The Only Way To Become Fluent In Spanish Fast (Exact Plan)

By the end of this video, you'll know the exact step-by-step plan I would follow in order to learn Spanish and to become fluent faster than 99% of people. When I first started learning, I would feel nervous during conversations. I couldn't understand native speakers because they spoke so fast. And I couldn't form natural sentences because I wasn't able to memorize all the different verb conjugations, especially those irregular and past tense forms. Oshama NYC e Jacob Bertran Euches Mexico.

In this video, you'll learn how to speak Spanish with such a good accent that native speakers will be asking you questions like, "Why is your Spanish so good and where are you from?" I'm going to teach you how to roll your Rs better than Shakira, but I cannot teach your hips to not lie. You're going to learn a thousand plus words that you actually already know in Spanish. You'll learn how to more easily understand fast-spoken Spanish, how to speak in the past, present, and future tense, and I'm even going to teach you how to use the subjunctive all in this video. I promise that if you just watch this video until the end, you will have all the actionable steps you need in order to become fluent in Spanish. I'm also going to show you inside my Fluent Spanish speaker academy at the end of this video. So, make sure you stick around to check it out.

The very first thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish from scratch would be to change my mindset. Now, I know that might sound a little bit silly, but think about the internal story lines that you are telling yourself when it comes to learning Spanish. Are you telling yourself things like, "I'm too busy. I just don't have enough time. If I want to get good at Spanish, I'm going to have to spend hours and hours per day. I'm too old, so I just can't learn Spanish now." Or are you telling yourself, you know what, I'm just not made for learning languages. Other people are good at it and they're natural at it, but not me. And the reality is these storylines are myths. They are not real. I have a student, Jeff, who has five kids, a business, has run a bunch of Iron Mans, and yet he still has time to dedicate every day to his Spanish learning. Not to mention, he has been learning very quickly. "Highly recommend. It's uh changed my life. I appreciate you." Or someone like my student Ako. She's over 73 years old, but she's been able to learn Spanish successfully despite her age. Or someone like my student Matt, who had always told himself, "I could never learn another language." And yet here he is speaking Spanish confidently so he can speak to his wife and her family. "If you would asked me two years ago, three years ago even, like would you speak any other language? I'd like no I can't do it. I I I'm not capable of doing that cuz I tried in high school and I'm like this ain't for me." "When you get into it and you find the right resources, which is dude, your stuff is so good, man. Like like it is so much a community effort. The people you talk with, resources you use, everybody around you. I've already made so many good friends uh learning the language."

The reason that changing your mindset is so important when it comes to learning Spanish is because when you first start learning, you're going to make real great progress. But eventually, you're going to hit a plateau. When you hit that plateau, you're going to have two different options. Keep going or give up. If you have been telling yourself these things like, "I'm too old. I don't have enough time. I'm just not built for learning languages." Then you're most likely going to give up when you hit that rough spot. However, if you tell yourself things like, "I do have time. Learning Spanish is a priority. I am good at learning Spanish. I'm not too old to learn Spanish." If you have those positive story lines, then it's much more likely that you're going to continue when you hit those plateaus.

The next thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish fast would be to speak as much as possible. Arguably, this is the most important thing on this entire list. The number one reason that you are not learning Spanish as fast as you want to be is because you are not speaking enough. Period. But let's be honest, speaking Spanish is probably the hardest aspect of learning the language because oftentimes we have no one to speak with and even if we did, we would probably feel nervous and fearful during conversations. This is very normal. In fact, many of my students never have conversations with people because they think they're not ready. That is not true. You are ready to have conversations in Spanish. It's just like working out a muscle. If you go to the gym and you only work out your legs, then why would you expect your your arms to get big? And I know it can be scary and uncomfortable at first, but you really just have to jump into the deep end. You just have to do it. I promise you, the more that you are speaking with people, the more and more comfortable and confident you are going to become. There's really no way around it.

Now, there are certain things you can do in order to warm yourself up to speaking with people in the real world. The first and easiest thing you can do in order to feel more confident when speaking Spanish is simply to speak to yourself. I always tell my students, be like a crazy person. Because here's the thing, you are always with yourself. And let's be honest, typically we're oftentimes having a conversation inside of our heads with ourselves. So try to change that inner dialogue to Spanish. Another free resource you can use that has become very popular is chat GBT. Now I know the reality is we are learning Spanish in order to connect with humans and not robots. However, chat GBBT is very good for speaking practice, especially if you feel too nervous or embarrassed to speak with real people. So, when you speak with ChatGBT, simply have a regular conversation about whatever you want to talk about. So on and so forth. Just imagine that it's a person and that you guys are having a basic conversation. In addition to speaking to yourself and using chat GBT, there are a plethora of free and paid resources that you have available to you. My two favorite resources though for speaking Spanish are Langua and Hello Talk. There are AI and human teacher options. And the great thing is no one is there to flirt with you or be weird. Everyone there is there to help you. So, if you still feel nervous and embarrassed during conversations, it's okay. I mean, when I first started learning Spanish, I could barely say "kosas" to someone without my heart racing a million miles a minute. But now, after many years of speaking, I can have a conversation with whoever I want, wherever I want. In fact, if you were to look back at my YouTube videos from 2020, you will see how much better my Spanish has become over the years. Why? The number one reason is because I was speaking so much more. "Hi. Hola. Hello. Hola. Um, so gringo."

