Most students who begin learning to speak Spanish will be very keen to speak it well as fast as they can. It’s so rewarding to be able to hold a conversation in a second language but it must be said that learning this skill does take a little time. Nevertheless, I’ll now share with you five fun ways that will help you to accelerate the learning curve that helped me so much when I began life here in Spain. I’m assuming you’re already studying a formal language course, so these methods are in addition to your studies.

Daily Tasks – Seek out as much Spanish as you can for your everyday jobs and activities. For example: Using a computer, cleaning the house, doing the shopping, cooking, expressions for your automobile/motorcycle, going to the gym, or choose your favorite sport: the Spanish have a passion for cycling, soccer and basketball. These are all great ways to increase your vocabulary and more interesting than formal study.

Talk The Talk – Speaking in Spanish as much as you can is crucial. Resolve to converse in Spanish for around half and hour every day. Don’t worry if you live outside the Hispanic world because the worldwide web makes talking in Spanish with someone so easy. Do a search for online Spanish tutor, chat en español, international pen pals and Spanish chat rooms. You’ll probably need to install SKYPE, the voice over IP Internet telephone software which is free.

Play Along – I believe it’s crucial to have fun when you’re learning Spanish and one thing I enjoyed – and still do – is to play games. Amazon offers scores of games books but you’ll find lots of free games by searching the Internet. Useful search terms include Spanish hangman, Spanish crosswords, Spanish word search and Spanish quiz and these kinds of games are an enjoyable, effective way to build your Spanish!

Star Struck – A canny and surprising way to learn some practical Spanish phrases. Read through the daily Spanish horoscopes. Enter the following phrase into a search engine: “daily Spanish horoscope” and remember, it’s about familiarizing yourself with Spanish not the validity of the predictions!

In Black And White – To finish, if you regularly read a certain magazine, a great idea would be to try and find the Spanish edition.

There you have five methods showing you how to learn Spanish quickly. Give them a try and have fun!