The Best Way To Learn Spanish As An Adult - Language Learning Tips And Tricks
After we officially decided on moving to Valencia, my husband and I started to look for the best way to learn Spanish as an adult. I have personally never learned another language before, so it has been very difficult for me.
My husband on the other hand, learned a few languages when he was younger (Hawaiian and Japanese), but as he was learning Spanish, they all seemed to be blending in with each other.
Apparently this is normal when learning a new language but it is quite entertaining to hear him speak to our Spanish teacher and mix a Hawaiian word, a Japanese word and the remaining 80% of his sentence be in Spanish.
After about 6 months I am at a B1 level and while I thought I would be further along by now; life simply got in the way.
If you are able to dedicate about 4 hours a day to learn Spanish I do believe you’ll learn even faster than I did. With that being said we are adults now; we should be learning “smarter” and not senselessly working “harder.”
There were a few clear cut ways that really helped us improve our Spanish fast.
Below in this article we will go over EVERYTHING we have done so far to learn Spanish, and most importantly to RETAIN the Spanish we have learned so that we can use it in our everyday lives.
Can You Learn Spanish As An Adult At An Older Age?
Learning a new language as an adult can be a great experience. It is never too late to learn, and Spanish can be both fun and beneficial.
There are many resources available for adults who want to learn Spanish, ranging from online courses to in-person classes. Additionally, there are plenty of apps and learning websites specifically designed for adults who want to learn the language.
With the right amount of motivation, dedication, and effort, it is possible to become fluent in Spanish in no time! Furthermore, taking time learning to speak Spanish can open up doors to new cultures and experiences that you may not have otherwise been able to access.
All in all, learning Spanish as an adult is absolutely possible!

How Long Does It Realistically Take To Learn Spanish?

Learning languages for adults can be a challenging and rewarding experience.
The amount of time it takes to learn Spanish will depend on the individual’s language learning ability and how much time they are willing to spend studying Spanish.
Realistically, it can take anywhere between 6 months to 1 year of dedicated study to achieve basic fluency in Spanish.
For those wanting to reach a higher level of proficiency, they should expect to spend at least 2-3 years learning the language.
During this time, it is important to dedicate yourself to the language by spending time learning Spanish through reading and writing practice, listening exercises, and speaking with native speakers.
With hard work and commitment, you can be well on your way towards becoming fluent in Spanish. It is never too late to learn a new language.
I thought I was going to be able to be fluent within 12 months of moving to Spain. I took daily classes for the first 4 months of being here until I hit a MASSIVE wall (I go more in detail about this below). With that being said I am back in class about twice a week now and I should be able to pass my B2 test at the 1 year mark of moving here.
I personally consider B2 a great achievement (as I started from absolutely nothing 12 months ago) and once I get to that level I will probably take it easy (I mainly mean slower) as I try to progress from there!
What Is The Fastest Easiest Way To Learn Spanish?
This will vary from person to person, but I found that learning in a small group setting on a daily basis personally helped me improve the fastest. In the smaller classes, I can really focus on learning and have a comfortable conversation in Spanish with other people learning!
With that being said, listed below are some of the many ways our family has tried. This is listed in the ORDER that we started tackling our Spanish learning journey on. We will highlight our clear winners in their respective sections.
1. Best Audiobooks To Learn Spanish As An Adult - Great Way To Practice On The Go
Here are a few of the ones that were recommended as the best way to listen to Spanish.
The Michel Thomas Method
This audiobook came in as the most recommended way for adults to learn especially as you are learning from home. It focuses on more conversational Spanish and essential phrases you will hear while on vacation or once you move abroad.
Digital Spanish (Pimsleur)
My husband downloaded this one and he really enjoyed this when he first started learning Spanish. He enjoyed that this learning method discourages you from taking notes and writing anything down because he likes to learn as simple as possible.
Learn Spanish With Paul Noble
This approach was a little different than I was used to. It doesn’t use the more traditional ways for Spanish learning. There is no memorization or tests. You are exposed to Spanish by using your everyday surroundings. I personally didn’t use this audiobook so I cannot give an honest review! However, you will be going to learn how to use basic conversation skills which is a key to learn Spanish fast.

