My Journey into Learning Spanish!

June 30, 2017

On our last holiday to the beautiful Canarian Island of Tenerife, we viewed and seriously considered buying a holiday home there. We are in the process of making that possible, so this led me to start thinking about learning Spanish.

I can do the basics. Hola, adios, gracias - to name a few well known greetings. I can order drinks and ask for a table for 3 of us, but beyond that I'm a little lost. Occasionally when venturing beyond the hotel walls into the local towns I feel I could do with more language skills to immerse myself more and get the most out of my time there.

As soon as I returned a few weeks ago I started my research into places to go learn Spanish, but realistically I'm time restricted due to being a stay at home mum and I don't fancy going back to college.

During my research I discovered Rosetta Stone - they offer an online (PC and Mobile Device) learning platform. After much discussion with them over the phone to their sales team, I decided this was the learning method for me.

Once I was registered I downloaded the app on to both my devices and got under way with my learning.

The learning method is genius! You learn your chosen language with no English translations! Sounds scary right? But actually it is incredible!

Here's how it works - you are shown an image, for example, a Bike and you need to match the Spanish word to the correct image. You'll be shown 4 or 6 words and images at once.

This then progresses into more than one word, for example a coloured bike, a person on a bike, multiples and so on, until you have a sentence and questions around that subject. Entirely through images.

This method allows you to learn the language in the same way you learned your mother tongue - intuitively - by putting words to images in the way you did when you first ever learned to speak as a child.

Imagine showing a small child a ball and saying 'ball'. No explaining is required - you understood what was being shown to you and eventually you'd look at that object and instinctively know the word for that item was was 'ball'.

I already (even after 6 days in) find myself saying in my head ''periodico' when I see a newspaper. That's how quickly and instinctively it comes to you.

You then get pronunciation tests at the end of each module, which is listened to by the app and scored for accuracy. In the short time I've been using the app I already have pronunciation skills I never knew I was capable of.

So far I am thoroughly enjoying my journey into becoming a Spanish speaker and I am excited to share this journey with my followers. I have a long way to go, but I'm excited for the challenge and excited to acquire new language skills!

In time I hope to be able to post some speaking stories and ultimately put my skills into action on my holidays to Tenerife!

While speaking with Rosetta Stone I was able to organise a discount code for my followers to use to get a generous 50% off the learning packages - so if anyone else wants to learn a language too they can do so at a reduced price.

For more information check out www.rosettastone.co.uk/lp/h1/?cmp=aff&cid=ba-co-samantha50 and save using the voucher code SAMANTHA50 during checkout.

*These words and photos are entirely my own experience and the links enclosed in this post are not affiliate links, so there is no benefit - financial or otherwise to me if you sign up to learn a language with my discount code.

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