Don’t Forget Your Spanish: 3 Tricks to Maintain Your Spanish in 10 Minutes a Day
This piece is for you if you’ve spent a lot of time, effort, and maybe even money trying to learn Spanish up to a level you’re pretty comfortable with…
But right now your priorities have shifted, and you can’t spend so much time on your Spanish anymore… STILL you do everything, so you don’t forget your Spanish!
Luckily, if you focus on just 3 key activities that you could do in as little as 10 minutes a day, you’ll NEVER lose your Spanish skills. If you keep doing them regularly (regardless of whether it’s a month, a year, or a decade from now), you’ll still understand Spanish and you’ll still be able to speak yourself.
1. Listen to and read Spanish INPUT every day
Aun si solo escuchas o lees cinco minutos al día (Even if you just listen or read 5 minutes a day), you’ll maintain most of your Spanish skills if you make it a habit.
Here are some ways to do it:
- Follow Spanish-speaking accounts (or news websites) on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or other social media, like YouTube. Their posts will show up on your feed, so you’ll see Spanish every day.
- Start replacing your daily little habits with habits in Spanish:
- If you always listen to a podcast on your commute, listen to one in Spanish.
- Watch Spanish TV series instead of English ones.
- Create a playlist with music in Spanish.
Por supuesto que puedes hacer mucho más (Of course you can do much more), but just hearing a little bit of Spanish daily can keep your brain used to the language!
2. Do a Focused Study Session a week
Just getting a lot of Spanish input will help you a lot, pero, si de verdad quieres mantener tu nivel actual (but if you really want to maintain your current level), I recommend you do at least one real study session a week. It doesn’t have to be long! As short as 10 to 20 minutes is fine!
Here are some things you could cover in your study session:
- Studying flashcards / chunks
- Learning chunks from our videos
- Practicing a conversation with yourself / a Spanish-speaking native
- Using a dedicated Spanish course
Por cierto (By the way), our Inner Circle members get a flashcard deck for every lesson we publish on YouTube! Perfect to review your Spanish in just a couple of minutes a day. Learn more about the Spring Spanish Inner Circle!
3. Speak Spanish at least once a week
Try to speak Spanish at least once a week to maintain your skills. It doesn’t have to be that long, even 20 minutes is enough to keep your brain trained. But it’s important to speak at least a little bit, as a “reminder” to your brain: “¡Sí hablas español!”
¿Mi sugerencia? (My suggestion?) Get a tutor online, talk to Spanish-speaking friends, maybe even try an app.
Homework – so you don’t forget your Spanish!
Alright! So, ¿adivina qué? (guess what?) I want to make sure you get the best out of this article, so I’m going to give you a little homework…
I want you to identify all the chunks I used in this article and tell me which one you think is the most useful. See? There’s already an opportunity for a new focused study session! Genial, ¿no? (Cool, isn’t it?)
Now that you have your tricks organized, and you decide to have a conversation in Spanish at least once a week… you might as well make it an interesting conversation, right?
To do so, I’ve made another article for you with 10 fascinating questions you can ask your conversation partner to keep the conversation flowing AND be viewed as the most interesting conversation partner in the world!
