The 9 Pillars of Learning Spanish on Your Own [Complete Guide]

Exactly how I became conversational in 6 months by ignoring the language-learning industry, sitting on my couch, and spending next to nothing

Let’s be clear about one thing: I suck at languages. I am your typical 27-year-old American white dude: grew up in a single language household, didn’t try at Spanish AT ALL in school, went to college, got a job, and life went on in my monolingual world. Somewhere in there I fell in love with travelling and also realized the future is Spanglish.

The desire to speak Spanish crept into my head in my early twenties and grew stronger as time went on. When the pandemic hit in March of 2020 — about a year ago — I was living alone in the icy hellscape known as Chicago, newly single, and trying to figure out what to do with my quarantine boredom.

I decided it was time to finally become a Spanish speaker.

In the past year, I have more or less taught myself Spanish. In a matter of months, I became conversational without buying a course or leaving the country. I have had full conversations on the phone and in-person with Spanish speakers. I even went on a date recently with a woman from Peru, and we spoke exclusively in Spanish for an hour over some Pisco sours and some ceviche. And yes, I did get a second date for those wondering.

My point in writing this article is simple: learning Spanish is not rocket science, nor does it require you to spend a lot of money. All you need to do is stick to the 9 pillars of learning Spanish and you will become a conversational speaker in the next 6 months. Let’s get into it.

Pillar 1: Motivation

Let’s be real, you need to know why you’re learning Spanish. In the English-speaking world we live in today, you do not need it. It is nice to have, and perhaps when you’re old and crotchety some form of Spanish or Spanglish will be the norm in the United States, but for the foreseeable future you will be completely fine without it. Figure out why the hell you want to speak it.

“I feel like it would be fun” is not a good enough reason. Deep down, you probably have a more meaningful reason if you have gotten this far in this article/rant. Find out what that is.

For me, there are multiple reasons: firstly, I want to travel to Latin America, and I want to do it a lot. It is right there and infinitely cooler than Europe from my few excursions there. I want to be able to hop on a flight to Puerto Rico for the weekend, or spend weeks on end in the mountains of Colombia, or wander through the streets of Mexico City, all while knowing that I can enjoy it authentically and connect with the locals in a way that is more than asking for a cerveza. Secondly, I love Latin pop, but couldn’t tell you a thing they were saying a year ago. The music has always energized me no matter how bad I feel, so understanding the words became a necessity. Lastly, I lived in a mostly Mexican and Puerto Rican neighborhood of Chicago for four years, hearing Spanish on a nearly daily basis. I felt completely useless not knowing what is more or less a native tongue to our country. These desires kept me motivated and continue to do so. Identify what matters to you.

Also, your motivation should steer the form of Spanish you choose to learn. Spanish is quite different across different dialects, most notably those of Spain, Argentina, and the rest of Spanish-speaking Latin America. Even from country to country in Latin America, the language is pretty different. These differences are much greater than the difference between American English and British English. I am focusing entirely on Latin American Spanish in general, with an emphasis on Mexican Spanish. The good news is: despite ignoring European Spanish altogether, I am just as equipped to go to Spain in the future.

Pillar 2: Accountability

Determine how much time you can spend on this every day and commit to it. “I don’t have time,” you say…I would bet money that you actually do have plenty of time. Open your phone right now and go to your phone usage. Are you spending more than an hour a day on some form of social media or game or other time-killing activity? If so, you have time. I know I’m being an unreasonable jerk about this, but I cannot stress enough the importance of ridding yourself of this mindset. This mindset is what leads you to download — or worse, pay for — traditional language platforms like Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Memrise, and Babbel, or really any other course for that matter, only to stop using them as soon as your friends invite you for margs or your boss asks you to work late to reformat some godforsaken slide deck.

I have tried all of these learning apps at some point, and find that they are at best inefficient and at worst a complete waste of time and money. Why? Because they do not make you accountable to your own learning. The logic is inherently flawed: pay money or watch ads and the course will teach you Spanish. This is nonsense. Nobody can just magically teach you Spanish. You have to hold yourself accountable to learning it and to learn it you must immerse yourself in it. No single tool, course, app, or boilerplate list of Spanish hacks can do this for you. You have to embrace a new lifestyle which includes surrounding yourself with Spanish as much as possible and owning your own educational process.

