If I Had to Learn a Language as an Adult Again: 10 Things I’d Do Differently (Part 1)

Thirteen years ago I found a job in Spain, moved to Almería and arrived as a complete beginner in Spanish. Not a rusty beginner. Not a “did a bit at school” beginner. A complete one.

Today I’m fairly competent. I can hold my own. I’m also well aware of exactly where my weaknesses live, which is a slightly awkward thing for a language teacher to put in writing.

But it’s also the reason for this series. I teach adults English for a living, and I’ve been the adult learner too, so I’ve sat on both sides of the desk. These are the ten things I’d do differently if I were learning a language from scratch today, spread over three parts.

A warning before we start. Had I done all ten from day one, my Spanish would be flawless by now. It isn’t. I’m human, not a robot with a Duolingo chip, and so are you. Treat this as a menu, not a prescription: pick the ones that fit your life and forgive yourself the rest.

Part 1 is about foundations and goals. The boring-sounding stuff that quietly decides everything else.

1. Build a grammar foundation with classes (around A2/B1)

I’m all for independent learning. Apps, podcasts, series, chatting to anyone who’ll stand still long enough. But if I started again, I’d pair all of that with proper classes early on, at least until I had a solid A2 to B1 grammar base.

The first reason is that mistakes set. When you’re an adult beginner, people are kind. They understand what you meant, so they rarely correct you. Repeat a mistake often enough and it stops being a mistake: it becomes part of how you speak. Years later you’re sitting with a teacher trying to unlearn something you could have learnt properly in week six.

I spent my first year in Spain telling people I had 34 anos. Not años. No little wave over the n. When someone finally corrected me, the correction wasn’t the embarrassing part. The embarrassing part was working out how many people I’d said it to. (If you don’t speak Spanish, look up ano. On second thoughts, don’t.)

English has a phrase for this: old habits die hard. Grammar habits are no exception, and they’re more stubborn than they look.

The second reason is the doubt. That little voice in the middle of a sentence asking, “Why do they say it this way and not that way?” Learners of Spanish meet it at por and para. Learners of English meet it at the present perfect. One unanswered doubt is fine. A pile of them makes you hesitate every time you open your mouth.

And the third is gaps. Self-taught learning tends to follow whatever is interesting that week, which is lovely until you discover there’s a whole tense you skipped. A structured course doesn’t let you skip.

2. Subscribe to at least three word-of-the-day websites

This one is almost embarrassingly easy, which is exactly why I’d do it. Sign up to three word-of-the-day sites (not one, three) and let new vocabulary turn up every day whether you feel studious or not.

The value isn’t any single word. It’s the habit. Vocabulary grows a few drops at a time, and this keeps the tap running without you having to think about it.

There’s a quieter benefit too, and I think it matters more than people admit: it feels good. On a day when you’ve done nothing else, you’ve still met three new words, and you’re safe in the knowledge that you’re moving in the right direction. Motivation is mostly built out of small proofs like that.

3. Create a system to review and reorganise new words and notes

Collecting words is the fun part. Finding them again is where most of us fall down. A brilliant new word scribbled on the back of a receipt is a word you’ve already lost.

Mine started on sugar packets. I kept a scrapbook of the quotes printed on the back: short enough to decipher, and on paper I could go back to and think about. Every coffee came with homework. The satisfaction came twice, too: once when I learnt the new words, and again when I finally understood the wisdom behind them.

So build a home for them. It doesn’t need to be clever. A few options, from low-tech to shiny:

• A simple notebook. Old-fashioned, reliable, never runs out of battery.
• A digital document. A Word table or an Excel spreadsheet you can sort by topic, by date or by “still can’t remember this one”.
• An AI tool or Notion. The added bonus here is that you can ask for instant example sentences or quiz questions on your own word list.

The system matters less than having one and going back to it. Reorganising your notes is reviewing in disguise: every time you move a word from “new” to “got it”, you’ve met it one more time.

4. Apply for an exam (set a goal you can’t wriggle out of)

There are two types of goal: internal and external. We need both.

The internal goal is the reason you’re learning. Understanding your colleagues, getting through a meeting without nodding along, ordering at the bar without pointing. The external goal is a date, a fee and an exam centre that doesn’t care how busy your month was.

I’ve spent a lot of time preparing students for B1, and I think it’s the first language exam that really matters. I’ve never sat it in Spanish myself. But I can see exactly what it would have given me: real confidence in my Spanish, and a solid foundation to attack the higher levels from.

An exam does more than build confidence, though. First, it eliminates blind spots. It tests all of the language, including the parts you’ve been politely avoiding. Second, it helps you know yourself better as a learner: what you’re good at, what you’ve been overestimating, how you handle pressure in another language. Know thyself was carved at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, which suggests people have been struggling with this one for a while. And third, a certificate improves your future prospects. It’s proof on paper of something an interviewer can’t easily test in ten minutes.

What’s next in the series

That’s the foundations. Part 2 is about phone, telly and pillow: the daily habits and tech I’d use to surround myself with the language. Part 3 is about people.

For now, pick one of these four. Just one. The robot with the Duolingo chip can do all of them at once. The rest of us start with whichever fits.

Want to learn English as an adult in Almería?

If you’re an adult learning English, or your team needs business English classes in Almería with a proper grammar foundation and a clear goal built in, get in touch with Study4English and we’ll work out where to start.