Spoken by 250 million people worldwide, primarily at the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, Spanish is dominating as one of the top languages.

Imagine having it as another entry on the “language spoken” part of you resume.

An effective way to get the ball rolling is by studying the letters and sounds. From these sounds, you create words and phrases.

Do your best during your foreign language training by immersing yourself to the language being used by other speakers. This is done so you can familiarize yourself with the basics and everyday expressions.

Watch TV programs and films that use the language with translations that you can understand. Watch plays starring characters with accents that are native of the language you are trying to learn.

During this time, you should be able to observe how the native speakers pronounce the sounds, the speed of their dialogues, how they form words and sentences, and when they use certain expressions.

Contrary to what others believe, Spanish sounds are not really hard to pronounce. Once you’ve learned a few basic rules, it shouldn’t be too long before you can read and speak it.

First, know that Spanish has 30 letters, in contrast with English that has only 26. You must know how each letter is called and the sound it produces.

The four other letters present in the Spanish alphabet includes ch (read as che) as in chocolate, ll (read as el-ye) as in million, ñ (read as en-ye) as in onion, and rr (read as er-re).

The common 26 letters also has Spanish names and do not take on the ABC names of English: a, be, ce, che, de, e, efe, ge, hache, i, jota, ka, ele, elle, eme, ene, eñe, o, pe, ku, ere, erre, ese, te, u, uve, uve doble, ekis, y grieyega, and zeta.

Spanish also has 5 vowels – a, e, i, o, and u.

However, what makes their vowels different from English vowels is that each of these vowels produces only one sound.

The vowel a is always read as in shut/other/son and never as in cat nor tape; e is always read as in pet/enter/let/said and never as in week; i is always read as in hit/pity and never as in bike; o is always read as in saw/Auckland/decor and never as in hope; and u is always read as /oo/ in book/put/push and never as in hut nor umbrella.

On the other hand, the letters that are pronounced the same way as in English are b, ch, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z.

The letter h is not pronounced verbally and is always silent, unless it belongs to the /ch/ sound. The letter r is always rolled, even more strongly when it occurs in rr. The letter q is pronounced the same way as in the English letter k.

The letter c is pronounced in two ways: /th/ as in thin before the vowels e and i, and /k/ elsewhere. The letter g takes the sound of the gargled /g/ as in the German word Bach before the vowels e and i, and /g/ in English elsewhere. The letter j also takes the sound of the gargled /g/ in all conditions.

It is important to keep these rules in mind. Before you can actually speak out the words, phrases, and sentences fluently, you have to master how to enunciate these sounds properly. Spanish is romantic. Try to keep the passion and sentiment with every sound you pronounce.

With basic knowledge of the everyday expressions, you can start practicing. Use them as much as you can. For example, instead of saying “good morning” to the people you live with as you wake up everyday, say buenos dias. They say practice makes perfect. So the more you use the terms, the more you will get used to it.

You can then start reading books and training materials. For better results, purchase books containing exercises (with key to corrections) and audio tapes, if any, in order for you to evaluate how you are doing during your self-study. Don’t forget to have a complete and comprehensive translation dictionary between the language you are trying to learn and a language you understand very well (ex. English-Spanish Dictionary). This way, whenever you encounter a difficult word, you will be able to look it up immediately and understand what it means.

Finally, if you think you have more than enough knowledge after many practice exercises, try watching a film (this time, without subtitles and translations) or read a book written purely in that language. For unfamiliar words, don’t hesitate to press the pause button (or you can pause yourself from reading), then consult your dictionary. Do this over and over again until you can finally speak, write, and understand Spanish very well.

Yes, foreign language training sure needs hard work and determination. But hey, didn’t you notice it can be so much fun?

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