Many people that move abroad are retired and don’t need to work.
This works out well when it comes to language learning because they have more time on their hands than people that need to work and take care of their children.
We are hearing from more and more . It can be a little more difficult to learn the language when you have lots of responsibilities.
Don’t fool yourself (like we did) thinking that you will have sooo much more time to learn the language once you relocate.
It’s true that you will need to work less because the cost of living is lower, but you will probably want to fill that extra time by doing things with your family. After all that’s probably part of the reason you are moving.
So start now, whether you’ve moved or not.
Language learning is a family activity, but the path of least resistance is pretty attractive, especially when you are adjusting to life in a new country. Your family will want time to give their brains a rest, so look for ways to learn that don’t seem so much like work.
We have had a bit of a struggle finding sufficient time to . It seems something always comes up which throws off our schedule. There is always something to do: clean the house, help Drew with her schooling, shop, cook, work, volunteer, family time…
We pick up a lot on the fly because most of our friends are Ecuadorian and only speak Spanish, so we are always learning through conversation. Our friends correct our mistakes and help us to understand what new words mean.
(Do you feel too shy to talk in Spanish because you don’t feel you can speak the language very well? may help you get over that feeling (check out ).
I also try to set aside a little time every day to study verb conjugation. This part of the language has seemed overwhelming to me and I’m constantly making mistakes, but I’m beginning to see improvement. I have recently started studying one type of verb at a time, for example regular “er” verbs. I write the verb out in the past – Preterito, present – Presente de indicativo and the future – futuro tenses. I also add the Perfecto de indicativo which is another past tense, because it’s easy and used a lot.
There are so many different verb tenses that trying to study and remember them all at once is too much for me. Choosing 4 tenses to work on has made it a little easier and once I master (here’s hoping) them I’ll work on some more.
This seems to be helping me grasp the conjugation better because I can see the pattern in what I’m learning. I pay special attention to the Yo (me/I) and Nosotros (us/our) conjugation because that makes up a large part of what I need to say when making conversation. The book is what I’m using, it’s a really good book. I do wish there were more examples showing how to use the conjugated verbs in sentences, but I guess I would not be able to lug the book around if that was the case.
Here are some of the we used to learn Spanish.