The Blueprint to Spanish Fluency (Part 4) - Permission to Nerd Out
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Contents
Cruising past your daily goals, without trying
Computer games rich in dialogue
Watching niche content
Binge-watching your favorite TV show (dubbed)
Am I learning even when it’s difficult to understand?
How you can apply this
Summary
Keep me accountable by January 2023!
In the last 3 blog posts we’ve talked about the importance of reading, listening, and consistency when learning Spanish (which applies to any language).
In this post, I will show you ways that will make you forget you’re even learning a language.
What if there was a way where spending hours learning Spanish felt like ZERO effort?
What if you could just do what you already love and learn by doing that?
What if that was not only super enjoyable but also super effective?
If this sounds interesting, keep reading.
This is going to be a fun and valuable post for you.
Note:
I’m using Spanish as an example, but you can apply these tips to other languages as well.
Cruising past your daily goals, without trying
While enjoyment has been part of every post of this series, in this one we’re going to go all out on it.
Taking it to the next level.
Time spent with the language will move the needle the most in your language improvement. If we’re going to spend the time it needs to be fun. When you love what you’re doing time flies.
You don’t need to push yourself to meet your daily learning goals anymore.
You’ll cruise right past them.
The best way to make it easier
Making it easier, rather than harder, is what we should be aiming for when learning a language.
What is the best way to do that?
Doing what you love.
By taking advantage of what you already love you’re no longer focused on learning Spanish, but on consuming the content.
It’s a very effective way to lose track of time. You sit back and enjoy yourself, and you’re improving your Spanish as a result.
Here are some different ideas on how to do this. I will share with you what I personally have been using to learn Spanish (say hello to my nerdiest interests).
You don’t need to have the same interests as me (but if you do, then hey that’s just fabulous) The goal is to give you new ideas and help you think outside the box. To give you different ways of taking advantage of your unique and personal interests.
You might have areas of interests you haven’t thought of that will actually be perfect for language learning.
Computer games rich in dialogue
Since I was a kid I have always been a bit nerdy in my interests. I’ve always liked things that aren’t mainstream. Things you have to go and search for to find.
Looking back at my childhood I ended up learning a lot of English through playing computer games. Some of the most powerful of these were so-called “Point and Click Adventure Games”.
All of them were in English, instead of in my native Swedish. I definitely didn’t understand everything or even most of it (I mean I was 9 or 10 years old). I wasn’t even trying to improve my English.
I just loved playing these games, and my level of English improved as a by-product.
Fast-forward to today. I am fortunate to be married to a woman who has a nerdy bent as well (have told you that my wife is awesome?!).
Soon after we got married me and my wife started playing computer games together. We especially enjoyed these old-school 90’s (and sometimes newer) point-and-click adventure games. It was a great way to chill and relax. To just hang out together. They are quite relaxing compared to many other games since there’s no time pressure. You do things at your own pace since they are about following a story. Solving puzzles.
When I started learning Spanish I thought to myself:
“Why don’t I try and play one of these games in Spanish?
If they worked for my English, surely they will work for my Spanish, right?
I got the game Deponia on Steam and started playing. It was fun and a great way to uplevel my Spanish comprehension.
Source: Deponia, Daedalic Entertainment
Why point-and-click adventure games are great for language learning
Input is what you’re looking for when improving your Spanish. So it makes sense to look for games that have as much of that as possible. Point-and-click adventure games especially do. For several reasons:
There’s a lot of dialogue (spoken and text).
When you click on objects the main character explains the objects you’re looking at.
You can often repeat dialogues, giving you more chances to comprehend.
Understanding what is said is key to progressing in the game.
The last one is especially effective. You need to pay attention to what people are saying to progress. Understanding is key to solving puzzles (usually by combining different objects) to progress the story of the game.
Pro tip:
The language level can be quite high in these games. It can be a barrier to solving some of the puzzles and moving forward. Here’s a helpful hack:
Open the Google Translate app on your smartphone. Click on the “camera function” (Google Lens) and choose the language to translate from Spanish → English.
As you hover over the text with your phone it will automatically translate it.
I wouldn’t use this all the time. Just enjoy the game and let the language wash over you as you play. Use it when understanding is key to solving a certain puzzle.
It’s a useful tool when you’re in a pinch. Or when you’re just curious to know what is being said.
Fun is a big value of mine. And to me, that’s what these games are all about. They are often quite humorous.
Funny side note:
When you click and try to perform certain actions you will often hear the character repeat the same sentence each time.
This can be a bit annoying in English.
But as a language learning activity, it’s great. You’re getting repetition, which only helps you with internalizing Spanish and its patterns.
Other types of games might be helpful to boost your Spanish too. However, Call of Duty probably won’t cut it (unless you have people constantly speaking Spanish over team chat or something like that).
It needs to be games with a lot of Spanish being spoken to get the most out of your time.
If you want to get tips of what games in this genre are (in my opinion) the best for learning Spanish then check out my blog post: [The 6 Best] Point-and-Click Adventure Games to Learn Spanish
Watching niche content
I’m a huge StarCraft fan.
It’s a game that came out in 1998 and it’s a cultural phenomenon in South Korea. There the players are celebrities featured in mainstream media. Whenever I meet people from South Korea I often ask them if they know of StarCraft. The response is pretty much always “of course!” followed by laughter (they probably find it amusing that I know of the game).
I’ve been watching professional StarCraft tournaments for more than a decade. Back in High School I even used to play the game myself, playing over 1,000 games online.
I know the game well, and I know a lot about the world of Starcraft.
What does pro Korean Starcraft have to do with Spanish?
Since I’m quite busy being a husband, a new father, learning 3 languages, and running a language coaching business and blog - I felt like watching Starcraft with English commentary (like I normally do) would take away too much time from these things.
