The importance of keeping up with the news when learning Spanish.

Hello dear readers! I hope you are doing perfectly fine today, and you are really focused on your learning Spanish process. Today we will be talking about how you can benefit from watching the news and reading the newspaper in Spanish. Of course, it is important that you keep updated, but here, in this post, you will discover many more advantages of keeping up with the Spanish news for your Spanish learning process. Let’s see them!

Have a Spanish or bilingual dictionary

First of all, you need to have a Spanish or bilingual dictionary next to you the first times you decide to watch Spanish news o read Spanish newspapers. This is serious: the vocabulary Spanish – and from every nationality – reporters and journalists use can sometimes be quite specific and technical, which may be a challenge for you if you are not really used to these Spanish words. But do not worry! With practise and patience you will end understanding all of these difficult words. Although this may seem annoying and boring, there is another side to the coin: this is also a benefit! You can learn vocabulary that you will never probably learn with a usual book. Your Spanish vocabulary will be wider, and you will have lots of synonyms and words to use in contexts that are a little bit more formal.

Talking about news is the approach to the Spanish culture.

The second benefit I thought about when talking about news is the approach to the Spanish culture. This is something I keep repeating and the reason I do this is not because I want to be annoying, but because being close to the Spanish culture is key when learning Spanish. When you are aware of what happens now and what happened in the past in Spain – and not only Spain but also the every Spanish speaking countries – you understand far better that society. For instance, you may need to know the history and what happened many years ago in Valencia, Spain to understand why their traditions are the way they are. Also, knowing this information you may create strong links with the locals because you know their concerns, the subjects you can discuss about and the different cultural perspectives.

Acquisition of new Spanish grammatical structures

In the last – but not least – place, we have the acquisition of new Spanish grammatical structures. Sometimes when you watch the Spanish news you see they use different structures when talking compared to those we use in our day-a-day. It might seem a little bit difficult to learn, and I must recognize that it can be a huge challenge for some people. However, once you have them in your knowledge, you will notice a big improvement in your comprehension and that you are more fluent in Spanish.

But I am sure you will ask about some advice such as where to start, what to read, etc. And that is indeed what I am going to explain right now. The first thing I recommend is to read every kind of Spanish newspaper, so you get a little bit from every perspective and see what people from every side of politics think. The second thing I recommend is coming to our Spanish lessons in Valencia, here we practise this vocabulary and talk about everything from current Spanish topics to things that happened in the past. So, to sum up: compare and read different Spanish sources and join our Spanish lessons!

Of course, these tips are not a must and you do not need to follow them, but maybe they are useful for you. But if you start adding Spanish news into your Spanish learning process you will improve your linguistic skills and develop a wider comprehension of the culture and current Spanish society.

Learn Spanish in Valencia in the our Spanish school located in Calle del Mar 23-25 Valencia, Spain.

The best Spanish school specialized in Private Spanish Lessons, with the best Spanish tutors qualified by Instituto Cervantes. 

Text: Alba Boví

Photo: Taryn Elliont