Tips to Improve Your Conversational Skills in Spanish 

I just stumbled upon your video a few months ago- I was born in Mexico adopted at 8 and lived here in america since- lost my Spanish around age 10- had no one to speak w and English was priority for everyone and i can't seem to recover my Spanish!

Yes!! The language tutor mixed with this is powerful.

I understand how you feel. But it's okay. Slow down. They will understand and you will get better!

Thanks

What would that sound like in English? Is there any type of an example of how using wrong conjugations would seem to an English speaker? I’ve always wondered how broken my Spanish will sound if I say screw it and start to use all verbs.

@@clath2823 TL;DR: Specifically with bad conjugations, you'll still usually be understood, especially if you use redundant pronouns, and even if you're not you'll just be asked to clarify Yeah so the best example I can think of in English is (we actually do have conjugations, they're just a lot less common so people often don't realize it) "he goed" or "you is" and both of those are still absolutely understandable. They make you look uneducated if you use them while the rest of your speech seems fluent but if you're obviously a Spanish learner they'll cut you a lot of slack, at least in my experience I once had a Spanish lady stop me on the street and ask me if I spoke, and I told her a little, and she asked me for directions to the nearest bus stop. I literally just pulled out my phone and pulled up Google Maps, pointed and said "We here. That's it" (in Spanish of course) and that totally did the job Of course you should try to get the conjugation right but usually you're understandable and even if you get it atrociously wrong they'll probably just stop and correct you Vocabulary is a little harder to pick up from context so more often you'll be stopped on that one. But even when you get it wrong it can lead to some comical exchanges. I was once chatting in Spanish with a fluent friend of mine from high school and I said something about being "tonto díficil" when he just busted out laughing - makes sense, as I was pretty sure I used the wrong word but I just went for it anyway because that's what conversation is about. Turns out "tanto" means "a lot" or "super" while "tonto" means "dumb". "Stupid hard" works in English but not so well in Spanish Basically, one of the worst things you can do is try to prep your response in your head a bunch before you deliver it. It's (at first) probably the best way to ensure you don't use any wrong conjugations but it also pretty much guarantees you won't understand what the other guy is saying, which is way more important than speaking perfectly

Wow, thank you.

Last 50 years??? Dude, it's time to know when to say when!

@@andresmeloso8106 ¿Porqué deberíamos parar de pensar y crecer solo porque hemos pasado mucho tiempo en esta planeta? Cada uno tiene la opción de seguir aprendiendo durante toda la vida, ¿no?

​@@DCKiraly Así es

@@andresmeloso8106 No! No! No! If he had given up, he wouldn’t have found just the help he needed!

It was only 33%. You belomg to an elite group, and thanks for that. :)

Yo también

@@QrooSpanishyou gotta get straight to the point and simple.That’s how the OG RU-vid days were and that’s how they got big

​@@Jayinjapanesewell, usually self learners do have some patience.

Where did you get those numbers?

Great advice, that's the key in learning a new language. The most difficult part is the starting point but don't give up. I'm on my way on learning french & russian, so I know the difficulties that there can be. By the way, I'm also a native spanish speaker, so .... Saludos a todos!

How exactly does one "think" in Spanish though? I have tried but sometimes you get stuck and have to use English for reference

@@pureone8350 that's the hard part, but if you keep practicing and expand your vocabulary, you'll eventually get used to think un spanish. In spanish (formal): Esa es la parte difícil, pero si sigues practicando y expandes tu vocabulario, eventualmente te acostumbrarás a pensar en Español.

@@KW-12 Muchas gracias

...I have trouble thinking in English. It's my native language..haha

Wish i could pound thumbs up More than once. 5 years study 1 hour - 16 hours every single day , never went to college nor formal class in spanish . But yeah i can write well and speak eh quizás al B1 , B2 nivel. But it's always not knowing which verb tense and making mistakes with an a or e or incorrect verb form. Hate grinding out verb reviews in Bloks but i imagine that i need to . Put too much Time in to not be More confident and speak without some small error every sentance or two .

@@mathematix-rodcast thank you . Do watch TV and music in spanish . Just not enough . And exactly as you say i make many errores in verb form other than that my vocab and sentence structure Is good . But thanks for highlighting which may get over this b1- B2 Level

How is your journey ? I’m in the same exact boat but I just struggle with all the grammatical rules

Try real fast Spanish as well to complete the trifecta

Yes, love Dr. Danny at the Language Tutor.