For me, this looks something like spending one or two hours a day fully focused on Spanish, while simultaneously surrounding myself with it semi-passively through music and writing. We will get more into how this breaks down later on.

Pillar 3: Fun

It has to be fun. Every polyglot out there will tell you that they find enjoyment in the process of learning a language. Treat this like a hobby, not a tedious job to get to an end goal of fluency.

On that note, something you will NOT see below is grammar. Grammar is not fun. This is why you hated learning Spanish in high school and why your Spanish teacher probably hated teaching it. I refuse to spend ample time memorizing grammar rules. Luckily for all of us, grammar comes organically as you start figuring out the language. So: care about grammar and pay attention to it as you learn, but don’t waste time drilling it. The more time spent exclusively on grammar, the more likely you are to quit learning Spanish altogether.

Alright, let’s get into the actual stuff you need to do in order of importance:

Speak, Memorize Words, Listen, Read, Write. That’s all there is to it.

Pillar 4: Speak

If this article were about one of my favorite No Doubt songs, it would be called Don’t Speak…but it’s not. You must, must, MUST speak Spanish early and often. To learn a language, you must first speak it, not the other way around. Plus, isn’t that the whole point? Also, there is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about, especially considering native Spanish speakers tend to love that you’re learning their language and culture. It is nerve-racking at first, but exhilarating once you take the leap. I read somewhere that there are seven days in a week to start speaking and ‘one day’ isn’t one of them. I got a kick out of that and took it to heart.

Speaking Spanish is also by far the most fun part of the learning process. Don’t deprive yourself of the enjoyment!

Without further ado, here is how to speak Spanish while living in an English-speaking country:

• Tandem: This is a language exchange app (Apple, Android), which is a more modern form of finding a pen pal. It’s free and it’s simple. You download the app and connect with Spanish speakers looking to learn English. There are more Spanish speakers learning English than there are English speakers learning Spanish, which makes it easy to find someone to talk to on the phone. The app can feel like a dating app and is not particularly well-built, so I like to use it to find my speaking buddies and then connect on WhatsApp (the messaging app most of the world uses), where we then text and talk on the phone. Through Tandem, I have been able to speak countless hours of Spanish for free, while also making some friends in the process. I spoke on the phone to a Colombian woman six days a week when the pandemic started. We did English one day and Spanish the next, which lasted about three months. We both sucked, but we both got better. Then I spoke to a Venezuelan dude a couple times a week for a few months with the same format. Tandem is great because it is free, but because it is for language exchange, you will spend time finding pen pals, losing pen pals, and speaking English when you could be speaking Spanish. While this was rewarding, it wore me out after a while.

Left: Tandem — your way of finding pen pals; Right: WhatsApp — how you’ll communicate with pen pals

• italki: I absolutely love italki and use it a ton. It is — and will continue to be — the backbone of my Spanish learning journey. It is a simple platform that connects tutors with students of all levels, and it only costs $6–12 per hour to have a one-on-one conversation in Spanish. You just go on the browser or mobile app, find a tutor that suits your needs, and schedule a 30–60 minute video call at your convenience. I particularly love that I can talk to people who are my age and genuinely worth getting to know. I use italki about four days per week, and have two Mexican tutors, a Venezuelan tutor, and an Argentinian tutor. Sometimes I even supplement with one-off conversations to hear a new accent or get a new flavor of conversation. By the way, I shared my success story with italki, and they agreed to give you $10 in italki credit after your first purchase if you use the link at the end of this paragraph. I do receive a small commission if you use this link. Note that this is the only link in the article for which I’m compensated, because — with the exception of an ultra-cheap flashcard app that we will get to momentarily — italki is truly the only for-fee language-learning tool worth spending any money on. Sign up now for your first italki lesson and get your $10 in italki credit.

italki: If you want to learn Spanish, you first must speak Spanish. italki is the most effective way to do this if you’re willing to spend a small amount of money

• Record yourself: Just try to talk to yourself and record it on your phone using voice memos or an equivalent app. I try to do one per day for two or three minutes. Then I listen to my recordings and laugh at my gringo accent.

Pillar 5: Learn Words

For whatever reason, conventional language learning assumes that words can be learned at a steady pace. This is ridiculous. Language is like a giant puzzle where the words are the pieces. If you don’t have the pieces, you can’t build the puzzle.

