How i learned SPANISH 🇪🇸 in three months (ways to learn a language FAST)

Hi guys, I'm Damarshguy and welcome back to my channel. Most of my friends were surprised when they found out that I could speak Spanish. And really, me too. That's why I thought I'd make a video about that and how I'm learning Spanish. Well, first of all, I'd like you to know that my Spanish isn't that good. This is my sixth month learning Spanish, although I made a mistake in the last video when I told you that it was the eighth month. Before we start, let me tell you a little story about why I started learning Spanish. It may sound like a stereotype, but the main reason for this is the April quarantine. I love Spanish series like La Casa de Papel and Elite. That's why I decided to go to the pool and learn the language. Then, when I got to the third month, I could speak with Spanish speakers. Okay, now let's get to the meat of this video and begin with Damarshguy's personal tips and ways on how to learn Spanish, which have helped me learn the language effectively. Number one, start with Duolingo. Believe it or not, the foundation that I had for learning Spanish was built by my consistent use of Duolingo since the first month. I was actually very stubborn to watch other YouTubers and see how they were learning the language. So I decided that I was going to stick with my way and learn with Duolingo without the aid of other resources. In a nutshell, Duolingo is a language learning app, which I highly recommend to a lot of beginners like me because it teaches you the basics of the language, although it doesn't really teach you the complexities of the grammar and sentence structures. This is a time I look for explanations on the internet. Duolingo makes language learning fun, although I would like to emphasize that it does not make you fluent. It only helps you become fluent. There are a lot of things that Duolingo doesn't teach. And maybe for me, the best part of the app is the streak feature because it helps you monitor how many days you've been learning the language. And it helps you become competitive with yourself as you encourage yourself to maintain that streak. And if you don't do your Duolingo every day, then you're going to lose your streak. I am now in my 201st day of learning Spanish. Second tip, learning while enjoying. The best way to learn Spanish was learning through the activities which I had fun with. In my case, that would be watching Netflix and reading my all-time favorite book series, Tired of Wimpy Kid. Learning the language should be a fun activity. Yes, sometimes it may cause overwhelming stress, but at the root of it all is the experience of learning the culture of other people and learning how they use their language. By having fun, you get to absorb information quicker and more efficiently. Through binge-watching countless Spanish series, I get to practice my listening skills. And at the same time, I get to pick up new idiomatic expressions that I don't really see on textbooks. I get to see the nuances of the language, and it's actually fun to see how they play with words to portray a certain meaning. Duolingo has also awesome podcasts on Spotify for intermediate learners, and I also listen to them while I'm in the shower. While relaxing, I also learn. It's like hitting two birds with the same stone. I've also started to indulge myself in listening to Spanish music, and I even made a playlist for it. If you want to know what I'm currently listening right now and practicing to, I will drop the Spotify playlist on the description box below. And yes, I memorize all the lyrics of the songs. I don't know, it just gives me a good feeling when I can sing along with a song in another language. Though learning while enjoying is fun, having an academic approach on language learning can also yield a lot of benefits. Reading and answering exercises on the textbook solidify your knowledge and may answer the doubts that you may have. Personally, I don't really read textbooks that much because I believe that I'm a free soul, and I just like learning everywhere that I can. Or maybe that's just an excuse that I'm a lazy reader. I mean, I already have enough accounting books, and I don't want to add on that pile. But however, I always make sure that I include it in my language study schedule. I don't have a specific textbook to recommend because I honestly don't care what I'm reading as long as there's useful information about the language. But just so you know, I'm currently reading the Practice Makes Perfect series just for a supplement. There are also a lot of PDF files on the internet, so you don't have to spend on those as well. And a side note, stick to one textbook. Right now, my brother gave me so much textbooks, and maybe at the first month, I was very confused what I should read first, and I decided to just stick with one textbook and finish that one first. It also helps if you know the top 1,000 verbs and top 1,000 words on that language. Although I didn't really do this, I wish I knew this when I started. So you're lucky you know that now. For vocabulary practice, I use and I would recommend Highly Spanish Dict. It's the best Spanish resource out there and my go-to resource for verb conjugations. On my spare time, I like to practice on flashcards that I have in the website or the app. This system uses phased repetition, so it allows you to absorb the vocabulary into