As an intermediate Spanish student, you will always experience antibajos, days when you’re challenged to make yourself understood and other days when you experience a kind of language high, when vocabulary flows, verbs conjugate and you feel totally on top of the world.

After five years of study, I've come a long way in my Spanish. What came to frustrate me however was my inability to shake my hard American accent. Spanish practice partners often remarked on it, and with all the progress I’d made otherwise, their remarks drove me crazy.

I researched various tools online. Their approaches to improving pronunciation, and their price tag, missed the mark. It wasn’t exactly the better pronunciation that I sought, it was a better flow, more rhythm. I sensed that a natural cadence came from hooking up groups of words, rather than pronouncing them individually, but I still wasn’t sure how to practice that.

Then I discovered the YouTube’s website Español Automatico. After less than six months using its methods, my online practice partners in Spain have begun to remark that I’ve dramatically reduced my American accent. I’m convinced it will continue to improve. (If Español Automatico learning products are a bit pricey for you, you can still see results simply by incorporating their methods.)

Like many online language tools offered from Spain, Español Automatico is an immersion language site, meaning their videos are in Spanish. It’s hosted by Karo and Mauro Martinez, who live in Barcelona. Karo Martinez has taught strictly adults throughout her career, speaks four languages, and is learning Bulgarian from ground zero.

Immersion language sites generally scare off beginner students. I assume that’s why Español Automatico targets frustrated intermediates. But I really wish I had found the site as a beginner. It would have saved me untold amounts of time and I’d be a far better Spanish speaker today.

Español Automatico key methods

Maintaining motivation to study every day, and overcoming the fear to speak are the biggest obstacles to learning a language. The video content in Español Automatico focuses on motivation, study methods and overcoming obstacles, not grammar or entertaining you.

Listen, listen, listen.

Traditional, antiquated methods of teaching emphasize reading, writing and grammar exercises. Clearly they don’t work, as most of us who studied languages in high school know. Virtually no one carries what they were taught in class into the real world of conversation. Studies have shown it’s listening, listening, listening that teaches us how to speak.

The key is to find materials at your level. Your brain picks up new words best in context with words you already understand. By listening to material that interests you, you’ll pick up the vocabulary that you’ll most likely reach for in your conversation.

According to Martinez, you need to be able to understand 70% of what’s being said in whatever podcasts or programs you choose to benefit from them. Too high a level (for example most television shows) won’t improve your speaking skills.

A major error I made in my first years was listening to programs too advanced for my ear, believing I was actually absorbing the language when in fact, I remembered nothing of it when I spoke. Repetition is key. Repetition is the most effective way of improving a skill. Repetition is what forces us to learn deeply and remember what we’ve learned.

Athletes, musicians, chefs and professional speakers learn their art by repeating the same movements over and over until they have mastered them completely. Repetition is the key in practically every discipline. Repeating video and podcast material out loud, word by word, has been the single most important element in improving my accent.

Find a podcasts and YouTube videos featuring Spanish speakers who represent whatever accent you want to emulate (Columbians are widely thought to have the most neutral accent). Listen. Repeat. Listen. Repeat. This is how you pick up their rhythm and chains of grammar.

Español Automatico videos are in beautiful Castilian Spanish. Since I studied in Spain in college, developing a Castillian accent was akin to keeping a souvenir from my youth. How to Spanish Podcast (Spotify) is a good podcast for clear, lyrical Mexican Spanish.

Always learn vocabulary in context

We best remember new words by how they relate to the words before and after them. We learn unfamiliar words just like we learn other new subjects - by linking the material to what we already know. Write down the word you want to learn as it's used naturally from materials that are authentic. Write down a whole sentence containing the word you want to learn. Study the whole sentence. This will also help you absorb the grammar.

You can get a lot more bang for your learning buck creating flashcards with whole sentences. The sentence estuve muy decepcionado de el teaches grammar, verb conjugation, and vocabulary that even includes a “false friend” - a word (decepcionado), a word that sounds like a word in English, the cognate “deceived”, but in Spanish actually means “disappointed.”

Don’t punch above your weight when choosing materials.

As Martinez points out in her videos, students always arrive at their first lessons on-fire, seeking fast results. You need to slow down, learn the basics and gradually build your knowledge. Just like in sports, trying to engage far above your level will ultimately be a huge waste of time if you’re seriously interested in speaking the language well. You have to move slowly enough for knowledge to soak in.

Language learning as taught in schools doesn’t work because teachers move their students quickly through topics and grammar, introducing new material every week. Nothing soaks in in a way that enables students to automatically respond without thinking.

How to find time?

Repeating and listening daily is crucial. Look at your day and find the unproductive times to vanquish, You can find time while cooking, commuting, exercising, or walking the dog. Fortunately, technology gives us a whole library of tools we can use under varying circumstances.

Personally, I’ve never been able to make any time work for Spanish study other than in the morning. I schedule Skype practice first thing. The face-to-face interaction invariably motivates me to put another hour of study, including listening to a half hour podcast over a late breakfast.

How important is studying grammar?

Español Automatico positions grammar books as reference materials to consult when you have a question. But most students come to their site as intermediates. They likely have studied at least some Spanish grammar and done exercises. I don’t think I could have learned verb conjugation through just repetition and the rules do come back to me when I’m speaking. With that small exception, Español Automatico hits the mark in teaching a way to speak with more fluidity and naturalidad. Get started here.

About the author:

Kerry Baker is the author of “If I Only Had a Place” about getting the best deals for long term renting in Mexico (what realtors will not tell you). “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico” gives you a game plan. Her most recent book is a cookbook, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico. Cooking in a foreign culture is a real challenge. Over 150 Superfood recipes you can make from a bare bones kitchen in Mexico.