The complete

guide of
Virtual Language
Immersion

Listen, read, watch, write, speak and interact

in spanish without moving abroad
I have a question for you:

What would your life be like if you

spoke better spanish?

Please, spend one minute thinking about it. Would you

be able to travel easily? Would you have a better career,
maybe get paid more? Would you be able to watch more
TV shows and movies without subtitles? Speaking good
spanish can definitely make a difference in your life, but
how to become a confident spanish speaker? Do you
need to be born with a special talent? Or have a lot of
money?

No, you need to immerse in the language.

That´s it.
1. Why learning spanish?

Learning a new language improves your brain and creates

habit, providing you with two transferable skills to other
aspects of your life. Think also in the times we are living in. We
are witnessing the birth of a global world, where opportunities
pop up when you least expect. Being able to speak the most
extended languages in the world is crucial not only in the
future but also in the present.

“One language sets you in a corridor for life,

two languages open every door along the way”
Frank Smith

We shouldn´t forget about competitiveness. Nowadays

speaking english is almost taken for granted, so what one day
made the difference is now just an average skill. Fluency in a
2nd or 3rd language will be a key factor in the next future to
have access to jobs.

Travellers know the feeling of connecting with a local culture.

Personally, most of the international friends I maintain contact
with, are able to speak spanish or other languages apart
from english.

It was Nelson Mandela who stated:

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands,

that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his
own language, that goes to his heart”

What else to be said...

 OK, but why spanish?

Good question. Spanish presents many advantages when

compared with other languages. It is not a coincidence that
some of the best known polyglots as Benny Lewis and Olly
Richard chose spanish as their first “second language”:

1. It is pronounced as it is written. Once you learn the

phonetics, you can start reading and pronouncing.
2. Long list of cognates with english. More than 1000 words
with same spelling and meaning. It is a good start, ain´t?
3. It is a nice gateway for any other latin language. It is the
easiest to learn (with protuguese) and opens the door to
french, italian, portuguese...
4. Employment. The number of companies opening to the
spanish speaking market is huge. They need and value
spanish-english speakers, it is simple. In addition, we
can´t underestimate the big demand of english teachers
on these spanish speaking countries.
5. It is spoken by over 450 million people in the world. Most
of them live in countries with common borders, making a
huge spanish speaking region from Chile to mexican
California, including NorthWest of US and Florida. Just
Spain and Guinea are out of this macro-region.
6. In 3-4 generations, 10% of the world population will be
able to communicate in spanish, being US the country
with more spanish speakers in the world. Ironic, isn´t it?
7. It is the second language more used online. Big english
sites are expanding to spanish in order to meet the new
market.

In short, spanish is useful and relatively easy to learn. We use

the world “relatively” because learning a language is never
easy, but spanish is considered among the easier ones.
2. How do we acquire
a language?
Think about your language learning in the past. You probably
started with language lessons at school (it doesn´t matter if
spanish, french or english) and had them for 8 years, meaning
around 300 hours if you had one session per week. That’s a
long time! You probably spent hours repeating, memorizing
and studying endless list of uses. That’s a frustrating way to
learn something.

That method was useful to pass the exam, but didn´t make us
foreign languages speakers. So, if having spanish classes with
20 other people isn’t making you a confident speaker, stop
going. In many poor countries there are people able to
confidently speak english, so how did those people learn
English? Are they super smart or have lots of money? Surely
not, they should have tried different methods...

The case of Timothy Doner is another good example, a

teenager who learnt over 20 languages watching Youtube.
He said that the best way to learn a language is to listen to
anything: music, podcasts, videos,... All of us, in our childhood,
listened to our relatives speak our native language constantly.
Our brain naturally retains language by listening. Also
children raised in a bilingual environment are native bilingual
just by listening and imitating. Do all of this remind you
something?

Yes, they are immersed in the language.

“You don’t know a language, you live it. You don’t learn a
language, you get used to it.” Benny Lewis.
Virtual Language Immersion
We agree now that the best way to learn a language is the
immersion. It is almost always related with moving abroad. It
seems related to a kind of “spiritual trance”, where the culture
and language will get suddenly into your body and soul, so after
two months living in Sevilla you will speak spanish, dance
flamenco and cook the best “tortilla” on earth. Of course not.

All of us know people joining a trip to a foreign country with the

purpose of learning the language, and coming back after a
while with heaps of experiences and stories, but no language at
all. Or the typical story of migrants living abroad for years and
not getting more than 10 words in the local language. It is not
only being in the place, we must interact, ask, listen, read,
watch, write, and SPEAK.

So, wouldn´t it be possible to interact, ask, listen, read, watch,

write, and SPEAK without moving from your place? It is
possible, and this is what we want to go through in the next
chapters.