Rapid Spanish: Earworms Learning
The basic idea of this audiobook is they use music as its main way of teaching. They use very catchy tunes to help you retain the vocabulary better. I like this approach to learning a language especially if you are learning Spanish for the first time.
2. Using YouTube to Start Learning Spanish

We basically watched all the beginner videos on how to learn Spanish at home. We started with children’s videos in particular.
Some of the songs they would sing were very catchy and we still find ourselves singing them to this day. We learned the colors, numbers, and basic Spanish grammar and vocabulary. While watching these videos, we made sure we left on the Spanish subtitles, so we can watch the words with the videos.
By far, my favorite channel we found to be helpful, not only for us adults, but for our children as well is, “Rock ‘N Learn”.
After about a month or so on watching these videos daily, we moved onto common phrases that were used in Spain. We would write down all of these phrases on note cards and practice Spanish with each other.
Personally, this way really helped me because I am an extreme visual learner and I love music. Almost all the videos we watched had music to them so I was able to memorize them a bit easier. So I feel this is a great way to help boost your Spanish.
My husband was very torn on this method of learning because we learn very differently. With that being said this was just an activity we would do with the whole family for about 20 minutes a night. There are so many different videos on YouTube that you can explore and see which one is right for you! Best part is, it’s free and you can put some headphones and watch them where ever you are!
**Important note: When you are searching for videos in Spanish, make sure you are looking for the correct dialect. We found many differences between Latin American, Catalan, and Castellón Spanish! We noticed those differences once we moved here, and our Spanish teacher would constantly be correcting us.
3. Online Tutor To Help My Spanish Skills Grow
We went on our local Facebook pages and asked for recommendations for someone who offered Spanish lessons. Since we were still in a time of COVID, our tutor was solely online. This was definitely not our preferred way of learning, but we didn’t have many options in our area.
We did a few classes with our tutor and while it was good practice I preferred many of the other things listed below on our Spanish journey.
Is Private Tutoring Effective?
Private tutoring is an effective way to learn a foreign language. It can help students who are having difficulty with the material because they can get one-on-one instruction and have the opportunity to ask questions and practice with their tutor.
A tutor can also provide feedback to the student, which helps them adjust their learning strategies and improve their understanding. Private tutoring is also beneficial because it allows students to work at their own pace, instead of being rushed through a class where they may not be able to grasp all the material.
Learning a second language is tough! In my opinion, getting any tips for learning while you get to practice your Spanish one on one, is one of the best ways to progress in your learning journey.

Additionally, private tutors can provide tailored activities that are specifically designed for each student’s language level and interests, so that they can make the most out of their learning experience.
All in all, while I think private tutoring can be effective; I personally did much better in smaller groups as I will talk about below.
4. Taped Flashcards On Household Items To Help You Learn Spanish Vocabulary

Once we started learning more and more vocabulary, we took our notecards we previously wrote from watching YouTube, and started taping them all over our home. We took the, “surround yourself with Spanish” approach literally. This not only helped us, but the children as well. We tried to replace the English word with the Spanish word as much as we could.
We also bought some poster boards and wrote phrases on them and hung them on the walls. We started out with very simple phrases such as:
- “¿Cómo te llamas?”
- “¿Cuántos años tienes?”
- “Hola, ¿Cómo estás?”
Trying to replace English sayings with Spanish sayings was very useful for our family. Although it took a lot of time writing and taping the notecards on everything, we found this extremely effective in our learning process!
5. italki - Online Spanish Tutors While You Work Your Way To Fluency
We randomly found this site through a Reddit post, and it was a really cool tool! Basically it is online tutors of a specific language and you can filter more from there by price, location, etc.
You have to create an account, add a card to the file, and start your filtering! Once you have found your teacher/teachers, you can start with a trial lesson to see if they are right for you!
I really loved how you can filter based on the time you have available. That was very useful because we have such a large family, it was hard to find something local that worked for us.
We used this to practice basic conversations with people from Spain. Although it was very nerve wracking, I really thought we benefited from this!
You can find a wonderful tutor for under $15 an hour. When we were using italki, we spent no more than $8. All of the tutors we tried out spoke both English and Spanish.
**Important note: We did this in 2022 so keep in mind prices may have risen since then!

