Tips 088: How to Make Your Spanish Conversations Less Awkward

What are your conversations like in Spanish? Do they flow? or do they stall?

Being a great conversationalist in your first language doesn’t come easily—so how then can you be great in your second language? 

Learning how to have flowing conversations isn’t something that can be learnt overnight. It takes years of practice. But, it is something you should always be striving to improve.

Having said that, there are some tips and tactics that you can use to give you conversations an instant boost.

In today’s podcast I talk about a technique that comes straight out of my conversation hacking course—Zero To Conversational which you can access in the Real Fast Spanish School.

In Zero To Conversational, I break down the key elements of taking your Spanish from zero to conversational in the most effective way. This includes using techniques that encourage Spanish conversations to grow and develop.

The technique I introduce in today’s podcast is called “Reverse and Add”. The reverse and add technique does two things:

1. It helps a conversation to grow by avoiding road blocks.
2. It helps you get used to spanish word order and remember verb conjugations.

Try today’s technique for yourself. Use the “Reverse and Add” technique in a few Spanish conversations this week and let me know how it worked for you.

Examples from this episode:

Did I tell you that I went to the cinema on the weekend? – ¿Te he dicho que fui al cine el fin de semana?

Yes you told me that you went to the cinema on the weekend. – Si me has dicho que fuiste al cine el fin de semana.

Yes, you did tell me that you went to the cinema on the weekend and told me you were going to see Almodóvar’s latest film. Did you like it? – Sí me has dicho que fuiste al cine el fin de semana y me dijo que ibas a ver la última película de Almodóvar, ¿te gustó?

What movie did you see? – ¿Qué película viste?

Do you realize it’s my birthday today? – ¿Te das cuenta de que es mi cumpleaños hoy?

Yes, I realize it’s your birthday today. How are you going to celebrate it? – Sí me doy cuenta de que es tu cumpleaños hoy. ¿Cómo vas a celebrarlo?

How else can you use the “Reverse and Add” technique to improve your Spanish conversations?

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