Regardless of what approach you take to learning Spanish, this page contains vital information that could save you hundreds of hours of study or mean the difference between achieving your goals and giving up. Take the time to read the four short sections below.
Think about becoming fluent in Spanish, not about classes, lessons and study
Fluency in Spanish is the really worthwhile goal
When it comes to learning Spanish our view is that fluency is the only worthwhile goal. The reason is simple: when you are fluent in Spanish you are able to participate fully in the life and culture of the 500 million Spanish speakers in the world. When you've taken one or a few Spanish classes you have started to make progress on the road to fluency, but your ability to participate in Hispanic life and culture, including business, is very limited.
If you stop after a couple of classes or programs, the time you've put in so far will go to waste. Within a few months most of what you've learned will fade and your ability to participate in the incredibly rich and varied Spanish speaking world will pretty much be limited to trivial 'travel Spanish'; you won't be able to enjoy TV shows, movies, radio, books or normal conversations in Spanish.
Human beings become fluent through immersion
The way human beings become fluent in a language is through immersion. That's the way you acquired your first language. You were immersed in it and your brain automatically learned. The process was completely effortless on your part - in fact, you had no choice in the matter.
Until now, the most common way for Spanish students to become fluent was to spend an extended period of time in a Spanish speaking country interacting with the local people (i.e. immersion). That's what Spanish language majors at universities do. Classes, tutoring, books, CD's and computer programs all help, but to achieve fluency requires immersion.
A practical way to become fluent (travel not necessary)
Over the past 30 years we have perfected an approach we call Designed Immersion™;. With Designed Immersion™ you get the immersion you need for fluency, but you don't have to move to another country. You can take advantage of Designed Immersion™ in your own home or through one of our classes, or while you are taking a class elsewhere or even while you are living in a Spanish speaking country. Designed Immersion™ will fit into almost anyone's schedule.
Designed Immersion™ makes it practical for you to become fluent in Spanish without forcing you to move to a Spanish speaking country. We say practical because the Designed Immersion™ program eliminates all of the following reasons people usually fail to become fluent:
- Takes too much personal time
- Costs too much money
- Is boring or otherwise causes stress
- Learning progress is too slow
How to become certain about becoming fluent
You can take advantage of Designed Immersion™ through our Spanish Fluency Membership program. Annual Membership includes several software programs, access to Members' content on our website and a special tutorial ('How to Learn Spanish') that trains you in how Designed Immersion™ works, how to manage your learning, how to choose classes and other programs, how to measure your progress and how to get the most out of any time you put into learning Spanish. Even though our classes are structured to take advantage of Designed Immersion™, when you enroll in a class, Membership is included so that you can continue learning once the class has finished.
No matter what path you take to learn Spanish, the Spanish Fluency Membership program will help you learn faster and more easily and will show you the certain path to fluency.