How Can I Learn Spanish When I Am Older??

I was constantly asking myself this question in the beginning because I had no idea where to start. The whole process didn’t make sense to me at first and I for sure had my doubts.
I believe once you find MULTIPLE methods that work for you and your learning process, stick to it!
It is going to take some time and practice, but anything is possible! It isn’t going to be just one of the ways that will get you to instantly make that “switch” to Spanish.
Whether it is finding a language partner, total Spanish immersion, talking to yourself in the mirror, etc. You will need to find what makes it “click” during your journey.
6. Watch Shows And Movies In Spanish Often
This is something that I wish we did as a family more before moving to Spain. It was suggested that we take our favorite shows or movies and change the language to Spanish but keep on the English subtitles. Even in the beginning where everything doesn’t make sense, it is still very effective to just sit and listen. Things will slowly start to make sense the more and more you do it.
7. Duolingo/Memrise - Perfect For Early Spanish Learners
There are some really good Apps out there that can help you prepare your move! The two that our family used were Duolingo and Memrise.
We bought the family plan on Duolingo because we had four people using it. We also wanted to purchase a plan where you can mess up as many times as you need mainly for the children.
We didn’t think it was fair for them to guess incorrectly and pretty much be done learning within 5 minutes!
Duolingo does focus on Latin American Spanish, but it is still a really great way to improve your Spanish. I still use Duolingo here and there to test my progress and learn new vocabulary.
I like that overall the sentence structures and the conjugations of verbs are the same. It basically just selects vocabulary that is different.


As for Memrise, this App is simply amazing!! I would HIGHLY recommend using this for adults. My husband purchased the yearly plan and he uses this the most.
It uses people from Spain speaking everyday phrases. Some of the phrases he learned in his first week, we still hear as we are walking around Valencia to this day.
Our Spanish teacher was caught off guard by some of the local phrases my husband learned from this App! We thought this was a great way to learn and we love the “real life” exposure to Spanish before making the move.
**Disclaimer : Truth Moment – Just to add a bit on my personal journey of learning, I did have a mental block moment. I went full throttle on learning and I wanted to be able to speak Spanish fluently fast, that my brain just stopped processing. After about 6 months, I had to take a mental break for about 1 month.
During my off month, we took a trip to London so I could hear some English for a week. I did not have to constantly think of how I am going to formulate the next sentence out of my mouth which was a nice break! I was for sure forcing too much Spanish all day everyday.
After I stopped putting all that pressure on myself, I found that I was actually able to use Spanish better and think a lot clearer!
Can I learn Spanish in 30 days?
This is something that some family and friends asked me before coming to visit us here in Spain.
I would say no, but if you practice hard for a month, you can learn a lot! I think in 30 days you can most certainly learn some of the basics before coming to Spain. It would be very helpful to have some vocabulary when ordering in a restaurant, basic simple conversation, and asking where something is.
Some good starting phrases to keep in mind:
- I Need…(Yo necesito)
- I Want…(Yo quiero)
- I Have…(Yo tengo)
- Can I…(Puedo)
- I Like / Dislike…(Me gusta / No me gusta)
There is no way that I could have comprehended Spanish in 30 days, but i sure could learn a lot in that time frame! Using Duolingo and Memrise (and other apps) will be something you would want to use in those 30 day!
8. Online FREE Courses: edX Course Uses the Spanish Language FROM Spain
Something I thought to be very helpful was taking “free” online courses on edx.org. I did not realize how many people I have met did not even know this was an option!
After creating a profile, you can search up the Basic Spanish course. It is taught by the University of Valencia. Now the free course does not give you access to everything, but it is enough to help while you study Spanish.
It was very tough for me to find a course that uses the native Spanish from Spain and I thought this one was perfect!
It took me about 2 weeks to finish each course in full (3 total) and I would say it did help me get a decent foundation for what was to come in the small group lessons I took with my husband!

