The Poor Bastards Guide to

Learning Spanish -or-

How I Learn ed Spanish

By Ramses Oudt

http://www.spanish-only.com

Feel free to republish excerpts from this eBook, as long as you link back to http://www.spanish-only.com for attribution.

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INDEX FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................... 3

ABOUT ME............................................................................................................................. 4

DREAMING ABOUT SPANISH .............................................................................................. 5

FIRST WEEKS OF COLLEGE ................................................................................................. 6

FINDING NEW METHODS .................................................................................................... 8

GOING SPANISH ONLY ..................................................................................................... 10

HAVING FUN CHANGED ME ............................................................................................. 12

IGNORING GRAMMAR ....................................................................................................... 14

HOW USING AN SRS HELPED ME REMEMBERING THINGS ........................................ 16

CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 19

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FOREWORD Hello and thank you for downloading this free eBook. Ive written this

eBook to give you an overview of how I learned Spanish, how you can

learn Spanish as well, and what to look out for when learning Spanish

or any other language.

I decided to keep this eBook short so that it doesnt waste your

precious time you could be spending on Spanish. I also tried to answer

some of the most frequently asked questions I get.

In short: my language learning method is quite different than most

methods. Its not unique, its not new, but its simply a method not

many people use. It includes a home-based immersion environment,

not studying grammar and just having fun learning Spanish.

Many people think that in order to learn a language well, you have to

go to the country where they speak that language. I always thought this

was a myth, and I busted it twice: once learning English to fluency and

once learning Spanish to fluency.

Ive never been to an English speaking country but still speak it with a

good accent and I have no trouble writing in English as if it were my

native tongue.

As for Spanish: I lived in Spain for a brief period, but learned mostly at

home in the Netherlands. While learning Spanish I finally realized that

getting a lot of input and having fun is the key to getting fluent in any

language.

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ABOUT ME My name is Ramses Oudt and

Im a college student and part-

time teacher. I was born and

raised in Hoorn, a city about

20 kilometers north of

Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

In fact, I was never a fan of

foreign languages and was

happy with my English skills

(the only foreign language I

learned when I was a kid)

until some years ago.

But somewhere in March 2007 I decided I wanted to learn something

new, another language. I tried Russian, and failed. I tried Arabic, and

failed again. The main problem was that I didnt really have any

motivation to learn those languages and didnt know where to start. So

in March 2007 I decided to major in Spanish and become a teacher.

For almost three years now Ive been writing my own blog about

learning Spanish and sharing my thoughts on language learning in

general. The blog is very concise, but I wanted to offer you something

more, more details and in one nice to read format.

In this free eBook Ill explain how I started learning Spanish, how that

went, and how I really learned Spanish. I strongly believe that

everyone can learn any language, as long as you use the right method,

put in enough time and are motivated.

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DREAMING ABOUT SPANISH This whole adventure started with the fact that I wasnt happy with my

studies in 2007. At that time I was majoring in Network Engineering

and I didnt see myself working for some big corporation and doing

nothing more than working with computers instead of with real

people.

So I turned to a good friend of mine for advice. He told me that he

always thought of me being the perfect teacher. Coming from a family

of teachers this didnt sound weird to me at all. But what would I

teach? Network Engineering? No way! I needed something new,

something fresh.

Again I asked that friend for advice and he asked me what I liked and

what I had done in the past. He knew I tried learning other languages

but failed. So he suggested looking for a language I really wanted to

learn and study that.

So I surfed the internet, looking for colleges that were offering both

language and teacher training programs, and eventually saw a Spanish

program which would be perfect for me. You have to realize that I

didnt speak a word of Spanish at that time and that I was mainly

looking for a cool subject to teach that would also enable me to earn

enough money to live from.

Over the next weeks I thought a lot about learning Spanish and

eventually teaching it, so I decided to just go for it and fill in an

application form for that college. Some weeks later I received a letter

stating that I had been accepted for the Spanish program.

I was so happy that I immediately started buying courses to learn

Spanish, downloading music in Spanish, and getting movies in Spanish.

