Have a goal to learn Spanish
PODCAST about goals and studying Spanish
Why is it important to have a goal when learning a language?
Having a path to follow gives us security and motivates us because we know exactly what we have to do to get where we want to be at any given moment.
Setting goals is fundamental to be able to advance and evaluate the progress of our study.
Getting organized is important to know the path to follow. I recommend you to create a study calendar for the month and follow it with these tips.
Clarity, you must know what you want and how you want it to be concrete.
Clear priorities, this will help you achieve what you want. Not all tasks are equally important, you must identify what is most important and give it more importance.
Self-esteem is closely related to the objectives, if we do not feel comfortable with ourselves or with the situation, we become demotivated and this does not help.
Procrastination and languages
The meaning of this strange word is: to leave things for another time.
How many times have you thought about watching a movie in Spanish and minutes later ended up watching it in your language, maybe you thought that another time would be better.
It also happens often with homework. When you don’t really know how to do your homework, you don’t feel like doing it and you keep putting it off.
But why does this happen?
You will be surprised, but fear and procrastination are directly related. It is very important for you to know that in most cases it is not laziness (in Spain we say laziness).
Sometimes when you feel that you are not able to do something or that you are not going to do it as well as you would like, you prefer not to do it. You have to take the bull by the horns! (take control of the situation).
How to avoid procrastination when studying a language?
Let’s take a look at four tools to combat procrastination.
- Small goals
For example, if you have to write an essay in Spanish, you can spend one day thinking about how you are going to organize the topic. On another day, you can look up the vocabulary, and on another day you can write a rough draft and then clean it up.
- Deadlines
Parkinson’s law says that a task lasts as long as you have time for it.
- Pomodoro method
25 minutes in a row to do a task and 5 minutes of rest. The 5 minutes are to disconnect.
One of the benefits of the Pomodoro method is that you are more focused on what you are doing at that moment. Also, our attention is 100% for about 20 minutes, then it drops.
This is why we recommend you to study for 25 minutes and rest for 5 minutes to recover and be at 100% again.
- Highlights of the day
You have to set a star goal for the day. Everything else is extra. If you manage to achieve the goal of the day, you have to be satisfied with it.
Depending on your level the goal may vary. For example, if you have a basic level of Spanish you can think about learning 3 irregular verbs by the end of the day.
Find your purpose for learning Spanish
As I mentioned before, if you have a clear goal you will be able to create your study plan. By the way, you can download here a worksheet with which you can start defining and organizing your study plan.
I recommend that before you start setting goals you answer some questions related to language learning:
- Why study Spanish and not another language? Here I give you 5 reasons, but I recommend you to find your own, it may or may not be among these reasons.
- What level of Spanish do I need? The levels are: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1. Depending on your objective you will need one or the other.
- How much time do I need to learn Spanish? This is a very frequent question and the answer is very ambiguous: IT DEPENDS. What does it depend on? It depends on the time you have to dedicate to it, the materials you use, the system your teacher follows and many other factors. It is important that a professional helps you to get organized, even if it is at the beginning to set the guidelines and then continue on your own. Remember, it is important to know exactly where you are in order to move forward on the right path and only a teacher can tell you this.
