We’re in la dimensión desconocida (the twilight zone) between Christmas and New Year’s, so I’ll keep this week’s Saturday Spanish light.
Today I want to share a fun tip that will improve your Spanish…
Without having to memorize or study (since, if you’re like me, you’re waiting til Wednesday to restart regular life).
Acting your way to great Spanish
There’s something surprising I’ve noticed about our accents as Spanish learners:
People are often pretty good at imitating the accent in English…
But those same sounds fall apart when they’re actually speaking Spanish.
So if I ask a Spanish learner to say “In January I’m traveling to Mexico” with a Spanish accent… They’ll nail sounds like the Spanish I, O, and U….
But if the same person says “En enero viajo a México” in Spanish… those pronunciation skills disappear.
What this says to me is this:
We all have the ability to do a MORE convincing, natural sounding accent in Spanish.
Not perfect (which isn’t the goal anyway)…
But pretty good! Smooth, clear, and easy to understand.
And what’s standing in the way of that smooth, clear Spanish is — in large part — a mental block.
Why?
Well, on top of already feeling a bit silly and vulnerable when speaking a new language…
We feel like we’re not being ourselves… Like we’re acting.
But here’s the secret:
It is acting.
At least at the start.
This helps you loosen up
Consider how it feels when you try to imitate an accent that’s different from yours in English.
If you’re from Boston and suddenly have to pretend to be from Bristol… it’ll involve some serious acting.
Adopting an accent in Spanish that sounds more Mexican, Colombian, Spanish, etc. is more or less the same process.
So no wonder it feels strange. It’s a completely new, foreign way of speaking.
To get past that feeling, and access more “Spanish-sounding Spanish”, the key is to embrace that feeling of acting:
You’re acting out your new role as a Spanish speaker.
This gives you permission to loosen up a bit and start using sounds and speech patterns that don’t feel like “you”.
And I can tell you from experience that it gradually feels less foreign and more familiar.
So to make this a bit more practical, here’s something to try:
- Go back to a Spanish language show or movie you like. You can even search for clips on YouTube.
- Pick your favorite character. Watch their mannerisms, the way they move their mouth, and grab 1 line of theirs.
- Repeat that line out loud a couple times to get familiar with it
- Time to act: become the character. This is the key!
You want to commit — to really BE that person. Go over the top. If it’s a dramatic line, deliver the drama. Exaggerate everything.
*Go somewhere quiet (like your car) so you can commit to the “character” without getting shy
You don’t need to memorize any pronunciation rules for this to help.
When you “get into character”, you’ll automatically adopt some of the key sounds of Spanish (even if you don’t consider yourself a good mimic).
Because when you get in the mindset that you are someone else for just a minute…
It lets you get out of your own way and access sounds you didn’t know you could create.
The next step is to apply this to your “normal” Spanish.
Doing that isn’t a one-and-done thing.
But the more you can adopt the mindset that you ARE a Spanish speaker — the same way an actor has the mindset that they their character — the less your own mental hangups will get in the way.
I know it sounds a bit vague…
But pronunciation and accent are so tied up with identity that sometimes all we need is a mental shift to unlock a new way of speaking.
Getting over the hump
This feeling of acting goes away with time and practice.
But for now, leaning into that different “Spanish speaker identity” helps you unlearn some of your English speaking pronunciation habits (without actually learning anything new).
What might feel like acting right now will feel easy and natural to you soon. So try to have some fun with it for now.
¡Buen fin de semana y feliz año nuevo!
– Connor
P.S. Towards the beginning of the Confident Spanish Pronunciation course, we do a version of this exercise to help you loosen up and uncover the Spanish sounds you didn’t know you had in you. If that’s a goal of yours in the new year, check it out. You can see what current students are saying here.