But I never really used them; it was more dreaming I did than actually

learning something.

And dreaming it stayed until the first day of Spanish classes began. Of

course I tried to do more, like learning some standard phrases and

such, but it just didnt work and the first day of Spanish class I still

didnt speak a word of Spanish.

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FIRST WEEKS OF COLLEGE The first weeks of college were close to what must be hell. Everything

was in Spanish, even the classes that were supposed to be lectured in

Dutch. No, it wasnt funny to sit there and not be able to even

understand one word.

Every day I would come home with my head hurting and without any

energy left to prepare myself for the classes the day after. So what did I

do? Id watch television, a lot. But none of that television watching was

done in Spanish. No, instead I chose to reward myself for sitting

through all those classes in Spanish.

Id watch movies in English, in Dutch, in German, but not in Spanish. If I

was watching something in Spanish it would be subtitled. Still, I

thought I was learning some great amount of Spanish. After all: I

already could say something and knew a bunch of verbs and how you

have to conjugate them.

When the first week of exams was approaching I panicked. I didnt

know what to do, nor did I know what to study or where to start. So I

just opened my grammar books and started cramming all the verb

tables, all the spelling rules, all the irregular verbs, structurally

ignoring the example sentences.

If I would just learn all the rules and a bunch of words Id be fine, Id

pass the test. Unfortunately I didnt. I didnt pass a single test. Even

worse, I wasnt even able to give a correct answer for a great majority

of the questions asked.

I became depressed, without knowing what to do next. So I decided to

cram more, but just taking more time for every tense. And it kind of

worked. In the end I was dreaming about Spanish verb tenses. When I

got up in the morning I used to think about Spanish verb tenses, and I

could draw every table from memory.

But did I speak Spanish? I was trying to speak it, but my accent was

shipwrecked and every sentence had at least two or three errors in it.

So no, I didnt speak Spanish.

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And still, I believed that these college classes were helping me. I

wanted to believe that they would eventually help so that Id become a

fluent speaker of Spanish.

But the reality was that I found the

Spanish classes boring. It isnt that

the professors werent putting effort

in it, and it wasnt that I didnt put

effort in it. Its just that grammar-

centered lessons are fruitless, but I

was craving for more Spanish.

Some weeks later I had resits. I failed again, all tests. I was devastated.

I couldnt believe that I had put in some two months of cramming and

wasnt even able to pass a simple test.

At that time I wasnt worrying about not being able to speak Spanish.

Instead, I was just looking for a way to pass tests. And I found that way,

and that way also helped me to learn real Spanish.

Id watch movies in English,

in Dutch, in German, but not

in Spanish. If I was watching

something in Spanish it would

be subtitled. Still, I thought I

was learning some great

amount of Spanish.

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FINDING NEW METHODS Because I felt my Spanish was going nowhere I was desperately

looking for a way to teach myself some Spanish to get back on track.

My initial plan was to learn enough Spanish myself to be able to

understand the classes in college and then just depend on their

Spanish program again. At that time I didnt know that Id become way

better at Spanish, and best of all: without the help of college.

To understand how other people learn languages, I decided to join the

forum How to Learn Any Language (HTLAL) and read other peoples

experiences learning Spanish and similar languages. It was clear that

there wasnt some kind of magic trick to learn Spanish fast and the

people on the forum seemed to each have their own method.

So again I tried courses. First I tried Pimsleur, then the free FSI course,

then Barrons Spanish course, then I tried making flashcards for

individual words, and eventually I tried Rosetta Stone.

Its no surprise that I didnt learn much and I felt really bad. So again I

consulted the HTLAL forum and read page after page after page.

Eventually I read something about this crazy dude called Khatzumoto.

Apparently, this Khatzumoto guy had taught himself Japanese within

18 months. The thread wasnt specifically about his method, but rather

about one feature of it: flashcards. Someone stated that he had

memorized almost 10,000 flashcards. As if that wasnt crazy enough;

he didnt memorize 10,000 words, but 10,000 sentences.