The cone
of experience
Also called the Learning pyramid, the concept was
developed by the american educator Edgar Dale.
Despite the controversy about order, details and
percentages, what matters for us is the fact that just
reading or hearing something is among the less
efficient ways to learn it. The more senses we put
into action, the better we absorb the information. The
more active our attitude, the bigger the percentage
of data we add to our brain. In short, the more
immersed, the best. And not only that, it also last
longer, sometimes forever.
3. Attitude, motivation,
engagement
ATTITUDE. Start speaking from day 1
Yes, it could be embarrassing. After studying spanish for a
while, you feel not capable enough to start speaking, and find
yourself saying “my level is too low to start speaking”, but it is
not true. This is the consequence of reducing language lessons
to grammar and fill the gap lessons.

Probably you hardly ever heard your own voice pronouncing

spanish words, and this makes you unconfident. You could
not be capable to speak properly, but you can communicate.
Don´t worry about grammar or vocabulary, they will come
with the time. Your first goal is just to gain confidence.

Yes, you will be talking as Tarzan, but you shouldn´t care.

Everything is about attitude. This is particularly hard when
facing natives, but by experience, 90% percent of them will
appreciate your effort to communicate and will help you. Ask
when don´t understand, just go for it.

So, how can you start speaking today? We will go through

this in Chapter 4, but for now I throw here some ideas:
1. Read a one-page story out loud (specially good for
beginners).
2. Think out loud. You will find things you don´t know how to
say, so google them and store for your spanish conversations.
3. Speak English with a native or high level speaker (nice
from intermediate level). You can find them in language
exchanges in your city or online.
MOTIVATION. Take it easy, be constant
It’s scientifically proven that when stressed, the creative
center in the brain shuts down. In other words, it doesn´t
work. This is fatal for our goal, because we need motivation,
not discouragement. We want to remember expressions,
words and constructions not only after the class or the test, but
after 5 years. In short, we want to “retain” information, and for
that your mind needs to be stress-free.

But, let´s be honest: learning a language is a huge task, it

could overwhelm anybody.

We can compare it with building a house, It’s so much work

you don’t have the time for. So, how can I NOT feel stressed or
anxious about it? Well, breaking it down into small sized
chunks, easy and joyful to perform, achievable goals that fit
your everyday life. Coming back to our field: “I want to learn
spanish” is and sounds as a huge task, but let´s start by “I
want to listen to spanish for 10 min every day.” Great! That’s
specific, easy and realistic. It is therefore MOTIVATING.

It is crucial to do it every day, and at the same time if possible.

It is much more efficient 10 minutes a day for one week, rather
than one hour in one day and then forget it until next week.

To be constant is the key for success, and will maintain us

motivated as we realize our progress day after day. A habit is
something we do without thinking (like brushing your teeth),
so performing our small sized chunks of spanish, we can
create it in just 30 days.

“Motivation is what gets you started.

Habit is what keeps you going”
Jim Ryun
Being busy is sometimes a big barrier in this regard. Because
of this, in Chapter 4 we will split the tools for Virtual
Immersion into two groups: Those requiring a time input, and
those that don´t need additional time input, so that we can
combine them with our busy daily life.

What is one time during your day when you could study
spanish?

ENGAGEMENT. Study interesting

information
OK, but what is interesting information? It only depends on
you. Most of us experienced incredibly boring language classes
in school. When you’re bored, it’s hard to pay attention, so
you are pretty much wasting your time because you will not
retain anything. You only learn when you are completely
engaged and interested in the material.

Let me give you some personal examples I am currently using

to learn French:
➔ I like music, so I try to listen to french music, while reading the
lyrics.
➔ History is one of my hobbies. I am following a series of
posts+podcasts about history I found in a french blog.
➔ I realized not long ago there are many good french
documentaries. Subtitles on and let´s immerse!
➔ To keep my traveller soul alife, I join ever Thursday a
english-spanish-french language exchange, I meet people,
practice french and help others with their spanish.

What do you like to do in your free time? baking cookies?

gardening? reading about history? studying the mating
habits of grizzly bears? meeting up with friends? relaxing and
watching TV? music?
4. Hacks for Virtual
Immersion
As we have said, when getting immersed, we look for chances
to listen, read, watch, write, speak and interact. The three
first could be achieved in a passive way while we do other
things, whereas we must devote some specific time for
writing, speaking and interacting. There are many ways to
design your immersion, and you don´t need to implement all
of them. Again, no stress, choose what you like, try it, create an
habit and then, if you feel confident and comfortable, add one
more.