Personally, I would rather smile and ask “airport?” than say “excuse me sir, where can I find the nearest ummmmm….?” because one of them is communicating and one of them is just saying umm. Something worth remembering when speaking Spanish or English or nothing at all: the words you say make up only about 7% of communication; the other 93% is body language and your tone of voice. For this reason, just smile and sound friendly regardless of the words you say!

Anyway, my point is simple: you need to learn a lot of words. This too is fun because as you start to progress, you realize that with words you will be able to communicate quite easily, even if it ain’t pretty.

• Reword: This is a no-frills vocab flash card app that I use, which cost about $7 for a lifetime subscription. It comes loaded with the most common 1000–2000 words (some are European Spanish but whatever) and the ability to add more, and it uses spaced repetition to resurface them over time. The way it works is simple: every day, 10–25 new words are surfaced for you to begin memorizing. Additionally, any words you started learning previously are resurfaced at increasingly spaced intervals, starting out daily, progressing to weekly, and eventually moving to an interval of three months. Once you know a word that hasn’t been resurfaced for three months, you truly have memorized this word. That word is then cast aside, marked as “completely learned,” and the cycle continues. This app has been critical for learning Spanish. Since downloading the Reword app about 12 months ago, I’ve completely learned over 3500 words and am in the process of learning another 5000. That sounds like a lot, but it really only amounts to about 20–25 minutes a day.

Reword: How to learn a lot of words very quickly. Adjust the settings so that you always display the English word and reveal the Spanish word.

• Find New Words: Reword is the way you will learn words, but sourcing words will come from all the other ways you immerse yourself in Spanish. I make a point to add at least ten words to the app every day. As I’ve advanced, I’ve started adding colloquial phrases and words like janguear (Puerto Rican for to hang out) and chido (Mexican for saying cool). I’ve also started adding conjugated verbs. That means not just adding comer (to eat) but also adding words like comí (I ate) and comeríamos (we would eat). This is how you learn grammar without boring yourself to tears. That said, take it one or two verb tenses at a time. I tried doing many tenses at once and it was simply too confusing.
• Google Translate: This is your dictionary. It is great for quickly translating words and decent for translating sentences. It even has a voice to text feature which is nice. Download it for free on Apple or Android.

Google Translate: Your English/Spanish dictionary

• SpanishDict: Firstly, download the free mobile app on Apple or Android and turn on the word of the day function; it will send you a push of a new word every day which you can add to your vocab cards. It is also great for more in-depth description of words as well as reference to grammar. Like I mentioned, don’t spend too much time learning grammar, but do spend time referring to it. When you see a word like charlamos, you’re going to recognize pretty quickly that it is a conjugated form of the verb charlar and think “hmm, what does that mean.” When you go to SpanishDict, it will break it down for you, indicating that charlamos means we chat. This way you will learn grammar passively as you go. I think I’d rather cut out my tongue than practice conjugations, so trust me when I say that this approach works, even as you advance into complex verb forms and moods.

SpanishDict: Your go-to guide for in-depth descriptions and conjugations

Pillar 6: Listen

Spanish is a fast language. It doesn’t have a ton of sound variation, has a lot of syllables, and nearly all sounds come from the front of the mouth, which makes keeping up difficult. Even still, I struggle to understand conversation between two native speakers because it sounds like somebody is starting a lawnmower with their mouth.

For this reason, you need to get your ears adjusted to the sounds of Spanish.

• Find Latin music you like: There’s a lot of good stuff out there, new and old. Personally, I like reggaetón even though it’s nearly impossible to understand. Spotify playlists ¡Viva Latino!, Baila Reggaeton, Salsa Classics, Havana Social Club Radio, and Soda Stereo Radio are worth checking out. Also, Black Eyes Peas recently dropped a Latin collaboration album called TRANSLATION which is more or less a bilingual album. It bumps.
• Watch shows: There’s a chrome extension called Language Learning with Netflix that creates subtitles in both languages simultaneously. Soon you’ll get to a point where you don’t need the English subtitles. I still use Spanish subtitles now but don’t read them all the time, and occasionally challenge myself by not using them at all. Some Netflix shows I recommend are Narcos and Narcos Mexico (both are about 30% in English), Street Food: Latin America, Luis Miguel, and my favorite: Club de Cuervos, but there are a ton out there on just about every streaming platform. For beginners, the show Extra is a cheesy yet entertaining knockoff of Friends. It can be found on YouTube. For more of a challenge, there is a YouTube channel called Back Door Comedy, where you can find a collection of witty and fast-paced short sketches in Mexican Spanish. I make a point to watch something every day for at least fifteen minutes.

