How I improved my speaking skills in 6 months

hello guys and welcome back to my YouTube channel  today I want to talk about how I improve my  

speaking skills in just six months a few weeks  ago I was coming back home from the gym and the 

Uber driver started talking to me originally he  thought that I didn't speak Spanish so he asked  

me hablas espanol and I said yes even though my  brain was screaming say no say no right now and to  

my surprise I could understand everything he was  saying and I could respond to his questions maybe  

not always with perfect grammar I have to admit  that when I came back home I decided to calculate  

how long I had been learning Spanish consistently  and to my surprise it was only six months so now  

I'm pretty sure you can do the same thing and you  can learn a language in six months obviously not  

to a very advanced level but you can already start  speaking this language and start understanding  

this language and feel very comfortable in just  six months and in this video I'll share everything  

that helped me the whole process step by step  the first thing I did was I learned the sounds  

of this language first I think it's important to  pick the accent you want to learn from the very  

beginning because in English and Spanish and in a  lot of other languages in different countries and  

different regions people speak with a different  accent and I think it's important to choose the  

accent at the very beginning and stick to it  because this way you will know how to pronounce  

a certain word and which pronunciation to actually  learn at the very beginning I did a lot of  

pronunciation drills I made sure I could pronounce  every single sound in Spanish especially the  

way people pronounce it here in Mexico correctly  obviously I still have an accent having an accent  

is a completely normal thing the more you practice  the more you learn the language the better your  

accent will become however from the very beginning  I think it's important to really know how to  

pronounce all the sounds of this language learn  the alpha bit and make sure you know how you know  

all the letters are connected first of all it  will help you with your comprehension with your  

listening comprehension when you're listening  to native speakers because you'll be like okay  

yeah I'm familiar with all of these sounds and  obviously it will help you produce all of these  

sounds correctly I think in American English  for example a lot of people don't really know  

how to pronounce all the different T sounds that  American English has to offer for example in the  

word water so it's important to master this sound  because this is connected to pronunciation it's  

how Americans pronounce words when they speak  the second thing I did was I learned the most  

common words I personally started with Gabrielle  Weiner's list of 625 most common words you can  

find lists on the internet of for example 1 000  most common words in this language or 2 000 most  

common words in this language the idea behind  it is you have to know how to learn all of these  

words effectively the way I did it was by using a  space repetition system and the app on key because  

if you just download this list and you try to  like jam all this information into your brain  

it's not going to be very successful and plus  you're probably going to get super tired and  

demotivated by the word 200. so the reason why a  lot of language Learners love a space repetition  

system is because you don't even have to think  about it too much you just put all the cards  

into your Anki app and that's it and then at a  certain interval it will show you all of these  

cards you will see the words you will revise them  and you will tell the app if this word was easy or  

hard and then the app will use its algorithm and  will show you the word in a week or a month or a  

year for example when you are ready when you are  about to forget this word because actually that's  

the most effective way when someone shows you this  word right when you're about to forget it and when  

you are learning new words try to rely on pictures  as much as you can instead of on translations for  

example you're trying to memorize how to say the  word phone in Spanish don't just try to say you  

know phone and English phone in Spanish that's  it use the Spanish word for the word phone and  

then use a picture this is going to be the most  effective method because usually our brains just  

work better with pictures especially if you can  find a picture that is maybe related to your life  

for example a picture of your cell phone no just  the random cell phone but your cell phone so that  

every time you look at yourself and you're like oh  yeah I know how to say this in Spanish and guys I  

know that a lot of people here who are watching my  videos are learning English and if you're one of  

them and you like speaking practice I invite you  to join my speaking Club the registrations are  

now open and you only actually have a few days  to join because the classes start very soon the  

speaking Club is an amazing opportunity for you  guys to meet me in person to talk to me and ask  

me for help and advice I'll be there throughout  your whole journey we will have meetings every  

single week and I will be giving you feedback  I will share everything I know about language  

learning and if you choose the pro level you will  have classes with native speakers too the speaking  