Now, I'm going to teach you the specifics of speaking Spanish. Things like how to have that perfect pronunciation so native speakers seriously turn their heads and cannot believe how good your Spanish accent is. I'm going to teach you the differences between Castellian and Latin American Spanish. I'm going to teach you a thousand plus words that you actually already know in Spanish and more. So, if you want to have a perfect pronunciation in Spanish, all you need to do is focus on the vowel sounds. I know it's not this crazy secret method and this strategy. It is simply focusing on the vowels. So, in English, A, E, I, O, U. In Spanish: A, E, A, E, O. Okay? A, E, A, E, O. I promise you, if you just master the pronunciation of the vowels in Spanish, you will 10x your Spanish. Seriously, let's look at an example like "me gusta pastel," for example. We wouldn't say "el pastel." We would say "el pastel." The way that my Spanish sounds much better is simply by focusing on the vowel sounds.

Some other tweaks that will help with your pronunciation are knowing that B and V in Spanish basically make the same sound. B and V. Okay? So, they both kind of make a soft B sound. B. That's why in Spanish when we say the alphabet we would say "be" for B and "ube" for V. Okay? The reason is because they have the same exact pronunciation. Sometimes when a word starts with a V, it will sound kind of like a V in English. However, just remember that B and V both make the same sound in Spanish. An example I can give to you is a few years ago I was in Chiapas, Mexico. Okay, it's the most southern state in Mexico. And I saw a sign that said "best," meaning changing rooms. Best. Okay. Traditionally, the word "best" is written with a V. However, they had written it with a B. Okay? It just goes to show that even native speakers will confuse B and V. I've also seen it with the word "adobo." Okay. Adobo typically written with a B. I saw them write it with a V. Okay? So, just be aware B and V make the same sound.

Also, the Z in Spanish is not Z. Okay? It is S, like a snake. Okay? So, you wouldn't say "zapos." You would say "sapos." Okay? Not "zapos." "Sapos." Very important. The N in Spanish just makes an N and a Y sound put together. So in the word "español," okay, notice how it's the NY sound. N, okay, "español." The double L in Spanish simply makes a Y sound. Now, in certain countries like Argentina, they might say something like "sh." Okay? For example, "por." Okay? However, in the majority of the Spanish speaking world, we will say "y," okay, it makes that Y sound.

Now, what about rolling your Rs in Spanish? Gosh, this is tricky and it can be frustrating when we can't roll our Rs. We want to say something like "pero," but we can't. We just say "pero." Or same thing with "caro," right? We want to say "caro," but we only say "caro." Okay, how do we do it? Well, in order to roll your Rs in Spanish, all you need to do is touch that little bump at the top of your mouth. Okay? Feel it with your tongue. You feel that bump? That's what we call the alveolar ridge. So, all you're going to do is move your tongue either forward or backward. And you're going to blow out air until you find that spot where your tongue starts to trill. Okay? It starts to vibrate. Okay? So, we touch that bump, move the tongue either backwards or forwards, and we blow out air. It'll take some practice. Okay? So, "rrr." So, "rrr." So, "rrr." You kind of blow out until you find that sweet spot and it starts to vibrate. If you don't get it right away, that's okay. It'll just take some practice.

And one last thing I wanted to mention about pronunciation in Spanish is the singular R. We will roll a singular R when it is at the beginning, in the middle, or at the sometimes at the end of a word. Most times, and I would just focus on this for now, it will be rolled at the beginning of a word. So, for example, the word "rojo." Okay, "rojo." It's not "rojo." It's kind of hard to say it. We would say "rojo." Or the word "rosa." Okay, "rosa." All right.

Now, what about the difference between Spanish that is spoken in Spain, aka Castilian, or the Spanish that is spoken in Latin America, which we would just call español? Well, there are a few subtle differences. The first one is the "th," right? That kind of famous lisp. Often times English speakers will call it. Okay? That's the biggest difference. So in the word "zapatos," for example, in Spain we would use that kind of the "th" sound, whereas in Latin America we would simply make that "s" sound, "sapatos." The next main difference is the use of "vosotros," not to be confused with "ustedes." If you hear "ustedes" in Spanish, this actually means "you all" or "you guys" and it's used in certain countries like Argentina and Guatemala and a few others. Okay? So "ustedes" means "you all" or "you guys" and it is informal. However, in Latin America, we simply use "ustedes" for both the formal and informal. So I could say something like, "How are you guys?" And that could be both formal and informal. Whereas in Spain, we would say something like "vosotros," which would be informal. And of course, there are certain word differences that we have. For example, in Spain, we would say something like "coche" for car. Here in Mexico, you can use the word "coche" for car, but it's more common that you would hear something like "carro."

