The short version
- Motivation drops for most learners, usually because the topics are boring or there's no visible reason to keep going.
- Practise conversations you actually want to have, and give every week one real situation where you'll use them.
- Look back at old topics to see your progress, and when you stop for a while, restart small with something you already know.
Most people don't decide to give up Spanish. They miss a couple of days, then a week, and one day they realise it's been three months since they last opened anything. If you want to stay motivated learning Spanish, it helps to know that this is normal, and that it has less to do with willpower than people think.
Motivation is good for starting. It's much less reliable for the middle bit, which is where most of the learning happens. So the goal is to set things up so that you keep going even on the weeks when you don't feel like it.
When I moved to Spain, what finally got me speaking was practising conversations I actually needed: pets, hobbies, the cinema. It's also what kept me going, because I could use it the same week.
Why motivation drops
It's worth knowing what's actually draining it, because the fix depends on the cause. For most people it comes down to two things.
It's boring
You're learning words and topics that have nothing to do with your life, so there's nothing to look forward to.
You can't see it working
Progress is slow and gradual, so week to week it feels like nothing is changing.
There are other things too: a busy month at work, being ill, a bad experience in a real conversation. Those are harder to control. The two above are the ones you can do something about.
One more thing before the fixes. Don't make your Spanish depend on feeling like it. On a normal Tuesday after work, you won't. A short session you do most days, attached to something you already do, gets you through those weeks. There's a full routine in a 15-minute daily Spanish routine that works. The rest of this post is about making Spanish something you want to come back to.
Practise things you care about
It's hard to stay interested in el bolígrafo está encima de la mesa. It's much easier to stay interested in talking about your dog, your football team or the series you're watching.
So when you choose what to practise, start with your life. What do you talk about in English? What would you like to be able to talk about with the people around you?
| If you're into… | Practise talking about… |
|---|---|
| Cooking | What you made at the weekend, recipes, what you'd order |
| Sport | Your team, last night's match, what you play and how often |
| Series and films | What you're watching, what you'd recommend, what you thought of it |
| Your kids | School, their friends, what they're like, weekend plans |
| Travel | Where you've been, where you want to go, your best trip |
| Your pets | Their names, what they're like, their bad habits |
The words you learn this way come up again, because they're about things you talk about anyway. That's motivating in itself. You learn el tráiler on Monday, use it on Friday, and it feels worth it.
Give every week a real use
This is the most useful thing on the list. Learning Spanish with no particular moment to use it feels endless. Learning Spanish for Thursday, when you know you'll need it, feels urgent in a good way.
Every Sunday, look at your week and find one real situation where you'll speak Spanish. The hairdresser on Wednesday. Lunch with a colleague on Thursday. The parents at the school gate on Friday. Then choose what to practise based on it. If you're getting your hair cut, practise talking about your weekend and what you want done: Solo las puntas, por favor. When the day comes, use at least one sentence you practised. It doesn't matter how it goes. What matters is that the practice had a date.
If you don't live in Spain, the situation can still be real. A video call with a Spanish-speaking friend, a local Spanish conversation group, or a voice note in the 100 Spanish Conversations community on Skool all count.
Having something coming up changes how practice feels. You're getting ready for something specific.
Make your progress visible
The biggest motivation killer is feeling like you're not getting anywhere. The problem is usually that the progress is there, but you can't see it, because you only ever look at what you can't do yet.
Every month, go back to a topic you practised four or five weeks ago and run the whole conversation out loud, without notes. You'll probably find it's much easier than you remember, and that you can add things you couldn't say the first time. It's one of the few ways to actually feel the difference, because you're comparing the same conversation, a month apart.
Here's what that difference can sound like. First time round, you might manage the top line. A month later, with a few more weeks of practice behind you, the rest starts coming out too:
- Tengo un perro.I've got a dog.
- Tengo un perro que se llama Rufo.I've got a dog called Rufo.
- Tengo un perro que se llama Rufo. Es muy bueno, pero se come todo lo que encuentra.I've got a dog called Rufo. He's really good, but he eats everything he finds.
- Tengo un perro que se llama Rufo. Es muy bueno, pero se come todo lo que encuentra. La semana pasada se comió un calcetín.I've got a dog called Rufo. He's really good, but he eats everything he finds. Last week he ate a sock.
It also helps to count in conversations rather than time. There's more on that in how long it takes to learn to speak Spanish. And if you've been learning for a year or two and it really has stopped moving, stuck at intermediate Spanish? is the post for you.
How to restart after a break
You will stop at some point. Everyone does. The important bit is how you start again.
Most people restart with a big plan: an hour a day, a new app, a new book, catching up on everything they missed. It lasts about a week. Then the gap starts again, and it feels worse, because the big plan failed too.
When you come back after a few weeks off, it's tempting to start something new and exciting. Start with something old instead. Pick a conversation you used to know well and run through it. It comes back quicker than you'd expect, and the first session back feels like a win instead of a struggle. Start something new the next week.
Keep the first week back small. The aim is to get the habit going again before you worry about progress.
| Days | What to do | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 and 2 | Run an old conversation you used to know well | 5 to 10 minutes |
| Days 3 and 4 | Go through that topic's flashcards, out loud | 10 minutes |
| Day 5 | Record yourself on the old topic and listen back | 5 minutes |
| Days 6 and 7 | Choose next week's topic, based on a real situation coming up | 10 minutes |
Tell someone what you're working on
It's much easier to skip practice when nobody knows you're doing it. Telling one person what you're working on this week makes it a bit more real, and it gives you someone to try it on.
That person can be a Spanish-speaking friend, a colleague or another learner. If you live in Spain, tell the people you see every day. You'd be surprised how many will help. A simple way to say it:
People who know you're learning tend to ask about it. That little bit of interest from someone else goes a long way on the weeks when you'd otherwise skip.
Common mistakes
Waiting until you feel motivated before you practise.
Keep a short daily habit that doesn't need motivation.
Practising topics you'll never talk about.
Start with your own life, interests and plans.
Judging progress week by week.
Re-run an old conversation once a month and compare.
Restarting after a break with a big new plan.
Start small, with a topic you already know.
Keeping your learning a secret.
Tell one person what you're working on this week.
Recap
- Motivation drops for everyone, mostly from boredom and invisible progress.
- Keep a small daily habit so you don't depend on feeling like it.
- Practise conversations about things you care about.
- Give every week one real situation where you'll use your Spanish.
- Re-run old conversations to see your progress, and restart small after a break.
If you'd like each week planned for you, 100 Spanish Conversations gives you one real-life theme at a time, with everything you need to practise it out loud. Tell the community on Skool which theme you're on this week, and you'll have people to try it on.
Leeroy studied Spanish for years before moving to Spain and finding he couldn't hold a conversation. He built Basically Spanish around the method that fixed it. Questions? leeroy@basicallyspanish.com