One Song to Make Your Life Better

We have been talking a lot about building relationships together recently. When reflecting on this emphasis, at first, I was like, “Well, of course! It’s that time of year when we are building relationships!” And while that is true, it is maybe more true that learning a second language is literally all about building relationships … if you’re doing it right.
I was having a lovely conversation recently, with two new friends and fellow educators, one of whom speaks Spanish and has her own beautiful journey for how she learned it. She described discovering Spanish as “unlocking connection”. I could not have said it better myself.

Spanish Tip

Whatever amount of Spanish you know, whether that is simply “Hola” or “gracias” or “baños”... make a commitment to using it as much as you can. This is the most powerful internal shift you can make when learning Spanish, and with it, there will be no limit to how much you can learn.

Below, I’ll explain a little bit about why it is so darn powerful.

If you are ready to build your Spanish faster and get support in using it every day, join the Spanish for Relationship-Building course, starting in September 2024! 

The Song

This tip to speak with other humans, no matter how much or how little you know, is so important, that I build weekly challenges into my courses for class participants to use a specific aspect of what they learned in class with real people every day before the next class.

I recently discovered Tengo tu Love by Sie7e (though the song is more than ten years old, which shows how cool I am). It is catchy, and it is clean – perfect for playing at school.
​
Aaaand, I love the lyrics! It is a love song, all about how the singer doesn’t have a lot of money or good looks, but he has a whole bunch of other stuff that is more important. For example:

Then the next line captures what language learning is all about!

Talking is worth more than an iPhone. Preach!

Talking in Spanish is worth more than a 365-day streak on DuoLingo, more than a 4.0 in Spanish on your high school transcript, more than a grammatically perfect sentence. Need more than a lyric to persuade you?

Most people who say they aren’t “good” at learning a language have simply never had the opportunity or guidance to use the language they are using in meaningful interactions with other humans as they go. Conversely, I have seen students who are at the bottom of the class in their accuracy, but who soar at building relationships with Spanish-speakers, because they cast aside their fears of making mistakes and jump into speaking with others.

It isn’t just that using a language essential to solidifying what you have learned. It is actually far more important than the “correctness” of what you are saying.

The most important benefit of speaking with others from the beginning of your learning process, however, is that it sets in motion a virtuous cycle. I experienced this cycle, and I see it at work in students all the time.

When you speak even if you don’t know everything… you get practice communicating even when you don’t know everything! This is important, because you never will know everything. You get comfortable communicating with what you have (which literally is all anyone can do).

Too often people get caught up thinking, “I’ll start talking to people when I …” but the longer we put it off, the bigger and scarier a proposition it becomes, and the more opportunities for learning we miss out on.

Plus, it is those people who you talk to, who see that you are trying, who are going to be your best teachers. They will teach you new things to say, they will good-naturedly point out when you make embarrassing mistakes (instead of getting offended), and will be the cheerleader you need to keep you motivated.
​
So, committing to speaking from Day 1 is the best way to do it.

Spanish Call to Action

1. Write down what you know how to say already in Spanish, even if you just have one word on your list.
2. Choose at least one, but no more than three words or phrases on your list that you will commit to using every day for the rest of this week and next.

Better Together

If you are eager to get your talking going in Spanish, build relationships, and you agree it is not something you do just at the beginning of the year, but that you do every day and it completely defines why you want to learn Spanish, enroll in Spanish for Relationship-Building, the only Spanish course built specifically to help people who work in schools build relationships with Spanish-speaking students and families. Starting in September 2024, this is a great way to start off the new school year!