Best tips for learning a new language as an adult

Start with a 15 minute routine you can keep even when tired. Split it into three five minute blocks: spaced repetition words, input, and a tiny speaking exercise. For words, use an SRS app like Anki or Memrise and cap it at 10 new cards a day so reviews stay short. Make cards from useful phrases you meet rather than isolated words, and add audio when you can. Enable the Spanish keyboard on your phone so you practice accents every day without thinking about it. Set a daily reminder and anchor it to an existing habit like after brushing your teeth so you do it on autopilot.

For input, watch or listen to 10 minutes of something you already know with Spanish audio and Spanish subtitles, then replay a short scene and shadow one or two lines out loud. For speaking, do two minutes of self talk about what you are doing or what you did today and try to use today's new phrase. Keep grammar tiny by learning one point a day such as present tense endings or ser vs estar, then write two short example sentences and say them aloud. Once a week book a 20 minute low pressure chat with a tutor or language exchange partner to get feedback and keep your pronunciation honest. Track a simple streak on a calendar and if you miss a day, do a five minute catch up the next day so you never miss two in a row.

Look, I turned my shower into Spanish karaoke and the shampoo bottle is now Señor Champú. I once told a barista I was very years old and we both screamed laughing, but I never forgot the ñ after that. My daily fuel is goofy. Sing one song while brushing teeth, slap vocab on fruit, and narrate the cat's drama in Spanish while it judges me. Little bits all day feel like play, and somehow the words start showing up when I need them.

I lose phones, so I use a small notebook and paper flashcards. Ten words a day, review twice, done. Set a 10 minute timer right after dinner. Store a duplicate list in the cloud so a lost device does not reset progress.

Every app wants $20 a month for a shiny badge, like I'm paying rent to conjugate. The cheap win has been ten minutes of free Spanish podcasts while coffee brews and a sticky note on the kettle with three new verbs. I chant them at the mug and it actually sticks. Libraries and YouTube are plenty until you outgrow them.

Step one, lower the bar so far it trips you. Five to ten minutes daily beats the heroic Sunday cram that dies by Tuesday. Pick one tiny action and make it boringly repeatable. Read a short graded paragraph, then read it out loud. If you do nothing else, that alone moves the needle.

Make your phone a Spanish gremlin. Switch the interface, swap your playlist to Spanish music, and tell yourself you cannot unlock the screen until you shadow thirty seconds of audio. Label the kitchen stuff and narrate while you cook like a discount telenovela. Book a quick conversation once a week, even if you only manage awkward greetings and weather. The accent police live in your head, not in the café.

I kept spiraling about methods, so I set a rule. Ten minutes. Same time after work, same short routine. One tiny read, one tiny listen, one tiny speak. I mark an X on the calendar and stop when the timer ends.

At home I wrangle everyone's playlists and it weirdly made Spanish stick. We set the TV profiles to Spanish audio with English subs after dinner, then flip it the next night. I dump new words into a shared note and make the car ride playlist all Spanish bops for ten minutes. We label the pantry in two languages, so even cereal is study time. It turns into a tiny routine the whole house follows without thinking.

idk, 15 minutes daily of podcasts and shadowing changed everything.