Now, here's something really cool about Spanish and English. We share what are called perfect cognates, meaning words that are both the same in English and Spanish. Chocolate, internet, photo, video. Okay? The same words in Spanish: chocolate, internet, photo, video. The awesome thing about perfect cognates is that not only are the words the same in both English and Spanish, but there are fantastic opportunities for you to practice your pronunciation because we can say the word in English, "chocolate," and then we can say it in Spanish, "chocolate." Remember, the easiest and fastest way to have that perfect pronunciation in Spanish is to focus on the vowel sounds. The only thing that's changing here is my pronunciation of the vowels. "Cho-co-la-te." A, e, e, o, u. "Cho-co-la-te." It is really that simple. There are way more perfect cognates. So, I'm going to attach a list down below this video so that you can check out all the different perfect cognates that we have in English and Spanish.

Now, what if you want to have conversations with people, but you just don't know what to say? Well, you can use flashcards to grow your vocabulary. So, you can speak to yourself, speak with people online, and then you learn new words and phrases by speaking to yourself. Okay? "How do I say, I want to go to the store?" Okay? Okay. It's this. Cool. You look it up in your translator, then you add it to a flashcard deck. Anki is completely free on desktop and I highly recommend you use it. You can make your own flashcard decks or you can choose from a list of pre-made flashcard decks. It's really awesome. And finally, if you want to ask basic questions in Spanish, think about how you would ask questions in English. Who, what, when, where, and why. Okay? Who? "¿Quién?" What? "¿Qué?" When? "¿Cuándo?" Where? "¿Dónde?" And why? "¿Por qué?" If you just remember that you have a very easy way to ask people basic questions in Spanish.

The next thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish faster would be to listen every day. Arguably, listening is the easiest way to get better at Spanish because you can do it when you're cooking or driving or walking. But it's frustrating, right? You're listening to something, whether that's a podcast or a person during a conversation, and you just can't understand what they're saying because they use all these different words and phrases that you've never heard. And not only that, they speak so fast. How do you get over this? Well, the solution is comprehensible input. This simply means listening to things that are just above your current level. Think of it like lifting weights that are just heavy enough to challenge you, but not so heavy that you injure yourself. So, if you go to the gym, you're not going to lift 300 lbs on your first day. Maybe you'll do 100 and then you'll slowly build up to that 300 lb mark. That's the same idea with comprehensible input. You want to listen to things that are just above your level. So, you're struggling a little bit. You're not sure that word or phrase they used, or maybe they're speaking a little bit too fast for you, but then you can build up over time. Listen to things that you enjoy. If you're not sure if you're getting the right kind of comprehensible input, don't worry too much. The most important thing to do is to listen to things that you actually enjoy listening to.

My favorite resources for listening are pre-made playlists on platforms like Spotify. So, you can go on there and find a bunch of awesome music in Spanish. Not to mention, I have my own personal playlist of music in Spanish for more than 48 hours of music. It is huge. You can click the link below this video in order to check it out. When it comes to podcasts, I really like the podcast Coffee Break Spanish. In fact, when I was first learning Spanish in high school, I would listen to this podcast. You can also check out my podcast, Suarez Spanish. You can check it on Spotify or Apple Music. And I also really like the podcast Nómadas. It is fantastic if you are trying to learn Mexican Spanish. For movies, I absolutely love the movie Coco. If you've never seen it in Spanish, that's a must-watch. And I also love the movie No se aceptan devoluciones. That one will make you cry. For shows, I enjoy La casa de papel, which is a more traditional series. And then on YouTube, I really love watching Luisito Comunica. He is the largest YouTuber in all of Latin America. Very interesting videos.

Think about babies and how they learn languages. They listen for literal years before they blurt out a few words. Okay? So, don't get discouraged if you can't understand everything that native speakers are saying to you at first. This is just going to take time. If you are working out for 3 hours a day every day for 2 years, well, you're going to have bigger results than someone who works out for 10 minutes a day for two weeks and then gives up.

