Okay, so let’s talk Words of the Day for a bit. If you’re looking to improve your skills in a foreign language but don’t have much time to dedicate to this pursuit, you could benefit a lot from subscribing to Words of the Day. I currently subscribe to three such newsletters for Spanish (among other Words of the Day) and it’s delightful. Nowadays we all like to have nice emails to open every day, and the ones from SpanishDict are great. They also have some short lessons on their website on various themes. See this one, for instance, about using Spanish at a restaurant.
Then there’s the Word of the Day from Transparent Language. What I like about this WoD is that I can easily go back and forth to see a lot of Words of the Day in one go. So instead of opening email by email I go to their website and delight in hearing native speakers voice the example sentences. I also like that the speakers have great intonation, so the sentences sound very real. It’s always tempting to use AI for this, and I’m glad that Transparent Language hasn’t fallen into this trap.
An extra tip if you’re using a website with Words of the Day to browse many of them at once: go backward (in time, as it were) and then when you’re done with new words for that day go forward again, so as to revisit the new words after first encountering them. I also advise you to jot down the new words and their sentences in a notebook and go over them every once in a while. Or you could star a WoD email or two and go back to that same bunch of words on the website after a certain period of time. Doing so would have the added benefit of hearing the native speakers once again. In my case, seeing the words and sentences on the website, hearing the sentences, and writing them down is the perfect combo to help me remember these words, but you may not need to write them down as well.
The third website that I use for Words of the Day is elcastellano.org. This website is mostly for rather advanced learners but it includes something for everyone, and their Words of the Day come with a photo as well, which can do wonders toward memorizing them, given as we’re 90% visual creatures.
Of course, Words of the Day are just the icing on the cake. If you want to make serious progress, you need to spend way more time and effort. But if your heart is in it, making that effort can feel so very good, and your time will be well spent for so many reasons.
Which is why I wrote two articles to encourage you to further your knowledge of Spanish. Here they are: 10 Tips and Selected Resources for Beginners in Spanish and 10 Tips for Advanced Speakers of Spanish (which won’t break your budget).
How do YOU go about improving your Spanish? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
To a happier, healthier life,
Mira
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