I really thought this guy was either a scam or just crazy. 10,000

sentences? Who was he kidding? Its impossible to learn 10,000 words

within 18 months, let alone 10,000 sentences!

Reading further I discovered he had a website called

AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com. Again, I wasnt impressed as I was looking

for a website to read about Spanish, not that Japanese language that

only nerds seem to like. But I kept my skepticism to myself and started

reading.

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It seemed that he didnt invent this method himself, but rather

combined ideas from a linguist named Stephen D. Krashen and some

Poles who had started their own website called AntiMoon.com about

learning English.

I read for one week straight, neglecting most of my school work. I

couldnt believe someone learned Japanese using this method, yet it

sounded so logical.

When we learned our native language we got massive input, then

practice, and eventually practiced our skills by learning about basic

grammar (but only after becoming fluent). This AJATT (All Japanese

All The Time) method sounded like total immersion on steroids.

Did I immediately change my environment to create a real Spanish

environment in my own home? No, not really. Immersion seemed too

hardcore for me to do, and I couldnt neglect my Dutch friends.

It wasnt until I went to Spain for three weeks to practice my very basic

Spanish that I made a 180 turn and realized that something had to

change.

I had already lost a huge amount of time trying to learn Spanish, so

now it was time to make up for that using the true immersion method

Khatzumoto and those crazy Poles propagated. I was ready to go

Spanish Only.

I tried Pimsleur, then the free FSI course, then Barrons

Spanish course, then I tried making flashcards for individual

words, and eventually I tried Rosetta Stone.

Its no surprise that I didnt learn much...

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GOING SPANISH ONLY Going Spanish only wasnt easy. In fact, it was really hard to do. Im a

huge fan of punk rock and music from the sixties (Canned Heat,

Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, etc.) so it wasnt easy to leave all that

behind. But I did.

I deleted all my mp3s that werent in Spanish, I gave away DVDs that

didnt have a Spanish audio track, and basically changed everything

around me to Spanish. Magazines? Only in Spanish. Chatting online?

Only in Spanish. Having lunch at college? Only with my Spanish

speaking classmates.

It was really difficult as I still didnt really understand much of the

Spanish in class or on television, but I just went on with it. Every day I

felt worse, thinking that it wouldnt work, that I was doomed to fail.

And again, I just went on with it.

I used to spend at least four to five hours watching television in

Spanish per day during that period. At first I thought it wasnt working,

but somehow it did. I began to understand more and more, but still

wasnt enjoying most shows. I missed those Hollywood shows I used

to watch in English.

At that point I didnt know that pretty much every Hollywood

production is available in a dubbed version as well. Luckily I soon

discovered Friends in Spanish, then Dawsons Creek and other shows I

used to watch.

But because it was really hard for me to get those on DVD (and because

I had a limited amount of money in the bank) I turned to piracy

(officially its still not forbidden to download in the Netherlands). I

thank the great people of vagos.es for all the work theyve put in

putting all kind of shows and movies online, in Spanish.

Still, it wasnt easy to switch to dubbed shows as over the years I had

gotten used to the actors voices. But still, instead of watching

materials Id never seen, Id watch movies Id seen countless times

before. And that worked.

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Because I already knew the story I could easily pick up words and

expressions, words and expressions that wouldve taken me weeks and

lots of work to understand. Now it was enough to see a movie once and

understand a lot of the story. But because I liked the movies, I just

watched them over and over again, further ingraining the grammar

and vocabulary.

On the way I had some minor breakdowns in which Id return to

English for a while and didnt do as much Spanish as I wanted to. But

the longer I succeeded at just keeping things Spanish, the more I

noticed it became easier to do so.

In the end it was weird to do things

in English or Dutch. I just preferred

things to be in Spanish. Movies,

shows, magazines, books, music, and

above all, conversations. My family

called me crazy, but my Spanish

speaking friends were praising me for the rapid progress I was making.

I was on fire.

Really, I recommend anyone going Spanish only as soon as possible.