The next thing I would do is learn grammar. I would get a guide and find a plan. Now, this might be the part of the video where you want to say, "No, Nate, I don't want to do it. I don't want to learn the grammar. I saw this thing online where it said I didn't need to learn the grammar." But here's the thing. The reason that adults are able to learn languages faster than young people, faster than babies, and faster than kids, is because they can learn the grammar. The analogy I like to give is the piano analogy. So, I can play a few songs on the piano and I can impress people at parties and it's fun. This is the Spanish equivalent of knowing a few words and phrases, saying them to people, getting a laugh, but then they speak back to you and you have no idea what's going on. That's essentially the same thing that happens to me with piano. However, someone like my uncle who can play the piano perfectly, he can read the notes and the scales, he can play anything he wants. He can play with other musicians. He can just play whatever he wants. He can learn a new piece of music and instantly play it. It's the same thing with learning Spanish grammar. Okay? When we learn the basic rules and ideas like, "Oh, why do we say 'hablé' instead of 'hablaba?'" Or, "Oh, why is the sentence structured like this instead of like that?" Then you can speak Spanish. And you can be fluent. You can talk about anything you want. So, you cannot avoid the grammar even though it might not be the most exciting and interesting thing for you.

But here's the problem. If you are learning Spanish by yourself, then you probably have no clear guide that will teach you the grammar in a way that makes it easy to understand. Many students have so many different options that they get analysis paralysis and they don't know what to study and when to study it. The solution to this is simply getting one good grammar resource. This can be a book, this can be a course. At the end of the video, I'll talk about my Fluent Spanish Speaker Academy, which helps students have that clear guide and have that clear plan. But you just need one good resource for grammar. Not two, not three, not four, just one. This is exactly what happened to my student Tam. He was learning for a few months by himself, trying to piece it all together, and then he found me and my academy. He joined, and all he had to do was follow the lessons step by step. And he learned much faster because there was no guesswork. There was no doubt. He just showed up and did the work.

Now, before we move on to step five in my plan to becoming fluent in Spanish, I am going to teach you the past, present, future, and subjunctive all in this video. So, buckle up. Let's learn the informal future in Spanish first because it's actually the easiest way to speak in the future. And of all the tenses, it's probably the easiest to understand and master. All you need to do if you want to speak in the future tense in Spanish is "ir" + "a" + an infinitive verb. So all we're going to do is take the verb "ir" and conjugate it. Then we're going to add the preposition "a" meaning "to" and then we're going to add an infinitive verb. An infinitive verb is simply a verb that has not been conjugated. So for example, the verb "hablar." "Hablar" is an infinitive verb and it means "to speak." So if I conjugate it, which I will teach you in a second, when we conjugate it in the present tense indicative, I can say "hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablan." So now that means "I speak, you speak, he speaks, we speak, they speak." Okay? That's the cool thing about Spanish. We just need to learn those basic patterns and once we do, then we can speak in any tense that we want to. So let's use the example "voy a hablar." "Voy a hablar." I am going to speak. It is really that simple. So the conjugations in the present tense for the verb "ir" are as follows. [Music] So, it is really that simple. It's important to note that native speakers will often not attach subject pronouns to verbs. So, that means they won't say "yo voy," they won't say "tú vas," they won't say "él va," they will just say "voy, vas, va." Okay? They will just conjugate the verb in those forms. But because we understand our conjugation rules, when I hear something like "voy" or "hablo," I know that we're talking about the person because of the way the verb has been conjugated. Okay, another example. "Vas a comer." You are going to eat. There is no difference between "vas a comer" and "tú vas a comer." They mean the same thing. Okay? Like I said, native speakers oftentimes would just cut out the "tú." So they would just say, "Vas a comer." Okay? "Ella va a bailar." She is going to dance. It is really that simple. Okay? So now you know how to speak in the future tense. It is that simple. Okay? "Nosotros vamos a bailar." We are going to dance. "Ellos van a vivir." They are going to live. It is that simple. "Ir" + "a" + infinitive. That is how you speak in the future in Spanish. Now, we can also learn the simple future which is something like "hablaré" or "hablarás." But the reality is if you're just starting, just focus on "ir" + "a" + infinitive. It's the easiest thing to remember. And in reality in Latin America, most times we will speak in the future simply using that formula of "ir" + "a" + infinitive. Do you see why grammar is cool? Now that you know that simple rule, you can speak in the future tense. It's awesome.

Now, let's take a look at the past tense. The preterite versus imperfect. Now, the preterite versus the imperfect is probably one of the hardest things for students to understand in Spanish. But here is the easiest way to remember the difference between the two. The preterite is for one-time actions in the past. The imperfect is for ongoing actions in the past. So if we take a look at the verb "hablar" meaning "to speak," we have "hablé." So the imperfect can take on different translations into English depending on the context of the sentence. The most important thing to understand though is that the imperfect is for things that were ongoing in the past. There is no definite beginning or end. Whereas with the preterite there is a specific beginning and end. Okay? Just think of it in English as "I spoke" versus "I was speaking" or "I used to speak." Okay? So the verb endings for these are as follows. For the preterite we have "-é," "-aste," "-ó," "-amos," "-asteis," "-aron." That's for -ar verbs. For -er preterite verbs we have "-í," "-iste," "-ió," "-imos," "-isteis," "-ieron." Now for the imperfect -ar verbs we have "aba," "abas," "aba," "ábamos," "abais," and "aban." For -er verbs we have "-ía," "-ías," "-ía," "-íamos," "-íais," and "-ían." And same thing for -ir verbs. And please note that these are regular conjugations. What I mean by this is that in Spanish we also have irregular verbs. Irregular verbs in Spanish are simply verbs that do not follow regular conjugation patterns. So, I just taught you regular conjugation patterns, meaning most verbs follow the regular conjugation patterns. However, there are certain verbs that do not follow these regular patterns. Verbs like "ser," for example.

