5 Reasons Why You Understand Spanish But Can't Speak It (And 5 fixes)

Everybody tells me this. David, I've studied Spanish for months or even years. I can read, I understand the grammar, but I cannot speak. Well, if that's you, I have good news. You're just a normal human trying to learn something new. So I'm going to talk about five things you are probably doing that are stopping you from speaking and what you can do to change that right now. The first one that everybody does is mistaking the theory with the actual skill. Like if I give you a book right now about swimming, you can read that book 100 times, but I promise you the first time you jump in the pool, you are going to sink until you actually try to move your arms and try to react to the water. Or if I give you a book about music, I guarantee the first time you sit at a piano, you're going to play like this and it's going to look silly. And I know it's painful, but that's the way we learn everything. We just suck before we get good at it. So why would Spanish be any different? How do you think I learned English? I remember the first time I went to someone and said, you have Wi-Fi? And they said like, what? And I was pointing at my phone in the sky, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, trying to say Wi-Fi. It wasn't fun. Well, it was fun for my friends watching me, but for me, it was embarrassing, but I kept practicing. I didn't go back to reading books because reading and speaking are different skills and it's unreasonable to think that by practicing this, I'm going to get good at this. It doesn't work like that. And I know the main issue here is confidence and looking silly, but don't worry, because actually nobody cares. And people are actually really nice when you try to practice their local language, unless you are trying to learn French. No, just kidding. But the only person feeling embarrassed or weird speaking Spanish, it's probably you. So the solution is just find ways to get the Spanish out to speak. You can find a conversation group, like in many towns, in many cities, they have conversation groups that meet at the library, at a coffee shop, at the city hall, and they practice once or twice a week. Especially it helps if the other people are non-native speakers. You will also see that everybody makes mistakes and that will build your confidence as well. You can find a conversation partner, for example, on Facebook and exchange languages. You can learn Spanish from them and they can learn English from you. Or if you have the means, you can pay someone, a tutor or a teacher, to actually teach you and to practice speaking with you. When you are paying, you see it as a service, so you already know you are not expected to know how to speak. And that also makes it easier for you to actually try things. And if you don't like any of those or on top of those, what I recommend is you record yourself speaking Spanish. You can talk about the day or you can just talk about things you see around the house or around your town, like luz, agua, teléfono. The goal here is for you to feel less awkward when you speak Spanish, to hear yourself, and to get used to you speaking a different language. Now, the second thing is the dog language. Let me explain. We have to separate translation from meaning. They are not the same thing. Stop thinking of Spanish as a code for English. It doesn't work. Think that a language is just sounds we make that trigger something, some reaction. Like, imagine a dog barking. We don't translate the bark. Like, if the dog does, whoa, whoa, we don't translate, oh, the first woof sounds like I have to, and the second woof translates as go out. We don't do that. We just care about the meaning. If the dog does this, we open the door or feed him. Like, you already do this in English. Like, when you say it's raining cats and dogs, you don't translate it. You don't say, oh, cats and dogs are falling from the sky. What you do is think about the meaning. It's raining a lot. So, you have to learn to do that in Spanish as well. I see this in real life with my three-year-old son. When we go to the park and some other kid comes and asks, ¿Cómo te llamas? He doesn't translate anything. He doesn't have anything to translate it to. He just knows that when somebody makes those sounds, I need to answer with my name. Me llamo Kevin, and that's it. Don't think, ¿Cómo te llamas? How do you call yourself? That's weird. No, yes, ¿Cómo te llamas? Oh, I have to tell them my name. The reaction has to be my name. That's it. So, think about the meaning, not the translation. The solution for this, there is something easy you can do, which is start labeling your house, the items you see in Spanish, like mesa, puerta, ventana. And then, when you think of a word in Spanish, don't think of a word in English. Think about the object. So, if you think of puerta, don't think door. Think of the door, like the actual object, not the words. So, that way, you will start matching the word in Spanish with the thing, not the translation. But, David, I'm too old to learn the language. Kevin, he's very young. And kids' brains are magic. They can learn anything very quick. I'm not an expert, but I don't agree with that. I think that, as an adult, you have the capacity to use your logic and to recognize