Why It Took Me 13 Years To Get Fluent & Confident In Spanish (& how you can improve much faster!)

Hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video I am going to show you guys how I speak Spanish but I'm also

going to tell you about some of the biggest mistakes I made mistakes you

should avoid so you can improve your English a lot faster it took me a long

time to get fluent in Spanish and again it's because of these mistakes I kept

making so here's the deal I'm going to tell you about these mistakes that I made

in Spanish so you guys can hear how I speak so if you don't understand this

language please turn on the subtitles so you can follow along because you're

going to want to see this information after that I'm gonna share a clip with

you guys from a presentation that I gave back in 2012 when I was 21 years old in

one of my college Spanish classes so you will be able to see the evolution of my

language skills basically how I spoke Spanish back then when I was just

studying Spanish in the United States and you know studying it in high school and

college versus how my Spanish was after living for over five years in a

spanish-speaking country with that said though I want to tell you guys that in

order to achieve what I achieved in English you don't necessarily have to

live in an english-speaking country and this is gonna be related to one of the

mistakes that I made I basically thought that in order to learn Spanish I had to

live in a spanish-speaking country and there were just so many misconceptions

so many things that I thought were true that really weren't ok so turn on the

subtitles in English if you don't speak Spanish and let's get started OK

first I want to say that my family is from Argentina my parents were born there

but they immigrated to the USA before I was born

and since they knew many languages... German, English, Spanish, French...

they only taught us English because it was the easiest thing to do. And when I was 14 years old

I realized that I didn't speak the langauge of my family. So I "buckled down" and thought

no! I have to learn this language I want to be able to communicate with my family

I want to visit them one day in Argentina so

I started studying Spanish in a program that was for Spanish speakers, so for me

it was like an immersion program. I did 3 years in

that class. Later I went to college to continue studying Spanish. I thought that

the only way to learn the language and reach fluency was

to study it in traditional programs. So I basically didn't do anything on my own

to study. I didn't listen to music. I didn't watch movies. I didn't watch videos on

YouTube I didn't read books

I just relied on my classes and what the teachers

taught me. The second thing I did wrong was I never spoke Spanish.

In high school and in college, I had a ton of friends who spoke

Spanish, but I was too embarrassed to speak. So I didn't take advantage of any

opportunity to speak with them or practice. I was too concerned with

being embarrassed and messing up.... but you have to speak you have to

make mistakes because that's you you learn. And basically, during all

the years I was in high school and college -7 years total- I almost

didn't take advantage of any moment to speak with other people. And since I never spoke

it was always really hard to express myself. The third "biggest mistake"

is that I wasn't confident at all! I mean, I was learning something new

but it was like I expected myself to speak perfectly from day one or something. But that's dumb

because when someone is learning, they're not an expert! You don't know everything yet, you're going to mess up.

But I didn't have the patience with myself to go through that process. Honestly

it's really sad. Because I could have learned a lot faster. I could have

had better experiences. But I was so worried about messing up

or saying something wrong that I was barely able to enjoy the process

and after living 5 years in Argentina I realized that in this day and age it's not

necessary --seriously it's NOT necessary-- to go to another country to learn their language

I didn't have to do everything I did to get to the level I have today. I did

everything people think you have to do, traditional classes, studying Spanish

in college, going to a Spanish-speaking country. And now I realize that none of that was

necessary because there are a bunch of people who, for example,

learn English, get really fluent, and have a really good accent without ever going to

an English-speaking country! So my 3 pieces of advice for you guys are... 1.

You have to consume lots of information in English. You have to watch

videos in English. You have to listen to music in English. You have to do EVERYTHING in English.

Everything that you can do in English, do it. Follow meme pages on

Instagram, for example, read books in English you have to do as much as possible

in English. The second piece of advice, you have to speak! You have to speak the language and not

worry about your mistakes. Because you're going to mess up, that's for sure. So forget about

speaking perfectly and give yourself the time you need to improve and to get to a

good level. It takes time! I'm 27 years old. I started studying Spanish when I was

14. 13 years later I got to where I am today. And the third piece of advice, don't

worry about your mistakes. I worried so much about my mistakes for so many years that

I didn't start speaking confidently till last

year. And you know how I made that change? I got tired --SO TIRED-- of worrying about

everything... about, "oh, no! how do you say this? Am I going to say it well? I'm probably going to

mess up. They're not going to understand me" Can you guys believe that I worried about all of that with a

very high level of fluency. Your level has nothing to do with your confidence. They are

two completely different things. Think about it, when I had a really high level of fluency, with a

really good accent and lots of vocabulary, I still

lacked confidence. And I could barely talk with people I didn't know, or sometimes

even with people I DID know. Confidence is something completely different. It has to do with

your mind and how you perceive yourself and what you think about your abilities.

So, knowing that, you're not going to have more confidence by getting more fluent. You have to start

being confident now with the level you have. Because you already learned a lot and you're

going to keep learning and you have to put your confidence in that, that you will continue

to improve. Anyhow, I could keep sharing a lot more, but now I'm going to switch back

to English to show you guys the presentation I did 6 years ago

guys so hopefully you enjoyed those tips that I shared and you know everything I

shared about the mistakes that I made I don't want you to make these mistakes

because I want you to be confident I want you to achieve fluency faster than

I did like I said it took me a long time to get to the level that I have today

but it's because I didn't surround myself with enough Spanish I didn't

speak Spanish even though I had a bunch of opportunities to practice and I just

lacked confidence okay and remember you can just choose to be confident where

you're at today and realize that you're going to get better now let's watch a

couple minutes of the presentation that I gave six years ago and you guys will

see that my Spanish was nothing like what it is today okay and after you see

that presentation then I'm going to explain some things that changed in my

Spanish and we're going to do a little analysis of that so let's watch part of

that presentation

Um... last year I went to Mexico with sister and my nephew Giovanni

who was 3 years old and he's my sister's son

and we went to visit my brother in law's family and my brother in law

because her husband was living in Mexico during that time

and when I was in Mexico I learned a lot about Mexican culture

and about the people who lived in the village where I was staying

um and the village was called San Pedro

And it's near um Morelia, an hour from Morelia in Michoacan, Mexico.

