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Sometimes, it is much easier if you can relax and accept things just the way they are. Same philosophy applies to Spanish courses. When learning Spanish you are also learning how Spanish speakers think and because it is a cultural issue, there might be ideas that do not translate in your mother tongue. As it happens in other fields, is pointless to try obsessively to keep on control. Just pay attention and try to figure out what is the right situation for using this new word or phrase.

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As we mentioned before, learning a language means learning from the culture that has created it. The more you get involved in cultural situations, the better you will understand and feel the need for each new word. When learning Spanish you will have tons of possibilities, from music to cooking, dancing among others.

Tasting local food, asking about its recipe, asking information about the area and writing down directions, offering help at the hostel or host-family where you are staying will give you a wide cultural vision and the opportunity to learn new words, phrases, etc.

Students learning how to prepare "empanadas"

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Develop your listening skills naturally and bridge the phonetics barriers. Whether you are in an immersion Spanish program or not, you have many possibilities to expose yourself to Spanish sounds, let´s see how:

Immersion:

Listen to people talking on simple situations. Try to get the global ideas from any discussion you hear. The easier, the better. While shopping, on the bus, in church... any cultural situation that you can understand will be a great source of words and useful phrases.

At home:

Get some good music tracks, try to find those where Spanish is clear, so you can repeat the lyrics. Since memorizing by music is much easier, this will remain in your memory for a long time. Find some tv interesting programs and podcast of your interest. You do not need to understand every word; thus you get familiar with sounds and learn phonetics in a natural way.