Club is perfect if you need practice if you want  to improve your speaking skills and meet people  

from all over the world and the topics we discuss  every single week are extremely interesting and  

the questions are a lot of fun because I create  them myself and I really don't like boring  

questions so if you want to join my speaking club  and learn with me all you need to do is click the  

link in the description and I'll see you there  now let's talk about the next thing I did it's  

pretty interesting and I feel like maybe  some of you guys are going to be like hmm I  

have never thought about this before I learned  grammar only if it was necessary from the very  

beginning of my Spanish journey I understood the  importance of speaking as soon as possible so on  

the first day the second day I was already trying  to construct simple sentences and obviously the  

complexity of your sentences will change depending  on how much grammar you know and how many words  

I honestly prefer to stick to just one book one  grammar book for each language because I know that  

all of this information is available online if I  want to go deeper if I don't understand a specific  

grammar rule in my book I can just Google it the  grammar book that I use for Spanish is called easy  

learning Spanish grammar in English you can use  this book English grammar and use and I personally  

recommend the Blue version because the blue one  is for intermediate students and for Chinese I  

use modern Mandarin Chinese grammar well if you're  online Chinese you probably know that grammar in  

Chinese is not that complicated what I usually do  is I choose a grammar book that is for beginners  

or intermediate students not something too complex  because at the very beginning I just need to  

understand the basics of this grammar Rule and  then I use my space repetition system I use Anki  

to save a few sentences like an example sentence  of this grammar rule I save it to Anki instead of  

again trying to cram all this information into  my brain I allow my brain to rest and use the  

space repetition system instead for example let's  say you're learning the conjugation of this word  

in Spanish of this verb right here so you're  learning how to conjugate so less what I would  

personally do is this the front of the court would  be blank is and at the back of the Court will be  

swellow so like I usually go to the beach every  three months no translations you know nothing  

additional obviously I can like add a picture so  that I remember the information better but that's  

basically how I do it number four I speak from the  very beginning I think you guys are going to agree  

with me here we're all learning foreign languages  because we want to be able to speak to people in  

these foreign languages not because we just want  to you know walk around and tell people oh you  

know what I'm learning Spanish or I'm learning  Chinese we actually want to connect with these  

people I want to speak this language to native  speakers of course there are different things  

you can do when it comes to speaking you can speak  to yourself even though I think it's not the best  

method I personally think receiving feedback is  extra extremely important so taking classes with  

someone is really going to help you it can be a  professional teacher and native speaker it can  

be your friend if you have any native speaking  friends the most important thing is those people  

have to correct your mistakes they have to help  you they have to encourage you you know it's  

not just a conversation when you're just like  talking talking and they're just listening to  

you and that's it no it has to be a real dialogue  they ask you questions you respond they correct  

you they explain something to you maybe you ask  them questions so it's a real conversation plus  

they correct your mistakes there are also a  lot of language exchange apps out there where  

people you know they download the app and they can  find like-minded people they can find a language  

partner and for some people it works like if you  really like using apps you like chatting with  

people texting different people then go ahead and  try but again the most important thing is finding  

someone who will give you feedback good quality  feed back so the final thing is I practiced  

regularly I think for me regular practice is a  lot more effective than for example sitting down  

to learn a language only once a week for like  two hours if I get a chance I try to practice  

this language every single day it might be just  watching a YouTube video or listening to a podcast  

while I'm doing something else for example  washing the dishes or cooking if I don't have  

time to actually sit down and learn this language  but I always try to do at least something because  

when you have this system of language learning  built out and the system actually works for you  

then you will achieve all of your goals don't even  worry about that I feel like people worry too much  

about their goals like oh my God I have a goal of  like getting to be one in English or getting to  

see one in Spanish like I don't know what I should  do but what you actually should be worrying about  

is your language system like how are you showing  up every single day are you learning your language  

consistently and are you trying to actually like  sit down understand the rule are you speaking this  

language are you trying to immerse yourself into  this language so basically what I'm trying to say  

here is I usually try to worry more about what  I do day to day like today for example what am  

I gonna do to study Spanish I don't worry so  much about like oh by the end of this year I  

want to reach B1 in Spanish or B2 in Spanish now  I mean I don't have any exams or tests and it's  

not something I have to worry about I know that  for me I'm learning the language because I live  

in Mexico so for me consistent practice is more  important creating this system and focusing on  

the system rather than on my goal so I think it's  gonna be it for this video If you like this video  

don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe  to my YouTube channel again as a friendly reminder  

if you want to improve your speaking skills  in English make sure to check out my speaking  

club by clicking the link in the description  and I'll see you guys in my next video foreign