Learning a language as a family, especially Spanish, can be a great opportunity for all the family.

Language learning is one of the most interactive activities out there, with lots of resources that can help you get started. For Spanish, learning as a family can sound daunting, as it’s hard enough learning on your own, but it’s not only a great way to spend time with your family but also an excellent way to motivate each other to accomplish learning goals as a family.

Learning Spanish as a family can be fun, entertaining and informative for all ages. Here are a few tips, resources and advice points to help you get started with learning the Spanish language.

Why should you learn as a family?

Spanish is spoken by over 400 million native speakers around the world.

As a family, starting might be the hardest thing. Where do you start? Like with all new languages, starting can sometimes be a panic. Starting slow is probably the best thing to do as a family. Slow and steady will help you get the first few Spanish lessons under your belt without much stress, a lot of the time a family will start Spanish and be bombarded with too much study, too much vocabulary and too much intensity that they quit after day one.

Making sure all of your clan are engaged is another important point when starting out. Keeping things light-hearted but the fun will be the key to success when you are learning unless you want to keep things dead serious. Finding fun ways to learn Spanish will be your route to learning, as they’ll keep all ages engaged and entertained without realizing their progress.

How to start learning Spanish as a family?

Learning as a family is very rewarding once you perfect it.

Getting started is simple, and there are plenty of resources that can get you started with your Spanish language learning.

Create FlashCards – Sticking flashcards around the house is a standard method of learning used by individual groups well as students in a group. Sticking them on items that correlate to the word. e.g. “Puerta” on the door. This method is popular as it helps to build an association and is an age old way to start learning, as it’s so simple and something you could assign to the little ones to run around and do. You can get these pre-created, they are called FlashSticks and are sticky notes that are digitally scannable so you can get the pronunciation of each word on each scan using the application.

– Sticking flashcards around the house is a standard method of learning used by individual groups well as students in a group. Sticking them on items that correlate to the word. e.g. “Puerta” on the door. This method is popular as it helps to build an association and is an age old way to start learning, as it’s so simple and something you could assign to the little ones to run around and do. You can get these pre-created, they are called FlashSticks and are sticky notes that are digitally scannable so you can get the pronunciation of each word on each scan using the application. Start using your Smartphone – Language learning apps are growing every day, with more features, more resources, and more options out there for the learner. We all know that mobile learning is an excellent way to learn, very engaging and portable allowing you to keep everything going on the go. There are many options for language learning apps for Spanish, from gaming apps to the vocabulary focus. Try an application as a family, sit around a table or give out tablets each, and maybe do a lesson altogether, helping each other with the pronunciation and the fluency side of things. FlashAcademy is a great resource combining games, lessons, and flashcards as well as video, audio support and much more.

– Language learning apps are growing every day, with more features, more resources, and more options out there for the learner. We all know that mobile learning is an excellent way to learn, very engaging and portable allowing you to keep everything going on the go. There are many options for language learning apps for Spanish, from gaming apps to the vocabulary focus. Try an application as a family, sit around a table or give out tablets each, and maybe do a lesson altogether, helping each other with the pronunciation and the fluency side of things. FlashAcademy is a great resource combining games, lessons, and flashcards as well as video, audio support and much more. Exchange your language – Bringing in a Spanish teacher isn’t a bad option, or even organizing to attend a social evening with a Spanish native or speaker will help you improve your family’s learning dramatically. From everything to improving accent and fluency to a full side of the culture, the native Spanish speaker can help massively to uncover new things for your family to learn about Spain and Spanish speaking countries. If you are concerned about taking the young ones out too late, try an application like Rype or iTalki to help introduce you to Spanish native speakers, the video calling software will allow you to interact with teachers through the safety of a webcam.

– Bringing in a Spanish teacher isn’t a bad option, or even organizing to attend a social evening with a Spanish native or speaker will help you improve your family’s learning dramatically. From everything to improving accent and fluency to a full side of the culture, the native Spanish speaker can help massively to uncover new things for your family to learn about Spain and Spanish speaking countries. If you are concerned about taking the young ones out too late, try an application like Rype or iTalki to help introduce you to Spanish native speakers, the video calling software will allow you to interact with teachers through the safety of a webcam. Hosting an evening – If you know another family is looking to start the challenge of learning Spanish, why not team up? Hosting nights can be a very interactive way to start your language learning off. Spanish language learning is something that can be practiced in groups to help maximize your efforts, try and include Spanish cultural routines, like food, habits, and travel information. Whether it’s a cinema night for a Spanish movie (with subtitles) or a Paella night, this is an excellent way to inspire your Spanish learning efforts.

These are just a few suggestions to get you all started. Remember the nature of language learning is to be creative, so keep ideas flowing about how you can study together, there isn’t one way to learn a language and if you find a fun way to learn Spanish it can help to improve everything about your Spanish language learning as a family.

Other tips to keeping things going

A lot of language learning is about persistence and keeping everything up.

As mentioned above, all of these methods are brilliant and very interactive for all of your family, however making sure to keep them going is the aim of the game. Whether it’s a busy week or not, the busyness can sometimes ruin your plans, but making sure to get back on track, planning in your breaks and organizing all your Spanish sessions will help improve your chances of getting to the end goal of learning Spanish.

If you are trying to persuade the family, then here’s your chance, there are many benefits to learning Spanish as a language. By selling it to them in a productive way, you’ll improve your chances of them wanting to continue, even through the tough grammar.

Here are some benefits that can be absorbed by learning the Spanish language:

Speaking on holiday in Spain

Making new Spanish friends

Excelling in class with your Spanish

Streamlining all of your efforts will help to achieve the goal of fluency and improve your chances of getting into a conversation on your next Spanish holiday.

If you have managed to work on learning Spanish with your family, feel free to share your tips in the comments below, we’d love to hear whether you have any resources or ways to start learning as a family!