So, what would be the difference between "Yo hablé" and "Yo hablaba?" What's the difference? "Yo hablaba" - I was speaking. So for example, I could say "Yo hablé con mi mamá" and it happened once. It's done. It is over. I spoke. Or I could say, for example, "Yo hablaba con mi mamá cuando el teléfono sonó." That's the preterite. It is very common in Spanish that we have the imperfect going on and then it will get interrupted by the preterite. Okay? So, now you might be thinking, well, Nate, could I say something like "Yo hablaba con mi mamá?" And the answer is yes, absolutely. In this situation, "Yo hablaba" translates to "I was speaking with my mom." However, "Yo hablaba" could take the translation into English of "I used to speak with my mom" or "I would speak with my mom." Okay? So that's the preterite versus the imperfect. Okay? One-time action in the past - preterite. Ongoing action in the past - imperfect. Okay? "Yo viví" versus "Yo vivía." Okay? So "I lived" versus "I was living" or "I used to live." Now remember, the preterite is for a specific time whereas the imperfect is for ongoing things in the past. So I could say something like "Yo viví tres años en España." When I add on that "tres años," well that is a specific amount of time and therefore we'll use the preterite. Whereas, if I were to say "Yo vivía en España," that would mean "I used to live in Spain." But we have no specific beginning or end. And therefore, we'll use the imperfect because it's ongoing in the past.

Now, let's take a look at the present. So, the present is simply "I speak," "you speak," "we laugh," "we eat," and so on. So, here are the conjugation rules for the present indicative tense. For -ar verbs we have "o," "as," "a," "amos," "áis," "an." We can make a little song out of that. "O, as, a, amos, áis, an." "O, as, a, amos, áis, an." That's an easy way to remember that. Okay? Now for the -er verbs we have "o," "es," "e," "emos," "éis," "en." "O, es, e, emos, éis, en." Now for -ir verbs "o," "es," "e," "imos," "ís," "en." "O, es, e, imos, ís, en." It is that simple. Now please note that these are the regular conjugations. Once again, these do not apply to irregular verbs which follow irregular verb conjugations. And we're also talking about the indicative mood, which we're going to learn more about in just a little bit. So, we have the verb "hablo." "Hablo." It is that simple. "I speak," "you speak," "he, she or it speaks." Remember "usted" is formal for "you." "Nosotros hablamos." "We speak." It is that simple. We simply follow patterns in Spanish. It is that simple. Okay? "Yo hablo con mi amigo." I speak with my friend. "Yo vivo en México." I live in Mexico. "Yo vivo en México." "Yo vivo en México." "Yo vivo en México." "Yo vivo en México." Okay, it is really that simple. We just have to follow those patterns. And when it comes to the conjugation charts, I've actually linked to all of them down below this video. And for an -er verb like "comer," we can say "como." So, there you go. Now you can speak in the future, past, and present tenses. I know this was a quick lesson on all these different tenses. And within my academy, I have more in-depth lessons on how to master these, but there you go. Now you know the basic formulas for being able to speak in Spanish. Very cool.

And before we move on to step five, let's take a look at the subjunctive. What is the subjunctive? Well, many students think that the subjunctive is a tense, but the subjunctive is not a tense. The subjunctive is a mood. We have three moods in Spanish. The indicative, which is the one we use most. The imperative, which is essentially just commands. And the subjunctive, which is used for things of doubt. So, for example, "Yo hablo" is the indicative, meaning "I speak." That is a fact. However, if I were to say something like "Ella quiere que yo hable." Now I'm changing it from "hablo" to "hable." So, what is going on? Well, there is doubt in this example. "Ella quiere que yo hable" means "She wants me to speak," but it's not a guarantee that I'm going to speak. And therefore, we use the subjunctive. There is doubt. There is uncertainty. Now, it's weird because in English, we wouldn't change the spelling of the word. So, if I were to say, "They want me to go to the party," in English, the word "go" would never change. "They want me to go to the party." Or "I go to the park." It's the same thing. The word is "go." However, in Spanish, that verb slightly changes. Now, let's be honest. If you use the subjunctive incorrectly in Spanish, no one is going to turn their head and no one is going to think, "Gosh, their Spanish is not good." No, not at all. In fact, you can get by without knowing the subjunctive, in my opinion. I didn't learn about the subjunctive until 4 years of learning Spanish in school. So, if you're stressing about it and you're not sure how it works, don't worry too much about it.

