🇮🇹 it 🇧🇷 pt 🇩🇪 de 🇫🇷 fr