This is just a picture of the landscape. Uh it reminded me a lot of California

because it had a lot of... it has mountains and it has a lot of the same trees.

Here is another one. And this is the "milpa"

And the "milpa" is where the corn plants grow

In that village they had a lot of "milpa"

la "milpa" again

Ok, I put this photo in the presentation because when uhhh I entered Mexico

One of the first things I noticed was that the advertisements

weren't on billboards like we have here in the USA

the advertisements are painted on brick walls

and they are full of color and very eye-catching

and I thought it is interesting because if someone wants to change the advertisement

they have to paint it again and it would be a lot of work

okay guys I hope you enjoyed that clip as far as the little analysis I said we

would do on this video the number one thing that I see myself doing here is

I'm using lots of fillers that are fillers we use in English like I'll say

a few words in Spanish and then I'll go uhhhh or ummm okay those are all fillers that I use

in English but those are not fillers that native Spanish speakers use a

native Spanish speaker might say ehhh or ahhh or something like that okay so the fillers

in languages are different and if you want to sound more like a native speaker

use the fillers that we use in English the next thing I notice in this video is

my lack of fluency I just pretty much had a basic vocabulary

to make complex sentences I mean sometimes these sentences aren't even

complex but because I learned Spanish through traditional classes and because

I was only able to speak with whatever grammar they taught me if I wasn't at a

certain level yet then I didn't know how to say something right and so in the

video I'm constantly searching for words I'm constantly searching for terms I

struggle to make complete sentences without really thinking about what I'm

gonna say I'm translating in my head I even have a piece of paper in front of

me with vocabulary in case I forget it and at one point in the video I even

have to look at it to remember a word that I was gonna say and be able to use

it because I had not internalized the Spanish language yet and internalizing a

language happens after years of absorbing that language and using that

language okay which I as you know from this whole video I didn't really do any

of those very much okay so the last thing I want to talk about regarding how

my Spanish has changed from what it used to be in this video clip that you guys

just saw to what it is now it really has a lot to do with my intonation the way

that I speak the quality of the sounds that I make okay and the vocabulary

after being surrounded with one type of Spanish Argentine Spanish for so long I

really adopted the Argentine way of expressing ideas and speaking so now for

example if I want to say the word bus I used to say "autobus" because

that's what I was taught from the textbook but nobody in argentina says

that in argentina they say "colectivo" or if they're gonna say bus you know using

the slang term they'll say "bondi" I didn't learn any of those in a textbook

ever so that is one way that my Spanish has changed my vocabulary my

intonation patterns everything is very Argentine but that's because I focused

on learning that Spanish now here's the thing a lot of you might think oh well

you lived in Argentina for five years so of course you were able to get good at

Spanish of course you were able to improve your accent of course you were

able to learn the vocabulary but that's not the reason why I achieved all of

this I achieved it because I made it a point to work on my

accent I paid attention to the vocabulary that they were using I

incorporated it I remember the first few weeks I was in Argentina and I would

hear words and I would go oh my gosh you know that's not what I was taught that

my teacher taught me something else and then I was confronted with a decision am

I gonna keep using the Spanish that my teacher taught me or am I going to adopt

the way that they say you know this word in this country and so I decided to let

go of everything that I was taught in my classes and to simply absorb the

language the way that it's spoken by the people that are from there now lots of

people live in foreign countries and they never acquire the accent they never

change the vocabulary they use they keep using the textbook vocabulary that

they learned even though they hear that other people don't speak like that

okay so there's a bunch of people that live in the United States and have lived

here for 20 years 50 years and they still don't speak English or they don't

speak it fluently or they have a heavy accent what you achieve really is up to

you it's what are your goals what are you trying to achieve

and how much do you work at it when I first got to Argentina and I didn't have

the accent that I have today I worked for this you know I really listened and

I would practice and it was so frustrating but I did not give up and

that's why I got to where I am today most people when it comes to

pronunciation they just give up okay one because it pushes you out of your

comfort zone and two because it's hard and you have to make sounds with your

mouth and with your tongue and your lips that you've never made in your entire

life it's hard okay so if you give up or if you just don't care about it you're

not going to get to that really high level that's just the truth okay so this

video is already long enough that's all I have time to share with you guys today

but if you want a guide on practicing your English with native speakers

because this is you guys like the one thing that's really really going to help

you practice your pronunciation pick up vocabulary from native English speakers

build your confidence if you want a guide on how to do this I have one on my

website and I'm gonna link it below okay in the description so check it out it

is the most popular guide on my entire website it's absolutely free for you to

download and it's going to give you lots of tips on how to meet native English

speakers using the Internet okay ways that I recommend ways that I don't

recommend how to get people to actually talk with you because people will talk

with you but you just you know you have to be strategic you can't just say hey

will you practice your English with me okay there are better ways to do this so

there's a whole guide on my website about how to do this if you want it it's

in the description and that's it you guys I'll see you in another video

thanks for watching bye