So for the -ar endings with the subjunctive we have "e," "es," "e," "emos," and "en." For the -er endings we have "a," "as," "a," "amos," and "an." And for the -ir endings we have "a," "as," "a," "amos," and "an." Notice how they're essentially just getting flipped. So instead of saying "tomo," we'll say "tome" because it's not a guarantee that I'm going to take those pills that the doctor recommends that I take. There is doubt and therefore we use the subjunctive.

So, now that we've taken a look at the most important verb conjugations in Spanish, plus the subjunctive, the next thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish is to get rid of all of my apps. I see it all the time with my students. They have 20 different apps for 20 different things. They use a little bit of each, but they never make real progress. Or worse, they get analysis paralysis. They get overwhelmed by all the different options. They get confused and they give up. You really only need a few good apps to learn Spanish. My favorite apps for speaking are Langua and italki. For listening, I absolutely love Spotify. It's easy and it's free. For grammar, I would choose my academy. Obviously, I'm biased, but I'll talk about that later. My favorite for translation would be SpanishDict.com. Completely free on the computer and on the phone. My favorite for vocabulary is Anki. It's a really great way to learn new vocabulary. And finally, I like Duolingo for consistency. I recommend you create a little folder on your phone for all of your Spanish learning apps. At the end of the video, I'm going to show you my exact daily learning plan and how I incorporate apps into it.

The next thing I would do if I wanted to learn how to become fluent in Spanish faster would be to get a teacher. The best thing about having a consistent Spanish teacher is that they can point out those little things that you need to tweak so that you can have bigger results. It is really cool because a student will come to me to take one-on-one lessons and after our first lesson, I will have pinpointed every little thing that they need to tweak so that they can break through their current learning plateau and get to that next level. Now, the problem we typically face when it comes to taking live classes with a teacher is that we don't have time or we don't have the financial resources to invest in a teacher. But here's the thing. When you are able to choose a specific time and day during the week when you have a Spanish lesson and you commit financially, you are way more likely to succeed. There's this saying I really like which is "When you pay, you pay attention." So often times we will download a free resource, we'll use it a little bit, but because we haven't committed financially, we don't really take it that seriously, even if it is the best resource in the world. But when you commit financially, now you have some skin in the game and you're much more likely to show up and put in the work, which ultimately means you are going to be successful. And the great thing about having a Spanish teacher is that you can ask them questions, your specific questions. That is the really powerful thing about having a teacher, because otherwise you're just going to be googling things or going on YouTube and then getting sucked in and then forgetting why you even went on YouTube in the first place. Whereas, if you have a teacher who shows up, who knows exact things you need to work on, and can answer your specific questions, you're going to progress way faster than everyone else.

The next thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish is to develop good habits. Think about your current bad habits. Maybe this is scrolling on Instagram or YouTube or wasting time online when you could be doing things like studying Duolingo before you go to bed or reading a book before you go to bed or when you wake up you say five words in Spanish. The list goes on and on. You can be creative here. Some things that will help you create those good habits are using a calendar. So use a calendar to schedule in your Spanish learning and schedule in specific times. Say, "Okay, when I wake up at 8:00 AM, I am going to open up Duolingo and I am going to finish my Spanish lesson. Then during my lunch break, I'm going to speak to myself for 5 minutes in Spanish. And then at dinner, I am going to uh, you know, read my book or something like that." Okay, you get the idea. A specific time and using a calendar is really going to help you.

The next thing I would do if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish would be to travel. Now, don't get me wrong, not all of us can travel. So, don't worry if you can't travel. However, here's what I'll say. Travel and living in a Spanish-speaking country is not necessarily going to make you fluent in Spanish. Yes, you will improve a bit. However, the real reason why you should travel to Spanish-speaking countries is simply to see how much you can still learn and to motivate you, to show you, "Oh wow, this is actually really cool. Now I can go out and I can order food and I can laugh with the locals and I can have these experiences that I couldn't have before." I remember when I went to Oaxaca, Mexico with my friend Luis in 2018 and up until that point I had been learning Spanish for about 4 years. Well, at that time I thought I was the man. I thought I had this incredible Spanish and I was ready to impress everyone with my Spanish. Well, I had a rude awakening when I showed up because people were speaking fast. I didn't recognize words and phrases. They were using jokes that I just couldn't understand. And I felt frustrated, but it made me realize, "Oh wow, I have a lot more to learn." And it humbled me. Not only did it humble me, it motivated me. It said, "Okay, I'm going to get better." There's two ways you can look at that. You can get discouraged and feel like, you know what, I've been learning for so long. Oh my gosh, I'm going to give up. Or you say, "Oh my gosh, I I need to get better. I can get better." And it motivates you and pushes you. That's why travel is awesome.