I agree with this statement…

Yes, agree!

Estoy muy de acuerdo pero una cosa que haría de tu canal algo mucho más útil sería la utilización de Español en vez de Ingles. Estamos probablemente de acuerdo que la immersión en una lengua extranjera es el camino más adecuado para alcanzar un nivel linguísitica muy elevada. A este nivel, todas esas explicaciones en Inglés me parecen una gran pérdida de tiempo -- y de oportunidades de mejorar de manera significativa nuestra destrezas comunicativas en Español. ¿No sería una opción de hablarnos siempre en Español?

Thank you very much for the positive comments. I know it can be frustrating to learn a foreign language -- I've been there. I like to share what worked for me in the hope that It might work for others. Just keep at it and you'll reach your goal.

My husband has this problem because his accent and pronunciation are really good in Spanish, but his vocabulary is tiny. Therefore native speakers do not know they need to slow down for him. I actually think you should take it as a compliment! It probably means you sound good!

Pienso que deberías decirle a el o la nativa que esté hablando contigo que por favor te hable más despacio. Seguro que la persona va a entender y va a hablar más despacio👍

Thanks! I'm glad you like them. :)

That's great. That's how it went for me too. I gradually stopped translatimg in my head.

I'm so happy to hear that you have found my videos useful. It's not easy to learn a foreign language and I enjoy helping others reach their language goals.

Thanks. I took a long break from it but I'm back. :)

Glad to hear it. I still use these techniques. They work great.

That's awesome to hear. Thanks for sharimg that. Take care.

Hago lo mismo con videos que enseñan inglés 😅

I’ve seen that before in the comments on other sites. It puzzles me too.

That's the best way to improve quickly. You just have to do it and not be afraid to make a mistake.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the feedback and I am so glad that you find the technique useful. Take care.

I'll have to check it out. Ironically, I don't watch much on RU-vid apart from Korean action films dubbed in Spanish. They are really awesome.

They give good lessons and even the Spanish Chunking Kit. The teachers are now one Mexican and one Venezuelan girl. But they don't always explain things as well as you do so keep up the good work!👏👏🙏

Welcome to the channel. You're not the first person to mention that so I stopped making videos during my morning walks. :)

Thanks for following the channel. Listening comprehension is the toughest part of learning the language. I found that it was helpful to focus on listening to speakers from the target country. That way the "timing belt" in your head gets calibrated to their way of speaking. I equate it to English. I've spoken it my whole life but if I watch a show or movie on BBC, I put on the subtitles so I don't miss something. My ear is just not as in tune to that English.

Thanks Qroo. I do get a little listening practice through my work. I work for the Corrective services and we do get a few Sth Americans coming through. Practicar practicar y practicar!! Poco a poco!!

This is the best book that I have ever read about the Spanish language. They keep improving it with new versions but I have been buying them since the 90's. This is really a reference guide but I read it cover to cover -- several times: Here is the Amazon link: amzn.to/3yOpO95

@@QrooSpanish Excelente! Muchas gracias.

Thanks for following the channel. I'm very happy to hear that you often watch the videos more than once. That helps me generate a little extra beer money. :)

That's a great way to practice. I used to do the same thing all the time.

That's a pretty decent list of sentence starters.

Living in the country would be a huge advantage in terms of not just learning but staying motivated to learn. Since you are putting in several hours a day learning now, I have no doubt you will meet your language goals. There are so many free resources online to help too.

Lol, thanks for your support ;-)

Welcome to the channel. Have a great weekend.

Haha, definitely! How was the cornbread?

Aquí es donde usaría el nombre comercial "foosbol". I hear native speakers throw in English words and phrases a lot. Like email. "Correo electrónico" is bulky. But then, why not just call it ecorreo? And my favorite, "fin de semana". Just say "semanafin"!

I'm glad the lessons are helpful to you :-)

Happy to help. :)

Maybe a good exit phrase. Thanks to the who posted original.

It does contain errors, but considering that you've only been at it just over two weeks -- it's pretty decent. Keep at it. Take care.

Thanks for letting me know it was distracting. I turned off the midroll ads for this one.