There are more ways to learn Spanish than ever: an app on your phone, a self-study course, an evening class, a fortnight in Spain, a private tutor. Each has its place, and most people end up combining two or three. What matters is knowing what each one does well, and which one moves you on from where you are now.
Apps and self-study courses
Apps are a good way in. They build vocabulary, give you a first feel for the grammar and, above all, they build a daily habit. Ten minutes on the train adds up, and the streak keeps you honest. Self-study courses, whether audio or book-based, do a similar job for people who prefer a structured sequence, and they are useful later on for revising what you already know.
The limit of both is the same. They tell you what a sentence means; they do not hear you say it. Nobody corrects your pronunciation, nobody explains why por was wrong in that sentence, and nobody asks you a question you were not expecting. That is why so many people arrive at a 300-day streak still unable to hold a conversation, a pattern we look at in why apps stop short of fluency. Keep the app for vocabulary, and add the part it cannot supply: someone to talk to.
A trip to Spain or Latin America
Nothing beats using Spanish where it is spoken. Ordering in a restaurant, following a guided tour, chatting to a shopkeeper: each is a small test you either pass or learn from on the spot. A week of that will do more for your confidence than a month of exercises.
The difficulty is that holidays are rare and short. Two weeks a year of immersion, followed by fifty of silence, is a slow way to make progress. The trip works best as the reward at the end of a run of lessons, and London gives you plenty of ways to keep the language alive in between. Our guide to practising Spanish in London lists them.
Group classes
A class gives you a teacher, a syllabus and other learners to speak to, and for many people the classroom is simply what a lesson looks like. The trade-offs are built into the format. The pace is set by the group, so a quick learner waits for the others and a hesitant one is dragged along. Speaking time is shared between eight or ten people, and the timetable is fixed on evenings that may not suit a working week.
The exception is a group with a shared purpose. When a team at one company needs Spanish for the same clients and the same meetings, a small group built around that need works well, and it is how we run business Spanish training for companies.
A private tutor
One-to-one tuition is the most concentrated form of language learning there is, and the reasons are practical rather than mysterious.
The syllabus is yours. A tutor starts from what you already know and what you need the language for, so nothing is wasted on ground you have covered or goals you do not have. The pace is yours too: fast where things come easily, slower where they do not, with extra practice on the point that keeps tripping you up. Every question is answered as it arises, and every minute of the lesson is spent on you, so a ninety-minute session contains more speaking than a month of classes.
A native-speaker tutor adds what no course can: the nuances, the everyday phrasing, the pronunciation corrected in the moment, and the culture behind the language. Lessons are arranged week by week around your diary rather than a term timetable, at your home or office, and they can move to online Spanish lessons when you are travelling. With a deadline in view, a posting abroad or a project starting in Madrid, an intensive Spanish course in London compresses the same work into days rather than months.
Ninety minutes once or twice a week is the rhythm most of our students settle into. It is enough to expand vocabulary quickly, sharpen comprehension and pronunciation, and turn what you know into what you can say.
What to look for in a tutor
The format only delivers if the tutor is right, so it is worth being demanding. Look for:
- A native speaker, so that pronunciation, idiom and register are learned correctly from the start.
- Clear explanations: someone who can make ser and estar, or the subjunctive, simple enough to use, not just to understand.
- Flexibility: lessons that adapt to your level, your learning style and, if you need Spanish for work, your industry.
- Patience and encouragement, because adult learners make mistakes in front of someone, and how the tutor responds decides whether you keep speaking.
- Cultural knowledge of Spain and Latin America, which is half of what you are learning.
- Planned lessons that build on each other, so progress is steady and visible.
- A track record, and the continuity that comes with it: a tutor who knows your strengths and where your Spanish still needs work.
Which is right for you now?
If you are starting from nothing with no deadline, an app for vocabulary alongside a weekly lesson is a strong combination. If you have been learning for a while and have stalled, a tutor is usually the fastest way to move again; most of the common struggles adult learners face come down to grammar and confidence, and both respond to one-to-one work. If you have a date to hit, an intensive course. If your whole team needs the language, a small group at the office. And whichever route you take, plan a trip to use it.
How long the whole thing takes depends on where you start and how many hours you put in, which is the subject of how long it takes to learn Spanish. The short answer: with one-to-one Spanish lessons and regular practice between them, a beginner can hold a real conversation within a few months.
See how working with a Spanish tutor in London is arranged around your week.
Read next: Why Apps don’t make you fluent in Spanish · How long does it take to learn Spanish? · Common struggles when learning Spanish, and how to fix them