NO TIME INPUT
Listening, watching, reading

1. Make your devices work for you. We are all surrounded by

electronic devices, and we are used to the vocabulary
related to them, tools, settings, apps, messages, etc. We
can absorb all this information almost with no effort just
turning them into spanish.
2. Maps directions. Either having a walk, running, driving,
cycling or using public transport, we can use our maps app
to learn about directions in spanish. Turn its GPS mode
into spanish and let her/him guide you.
3. Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana, Alexa or Bixby. It is a fact
that every day more and more people use the virtual
assistant included in their smartphones. Turning them into
spanish give us the chance not only to listen but also to
speak and interact.
1.
2.
3.
4. Podcasts and radio FM. Music, talks, guided meditation,
audio lessons, history, FM shows… Possibilities are endless,
adapted to any level, and easy to bring on the go. Spanish
is the second online language and we can find hours of
audio for free. Here you have some ideas: Hablacultura,
Hoyhablamos, ProfedeEle, Spanishpodcast, A mi Aire,
Radio Ambulante (different latin american spanish accents),
RNE (huge amount of info, suitable for intermediate-advanced
students).

5. Post-it. This could sound old fashioned, but it works.

Specially for beginners, wrap your house with small tags
attached to every object and write its spanish name on it.
Each time you use any of them you will spot the spanish
name and retain it.

WITH TIME INPUT

Listening, watching, reading, writing, speaking
and interacting
1. Duolingo. There are several apps you can use with the
same purpose, but our advice is to use this user friendly
game based on the Dynamic Immersion method. The
more you play, the more levels you open, so your
improvement raises. It is joyful, addictive and free.
Specially for basic levels it is an incredibly valuable tool.
It uses an algorithm based in your performance to
determine what words and exercises you need to focus on.
2. Readings. Posts, newspapers, comics, magazines and
books are just one click ahead. There is a huge online offer
of texts adapted to different levels and tastes, and it´s
growing. We recommend the magazine Habla, and most
of the examples given in the podcast section above,
because they also include audio transcriptions:
Hablacultura, Hoyhablamos, ProfedeEle, Spanishpodcast, A
mi Aire, Radio Ambulante.
1.
2.

3. Videos. Youtube, Netflix, TedTalks or any other are our

allies. There are heaps of documentaries, films, series and
short videos available in spanish. Ideally you want to
watch them with spanish subs, but if too much, just turn
english subs on, so you will be training your ear to the
musicality of the language. Here you have some examples
of Youtube channels for spanish learning: VideoEle,
EspañolconJuan, ProfedeEle, TedTalks, TedTalks YouTube.
4. Read something out loud. This is especially helpful for low
level spanish learners. Your ears will become comfortable
hearing your voice speak spanish, and your mouth
muscles will get used to the different shapes needed to
create spanish phonetics.
5. Think in spanish. We are most of the time thinking, about
personal life, family, work, etc. Why not try to translate
your thoughts? Thinking in a different language will make
us aware of many things we aren´t able to express in this
language, so we will know where to focus when studying. It
is also less embarrassing than asking to a native.
6. Fluentu / Yhabla. These are really interesting tools based
on subtitled videos, flashcards and quizes about many
different subjects. Their video tool is probably their
crown-jewel because it is specifically tailored to all levels
and tastes, the content is interesting, subs are perfectly
synchronised and they include a dictionary linked to subs.
7. Language exchanges. It is strongly rewarding to make
new friends while learning a language. Cultural centres and
local Foundations are a good starting point to find
language meetings in your area. MeetUp is also a nice
online option. It lists meetings already organized in a given
area. If there are not exchanges in your place, create one.
Remember, attitude!
 4.
5.
6.
7.
8. Telegram conversation groups. I recommend you the
following 4 groups created by Habla Magazine. They are
very active, you can find tips, recommendations and
detailed answers from the magazine developers, and also
post your own questions. General, Beginner, Intermediate
and Advanced.
9. Spaced repetition System (Anki App). This vocabulary
reviewing strategy consists in spacing your flashcards
depending in your level of confidence with each of them.
The worse you know a word, the more often you see it. Get
it here, learn more about the system here.
10. Create links with spanish speakers. Maintain the
relationship with the people you meet in language
exchanges, reconnect with this old mexican friend you met
in Indonesia (let´s say…). Start conversations through
Whatsapp, Telegram or email, better using voice messages.
11. Talk with a native online. Verbling or Italki are two
interesting sites where to find natives offering conversation
lessons for a few dollars. It´s bad side is the difficulty to find
good teachers, but just to have a chat is a good option.
12. Online lessons 1to1. If you are determined to learn a
language, you can do it by yourself, of course you can.
However the efficiency of your learning by taking lessons
with a native and certified teacher will boost your progress.
In speakspokespanish we offer 100% tailored lessons to our
students, based on many of the things we have detailed in
this ebook, unlimited support by email, shared online files,
ICT tools and more. Trial lesson is free, it is up to you now!

“Practice without feedback just makes perfect whatever

you are practicing. The naïve learner does not have
a perspective on what they are doing. It is really
vital to have someone saying yes you are on track.”
James North. Foreign Service Institute
So, let me finish asking something to you:

What would your life be like if you

spoke better spanish?

Think about your answer and take action today.

See you soon!