The new season of the Korean professional StarCraft League (ASL) had started (which I pretty much always watch). Then I found that every single match also has Spanish commentary on YouTube!
Perfect.
Now I get to watch StarCraft for leisurely enjoyment while also investing in my Spanish. The more I enjoy myself watching these games, the more I learn.
What could be better?
I told you guys in Part 2 of this series that my goal is to listen to Spanish for 30 mins every day.
Well let me tell ya, during the days when Starcraft is on - I crush this goal.
I don’t need to try to push myself to get my Spanish input in. I’m just interested to know what is going on in these matches. My motivation to understand Spanish comes from that.
Just like with the point-and-click adventure games this is helpful because:
It makes me focus more on the Spanish that is spoken
My curiosity helps make me pay extra attention. The result is I get more out of it since it boosts my learning.
We learn more when we’re interested. It helps us focus better.
Isn’t native commentaries a bit too difficult to understand?
I will say, this is definitely not material that is adjusted to my current level.
The Spanish StarCraft commentators speak at full-blast break-neck speed Spanish.
At first, I hardly understood anything. It was hard to hear where the words began and ended. It was like this long chain of sounds that I couldn’t make out any meaning from. I was just lost in the fast rapid onslaught of words. The Spanish commentators wouldn’t in any way speak to try and help me as a Spanish learner.
They are speaking to an audience of native Spanish speakers.
Even though the language level is quite high, there is one thing that makes it much easier to understand:
It’s confined to the world of StarCraft.
Over time, as I continued watching, certain words kept repeating. It’s the nature of it being a niche topic.
The casters are not suddenly gonna start talking about shopping or the latest politics. It’s actually a relatively limited vocabulary.
Another thing that helps comprehension is the visual aspect. What’s being said is directly a commentary on what is being seen on the screen. Of what happens in the game. This makes it easier to figure out what they are talking about.
After less than a month I noticed I understood a lot more than when I first started.
Binge-watching your favorite TV show (dubbed)
In the past few days, I discovered that Netflix had one of my favorite TV shows in Spanish.
Seinfeld.
Ooohhh, yes.
I love this show. It has so many funny story lines and characters (I mean Kramer and Newman come on!).
I have watched most of the episodes multiple times throughout the years. I know the plot of many of the episodes well. Many times I even know the exact lines they are going to say.
Being currently in Spain for a season, I like turning on the TV. It’s fun to discover what’s on TV in different cultures. They also broadcast many American TV shows and movies.
And like I said before, in Spain everything is dubbed. Everything.
The issue is that my Spanish level is not as high as my Finnish or Cantonese (yet). So just watching any TV show, while fun, is a bit too difficult for me to follow at the moment.
Then I discovered that Netflix has the Spanish dub of Seinfeld (check out Lingopie to learn languages by binge-watching Netflix and using interactive subtitles).
It’s still at the same native language level as any TV show. But watching Seinfeld is so much easier for me. It’s because I’m already so familiar with the world of Seinfeld. I know many of the scenes by heart.
Are you a fan of a popular sitcom or TV show?
Chances are very high there’s a Spanish dubbed version available on a streaming platform (it’s quite humorous hearing your favorite character speak Spanish).
So put on your comfy robe and those bunny slippers, make a large pot of tea, and just binge away!
Am I learning even when it’s difficult to understand?
What all of the above-mentioned options have in common is that they are made for natives.
When you’re a beginner/lower intermediate, watching native content is challenging. For sure.
When you’re watching something hard to understand you might think to yourself:
“Is this really improving my Spanish?”
I can assure you, it is.
Our brains are constantly looking for patterns. It’s trying to make sense of the new language. Trying to make meaning out of what it’s hearing. Even when you’re exposing yourself to something way above your level, you are improving.
It just might not feel like it in the moment.
When you’re getting input it’s like an investment. You’re not gonna notice improvement right away. The time you put into listening, watching, and reading right now is going to bear fruit weeks and months from now. So just stick with it.
The most challenging thing is often just tolerating when we don’t understand.
This is why it’s helpful to find content to consume that you enjoy, EVEN when you don’t necessarily understand.
Not focusing on improving your Spanish (even when that is the goal), but instead on enjoyment, reduces frustration greatly.
If I would turn off the Spanish commentating and watch Starcraft matches without audio, I would still want to watch the games.
How you can apply this
What is something you enjoy watching in your free time? Chances are something in that world is available in Spanish.
The more you know already about that world the better.
Commentaries and niche topics
Some type of commentary of what you see on the screen is great - video games, sports like soccer or mixed martial arts, cooking, interior design… anything really.
Give yourself permission to nerd out.
Your Spanish will improve because of it.
TV Shows
Do you have a particular TV show you just absolutely love? That you could watch episode after episode and still want to come back for more?
It could be shows like Friends (my wife would totally use this!), Gilmore Girls, The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother.
You’re probably going to watch it anyways, so why not in Spanish?
Let me know what you come up with in the comments below!
Check out my Free guide Intuitive Language Secrets if you haven’t already. Click on the button below and I’ll send it to you:
Summary
Hope you enjoyed this series of posts for learning Spanish!
Using these four things: reading, listening, habits & your personal interests in combination with each other, you have have a very powerful Spanish learning routine on your hands.
Add to that a strong desire and why behind learning Spanish and you’ll get there.
I believe in you!
Keep me accountable by January 2023!
My goal is to make a video on the anniversary of my 1 year of learning Spanish. This will be on January 16th, 2023 (exactly a year after I started learning).
What will my level be at the time? Will it be as good as I hoped? We (myself included) will find out in 2 months.
So keep me accountable on that one!