The next thing I would do if I want to become fluent in Spanish is to teach people. Now, I know you might be thinking, "Well, Nate, how am I going to teach someone if I really don't know that much Spanish myself?" But the reality is, by teaching other people, you solidify and grow your own knowledge. I first started in high school just helping my peers in my Spanish classes. They'd come to me and say, "Hey, Nate, you know, you seem to get this. Can you explain this object pronoun? Why do we say 'lo' instead of 'le?'" I would try to explain it. Maybe I wouldn't understand it. I would ask the teacher, they would help me and then I myself would learn. And then I was tutoring students outside of school and then I wouldn't know a certain word they would they would want to know and I'd have to translate it myself or you know now making these YouTube videos for more than five, six years. I say, "Okay, oh right, I learned this" or "Oh, I didn't know that" or "That's interesting." So teaching is really going to help you improve your Spanish.

And finally, the last thing I would do if I want to become fluent in Spanish is to stay consistent and have fun. At the end of the day, if you are not having fun when it comes to learning Spanish, then you're just going to give it up. If you make it this very serious thing where you say, "I need to become fluent Spanish in 3 weeks because this blah blah blah, and I'm going to put in X amount of hours," you're probably going to burn yourself out, and you're not going to have that much fun learning. Make it fun. Think about things that you actually enjoy in your life. If you like air hockey, try to think, "How can I incorporate Spanish into my air hockey hobby?" Or whatever. Or if you're like me and you like to socialize, think, "Okay, well, how can I speak more with people? How can I meet new, interesting people that I can speak Spanish with?" The list goes on and on. The most important thing is to have fun. Because if you are having fun, then you are going to stay consistent. If you stay consistent, you will be successful. I promise you, you cannot give up. If you give up, you're not going to be successful. If you just keep going, even when you hit those plateaus, even when you feel stuck, you are going to be successful.

And my final bonus tip is just to be patient. I know that we all want to learn Spanish really fast, but when you lengthen your timeline, then you can kind of take that pressure off of yourself. I understand that you want to learn Spanish fast. And let's be honest, if we could all snap our fingers and learn to speak Spanish perfectly, then we would. But it's just not the reality. So, be patient, enjoy the process, have fun, and don't take it too seriously.

Now, I want to show you inside my Fluent Spanish Speaker Academy. But before I do, I want to show you my exact daily learning plan that I would follow if I wanted to become fluent in Spanish fast. The first thing in my plan would be to speak with a teacher. And I would do this two to three times a week for 30 to 60 minutes. And I would probably do this after work. And on the days when I'm not speaking with a teacher, I would speak to myself or an AI, something like chat GBT. I would do this for 10 to 15 minutes, maybe after my work as well. And I would talk about things that I like to talk about, basketball, sports, whatever.

The next thing on my list would be to listen. I would try to do 60 minutes per day of listening, which I know sounds like a lot, but 30 minutes of those 60 minutes would be focused on comprehensible input. So listening to things like podcasts or music. Remember, things that are just above your level. I would do this when I'm driving, walking, cooking, and so on. Then the other 30 minutes of those 60 minutes per day would be focused on native media. So watching YouTubers who speak Spanish or Netflix shows. And if you're not sure whether to use subtitles in Spanish or not, definitely use them. I always recommend that students use Spanish subtitles. Don't use English, but always use Spanish subtitles because that way you'll see how we form sentences in Spanish and you'll be able to learn new vocabulary by reading.

Then I would focus on grammar. I would study anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes per day from my one grammar resource. Not a bunch of resources, just one. I would study the concept, do a few practice examples, and then I would check it off my grammar checklist. Then I would focus on reading and writing. This could be 15 to 30 minutes per day. Typically in the modern day, this comes through texting friends or if you're part of an online community, this is a really great way to practice your reading and writing by making posts, reading what other people are saying, and also teaching other people within the online community that you're a part of. I would also probably read a beginner book before going to bed. That's optional, but I think that would help a lot. And then throughout the day, maybe 15 to 20 minutes per day, I would look at my different apps. So throughout the day, I would use SpanishDict to look up words that I didn't know. I would use Duolingo before I go to sleep. And then I would use Anki to study and review flashcards that I've made. And then at the end of each week, I would check how much progress I've made. So, okay, how much grammar did I learn? Okay, how much did I speak? And so on.

A few pro tips are that you can change your phone and your apps into Spanish. If you're worried about an app, like your banking app, for example, being in Spanish, you can always just change that specific app's language into English. But I recommend you change your phone into Spanish. That helps you learn lots of new words. I also recommend that you schedule specific times in your calendar for each task. So you know your schedule better than I do. So figure out when are good times for you for speaking, listening, grammar, and so on.