Language Learning with Netflix: Shows with subtitles in both languages (Note: the captions are from the series Club de Cuervos, but the image is not actual Netflix content)

• Listen to Podcasts: I use Spotify for my podcast consumption, but you can find most podcasts on any standard platform. My early favorite was the Duolingo Spanish Podcast, as it is phenomenal for beginners and early intermediates. It has legitimately interesting true stories told in a mix of Spanish and English, as well as transcripts available online. Also check out Spanish Obsessed, a conversational podcast with each episode identified as basic, intermediate, or advanced. TED en Español is great once you are looking for a challenge, as the content can quickly become pretty abstract.
• Audiobooks: I haven’t explored this personally, but if you are more into stories than podcasts, consider downloading audiobooks. There are a ton of Spanish audiobooks designed for learners of all levels. Avoid audiobooks that claim to teach you Spanish instead of exposing you to natural forms of Spanish. These are boring and violate Pillar 3, which is having fun.

Pillar 7: Read

Reading has three purposes: to improve comprehension, to increase vocabulary, and to train your mouth. It’s also pretty enjoyable, and a good way to embrace Latin culture. Here’s how you do it:

• BBC Mundo: You can get the news in Spanish. I used to read this a lot but I hate the news, even if it is in another language. I do still get push notifications from BBC Mundo in Spanish which is an easy way to embed Spanish into the everyday motions. It is also good to know the general happenings in Latin America when interacting with its residents. I had a call once with a Venezuelan living in Peru on the day that the Peruvian president was ousted after only one week in office. These kinds of things are good to know when talking to people. You’ll learn quickly that many Latin Americans are pretty tuned in to US current events, largely because what the US does affects them, so I like to come to the table with a sense for what’s going on with all of our southern neighbors. (Download the free app: Apple, Android)
• Read a Book: Reading a book is tough but rewarding. It can be helpful to read a book that you have already read in English. A fan favorite is Harry Potter, but you can also simply seek out a short book. When I first started reading Spanish books, I would read for about 10 minutes and only finish about 2 pages. That has increased to about 6 pages. Point is, it is difficult and slow, but it is rewarding to feel yourself actually comprehending a story in another language. Plus, reading will dramatically improve your vocabulary (and by extension, grammar), especially if you are underlining all of the words you don’t know as you read. After you’re done reading, add the new words to your Reword flashcard app so you actually memorize them.
• Read Aloud: This is way more helpful than I first realized. As soon as I started reading aloud (about six months into my journey) my ability to speak in conversation improved exponentially. Why? Because learning a language is not only about training your brain, it is also about training your mouth. Like any other muscle, repetition is important. Reading aloud enables you to practice making sounds in a very efficient manner.
• Work on Your Accent: When you read aloud, you can work on your accent without feeling any pressure. Try to imitate what you hear on TV and in conversation. Repeat words until you say them correctly. Hell, you can even record yourself if you want. Remember, Spanish is spoken almost entirely from the front of the mouth, and it is phonetic, which makes the accent pretty easy if you commit to it. Fun Fact: if you start a conversation from the front of your mouth, Spanish speakers instantly recognize that you are more than the typical “American that forgot their high school Spanish.” You are going to have some form of a foreign accent forever, but working to naturalize it makes you better at communicating because it makes you more likely to be understood. We have all encountered non-native English speakers whose accents make the words they say unrecognizable, even though the words are correct. Read aloud with the intent to speak correctly and this will not be an issue for you.

