How To Keep Up Your Spanish

Spanish teachers, especially when they are not native Speakers of Spanish, often struggle with having their language skills decline once they enter the classroom. We may not use Spanish for long lengths of time, and often when we are using Spanish, we are finding ways to make it simple and comprehensible to our students. Here are some ideas for how to keep up your Spanish!

Keep Up Your Spanish with Books

One of the best ways I have found to keep up my Spanish is the read in Spanish! I love to read novels. Sometimes I will read novels by American authors I’m familiar with, or novels I’ve already read in English. I love to compare how things get translated a bit differently sometimes! I have also found some Spanish-language authors that I love! Their novels make me laugh, have contemporary phrases and slang and are fun to read!

The trick to being able to keep up your Spanish with books is to read for pleasure. If it feels like work, you won’t want to do it! So read what you are interested in- but be sure to make some of your reading in Spanish!

Keep Up Your Spanish with TV!

During the school year, I don’t have time to watch a lot of TV. There is a bit more free time in summer! Either way, if you like to relax by watching movies or TV, we live in an age of great variety! Netflix and many other streaming services have so many different Spanish language movies and shows! And you can change the language of almost anything to Spanish if you want!

I’m laughing right now imagining trying to keep up your Spanish by watching the Real Housewives in Spanish! But again- find something you love to watch and do it in Spanish! It’s so helpful! Putting the captions on can help too!

Professional Development Workshops

There are lots of Professional Development workshops that are conducted in Spanish that would serve two purposes- professional learning and helping to keep up your Spanish. It can be challenging to learn in your second language, but we ask our students to do that all the time! A quick search in Google will find you some ideas!

Find a Conversation Partner

Do you live in a community where Spanish speakers live? Do you use social media like Facebook? There are lots of ways to find a conversation partner in our modern world! Sometimes there are people in our community who could really use a friend as they learn a new culture and language. Having a conversation partner from the community could benefit you both! And Facebook and other social media platforms have groups you can join. There are always people interested in sharing a common interest, whether it be Spanish, Crochet, raising kids, etc. Keep up your Spanish with a new friend!