This is Jack from tofluency.com and this is the To Fluency podcast, episode 8, where you can learn English with me. Now today I'm going to talk about my experience learning Spanish at university. Now I took Spanish at university as a side course, like an extra course. My main course was economics and I also studied a little bit of sociology as well. But I decided in my last year to take Spanish and I'll explain why I did that in a moment. But first, if you are new to the podcast, welcome.
My name is Jack. I teach English through this podcast and also on YouTube, on Instagram and on my website, tofluency.com. Now if you go to my website, there is a link in the description. You'll be able to download a book for free. It's called the five Step plan for English fluency. Like I said, it is free to download. So again, today we're going to talk about my journey learning Spanish and really focusing on my time at university.
And I'm doing this because I want to show you how things have changed when it comes to learning a language. Now, if you are somebody who is younger, then this might seem quite strange to you. If you are around my age, 30s let's say, then you will know. In the past, learning a language
was very different. So to highlight this, I'm going to be using tenses in the past tense, in the present tense and also in the present perfect, talking about how things have changed, how things have changed. Let's start with the reason why I started learning Spanish. Now this is a very specific reason which is very different to why most people Start learning a language.
And I started doing Spanish in my last year because I spoke to a friend who said, look, if you want to get a high grade, a good degree, then do a language because the way that they mark the tests with languages is different to other parts of the university. So studying economics, if I took an economics course, the highest grade you can get really is 70%
or 72%. It's very difficult to get higher than that, but if you study Spanish, there's a possibility if you study hard, that you can get 100%. And what that does is it brings up a phrasal verb, it brings up your total score at university so that you can get a higher grade. So after hearing this, I've thought what a good idea. If I dedicate my time to Spanish, then I'll guarantee that I get a really good grade
at university. Now, I also wanted to learn Spanish because I wanted to go travelling to South America. I knew when I was at university that I was going to work for a couple of years after graduating university and then go travelling to South America and that is what I did. But again, the main reason I took Spanish was because I thought I was going to get a good grade. Now I had learned French at school, so I had some experience
learning a language. But Spanish, it was completely new to me. I didn't know any words at all. I didn't know anything about Spanish. So I took the beginners course and the lessons were quite good. Actually they were OK. At times I was a little bit confused because they were talking about verb conjugations and grammar, a lot of grammar and it just confused me because
I wanted to learn phrases. And I'm going to talk about soon how or the importance of learning phrases and we'll go into the method later on in this episode. But in that class, it was mainly grammar. And I remember conjugating verbs like tener carere, the the basic Spanish verbs. When I was at university, I didn't have a computer and we didn't have Internet in the place where we lived. I didn't have a phone. There weren't smartphones back then. There weren't iPhones or the Google phones.
So we didn't really have access to learning materials or anything for at home. In order to get online, we had to go to the computer lab at university, sign on, and then we could go online from there. And this is relevant because these days as an English learner listening to this, you have access to this free podcast and other free podcasts and lots of other things, which again, we'll we'll discuss later. But the way that I did extra learning at university was four
different ways mainly. So there was the class and then meeting up with people in our class to go through study notes and to practice. There's also a language room or a language library that I remember where you could take out a book and ACD and listen to the language, do some writing exercises like your typical workbook that you get when you go to a language school. And then I also bought newspapers in Spanish. El Pais it was.
So it was a newspaper from Spain that I could get at the Student Union newspaper store. It was very expensive, but I bought it. I tried to read it and I couldn't understand it. And that was one of my first mistakes, was that I tried to read something that was way above my level, too high for me. A newspaper in Spanish for somebody who has just started learning the language is not going to be good study materials.
And apart from that, apart from buying more workbooks or CDs or books, there weren't any of the resources available for me. Again, in being able to go online and listen to audio, watch videos, etcetera for free is such a massive thing these days. But when I was at university, I didn't have access to any of that. Now you're probably wondering how I did with my Spanish class if I passed, if I got 100% like I was hoping. Well the quick answer is no, I did OK.
I actually think the Spanish score brought my entire score down, brought my marks down. So instead of bringing everything up, my Spanish score actually brought everything down. So it didn't work out for me, but if I knew what I know now about learning a language, I'm sure I would have done so much better because I remember being in my test, it was the oral speaking test. And my teacher asked me questions. I had no idea what she was asking me.
I think it was something basic like what did you have for breakfast today or what do you like to eat? And I just couldn't say anything. I didn't understand what she was saying. But again, if I knew what I know now about language learning, I would have done so much better. This is a great sentence. If I knew what I know now about language learning, I would have done so much better. So, as a beginner, what would I have done? What would I have done better?