Pillar 8: Write

If there is anything that can take a backseat, it is writing, but it still holds a lot of value for vocabulary retention. It is the JV version of speaking. Feel free to treat it that way while you are warming up for your first call (which you should still schedule today even if you are a complete novice). Personally, I don’t journal in Spanish, but a lot of language-learners swear by it. Instead, I basically took anything that I used to write in English and now write it in Spanish:

• Use the Spanish keyboard on your device: This is a necessity for communication and practice! Here are instructions on setting this up: Apple, Android
• Chores and lists: Make grocery lists and to-do lists in Spanish. When you actually go to the grocery store, try to think in Spanish when looking for food.
• Texting: Use Tandem or italki to text. But, DO NOT replace actually talking to people with writing. Texting is much less efficient in terms of learning, which means time spent texting instead of talking is time wasted. You should treat texting as extra.
• Journaling and notes: Like I mentioned, I don’t do this quite as much as I should, but I do still write notes on my phone in Spanish. For example, my friend recently told me that he was getting married in Greece in June of 2022, so I jotted down a note: “boda de Andrew en Grecia: junio de 2022:”

Pillar 9: Routine

You now know what you need to do: talk, memorize words, listen, read, write, all while remembering why you are learning Spanish in the first place.

But how do you actually make it a reality? This varies by person as well as their schedule. Maybe you have kids, maybe you work weird or variable hours, or maybe you are in school. If you know how to create a routine, great. If not, here is how I do it.

Personally, I am much more accountable to a goal-based system, rather than a rigid routine that I cannot deviate from. This is not for everyone, but it’s what works for me in any goal I’m trying to achieve, be it athletic, career-related, Spanish, you name it.

That means I have daily goals that I check off a list. And it is so simple: talk, add ten words to vocab, do vocab, listen, read, write. That’s all there is to it! I use an app called Habit Buddy to track this and literally check off the six boxes each day. It is free and bare-bones, which is why I like it. (Note: Habit Buddy is only available on Apple, so if you have an Android, find a different habit tracking app that is also free and simple. Loop looks like a good option, though I have no personal experience with it.)

Left: The folder of the apps you need (except Spotify & Netflix); Right: Habit Buddy (translation: add 10 words to vocab, write, listen, talk, read, vocab)

I like to do the majority of my Spanish work in the morning because it works well with my schedule. Again, this is not rigid because that just isn’t practical for my lifestyle. For example, if I have an early morning work meeting, I just make sure I check off the items on the list during lunch or that night. Anyway, here is my typical day:

• 7:00–7:15: Wake up, do morning pushups, crunches, stretching, etc.
• 7:15–7:30: Meditate
• 7:30–7:50: Do vocab on Reword
• 7:50–8:00: Read a book or the news in Spanish
• 8:00–8:10: Lookup unknown words and add to Reword
• 8:10–8:15: Make breakfast
• 8:15–8:30: Watch a Spanish show or listen to a Spanish podcast while I eat breakfast and drink tea
• 8:30: Start work
• Listen to Latin music while I work (along with a smattering of pop punk to get me through the day of course)
• End work around 6:00
• Write a note in Spanish or make a list at some point, because it’s something I need to do anyway
• Sometime in the evening: Speak Spanish for an hour using italki (I do this about four times a week)

If you do the math, this routine amounts to about one to two uninterrupted hours a day, plus all the time spent passively absorbing Spanish. While you can spend two hours a day like I do, you don’t have to. You can easily schedule your calls to be only thirty minutes, or reduce the number of words you add to vocab each day. You will learn more slowly, but you will still become conversational as long as you are consistent. Either way, it’s really not that much time, and it truly works. All you are doing is immersing yourself in another world and living its language.

Once you find your routine, a day without Spanish will feel boring and dull.

You now have everything you need to quickly become a Spanish speaker for little to no cost. Find your motivation, hold yourself accountable, and have fun with the process. Speak, learn words, listen, read, and write. Build a routine to make this a part of who you are; to be a Spanish speaker, you need to live like a Spanish speaker.

These 9 pillars of learning Spanish got me to a point where I could surely hold my own in a Spanish-speaking country within about four months, which was my first goal. Somewhere between six and nine months, I reached a conversational level, and now only one year since starting this journey, I am conversational well beyond just small talk. My progress has unsurprisingly felt slower through this intermediate level, and my Spanish still has its fair share of errors and fillers, but I know that keeping with this method will result in complete fluency. I recently struck up a Spanish conversation in a Mexican restaurant, and after about five minutes, the server switched to English and said, “Damn dude, you just started learning this year? You’re killin’ it.”

You can kill it too. Just know your motivation and stick to the plan.

Now download the apps and schedule a damn call already! Your Spanish-speaking life awaits.