Beyond Spain: Rich Encoding Techniques For Spanish Fluency

Dear Zara,

If you’ve been around the blog for awhile, you know we’ve shared many resources on language-learning but today we want to welcome a guest writer whose new-to-us approach is sure to help you improve your language-learning and Spanish fluency, even when you’re not ‘immersed’ in the traditional way.

Jennifer is the co-founder of Bueno Spanish, which uses linguistics to accelerate Spanish vocabulary acquisition for native English speakers. With etymologies and word connections, she helps learners acquire new vocab words more easily and effectively. In today’s post, Jennifer dives into these and other rich encoding techniques to help you reach Spanish fluency without living in Spain.

Without further ado, we bring you Jennifer…

 

Introduction

You’ve just returned from a long, immersion-rich trip to Spain. Your suitcases are unpacked, your photos are up, and the memories are still fresh. However, as time goes by, many travelers experience a post-trip slump in language learning, watching helplessly as their newly-learned Spanish words fade without the context that helped them flourish.

Learning Spanish at home usually lacks the context that makes language acquisition so effective while traveling. When we learn words or phrases in memorable contexts (like ordering tapas at a busy Barcelona bar), our brains tend to form stronger connections, and the information sticks for longer. However, we can change this by intentionally creating rich and interactive contexts during our Spanish practice, which replicates the depth of immersion right in your living room.

 

Rich Encoding: The Key to Language Retention

Rich encoding means the process of learning new information so that it forms a number of strong associations in the brain, and is thus easier to remember later. In terms of  language acquisition, rich encoding means:

• Learning new words in context instead of via stand-alone translations
• Connecting words to the senses (such as sounds, tastes, or images)
• Creating emotional bonds to the language

By using rich encoding strategies, you can maintain your memories from Spain while continuing to build new Spanish skills. Instead of memorizing vocabulary lists, embed Spanish into situations that create lasting memories, similar to what happened during your travels.

 

Creating an Immersive Environment at Home

Digital Immersion

To immerse yourself digitally, start by changing your phone, social media, and email settings to Spanish. This change makes sure that you’re exposed to the language regularly. In addition, follow Spanish news outlets, influencers, or businesses on social media so that you can stay up to date with current events and popular culture in Spain. For even more immersion, you can download browser extensions that translate individual words or phrases into Spanish, which will help you learn new words in context.

Daily Practice

Creating a Spanish routine is a great way to guarantee everyday practice. Some ideas to help you devote parts of each day to practicing Spanish are reading books, listening to podcasts, or even just speaking consistently in Spanish. A fun visual cue is to create a “Spanish corner” in your house with books and souvenirs from your trip to Spain. Furthermore, to prevent yourself from missing practice sessions, you can set calendar reminders on your phone that will help you prioritize Spanish in your day-to-day life.

These tips will help you create an immersive home environment, while also continuing to get the Spanish interactions that’s important to both maintain and grow your language skills.

 

Leveraging Daily Entertainment

Movies and TV Shows

One of the ways to maintain your Spanish skills is by watching TV shows and movies in Spanish. If you’re unable to watch something completely in Spanish, start with Spanish audio and English subtitles so you can read as you watch. As you get better, you can start trying Spanish audio with Spanish subtitles, which is ideal for intermediate learners who want to build comprehension and vocabulary. You can also try turning off subtitles and watch shows with only Spanish audio, which completely immerses yourself in the language while testing your listening skills. By gradually changing subtitles settings, you can watch Spanish content while learning at your own pace.

Music and Podcasts

Adding Spanish music and podcasts is another good way to add more Spanish to your life. By changing your regular playlists into playlists of Spanish music, you can integrate listening practice throughout your day without doing anything else differently. To deepen your learning via a more active approach, you can also write down the unfamiliar phrases and look them up later.

By incorporating Spanish entertainment, you can use listening and reading to strengthen your connections to Spanish, which makes it easier to retain and remember what you learn.