Dont look back to your English-language environment, there is actual

fun in Spanish, you just need to find it. For me it was important to have

shows and movies in Spanish that I really liked, otherwise Id still be

some random guy from the Netherlands that spoke English and Dutch

pretty well but no other language at all.

Now that I speak Spanish I have so much fun and it has definitely

opened a whole new world to me. All thanks to going Spanish only.

Finally, theres one more thing that I want to talk about with you. You know what that is? Having FUN!

I thank the great people of

vagos.es for all the work

theyve put in putting all kind

of shows and movies online, in

Spanish.

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HAVING FUN CHANGED ME I grew up with English classes, French classes and eventually German

classes. Id always liked English, it was like my second mother tongue.

Id watch movies in English, shows in English, listen to music in

English, read books in English and speak in English with other people

as much as I could.

But by going to English class in high school my love for English cooled

down a bit. Lots of grammar rules were thrown at me, and I didnt

understand even one of them. French was a hell, and dont get me

started about German. No, I didnt like my language classes in high

school.

Unfortunately, by the time I started with Spanish, I thought it would be

necessary to go to class or at least do some course to learn this cool

language. So I got myself several courses to start learning it (see the

chapter Finding New Methods) and eventually went to college, but

there was just no fun in learning Spanish this way.

In the end I thought itd be best to just quit this Spanish experiment

and look for a real job, like Network Engineer. I was so wrong at that

point, but I didnt realize it back then. So I just went on with the classes,

punishing myself for every day I didnt make clear progress.

I had lost one thing out of sight: having fun. I was already reading

Khatzumotos blog, but didnt capture one all important thing: having

fun is essential.

Before going Spanish only I really thought that classes were the only

way to go. Id never thought of having fun as a substitute. So I just

followed my professors advice and never went further than they told

me to go.

But then it struck me: what if these people

around the internet were right? That having

fun could really be a substitute for classes?

That going Spanish only really was possible

and that it would be the best way to learn

Spanish? Yeah, that would be really cool.

I didnt capture

one all important

thing: having fun

is essential.

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Although going Spanish only helped me tremendously, if it wasnt for

having fun I wouldve never learned this cool language.

The biggest lesson Ive learned in these three years is that when people

talk bad about you (your methods, the time you put into learning

Spanish, your passion), it still doesnt matter.

Were here to learn Spanish for various reasons. My reason was to have

a goal in life; teaching kids this great language with a rich culture. But it

was also about enjoying the process of learning the language, of getting

to know that culture myself. Id lost that out of sight.

Having fun really changed me. Because I spend so much time on

learning Spanish, its just impossible to see language learning as a

chore. I need to feel happy when doing it. It also made my classes

better; Ive grown as a teacher. When Im in front of a class full of

young kids, they feel my enthusiasm. They see I love this language and

that I enjoy helping them getting better at it.

I urge you to do the same. Ive written this eBook to tell you how I

learned Spanish, but above all to tell you that you shouldnt think that

classes are the only way to go. Some classes are great, with great

teachers who help you get better at Spanish instead of just trying to

throw a huge amount of grammar at you. But unfortunately most arent

that good.

I wanted to tell you that you can learn Spanish on your own. And you

can. Just keep in mind that it doesnt come easy, you do have to work.

But changing your environment to a Spanish environment does

wonders. Add having fun to that and youre set to become fluent.

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IGNORING GRAMMAR One of the most heard complains about learning another language is

that its just too hard to learn another grammar. Many people dont

understand the terms used in grammars and generally find it very

boring and confusing to do all kind of grammar exercises.

I was no exception. Being in college, majoring in a foreign language,

means going to grammar class and drilling all kind of verb tenses, rules

for adjectives, adverbs, nouns, word order, etc. In fact, I used to have

three(!) classes where I was exposed to grammar exercises. No wonder

I wanted to quit this Spanish thing as soon as I started it.

Luckily, some articles by Stephen D. Krashen changed my view on

grammar and made me believe that its possible for adults to learn the

way a language works (the grammar) through exposure.