Well, first, because the test was important, I would have learned what was going to be on the test. I would have done more research about what they were going to test me. And this is relevant if you're taking something like IELTS or the TOEFL test, something that is going to test your level of English so that you can get into a university, so you can go and live in another country or so you can get a job somewhere else or a job with an English
speaking company. Because knowing how they're going to test you really can help you dictate what you need to study. So for me, I should have learned, should have, I should have learned what questions they were going to ask me on the exam and really practice those questions. And you can do this if you're taking a test, go through past tests and look at what they're going to test you on. Understand the test the best you can understand it. Now, this is also true if you're
just learning English for fun. And what I mean by that is think about ways in which you can focus on the language that you're going to use. So if you're going to use a language to speak with people in a friendly way, to make conversations for a trip to London or to New York, then learn the types of phrases that you're going to need and focus on that. The whole idea here is to focus on what is going to help you with your situation.
A lot of people will say I want to improve my general English, but if that's the case, focus on commonly used words and phrases, things that you're going to use on a daily basis. Now, after learning what I was going to be asked on the test, this is what I would have done next. I would have written down answers, send them to somebody, and ask for feedback. So write down answers, send them to somebody, and ask for feedback.
And then I would practice saying these phrases because in the oral test, the speaking test you're tested on, the way you say it, it's not just about if the sentence is correct, but if you say it correctly. So that's what I would have done, and then I would have used my favorite method, the LRRC method where I get somebody to say these phrases for me, listen to them, repeat them, record them and compare them.
Listen, repeat, record, compare. Now if you want to learn more about that method, get my book, The Five Step Plan for English fluencytofluency.com. And then as a way to improve my Spanish in general and just to feel more comfortable with the language, I would have learned commonly used phrases so that I could say the basics. Things like I like to do this. I have my breakfast in the morning, I like to take a shower, I love football, etcetera.
The stuff that you you need to know as a beginner. And then I would have got graded readers, graded readers for A1 level. Now, these are books that have been written especially or modified specific to a level of English or a level of Spanish in my case. So I talk about A1A2B1B2C1C2 as a level and you can think of A1 as a beginner, A2 as a beginner but a higher level, B1 and B2 intermediate, and then C1 advanced C2. You sound like an English speaker or native English
speaker. So I would have found books, graded readers with audio that are specific to an A1 level of Spanish because that is the level that I was at. Reading a newspaper, which is AC2 level, was just far too difficult and I wasn't learning the phrases that I needed to learn in order to pass the test. Because again, my main reason for taking Spanish was to try and get a higher grade. But at the same time, I wanted to learn Spanish and I was
interested in the language. So I wanted to get the higher grade as my main focus, but then also just learn Spanish as well to learn the language. So having a graded reader for a one would have helped me learn the patterns and learn everything I needed to know. And then I would have taken a little bit of grammar just to understand the language and to understand it in a more logical way.
Now, the graded readers, the repetition of phrases I would have, I would have picked up the grammar and understood it. But just learning a little bit of grammar here and there, learning the grammar rules and when to use them would have also helped. Especially for my exam and everything I've talked about here. The things that I would have done, it would have been so much easier if I had access to the different resources available.
Now, that's not an excuse for not doing as well as I had hoped in my Spanish exam, but it's something that I think is important and it's something to feel grateful for that if you're listening to this podcast, it means that you can access any type of resource online. You can watch videos on YouTube, you can listen to other podcasts, you can read books, you can read magazines, you can read websites, you can interact with people on social media. It goes on and on.
So having this is a fantastic thing. What I think is also important is being specific and and thinking about what you need to focus on for what you're doing right now. So again, if you're taking a test, think about how you can pass that test. If you need English for your job, be specific about the English you're learning for the job. If you want English to travel, then learn key phrases and just learn as much conversational English as possible.
And then because there are so many resources out there, it can be difficult deciding on which ones to use. So think about what resources, what podcasts, what videos are going to help me right now and be specific about the level you have and find resources specific to that level.
So what should you do now? Well, firstly, if you have enjoyed this podcast and I really appreciate a review if you're listening to this on a podcast app and also share the podcast with your friend and then head over to to fluency com to download your book, the five step plan for English fluency. And if you haven't listened to all of my episodes yet, then have a little look through my podcast and see which episode
appeals to you. I recommend episode 2 to listen to after this one because it talks about why you need to do the hard things but still have fun. So it talks about the mentality of getting dedicated practice, which will help you focus on doing the things you need to do. All right, thank you so much for listening and I will speak to you soon. Bye bye.