Seven things every Spanish student should know

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How to learn a new language? This question disturbs all those who have ever begun the study of a foreign language.
Most Spanish students approach a formal course after having used some app or web pages where free Spanish courses are offered, but upon discovering that they do not learn at the desired pace, they seek the accompaniment of a tutor. What can you do to learn more and better Spanish? I'm going to give you some tips:
1. Don't look for logic in the Spanish grammar. Grammar is not logic. If you think in your own language you will find that most of the things you had to learn by heart had no logic at all. Irregular verbs,  verbal twists and things like that are not logical, so stop asking "why is this language so ilogic?", the answer is: because! 
2. Stop translating in your mind. I know it's dificult not to translate every single word you hear in Spanish, but if you want to take an advice from someone who has stydied languages for a long time: try to relate the words in Spanish with an image that explains the meaning, don't look for the closest equivalent in English, because your learning is goin to be slower and slower. 
3. Watch t.v., lisent to music, read books, all in Spanish, of course! If you want to see a real progress, you have to develop your listening skills and that will only happen if you are exposed to the language as long as possible. no matter if, at the begining you don't get much of the words and you feel a little lost, you will see after a while how you start understanding more and more. It's such a great feeling when you finally understand at least a 50% of the dialogs or sentences in a book. 
4. Bring a native Spanish speaker into your life! It doesn't matter if your speaker is on the other side of the planet, as long as you can talk with him or her for a while, if possible, every day. In my experience as a teacher, I found that those who made significant progress in their learning were those who had the most interaction with native speakers.
5. Increase your vocabulary:  To learn a language, it is necessary to know a large number of words. Take every opportunity you have to learn new vocabulary. You can start by categories such as family, entertainment, home. Try to learn as many words related to your work, study, or area of ​​interest. You will find yourself very soon using all those words in your conversations in Spanish.
6. Speak in Spanish as much as possible. Some students are so afraid to make mistakes or sound foolish when they speak, that they remain silent in class, and when they are in the company of Spanish speakers, they get even more dumb for fear of using the little Spanish they know. That is a big mistake and is the cause why many students fail to progress. It doesn't matter if all you can say is: "Yo tarzan, Tú Jane" is already a beginning to start speaking Spanish and become a fluent speaker.
7. Have a clear goal. When you have in mind a trip, a girl or a Spanish-speaking boy, or a school assignment, you are more likely to make important progress in acquiring the Spanish language. Why? because you're probably thinking of all the phrases you'll need on your trip, for buying a coffee, take a train or a bus, ask for a hostel; or in the case that your goal is to get someone's attention, you want to learn how to ask for their number, ask that person to go out with you, and similar things. As you can see, nothing helps your progress as much as setting a goal to achieve with the language. Not only for having a faster progress, but to have more fun in the process. 


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