patterns. The main difference is that he spends 24 hours a day surrounded by Spanish. And probably, you study maybe one hour a day, if you are really good. Most people do one or two hours a week. So, we have to count the total hours somebody spends learning. One year for you, maybe one month for my son. But, if I explain to you that, when somebody says, ¿Cómo te llamas?, you have to answer, Me llamo, and your name, you can learn this in 30 seconds. My son needed 40 or 50 times of somebody approaching him and asking him, and me telling him what to answer, for him to actually remember it and do it right. Solution. Learn patterns, structures. Don't just learn words or phrases by themselves. For example, Quiero in any infinitive means, I want to do that infinitive. Quiero comer. I want to eat. Quiero dormir. I want to sleep. So, now, as an adult, you know that, changing the infinitive, you can make as many phrases as you want. That would be impossible to teach my children. By the way, I have a series of videos about this, about learning using patterns, that I'm sure are going to be really useful for you. Now, we're almost done. Number four. The why trap. I find this all the time with my students, with everybody. Stop asking why about everything. Like, in the beginning, it makes sense to ask why sometimes. Like, for example, if I say, El coche es rojo. The car is red. Why el and why rojo? And I can explain, well, because coche is masculine. So, we have to use el, masculine the, and rojo, masculine red, because everything has to match. That makes sense. But then you keep studying and you get to, Me gusta. I like. And then you ask, Why not yo gusto? And the teacher will probably say, well, because in Spanish, me gusta, is not actually, I like, but rather, it pleases me. I am not the subject. I am the indirect object. And you are doing this mind gymnastics to try to understand what all of that means. Wouldn't just be easier to learn, if I want to say, I like something, I say, me gusta. That's it. Like, let me ask you, do you know how to drive a car? Probably yes. Do you know how the engine works? Probably not. Are you going to become an engineer just to drive the car? No. There is nothing wrong in researching and everything, but most people don't need it. And you're wasting so much time and energy in trying to understanding why. And the solution is just stop asking why and using that time and that energy to actually practice exercises and try to do more efficient things. And a very good thing you can do is immersion. Why do you think immersion programs are so effective and so popular? Because you don't need to learn the why. You just learn how to use the language. So if I say, uy, tengo frio. Tengo frio. You already know I'm cold. You don't need to ask why I'm using tengo, I have, instead of soy, I am. You don't need to know that. You see how it works? And that takes me to the final point, which is similar, and it's about the rules. You have to stop trying to worry and memorize very complicated rules. That is making you speak slower. Use grammar as a guide, but don't keep it in your mind all the time. Take the classic example, ser o estar. A lot of people worry about the rule. No. Ser, permanent things. Estar, temporary things. So then I say, mi abuelo está muerto. My grandpa is dead. And you follow that by saying, oh, don't worry, I'm sure he's gonna get better. Because estar is temporary, right? Or I say, soy soltero. I'm single. And you say, oh, sorry to hear that. I guess that's it then for you. You said soy soltero, that means you'll always be alone. These rules are just a guide that you can follow sometimes, but don't get fixated on them. Actually, fun fact, for the most confusing topics in Spanish for learners, like ser and estar, imperfecto or indefinite, the gender of nouns, the subjunctive, Spanish people never learn the rules for these. So we never think about permanent, temporary. If it's a wish, those rules are way more difficult to remember and to really understand than actually using the thing. They're very vague. The solution for this, and this is probably the hardest thing to do, because there is no shortcuts, practice enough and be patient enough, because it takes time, until this becomes normal. And the best thing you can do is observing and copying. So for every conversation, you observe how it goes and what we say, and you just copy that without thinking about rules, without thinking, is this uncertain? Is this temporary? Is this permanent? All right, so the to-do list right now, number one, go check the videos on patterns that I leave in the comments, because that's going to really help you build phrases without thinking so much. Number two, using one of these patterns, record yourself speaking, making phrases, then spend another 30 seconds or one minute recording yourself talking about what are you going to do today, how was your day, the shopping list, anything. Record yourself, listen to your own voice speaking Spanish. And number three, label five things around your house in Spanish and say it out loud. If you found the video helpful, consider subscribing and liking it, and sharing with people that you think might find it useful. Any questions or any comments, you know what to do. And I'll see you in the next one. Hasta luego.