How to Learn Mexican Spanish (my top strategies + favorite resources)

hey guys and welcome to my Channel today I want  to share my experience learning Mexican Spanish  

because I live in Mexico now I've been living  here for over 2 years now and obviously I've  

saved a treasure Trove of information in this  time my favorite YouTube channels books podcasts  

and some interesting strategies so let's begin  with the first and most important strategy that  

has been helping me learn Mexican Spanish so  much as a native Russian speaker starting with  

the alphabet and pronunciation it is not a secret  that every single language has its own unique  

pronunciation and what works for me is focusing on  pronunciation first really making sure I know how  

to pronounce all the sounds correctly obviously  with time with practice I know that my accent  

will improve but at the beginning what I really  want to work on is my pronunciation I want to make  

sure that I can hear the difference between some  difficult sounds and I can also pronounce those  

difficult sounds distinctly well at least that  is the strategy I use with English and you can  

hear right now I'm not a native English speaker  but I think my pronunciation and my accent are  

pretty good so in Mexican Spanish what causes  a lot of issues among language Learners are the  

sounds dou l r r and also CH if I'm not mistaken  CH because depending on the region on the country  

native speakers pronounce these sounds differently  so what I did was 3 years ago when I just started  

learning Spanish I took a few classes on I talkie  with a teacher to really understand the alphabet  

you know the pronunciation of every single letter  and how I also have to pronounce all the letters  

in Words obviously in Spanish it's a lot easier  than in English in English there are a lot of  

rules sounds change a lot so that's why learning  Mexican Spanish is definitely easier when it comes  

to pronunciation and I also have to mention that  your native language obviously will influence the  

way you're learning Spanish like the way you  can pronounce certain sounds the way you can  

understand and distinguish between them because  again my native language is fresian so I can  

roll my RS really well like I always could do that  ever since I was a kid because it's something that  

I was taught when I was a kid living in Russia  because of that I didn't have this problem that  

for example a lot of people from the United States  experience it's really hard to start rolling  

your RS when you have never done it before so I  completely understand that the difficulty that I  

experienced at the very beginning was the single R  sound in Spanish I could say arba really well from  

the very beginning but when it came to pronouncing  words like com to eat I really struggle and  

honestly I still struggle sometimes because  sometimes I really want to say but I know that  

is not correct and so basically what I'm trying  to say here is every single one of us is going  

to experience their own difficulties and that is  absolutely okay all it means is that we just have  

to work on the sound a lot more and practice the  sound a lot more consistently okay now let's move  

on and talk about my top three language learning  strategies that I follow with any language I'm  

learning and these are comprehensible input active  recall and space repetition intrinsic motivation  

and anchoring these are the strategies that I  always use no matter what language I'm learning  

and for Mexican Spanish it stays the same way  I already have a video on my channel where I go  

into more detail on every single strategy so if  you want to check out that video if you want to  

learn about every single strategy more in depth I  will leave a link to the video somewhere up here  

but to give you a quick summary when it comes to  every single strategy when it comes to learning  

Mexican Spanish and comprehensible input I use  resources that are only slightly above my current  

level in Spanish I think right now depending  on vocabulary or grammar or speaking fluency  

my level in Spanish is B1 B2 really depends on  how I'm feeling and that is totally okay and so  

I always try to choose resource ources that are  only slightly above my current level my current  

level plus one the next strategy is active  recall and spaced repetition and I use Anki  

I'm obsessed with this app a lot of polyglots use  this app to memorize words effectively to practice  

active recall and to really make sure words  stick in your brain that you can actually use  

those words when you speak and not just recognize  them when you're reading a book or maybe watching  

movie and finally I use intrinsic motivation  and anchoring to stay disciplined because if  

deep down I don't really want to learn Spanish or  it's not really connected to one of my values that  

I have probably I'm going to quit and because  language learning is hard I'm using anchoring  

I'm using something that is going to make me come  back to learning a foreign language and of course  

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okay now let's start talking about my favorite  resources that have helped me or are helping me  

right now learn Mexican Spanish so the first area  group of resources I want to talk about is books  

and a great resource that I recommend is breaking  out of beginners Spanish it's not a textbook more  

like a book that is packed with cultural insights  and Mexican Expressions I'm honestly reading this  

book right now I'm probably halfway done and even  though I don't really consider myself a beginner  

when it comes to Spanish I'm still learning so  much from this book I really like the way it's  

written it's very easy to read it's really funny  but also super educational because the author is  

sharing a lot of slay expressions and phrases  but at the same time it has a lot of humor so  

it's easy to read and you don't feel bored while  reading it which is very important it has chapters  

like how to not be taking for a gringo I read  it on my Kindle every day before going to bed  

and honestly I'm enjoying it a lot okay now let's  talk about grammar and I personally think that you  

will only need one grammar book and Chad gbt to  explain you certain things maybe something more  

complicated so my book my only trusted VI is this  Advanced Spanish step by step and I really really  

like this book it has pretty much all the grammar  rules I might need and also it has exercises some  

example sentences so you know I can learn the  basics here for sure obviously you're probably  

wondering this is not a very thick book and it  claims to be advanced I agree with you maybe  

not you know all the rules not everything but for  me it's enough you know I'm not learning Spanish  

to go to university in Mexico I'm learning it  for myself to be able to speak and communicate  

my thoughts clearly and effectively because it  doesn't make me feel overwhelmed you know when  

you have like a stack of grammar books you don't  really know where to start but for me every single  

time I want to practice a specific grammar rule or  just do some grammar drills here I take the book  

done if you want to read some fiction in Mexican  Spanish I highly recommend this book kah de carton  