So instead of going to grammar class, Id spend more time on getting

Spanish input. One thing I did do was learn the example sentences in

the grammar books I had to study. This meant spending a lot of time

with my grammar books, without actually studying them.

My classmates were flabbergasted when I told them I didnt study and

that I was learning Spanish like babies learn their mother tongue (with

the exception that I was reading a lot). They said it was plain stupid to

not study grammar, because it leaves someone with broken language.

Anyway, about six months later, after learning lots of example

sentences and getting loads of input, I was able to speak in a

grammatically correct way. Again, my classmates were amazed when

they heard me talking after the summer holidays. No one had

progressed this much, and they thought I was lying about not studying

grammar.

Still, the fact was that I hadnt studied any grammar apart from the first

months in college. After that, I only took in, only used the example

sentences in textbooks, and just never worried about grammar.

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It took me about two years to finally

study grammar again. I felt that I hit a

point where I was understanding pretty

much everything that was thrown at me,

that I was able to express myself well, but

that certain structures were still too

advanced for me.

That was the point I got out my grammar

books again and started reading the

explanations for very advanced

grammatical structures. I didnt

memorize any of these explanations, I just read them. Then, Id add the

example sentences to my SRS (read the last chapter to see what an SRS

is) and review the sentence in question every few days.

This helped me a lot as I was able to put the structures in practice after

just reading the explanation two or three times and learning and

reviewing the example sentence.

Still, this was only possible because I already had a feel for the

language. I tried learning grammar right at the beginning, and I failed.

Later on I more or less studied advanced grammar, and used examples

to reinforce the structures. But without being fluent already, I wouldve

never been able to learn those advanced structures.

So if youre planning on learning Spanish on your own as well, just

ignore the grammar entirely. I know it sounds good to learn all the

verb endings and rules for gender, etc., but the fact is that its of no use

in the beginning and that youll learn those structures through

immersion anyway.

Then, only when youre fluent, read the rules, but dont memorize them.

Itll just make so much more sense, and at that point reading about the

rules wont confuse you but will rather help you to get better.

Luckily, some articles by

Stephen D. Krashen

changed my view on

grammar and made me

believe that its possible

for adults to learn the

way a language words

(the grammar) through

exposure to the

language.

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HOW USING AN SRS HELPED ME REMEMBER THINGS SRS stands for Spaced Repetition System. You could compare an SRS to

flashcards, with the difference that the user has no direct control over

which cards to review. Instead, you give feedback to the software for

each item you see, after which it calculates how often you need to see

that specific item in order to learn it.

Using an SRS is all about not forgetting things. It isnt really to

memorize things, as that is often done in another way. This means that

you see a sentence, memorize its parts (words you dont know,

grammar you dont understand yet, etc.), put it in your SRS, after which

you wont forget it.

Ive been using an SRS for over two years to remember certain words

and grammatical patterns. It didnt serve as a replacement for raw

input, but it did reinforce things I had problems with. Understanding

the past tenses in Spanish isnt easy, and drilling it by doing grammar

exercises doesnt work. Instead, Id add sentences to Anki (the SRS

software I use) to help me get a feeling for Spanish grammar.

Adding only sentences to an SRS is very important. I started out with

reviewing single word items, and learning grammar on the side.

However, that causes you to think about grammar, which is bad (well,

maybe not really bad, but its not something that you want to happen).

I tackled this by getting a lot of input and not worrying about grammar,

but I still was forgetting certain things and didnt have a feeling for a

bunch of past tenses in Spanish.

Thats where the sentence method helped me. I discovered this

method on the AJATT blog and it sounded logical right away. It isnt

that you memorize 10,000 sentences (the number Khatzumoto

recommends), but you review them many times, burning the

grammatical pattern and words in your brain.

Its easy to go extreme with this method, as it looks like studying. Many

people think that studying is the only way to learn a language well, and

I thought the same. Id spend 3 to 4 hours per day adding sentences,

reviewing them, and adding some more sentences. I was so obsessed

with my SRS that it wasnt funny anymore.