9. Attending Small Group Classes In Person - My Personal Favorite

Once you get to Valencia, there are numerous language schools you can choose from to take classes. They are online and in person. We chose to do a semi-intense program which was 10 hours a week for the entire summer.
We learned so much from these classes and would highly recommend finding one in your area! It really do forces you to talk in Spanish but in a comfortable environment.
The classes are very affordable and I really like how you can choose how many hours you want to study each week. We absolutely loved our instructors and found everyone to be so kind and positive.
We still take classes but we had to cut back to 2-4 hours each week due to scheduling.
*Pro Tip = BURNOUT is a real thing! We thought we would be able to do month after month of the intensive Spanish classes but as I mentioned above my husband and I hit a wall about 4 months in. If I had a tip it would be to start off your foundation with a semi-intensive course like we did 4-5 times a week but after 60 to 90 days switch to a program (maybe 2-3 times a week instead) to help pace yourself into not taking on too much at once!
What Is The Fastest Free Way To Learn Spanish?
The fastest free way to learn is by immersing yourself in the language.
You should start by listening and speaking Spanish as much as possible. Try to watch Spanish movies and television shows, listen to Spanish music, and talk with native speakers online or in person.
Additionally, you should read Spanish books and newspapers and study the grammar for a better understanding of the language. Finally, practice writing in Spanish using any available resources you have at your disposal. All of these activities will help you learn Spanish faster than by simply studying from a textbook alone.
With all that being said, the best way I sped up my Spanish learning was through the tip below called ANKI. This is a 100% free app / website that as long as you put in the time to make your “decks” it will help you over and over. This is something that I have used for over 6 months (still on the free version) that is probably the most responsible for my growth in Spanish!
10. ANKI : The Coolest Digital Note Cards You Can Take Anywhere In Your Pocket
Anki, Anki, Anki! Please use this tool!! I cannot speak of a more helpful program while learning really anything! If you are not familiar with Anki (as I was not) here is a quick breakdown of what it does.
You can type in ankiweb.net to your browser from mobile or desktop and you instantly have online notecards. You can choose how many cards you want to see per day, add numerous decks, allow it to show the reverse card, etc.
It focuses on spaced repetition to help you actually retain what you are trying to learn.
One of the coolest features is if you know a word really well (like Hello = Hola) then it will show that card less and less. What starts out as showing something every day will slowly turn into weeks, months and even years if you keep practicing that same deck!
Once I started plugging everything into my very own online decks, my vocabulary really started taking off. I can easily say this was the biggest tool I used to make the jump from knowing no Spanish to the B1 level.

11. Invest In Some Good Grammar Books
I had a hard time finding some good books to help me on my language learning journey. I went to multiple local bookstores to look for some that really resonated with me. My favorite book is “Basic Spanish Premium Third Edition” by Practice Makes Perfect. I personally liked the way this book was outlined and I liked the exercises they made you do after learning the vocabulary.
There are so many good books out there to help you learn words and practice your Spanish as well. Even now, I like to open my book to check my progress a few times a month.
12. I Forced Myself To Talk With Parents At Our Kids Public School

I know this sounds super intimidating, and I am not going to lie, it is! I am a very outgoing person, but I was nervous to throw myself out there! After I did, I realized people from Spain are so kind and patient. Even to this day, they still help me through all my broken Spanish and I am improving every day because of that!
The most basic advice I can give; is to just TRY and converse with the locals here in Valencia. You will be surprised at how many people will jump in to help you with anything you need.
I have never felt so much kindness and support from locals as I am well aware that I did (and still do) butcher their language.
The fact that we have moved our family here and try to speak Spanish shows that we are genuinely putting in the effort to learn the language and embrace their culture. I cannot stress enough how much easier this has made our transition to living in Spain.
Can You Live In Spain Without Knowing The Language?
The answer is yes, yes you can, but you will not get the best of what Spain provides. Many people in Spain at least know a little bit of English, so you are able to get by and have all the basics in life. You won’t fully be able to appreciate everything that this beautiful country has to offer without knowing Spanish.
It will be very hard to communicate with people and tasks will be a little harder and slower. I do feel that if you do not learn the language you will always feel like a tourist or an outsider!
I want to share that it isn’t perfect, nor is it easy! You’re learning a new language, immersing yourself into a new culture, and trying new things. You should take a step back and be proud for a moment and always remember to work at your own pace. It isn’t a race!!