Picking up a new language is not as difficult as you might think. Nothing is more natural; it can actually be quite a bit of fun to master a new language! When you give it some thought, knowing another language can mean many great possibilities. If you travel, it can make communication much less of a problem. It will even increase your communication skills right where you live. In today's economy, knowing another language can make it easier to get a job. If you live in the United States that second language is usually Spanish.

In many parts of America, many people speak Spanish rather than English. For this reason, being able to understand Spanish is becoming an important skill.

It will help a lot to be patient. You won't be fluent in Spanish before the end of the week. Even if you had all the vocabulary and verbs remembered, your sentence structure may need a little work. Your progress will suffer if you try to become fluent too quickly and put pressure on yourself. Just let your self take it slowly. Doing this will let you feel more comfortable with learning. Another good reason to go slowly is that people are far more patient when they know the person speaking to them is still learning the language. If you try to learn too fast and become over-confident, you run the risk of accidentally offending a person in a conversation if you make a mistake.

Teach yourself to think in Spanish. This takes some work, but as you are going about your day try to translate your thoughts into Spanish. You won't be able to do this very well at first, but be patient. Periodically throughout your day ask yourself how you would say the words you are thinking in Spanish. This is an ability you will improve at the more you practice it. The more you do it, the more quickly your mind will be able to convert words into the new language. There will come a point when this will become automatic, and you'll think in Spanish without trying. Of course, you also want to say some of these thoughts out loud, so your ability to speak improves as well.

You can also watch Spanish TV and movies. Any movie rental store offers foreign language films, and it seems there's no shortage of Spanish TV. You'll be able to learn how Spanish is really spoken without needing to travel. This is great if you don't live near a Spanish speaking population. You can start out by leaving the subtitles on. As you feel your level of understanding getting better - turn them off and then see for sure. If you keep at it, you'll be learning more and more.

Learning Spanish or any new language does not have to be so painful. You may feel it's hard when you start, but with a little patience is gets easier. Just try to stick with it, and use all the tricks you can find. Soon enough you'll be fluent.