Learning a new language is one of the big goals that many people have. You know that knowing a new language makes you better at business, communication, and travel opportunities.

But what language should you learn?
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Spanish: The Gateway Language

The answer, for many people, is Spanish. The language is spoken by more than 400 million people around the world, and languages connected to Spanish in the Romance languages category are similar enough that knowing Spanish can make learning these other languages much easier.

Romance languages are all the languages derived from or deeply connected to Latin. Think of Spanish as your gateway into language learning – it is often classified as one of the easier languages to learn using the standards created by the Foreign Service Institute in the US State Department.

In as little as 575 contact hours, you could be proficient. If you learn Spanish, you are also creating the building blocks for French, Portuguese, and Italian.While much of English comes from a different language background than Spanish does, specifically German and Germanic roots, a large part of English is Romance-influenced and connected to Latin. Thus, you will have an easier time associating Spanish vocabulary with the English word that they mean.

These similar words are known as cognates, and every cognate you can learn quickly speeds you along toward your goal of mastery.You’ll have to keep an eye out for false cognates or “false friends,” but there are fewer of those than you might think. Many language learning resources can give you lists of these false cognate terms so that you can start memorizing them early.
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Is Spanish Easy to Learn For English Speakers?

We'll share a detailed breakdown answer to this question.
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Focusing on the 80/20 Rule

Linguistics studies make it clear that knowing the 1,000 most frequent words in Spanish makes it possible to understand 87.8% of Spanish conversation; focusing on building that base level of vocabulary will mean that you only occasionally will find yourself stumped and searching for context clues.

‍Pareto’s Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, shows that you can make 80% of the headway with only 20% of the work. The last 20% tend to be very complicated and difficult. But you can be a practicing Spanish speaker with only 80% of the language skill. From there, your use of the language will slowly add to your fluency over time. While that is happening, you’ll be capable and be using your new language skills in practice.

The path to success involves focusing on the parts of learning that will grant you the most understanding. Learning articles, verbs, and common nouns is an easy start to your language learning. Then you can fill in your grammar knowledge along the way. Finding a list of the 1000 most frequent words in Spanish online is very easy - we’ve even found one for you with all the way up to the 2000th most common words!

Starting with this list, building up your skills quickly is possible in only a small amount of time per day. Making the commitment to work diligently will ensure that you see results in only a few weeks or months.
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Verb Tense? Just Relax!

While the verb conjugation structure in Spanish is more intricate than English, you can communicate knowing the simple present tense. Listeners may be confused if you talk about the present instead of the future, but the context of your sentence will help them to understand you. In the meantime, you can continue getting those conjugations for other tenses memorized.

Spanish sometimes confounds learners with its exceptions and non-standard elements that don’t follow the general rules for verb conjugations. The truth is that there are actually way more exception-driven aspects to memorize in English than in Spanish, and every time you make a small error, you’ll be able to correct yourself and get stronger. Practicing Spanish out loud almost immediately is key to a rapid learning curve.
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Winning the Spanish Spelling Bee

One of the biggest benefits of learning Spanish is that the vowel structure is much simpler than in English. Whereas English vowels in writing often have multiple potential pronunciations, Spanish vowels remain constant and can be easily memorized. There is no need for something like a Spanish spelling bee because the sounds follow such predictable patterns!

What this means is that you are already much closer to a good Spanish accent and excellent spelling. It just requires learning what sounds each letter makes in Spanish. In English, people often make spelling and accent errors even years into their learning.
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Digital Shortcuts to Language Makes Spanish Easy

On many electronic devices, it is possible to set the language from English to Spanish; this is one of the benefits of it being a common language. By choosing Spanish for your computer, phone, and tablet, you are creating more passive exposure to the terms. Since you already know where the languages appear, you'll be able to learn new words surfing the internet.

You can also find Spanish-language podcasts, television programs, and online news sites to your life.
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Avoid Perfectionism to Quickly and Easily Learn Spanish

Most aspects of Spanish related to perfectionism prevent people from practicing. If you wait to practice speaking until you are completely perfect, you will never speak!If you practice immediately, you are more likely to learn from them. You’ll never learn faster than when someone corrects your amusingly incorrect statement. Yes, you will be embarrassed, and yes, you will remember that moment!

The people who reached fluency got to that place by making the same mistakes. The best part of learning Spanish is that there are many people that can speak with you. When you work with others on your language skills, you improve quickly, and you gain authentic knowledge of the dialect and accent.
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So is Spanish easy to learn?

Yes, absolutely, for English speakers. We’ve written before about all the benefits of learning languages, so it makes sense that you should aim for a great gateway language to learn, like Spanish.

Good news is, the linguistic structures of Spanish are usually very friendly for English speakers.

Want to get all the benefits of learning a language without spending years in the process? Spanish is definitely a good language for you.