The Best Way to Get On Track to Meet Your Spanish Goals ♫ 21

Bienvenidos. Welcome to the learn Spanish con Salsa podcast. The show for Spanish learners that love music, travel, and culture. Close your grammar textbooks, shutdown the language ads and open your ears to how Spanish is spoken in the real world. Let us show you how to go from beginner to bilingual. Here is your host certified language coach Tamara Marie.

Hola, y bienvenidos al episodio 21. Welcome to episode 21 of the learn Spanish con Salsa podcast. In this episode, we'll talk about the best way to get on track to meeting your Spanish goals. So, I have a question for you and I want you to think about this honestly. How many times have you downloaded a Spanish app, but a month later you still hadn't even opened it? Or have you ever signed up for an online Spanish course that you just never got around to finishing? Maybe it's because you got distracted or it was just too boring. Now today I'm going to share stories from language learners just like you who discovered how to get themselves on track to stay accountable and meet their Spanish goals. In episode 15 I talked to Brittany now she was the winner of the last member's challenge that we had inside the Spanish con Salsa community and today I'm going to share a few more conversations with the finalists from that challenge. First you'll hear from Kim and how she has been able to make progress even after feeling like she was failing to meet her goals after years of learning Spanish off and on, then we hear from Scott who finally gained enough confidence to start speaking Spanish instead of just passively learning Spanish. Scott and Kim are both members of the Spanish con Salsa community, and as you may already know, I've opened the doors to new members for just a few days. Enrollment closes tomorrow, May 22nd at 10:00 PM US Eastern time. So if you're interested in learning more about how you can learn Spanish with music, with the support of private coaching and an encouraging community to keep you motivated, go to spanishconsalsa.com/join. That's spanishconsalsa.com/join. There, you'll get all the details about how you can join us. Just in time for our next member's challenge. Starting in June, we'll be engaging in some friendly competition to jumpstart our Spanish learning for the summer. And I'll also be giving away some great prizes from private lesson packages to travel gifts and more. That's why we're closing the doors to new members on Wednesday, May 22nd so we can shift our focus to our members and get ready for the challenge this summer. Now let's hear from Kim. She's going to share with us how she was able to stay on track to meet her Spanish goals during our last 90 day member's challenge

Each week, having a different task and my friends at work noticing an improvement because I would, they noticed that"Oh, you're focusing more on your Spanish" is it was a every day task for me. I would try to have more conversations in Spanish and compared to in years in the past it was like"Oh, I studied for a while and I'm not motivated so I stopped taking classes or I'm not practicing every day". But for the task, you wanted to make sure that you did the best that you could. So it was just a point of competition with myself and trying to do the best job possible.

But what would you say is the most significant improvement that you noticed in your Spanish over the last 90 days? And it could be something that you noticed or other people around you. Because sometimes we're our own worst critics and we don't notice when we're doing better. So is there something that either you noticed that improved the most or that other people around you that you were talking to notice?

I noticed that my motivation to continue had improved. And as far as my speaking, I lost some of the fear because for me, as you mentioned, you can be your worst critic. And for me, I'm very hard on myself because I've studied off and on throughout the years and I feel that I should be better than I am. And even though I don't, I wasn't studying constantly each month of the years. It still has been a long time and I feel that I have failed in reaching that goal for myself, but noticing that friends at work have have told me,"Oh, Kim you are doing really good." Kim we be still staying with it? And so that has, it gave me a confidence boost, especially at work, being surrounded with people who speak Spanish and knowing that they've seen the difference.

It is difficult when you feel like you're spinning your wheels or you're not making progress. But little by little all of that adds up. And one day like things just start to click, you know, it's like you have all these like little pieces that are floating out there. You feel like they're not coming together. But over time those little things come together and they click and you're like, Oh wow, you're surprised at what you're able to do. So that's good that you got some positive feedback from your coworkers. What would you say was the contribution of being with other learners as well as the support you had with being able to talk to coaches as well? How would you say that factored into keeping you motivated and improving?

