We already saw that it is necessary to schedule three different study times. For the time of Spanish language contact, personalize your learning and make a selection of content according to your interests and needs. You do not need to be in a Hispanic country to create your own Spanish immersion in your everyday life, the secret is finding your own content!
For example, if you are interested in football, look for related podcasts on Spotify or Ivoox, documentaries in Spanish with subtitles (remember this tool to study with Netflix), Hispanic Instagram accounts and YouTube channels, books on Scribd, video talks on TED Talks…
Do a research of resources with content of your interest through the Web and then create your personalized list of “search terms”, topics and hashtags in Spanish, such as:
podcast liga BBVA (podcast Spanish League)
programa de fútbol televisión española/argentina/chilena.. etc. (Spanish/Chilean/Argentinian football tv program)
el Marca (Spanish sports newspaper)
el As (Spanish sports newspaper)
#clubdefútbolrealmadrid (Football Club Real Madrid)
#fútbolprimeradivisión (Football premier league)
This list can be as endless as your curiosity is :). Help yourself from Google Translate and Google Trends to check the “search terms” and analyze if they match the searches of the Hispanic public and, in addition, see other “related searches” for more inspiration:
Step 1: to think about your interest,”I love doing yoga”.
Step 2: tap in Google Translate “doing yoga”= hacer yoga
Step 3: in Google Trends, select SPAIN and tap hacer yoga. If you compare it with practicar yoga or aprender yoga, you can see the expression hacer yoga has more searches in Spain.
Step 4: have a look at the related searches / topics =
ejercicios de yoga para hacer en casa
técnicas de relajación
As you can see, there are other common searches in Spain that may interest you. You will also find the name of a famous Asian teacher in YouTube who teaches yoga in Spanish.
So, there you already have three valid “search terms” for your list and your favorite sources! (Spotify, Youtube, Pinterest …).
And why should you make this selection of your own content? Very simple: to enjoy your Spanish learning process while you are doing your hobby, and find that feeling of … “come on! one more page, another episode, I promise this is the last one…”.
If you follow this advice, perhaps you will see your hobby from a different point of view when practicing it in Spanish or maybe you could start a new one from scratch and be surprised about how you store new concepts / words in your brain whose names you did not event know in your mother tongue.
BEAR IN MIND: Starting “from scratch” with something (series, book, hobby …) will be better when you have already passed the first levels of learning and you feel more comfortable with your understanding.
At beginners levels, it is better to repeat known content so as not to get frustrated, for example: watch the Simpsons or Friends in Spanish, read your favorite book or practice with videos about a hobby or topic that you managed before… Remember the goal is to enjoy your time of Spanish language contact.
