2/10: How I learned Spanish in 5 months? 🗣️ 🔥 🇪🇸
Español Por Favor
One concern which came up was about the language barrier... I had previously travelled to Central American countries and was impressed with amount of people NOT speaking any English whatsoever. So Diego and I pondered learning Spanish basics. Being both single, it would also surely help us enage with latinas :)
I first thought of just using the popular Duolinguo app. But then a friend recommended us the suggestopedia language school "Seven keys" in Sofia, Bulgaria. You might wonder what the hell is suggestopedia? It is a method to learn foreign languages, developed by fellow Bulgarian Georgi Lozanov back in the 1970s. I had previously heard others praise Lozanov's method. And seeing that the intro spanish course took only 6 weeks, my friend and I immediately signed up.
Traditional language learning is a crime. Long live suggestopedia!
Okay, that is an overstatement... but seriously, suggestopedia is a 100x more fun and likely 5x easier method to learning a language...or at least to bring your knowledge of a language from zero to basic conversational level.
Why 100x more fun?
I could even say 1000x... because traditional language learning is not fun at all. Looking back at the hours I spent re-writing English, Russian, and German words, I feel like a complete idiot or a "зубър" as we call it in Bulgarian. Suggestopedia, on the other hand, is soo much cooler!!! It feels like a game. The system is designed to mimic the way small kids learn a language.
On my very first lesson I was left speechless by the level of joy, tranquility, and laughter we were having while studying Spanish...singing "Me Gustas Tu", playing games, and reading our first Spanish texts, all while having the timeless Mozart, Bethoven, and Chopin playing on the background!
Suggestopedia is not just a method of learning languages. It is also an informal type of theraupetic practice bringing laughter and real connection back into a life dominated with screens, dopamine hits, and burnout.
Why 5x easier?
I reached a level of Spanish letting me travel, apply for Paraguay residency, and get my way in Spanish-native environments after:
- 3 months to complete the A1 and A2 courses at "Seven keys";
- Singing a ton of songs at "Seven keys" and then re-singing them at home;
- Turning my phone language to Spanish;
- Installing the **Toucan extension** on my Brave web browser;
- Watching and taking notes of ~30 episodes of Español Sí YouTube playlist;
- Watching my favorite investigative journalist's channel in Spanish with Spanish subtitles;
- Lastly but very importantly, pushing myself to speak Spanish with Diego and my co-students both within our "Seven keys" classes as well as outside of the classroom. Moreover, Diego and I kept pushing ourselves to speak in Spanish as much as possible during our trip.
After seeing how enjoyable and achievable it is to learn Spanish with suggestopedia, I started considering learning Italian, and/or reinvigorating my German and Russian :) Becoming a polyglot is really not that impossible when you leverage suggestopedia, a curious mind, and a compelling reason to learn.
One thing is for sure: I will never again study a languange the traditional way, and when I hopefully have kids, I will dictatorially send them to suggestopedia classes 🫡
[!Suggestopedia Tips] Suggestopedia Tips
- The teacher is absolutely key! We loved ours Valentina Yorgakieva and could not recommend her highly enough!
- Co-students matter a lot. The more enthusiastic co-students you have, the faster you will advance!
- Suggestopedia is 100x more fun an 5x easier than traditional language learning, but it is not a magic pill. You will still need to invest time, effort, and push yourself.
- At the beginning, it might look like suggestopedia is all a stupid, childish waste of time. It is not! Trust the process, put in the hours, have fun, and you will be amazed by your progress.
(If you decide to enroll at "Seven keys", I would be super happy to gift you my spanish textbook for A1 and A2. Text me if you want it.)
Three additional resources on effective language learning
- Article: How to Actually Learn a Language
- Video: The Feynman’s technique to learning any language
- I speak 12 languages - copy my 30 min learning routine - YouTube