I think being able to see other students taking Spanish and learning and knowing that, Oh, we're all in this together was a great motivation. It also knowing that everyone was supportive of each other, that was something that was real supportive to me. Meeting different people, Kimberleys, Britney, et cetera. Everyone was supportive. They would give comments or the task that you did and no one being mean to each other. Everyone was being real supportive and caring that you took the time to do the task. Because when you, for me, when I watched their videos or listen to their audios, it was like, Oh, that's a new word. Oh, that was great that they use that. And so seeing how they progressed and the different words and vocabulary that they use, it also helped me as well, the way that you have it set up, it touches on everything that you need to be successful. And what I realized for myself is that I've studied Spanish for a long time and I know all of the aspects of it, but I don't know it 100%. And so what I found myself making the mistake is that, Oh, I've done this, I know this. And I didn't do all of the recordings, I didn't do everything so I could listen to this thing of the different conversations and pass the test, but I wasn't improving in my opinion. And so I'm like, can you need to go back and do what as you've never done it before? Like you're a new student and maybe that'll help it click better for you and help you grow as a student.

I know exactly what you mean. Because it's like if you learn something, once you sort of think you're familiar with it and because you're familiar with it, you think that you know it and it might even get boring. But then you realize when you go to speak, if you can't use, like for instance, the subjunctive, like there's the one most people get caught up with. You might understand it when you hear it sometimes, but then you don't always understand why it's used. You wouldn't use it yourself. So if you're not at that point, it does require, you know, reviewing it again and again and again. Even with the vocabulary, once you get through it one time, you know you should always rearview vocabulary as well. So I think that's a good strategy kind of taken they call like the beginner's mindset, like always feeling like you're a beginner and really I'm being attentive to everything I went through. It's all the tests. I hope something in Kim's story was inspiring to you, especially if you've been also trying to learn Spanish for a while and you don't feel like you're making the progress that you should be. Kim is definitely an inspiration. She has been very consistent within the community. Not only improving her own Spanish, but encouraging other people. So she's been doing an excellent job and she has been persistent. So the key is if you want to meet your goals, do not give up. You will get there as long as you keep trying. Now let's hear from Scott. So I asked Scott what surprised him the most about the progress that he made during our last member's challenge. And this is what he had to say

Thing I've gotten out of my shell with being comfortable talking and recording myself even if I make mistakes so that's become a lot easier. So I think I've, everything I videotaped.

What's the most significant improvement that you've noticed in your Spanish during the 90 day challenge? And it could be something that, that you notice in yourself or something that someone else has noticed or told you. Because sometimes we're our own worst critics, so we don't always realize what we're doing well. So what would you say is the most significant improvement that you noticed or someone else pointed out to you?

Well, I think I can guess with the more constant practice, my Spanish is, I guess it's gotten more like I don't need to prepare to do it. I also a couple of times as if my girlfriend said that even with me practicing with third or just certain, not actually, but her recording me and watch me, she's picked up on a few words because she also speaks a bit. And I also noticed when I had a practice with Andrea that morning I had slept in so I woke up just before it was time to talk to her. And normally I like to practice a little or just, you know, get a little Spanish in my head and I still did fine. So that's when I realized, yeah, wyou kno what I can make it because it start mistaken

After completing the challenge, what do you think are the next steps for you in terms of improving your Spanish?

Well I'll just gotta keep practicing. We gotta do the conversation practice helps. That's been helpful so far and just have to, you know, find time to, to keep up on it. But I know if I don't keep going then I'm going to start to forget. You got to kind of keep it fresh or else you're gonna lose it.

You have to keep it fresh or else you're going to lose it. I think Scott summed it up right there. Even if you have learned some Spanish and you're not consistently using it day to day, week to week, you can lose what you've already learned. So what are your next steps towards Spanish fluency? If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, then you know that learning Spanish with music is the most fun and efficient way to learn Spanish without getting bored or getting off track. You also know having the support of a community and coaching can help you stay motivated and stick to your Spanish goals. If you'd like to join us in the Spanish con Salsa community or if you're interested in ourselves, study option with the learn Spanish with music course. Now is the time to sign up. Summer is coming up so hopefully you'll be taking some time off or vacation or you'll have more free time with school being out. For those of you who are in college or university Wednesday May 22nd is the last day to join. We are closing the doors at 10:00 PM Eastern, so now is the time to sign up. Go to spanishconsalsa.com/join. That's spanishconsalsa.com/join. All the details on the benefits you get with the membership are on our website and you can get started right away learning Spanish with music and get all the support you need to make consistent progress and stay motivated so that you can go from beginner to bilingual. I hope to see you joining us in the Spanish con Salsa community, hasta la próxima. Thank you for listening to the learn Spanish con Salsa podcast at spanishconsalsa.com