I really really liked it it is so thin so this  novel explores the struggles and challenges of  

a young Mexican-American boy and his family as  the navigate life in California in the 1940s  

and 1950s the story set around the experiences of  Francisco a young boy from a migrant forw working  

family and it focuses on themes such as poverty  hardship identity and the pursuit of the American  

dream the reason why I like this novel is because  it's written in a very simple yet poan style and  

obviously a lot of people in Mexico are familiar  with it so you know you can start a lot of nice  

conversations with native speakers just discussing  this book okay now let's talk about my favorite  

YouTube channels first I want to focus on a few  educational channels and the first one is espanol  

con Ali I really like this channel because Ali is  from Mexico so obviously she has a Mexican accent  

when she speaks Spanish she uses all of the words  that are popular in Mexico and her videos are very  

informal informal fun you're learning a lot of  useful vocabulary that people use every single  

day three other educational channels that are not  in particular in Mexican Spanish are spanishland  

School Ola Spanish and easy Spanish on easy  Spanish they have videos that are filmed in  

Mexico where they pretty much go around and ask  locals different questions and so obviously all  

the locals are speaking Mexican Spanish and  I think they focus on making videos in Mexico  

City so you will also hear a lot of slang that is  common in Mexico City two other YouTube channels  

that I really like that are not really educational  but more for native speakers of Spanish like Vlogs  

travel videos are Shannon leman's Youtube channel  she is Mexican I believe she was born in Cancun  

and then she moved to Mexico City so she makes  Vlogs about her life in Mexico City and she's  

also married to a Korean guy and his Spanish  is immaculate amazing freaking insane and so  

you can also watch his videos because he's a  YouTuber too and basically listen to him speak  

Spanish get motivated and then listen to her talk  about their life in Mexico City and of course I  

am a huge fan of luisito communica he's from  Mexico I really like his travel videos you've  

probably seen his videos before because he's  extremely popular in Latin America and if you  

like all around the world because his videos get  a lot of views but I always approach his videos  

from an educational perspective and I pause if I  don't know a specific word I save it to Ay like  

I really try to make sure that I understand every  everything he's talking about okay now let's move  

on to podcasts that are going to help you learn  Mexican Spanish the first one that I listen to  

almost every single day right now is no iOS real  Mexican Spanish I really like their banter the  

way they talk the topics they discuss the slang  they use love this podcast the next one is oi AAL  

really like this one too then I have here Suave  Spanish I actually made a video with Nate one  

of the co-hosts of this podcast on my YouTube  channel so if you want to see our conversation  

I will leave a link somewhere right here and you  can check it out later then the other one that I  

really like is called Mexican fluency podcast  I like that they post a lot of short episodes  

where they discuss maybe some phrases or grammar  points so even if I don't have a lot of time I  

can still play this podcast and it's going to  last you know 10 15 minutes and finally there's  

is one that is not just in Mexican Spanish like  sometimes they make videos about some slang in  

Mexico some Mexican Expressions but sometimes  the hosts of the show have a different accent  

when they speak Spanish is charanis honestly one  of the important paths towards fluency we have to  

take is understanding different accents in Spanish  right not just people in Mexico but maybe people  

in Spain people in Argentina and Columbia now  let's talk about Netflix shows and two that I'm  

currently watching to learn Mexican Spanish  are laasa deas florus I really like this one  

it's basically a dark comedy TV show it revolves  around a family who runs a successful flower shop  

called laad deas Flores the House of Flowers and  on the surface everything appears amazing you know  

they have everything wealth status a beautiful  home but beneath all of this glamour there are  

some Secrets some very dark ones I really like the  show I'm actively watching it right now so highly  

highly recommend if you want to practice your  Mexican Spanish and another show that I watch  

on and off is cloop the queros this show is about  sports it obviously combines some drama humor and  

it offers a satirical look at the Mexican Society  in particular the world of football or soccer and  

obviously people in Mexico really like soccer and  finally let's finish this video by talking about  

my favorite apps my favorite application to learn  Mexican Spanish and here I want to mention II life  

XP and lingoda for lessons with teachers these  platforms work a little bit differently I would  

say lingoda is really famous for group classes and  sometimes I really miss being in a group you know  

obviously having oneon-one class is amazing but  sometimes you really want to interact with other  

students who are also learning Spanish to not feel  like you're the only one and so that's why I love  

using lingoda for my group classes and I talk and  lifeix I use them for my personalized oneon-one  

lessons and when it comes to memorizing vocabulary  grammar literally anything I want to memorize when  

it comes to Spanish I always use anky because  I love creating flashcards I love practicing  

active recall because this is exactly how I'm  memorizing everything in the most effective  

way okay guys I think it's going to be it for  this video if you liked it please don't forget  

to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my  YouTube channel if you have other resources  

that you absolutely love to learn Mexican Spanish  please share them in the comments I'm sure other  

people will appreciate it and I will appreciate  it a lot because I'm still a student of espanol  

just a reminder if you don't want to have any  connectivity issues when you travel abroad  

I highly recommend all of flly you can use my  discount code in the description to get 5% off  

in today's video I mainly focused on my favorite  resources to learn Mexican Spanish but if you want  

to see my Ultimate Guide to learn Spanish from  zero to fluency all the tips all the resources  

all the methods you can check out this video right  here just click right here and keep on watching