Spanish is one of the languages Londoners most want to learn, for work, for travel or for family, and it is also one of the kindest to an English speaker. Even so, almost every adult learner runs into the same handful of obstacles somewhere between the first lesson and the first real conversation. They are predictable, which is the good news: each one has a fix that works.
This guide sets out the seven struggles we see most often in our lessons, why they happen, and what to do about each.
Why learning as an adult feels different
Most people at some point wish they could pick up Spanish the way they picked up English: without trying. As children we absorb our first language through years of continual conversation, at a stage of development that does the grammar for us; we never consciously learn a rule. As adults we study instead, and the rules we already carry from English put up a quiet resistance to the new ones. That is what makes a foreign language feel foreign.
Adults have compensations, though. You can read, you can ask why, and you can use the one method that made your first language stick: regular, natural conversation with someone who speaks it well. Lessons built around talking, rather than around a textbook, bring the closest thing to the way a child learns, and concentrated blocks of them, as in an intensive Spanish course, bring it fastest. How long it takes depends mostly on how much of that conversation you get.
1. Using English grammar to make sense of Spanish
The first instinct of every learner is to translate the rules along with the words. It works for a while, then stops. Spanish gives every noun a gender, so a table is feminine and a book masculine, and adjectives have to agree with them. The adjective usually follows the noun: the tall man is el hombre alto. Verbs change their endings for each person, and there are two verbs for “to be” where English has one.
The fix is to stop asking why Spanish is not English. The rules are not complicated, only different, and they are far more regular than English spelling. Learn them on their own terms, from real sentences rather than tables, and questions like when to use ser and when to use estar settle quickly. A tutor who has explained the same point a hundred times will find the version of it that makes sense to you.
2. Verb conjugations
The verb system is where beginners most often decide Spanish is hard. Six endings per tense, a dozen tenses, irregular verbs on top: written out in full it looks impossible.
Nobody learns it in full, and nobody needs to. Three tenses carry most everyday conversation, and the patterns repeat, so each new tense is mostly one you already know with a different ending. The fix is order: the most useful tenses first, each one practised in sentences you would actually say, and the rest added as the need arises. Within a few weeks the endings stop being something you look up and become something you hear.
3. Pronunciation and the rolled r
English speakers worry about the rolled r, and about vowels that are purer and shorter than the ones they are used to. The worry is usually out of proportion to the problem. Spanish pronunciation is regular, so once a sound is right, it is right in every word.
The fix is correction in the moment. An app tells you a word was wrong; a person tells you what your tongue did and what to do instead. A few targeted exercises deal with the r, and speaking regularly with someone who hears the difference deals with everything else.
4. Understanding native speakers
You know the words, and still the sentence goes past too fast. This is the struggle that most surprises learners, and it is almost never about speed. Native speakers run words together, drop sounds and use an accent you have not trained your ear for; Spanish only seems fast until you have heard enough of it.
The fix is listening with support: conversation lessons in which the tutor slows down, then speeds up as you keep pace; films and series with Spanish subtitles, so that the sound and the spelling meet; and deliberate exposure to the accent you will actually need, whether that is Madrid, Mexico City or Buenos Aires.
5. Confidence to speak
Many learners know far more Spanish than they use, because using it means making mistakes in front of someone. The hesitation is normal and it is the single biggest brake on progress, since speaking is the practice that turns knowledge into fluency.
The fix is a place where mistakes cost nothing. One-to-one lessons are exactly that: every error is corrected without embarrassment, and after a few weeks of it the fear simply wears off. For people who need Spanish at work, the same applies with the stakes raised; business Spanish training rehearses the meetings and calls before they happen, so the first real one is not the first time.
6. Finding chances to practise in London
London is not Madrid; Spanish will not come to you on the bus. Left to chance, a learner can go a fortnight without saying a word of it, and a fortnight is long enough to forget.
The fix is structure. A regular lesson guarantees the conversation happens, homework between lessons keeps the language in your head, and the city supplies the rest for anyone who looks: our guide to practising Spanish in London has the details.
7. Finding the right tutor
Most people start with an app or an evening class, and most reach the point where they need something personal to their level and their goals. Finding it is a struggle of its own: the choice of tutors in London is wide and the differences are not obvious from a profile.
The fix is to know what you are looking for. A native speaker, clear explanations, patience, lessons that are planned rather than improvised, and enough experience to have seen your particular obstacle before. We set out the full list, and how a tutor compares with the alternatives, in apps, classes or a private tutor.
The common thread
Every one of these seven has the same answer at its core: regular speaking practice with someone who can hear what you are doing and put it right. That is what one-to-one Spanish lessons are for, and it is why learners who have struggled alone for a year often find the obstacles fall away within a couple of months of starting them.
Every one of these struggles is easier with a tutor who has seen it before. See how private Spanish lessons work.
Read next: How long does it take to learn Spanish? · Why Spanish has two words for “to be” · Por vs Para in Spanish: The Tiny Words That Cause Big Drama