 

Using Food as a Learning Tool

Cooking Spanish Recipes

Try adding in some Spanish when you’re cooking by looking for authentic recipes written in Spanish. This will not only teach you cooking vocabulary and also will expose you to Spanish in a practical way as you read the instructions in Spanish. As you cook each dish, you should also try to talk about the dishes and ingredients using only their Spanish names.

Adding in Spanish Food Content

You can supplement your Spanish recipes on social media by following Spanish cooking channels or food bloggers. These websites are more likely to cover regional dishes and add in information on their cultural significance and history of the dishes. While watching videos or reading cooking blog posts, take note of food-related vocabulary as it’s used in context. The food videos and pictures will also help you remember any new Spanish words you learn.

By engaging multiple senses, such as sight and sound, the associated vocabulary becomes more deeply encoded, which makes your language learning journey more effective and delicious.

 

Additional Rich Encoding Techniques

Memory Palace Technique

Memory palaces mean imagining a place that’s familiar, like a Spanish hotel that you’ve stayed in, and putting things (and their associated Spanish words) at specific locations. For example, if you’re trying to remember the word mesa (table), imagine a giant table in front of the entrance of the hotel lobby. During review sessions, you “walk through” this memory palace in order to remember the words and what they mean, which reinforces the words you’ve learned through spatial and visual cues.

Association Strategies

Association strategies are based on linking Spanish words to similar-sounding English words, or by creating stories that connect words with their meanings. For example, in order to remember the word zapato (shoe), you could think of a shoe zapping electricity. Or, in order to remember the word mirar (to look), you could think of the similar-sounding English word “mirror”. You can also learn words by grouping them into themes instead of alphabetically, like using the word flor (flower) to learn florecer (to bloom).

Spaced Repetition Systems

Spaced repetition is a strategy used to help language learners review new words at specific intervals in order to maximize retention. An example of a system to try that uses spaced repetition is the flashcard app Anki, which schedules reviews for flashcards that you create yourself. You can use this method to make custom flashcards that are based on your trip to Spain, and add pictures from your trip to help you add context and emotional connections to the words. This strategy will help you review new vocabulary right after you learn it. Then, you’ll gradually space out the reviews as your memory of the word strengthens, which makes sure that new words move from short-term memory to long-term memory.

By using these techniques, you’ll be able to specifically target vocabulary retention by  turning words into experiences rather than using rote memorization.

 

Building on Your Spain Experience

Continuing your Spanish language skills after you return from a trip to Spain isn’t just about preventing what you’ve learned from going away. Rather, it’s about continuing the process that made you fall in love with the language in the first place. By adding Spanish into your life through rich encoding, language learning can change from a tedious exercise into a way of life.

Finally, while you’re home, stay motivated and keep your Spain memories alive with the following tips:

• Virtual Discovery: Immerse yourself in Spanish culture from home by taking virtual tours of museums or places you did not get to visit, or by watching local news from cities you’ve been to.
• Setting Concrete Goals: Motivate yourself by setting specific improvement goals in your language skills, signing up for an official Spanish language test, or by making a bucket list of things to do for your next trip to Spain!

The most successful language learners don’t think of themselves as students of a foreign language but more of as participants in a new culture. They don’t just learn Spanish, they live it by cooking, watching TV, and creating memories all in their target language. Your Spanish learning journey didn’t end when you boarded the plane to return home – it’s just starting its next exciting chapter.

 

Learn Spanish Faster with Bueno Spanish

Bueno Spanish leverages the rich encoding techniques discussed in this article by using etymologies to map new Spanish words to English you already know. Since 30-40% of Spanish is related to English, this can give you an enormous leg up when it comes to making new vocabulary stick faster and with less effort.

Next time you hear an unfamiliar word from a Spanish podcast, or are translating ingredients for a new recipe, try typing it into the search bar on Bueno Spanish. You might find out that you know this word after all!

 

Thank you so much to Jennifer for this valuable piece filled with unique techniques for you to try! If you’re interested in finding helpful more resources like this one, be sure to check out the Bueno Spanish blog.