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So, although I recommend that everyone uses Anki or another SRS, you

have to be careful to not go overboard with it. Using an SRS is a

supplement to your study. Adding and reviewing sentences using an

SRS shouldnt take up more than one hour per day; the rest is reserved

for input. Input is the only way to really learn a language, the SRS is

only suited to reinforce the things you already know.

This is what an item looks like in my deck:

After about 500 sentences I switched over to Spanish-Spanish items,

where the back of the card would be a short explanation in Spanish,

the definition of certain unknown words, etc.:

Its easy to add everything you see, as you probably want to remember

everything. However, if youre getting a lot of input in the form of

television, music and books, adding everything you encounter to your

SRS isnt necessary. In fact, there are many people who have become

F R O N T Hay descuento en los viajes para la tercera edad.

B A C K Descuento es una rebaja. Las personas que son de la tercera edad no tienen que trabajar porque tienen ms de 65 aos.

F R O N T No quiero verte.

B A C K Not want [I] see-you.

I don't want to see you.

Notes: "No" always comes before the verb. "Quiero" is the first person singular (present) of "querer". "Ver" means "to see" (verb) "Te" refers to "you".

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fluent in a language without ever using an SRS or flashcards. Still, I

strongly believe that using an SRS can speed up your language

learning, simply because youre attacking your brain on several

fronts.

An SRS is a slave, not a master. Dont

fall into the trap I fell in. There was a

time that I only added new sentences

to my SRS, reviewed them, and never

got enough input to really keep

myself going.

In case youve limited time, go for

input first. An SRS is to reinforce the

things you already know, but what if

youre not learning new things? You

cant depends on software like Anki

to teach you new things, you learn

new stuff by watching television,

listening to music, reading books, and

looking up unknown words in the

dictionary.

Ive written a lot about using an SRS on my blog, so be sure to check

out these articles:

1. Whats an SRS?

2. I Have an SRS, Now What?

3. How to Learn a Language From Scratch Without Studying

Grammar

4. What Sentences Do I Add To My SRS?

5. Frequently Asked Questions About Sentences

6. Writing Down Your Sentences

Although I recommend

everyone to use Anki or

another SRS, you have to be

careful to not go overboard

with it. Using an SRS is a

supplement to your study.

Adding and reviewing

sentences using an SRS

shouldnt take up more than

one hour per day; the rest is

reserved for input. Input is the

only way to really learn a

language, the SRS is only

suited to reinforce the things

you already know.

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CONCLUSION I hope youve enjoyed reading this free eBook. Ive tried to keep it

short and easy to read while communicating the most important ideas

and lessons that Ive learned.

Dont forget to visit my blog Spanish-Only.com. I update it regularly

and you can participate in the comments section in the various

discussions we have going on. In the past two years Ive learned a lot

about language learning from my readers, so dont be afraid to

participate.

Id also like to use this last page to say thanks to some of the greatest

language bloggers out there. Without them I couldnt have done all this,

including writing my blog and this eBook.

Thomas Hjelm and Peter Carroll of BabelHut.com and

RhinoSpike.com. Theyve been an inspiration and are always there to

help me with my blog and other projects. These guys are great!

Khatzumoto of AllJapaneseAllTheTime.com. He has been something

like a mentor to me, although he probably didnt know that until

recently. Because of him I became serious about learning Spanish.

Thanks mate!

Tomasz P. Szynalski and Michal Ryszard Wojcik of AntiMoon.com.

These guys probably dont know me, but their site has been a great

source of information for both me and thousands of other people.

Again, if it werent for them I wouldve never learned Spanish this

effectively.

John Biesnecker of WooChinese.com. This fantastic guy mostly helped

me during my short Mandarin experiment, but Ive learned a lot from

him about learning languages in general and becoming better at using

an SRS.

My readers over at Spanish-Only.com. Ive learned so much from

them, especially in the comments, that I cant thank you enough.

Please, please, keep sharing your experiences and commenting at my

blog. I really appreciate your input!

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