Okay, now that you have my exact plan to become fluent Spanish fast, I want to show you inside my Fluent Spanish Speaker Academy. If you struggle to speak Spanish confidently and you freeze up during conversations and you can't understand native speakers because they speak so fast, well, I'm Nate, the creator of the Fluent Spanish Speaker Academy, and today I'm going to show you inside our program so that you can learn how to speak Spanish confidently, fluently, and actually understand what native speakers are saying to you. Our goal is to help you have a 10-minute conversation in 90 days after starting the program. We have almost 200 students who are getting results in the real world. Like my student David, he said, "Today, one of my Spanish speaking co-workers told me to have a good lunch when walking by and I responded with 'provecho.'" And it caught him off guard and made him smile. That made me pretty happy.

So, this program is for people who struggle to speak Spanish confidently and often feel nervous during conversations or for people who want to understand native speakers, especially when they speak fast. This is for people who lack a consistent and structured learning routine. For people who find it hard to memorize verb conjugations, especially for irregular and past tense forms. For people who struggle to form natural sentences with important vocabulary. And for people who just generally feel confused and overwhelmed because they have no guide. My student Tam was trying to learn on his own and he says, "I felt like I understood more Spanish in one week than the entire month that I had spent trying to figure out everything on my own."

So, how does the academy work? Well, it provides you with three things: the lessons, accountability, and feedback. So, we provide you with all the information that you need so that you can do the right things in the right order. But in addition to the information, we make sure to hold you accountable and give you feedback. It's one thing to give someone information, but it's another thing to hold them accountable and actually have them act on that information. The amazing thing about our community is that when you come in here, you can ask your specific questions that you need help with. So, as you can see, everyone in here is leaving their questions, comments, they're going through the lessons, and then they're getting feedback off of what they're doing.

So, when you join, you'll get instant access to all of these modules. So, first you'll see the beginner, intermediate, and advanced modules. And this is where you're going to learn all of the grammar that you need. So, let's say we're an intermediate learner. We can come in here and you'll see that we have video lessons and conversation starters. So, for example, here we can see a lesson on how to easily tell the date and time. We have a quick summary and a worksheet. We also have certain lessons that have extra practice videos to go along so that you can practice. Not to mention, when you join, you'll get access to a checklist that you can download so that you can easily follow along. There's no guesswork. All you need to do is go in order, follow your checklist, and as you complete lessons, you go in and you check things off on the checklist. In addition to the video lessons, we have our conversation starters. So, for example, we could come in here and say, "Have you ever surprised someone with your Spanish?" And you can comment a story about a time that you surprised someone with your Spanish. This helps build the camaraderie inside of our community.

In addition to the beginner, intermediate, and advanced grammar lessons, we also have short stories in Spanish that come with an audio transcript in both English and Spanish. We have a listening comprehension program designed to help you more easily understand fast-spoken Spanish within 28 days. We have flashcards. We have huge sets of flashcards for the best everyday vocabulary and also certain themed vocabulary, things like colors, house, and so on. We have bonus resources, things like my favorite apps, movies, shows, podcasts, and so on. And we also have niche courses. So, for example, if you're interested in learning Mexican Spanish, you can just jump into the Mexican Spanish Pro course so that you can master that Mexican Spanish. Or if you like to travel, you can jump into the Spanish for Travelers course. If you're an expat, you can jump into that course. And we have a bunch of niche courses. We also have live events, and they'll be posted here afterwards. So, if you go on to the calendar, you'll see that the next live event we have is a Q&A with me, and we're constantly adding new live events so that you can get speaking practice. All this is designed to help you have conversations in the real world. So, my student Lori works at a hotel and she was able to speak with the Hispanic housekeeper. She says, "It was my first time having a real conversation without my co-worker there to translate. It was actually fun."

So, when you join, you're not only getting access to all the course resources that you need to be successful, but you're getting access to our community and me. That is arguably the most valuable thing about the entire academy. Plus, when you join, you get all the bonuses that I had mentioned previously: fluency checklist, short stories in Spanish, our four-week understand Spanish system, the flashcards, and so on. Click the button to join now. You can try it risk-free for 7 days. If you try the program for a full week and you really don't like it, no worries. We'll give you a full refund. We don't want your money if we can't help you learn Spanish. But if you love it, you can get started and start seeing results.

So, just to show you that this really does work, here are some more testimonials from Xiaom, the YouTuber with more than 7 million subscribers who speaks really good Chinese. He says, "I never met a gringo with such mind-blowingly good Spanish as Nate. But beyond that, he's a really excellent and patient teacher, which I can say from personal experience." Or my student Stephanie who says, "After learning Spanish with Nate, I felt confident enough to travel to Mexico City twice and even met Nate and his friends in person. I was able to speak Spanish with the locals, order food, ask for directions, and just have regular conversations with the people of Mexico." Or my student Sheldon, who actually minored in Spanish, he says, "In one month of using Spanish with Nate, I have already learned so much. For example, how V and B are pronounced the same or that in Mexico 'tomar' is used instead of 'beber.'" Muchas gracias and I hope to see you inside the Fluent Spanish Speaker Academy. ¡Nos vemos!