your long-term memory. It's a basic human fact that we learn a language through our environment ever since we were still less than 5 years old. Obviously, I can't go back to that age nor migrate to another Spanish-speaking country. This is why talking to native speakers really played a vital role in my development. Reading as much textbooks will only be as worthless if you don't really apply them on the real world. My main goal is to be fluent in speaking Spanish. And to do that, I would have to talk to Spanish native speakers, right? In my case, I have three language buddies. I talk to them when I want to practice, which is very often. Or I go to them when I have any doubts about the language. The first time I talked to a native, I felt extremely terrified. I was frozen and I didn't know what to say because she was speaking so fast. I think we were talking about where we lived and she was using words that I haven't encountered yet to do a lingo. At the same time, it was also a wake-up call for me to study more and to learn more about the language. That was when I realized that I still have a lot more to learn and it wasn't really something to be afraid of. I just took it as a motivation. And an important note, know what accent you're going to learn. Spanish has so many varieties and vocal distinctions depending on the country, and I advise you to only focus on one. Now, I'm currently learning the accent from Spain, though I don't really plan to learn other accents. I just want to be aware of how they sound. And that's why I have multiple language partners from South America. So you can choose either to learn the Argentinian Spanish or the Latin American Spanish or the Spain Spanish or the Mexican Spanish. It's really up to you and what kind of purpose you want to have for that language. A few months after I started, I made a journal and wrote anything that I wanted to do but in Spanish. It kind of felt like I was a kid again, you know, doing my daily diaries and narrating each day. Although each day was almost the same with the other one. But the point here is applying your writing skills on the language and applying what you've learned on a regular basis. You can do this when you're still not ready to talk to a native and you still might be scared. So you can just write on your own and see how you're doing with the language. Upon writing my journals, I open myself to new vocabularies. When you want to express something but don't particularly know the translation of it. I find myself learning new phrases that I would often use in conversations as well. My habit of creating journals forced me to learn the language on a reflective level, if I may say. So this is like all my entries since July 22. All of my Spanish journal entries and I still haven't updated it since I didn't have time yet. But let's check out my first journal entry. Let's see how my Spanish was at that time. So as you can see, on July 22, I think it was still my 4th month or 3rd month or 4th month. I said... It's very simple, quite simple. And then if you can see a month later, on August 17, I was already making a lot more complex sentences. A lot longer sentences. So I said... You know, just about my day and what I plan to do about the day. And what I'm practicing for my language journey and what I'm... Yeah, just basically about my day. You know, very basic. I can't stress this enough, but repetition is the key in learning a language. Even though I'm a student and I may not necessarily have the time to learn a language, I still make time to learn it even if it's just 15 minutes a day. Studying the language once a week with heavy loads is not advisable because it only triggers your short-term memory. The tiny bits that I do each day are actually helping me fortify my long-term memory as the language is consistently running through my mind. If you really are willing to learn a language, keep in mind that it requires persistence and determination to keep you going. It needs your dedication. Make time for it every day. It doesn't matter if it's on bedtime, early morning, or during your lunch break. It's these tiny bits that create big chunks of change. To remind me of this, I've also set my phone and iPad into Spanish since I'm already familiar with my phone photographically. So setting it on another language helps me have a new perspective on how words on my phone are translated into Spanish. At first, I would say it was harder than I thought it would be. So from time to time, I had to change my phone into English. But eventually, I stopped changing it into English and just pushed myself to keep on learning the language, even though it was kind of a struggle. So I used these six steps when I was learning Spanish and was actually surprised when I reached the third month. And I could already communicate with a native. And a little disclaimer, these steps aren't necessarily applicable to all languages. I'm still not familiar with other languages. All I'm saying is that these are what worked for me during my journey. So hopefully, if you're interested in learning Spanish as well, then you can apply these tips into your language journey. And please let me know if you want more language videos like this, and I will gladly do them for you. And well, I hope you learned something from my video. And if you have any questions, please write them in the comments. Thank you for watching, and until next time.