Learning a language opens doors to a world of opportunity. Of course, in order to really benefit from your studies, you’ll need to do more than just complete assignments. You’ll need to set habits that will tie you to Spanish and its cultures even beyond the classroom. Students who become lifelong learners of Spanish have some basic characteristics and habits that you should develop if you want to get the most from your experience learning Spanish. Lifelong learners:

Have friends with whom they regularly converse in the target language. (This could be friends in school, neighbors or friends in the community.)
Regularly get information from target language sources (newspapers, magazines, Internet Spanish related news group (with parent’s approval), TV programs, radio, etc. that are produced by and for native speakers.)
Participate in activities of the target culture (celebrating holidays, seeing movies or plays of/in the target culture, preparing or eating dishes from the target culture, reading books or magazines from the target culture, etc.)
Someone who has developed these habits is on the way to becoming a lifelong learner. These types of habits reinforce a strong connection to the language and culture and develop a love and better understanding of that culture.

Think for a minute about the resources available. Do you have friends who are native Spanish speakers? Do you ever watch Spanish channels on television? You can probably think of several online sources. Maybe you have some stores or restaurants in your community that are owned or frequented by Spanish speakers. Also think about when you could participate in Spanish-related activities on a regular basis—remember that it’s setting the habits that will make the most difference.

Using the table below as a guideline, write out a plan for starting new habits. For the Language or Culture Resources column, try to identify three different resources: 1. A friend or contact 2. An information source, and 3. A cultural activity. In the What I Will Do column, describe as specifically as you can what you will do. And in the When I Will Do It column, write when you plan on doing these activities. See the sample below to see how you might fill out your own table.

You will have opportunities to follow up and report on your regular practice of engaging Spanish resources close to home. You will be asked in a follow up assignment to report on what you have done.