5 Habits I’ve Noticed in My Most Successful Spanish Students: Habit 4

1. Habit #1: Make Spanish Part of Your Everyday Life
2. Habit #2: Speak Spanish every day
3. Habit #3: They step into the discomfort zone often
4. Habit #4: Invest 5 minutes after class to go deeper into the topics you need to practice
5. Habit #5: [Coming soon]

Humans love investing in themselves: health, nutrition, exercise, technology, education, and so much more.

What’s your biggest investment?

I’d say mine is everything I do for my brain. Sometimes, it only takes five minutes, but those five minutes are worth it.

I’ve seen the same thing in my most successful students. They invest five minutes of their time every day, for a reasonable period of time, to go deeper into the topics they need to practice.

Some of these topics are IR, SER, and ESTAR—very useful but often confusing verbs for English speakers—or LO, LA, and LE, which can take time to truly understand and use naturally.

Do I Tell My Students to Practice After Class?

Not exactly.

Why not? Well, for many reasons. Many adults reject the idea of doing homework. And every time I suggested it, I noticed that I was letting an uncomfortable feeling enter my classroom: GUILT.

What did I do instead?

As I often tell my colleagues, I accompany my students in doing their homework.

What does that mean? Let me explain.

Make Your Lessons So Productive That Your Students Don’t Want to Stop Speaking

I’m a Real-life Spanish Mentor, so my approach is designed to help my students flow in real-world scenarios.

My lessons are 100% tailored to my students’ needs and interests. But I also know that some topics can only be overcome when you take a little extra time to stop, think, and answer some questions in writing.

So, when I notice that a student needs to pay more attention to a particular topic before moving on, I sometimes use part of our lesson to guide them through writing exercises.

However, writing exercises can feel boring compared to the activities where we speak, speak, and speak.

And that’s where I use boredom to my advantage.

At the end of the lesson, something interesting happens. My students are often very smart and competitive. They notice that they need more practice with a particular topic, and they start creating their own personal Spanish projects around it.

Why? Because they want to take advantage of every minute of our 30-minute sessions to develop their ability to experience the world through Spanish.

The boredom doesn’t come because the writing exercises are necessarily boring. It comes because the rest of the lesson is so productive and demanding that they experience the feeling of missing out on something.

And that feeling can be surprisingly powerful.

Some of the projects my students have started were inspired by exercises I suggested during a specific class. Others were proposed and designed by me. And others came completely from the students themselves.

And when that happens, there are no words to describe how proud I feel.

They normally say things like:

• “I’m going to do more of that on my own.”
• “That’s a great exercise for me to do with AI.”

And that’s exactly what I want to see. Not students who complete homework because they feel obligated to.

Only when you become conscious of your Spanish learning journey can you find the time to invest in it.

”Homework” Is Not My Students’ Favorite Word

But at some point in their journey, something changes. They start to feel that they want to be challenged. They begin to recognize the areas that are holding them back. They become more aware of the investment they have already made in learning Spanish—and they don’t want to lose it.

So they start practicing on their own. Not because I told them to. Because they understand why it matters.

There is a motivational quote that says:

“If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If broken from the inside, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.”

I think learning a language works in a similar way. I can suggest, explain, encourage, and guide. But I have learned to wait for that moment when my students realize for themselves how important it is to practice a topic they find difficult.

That is when the real transformation begins.

What Can You Practice in Just Five Minutes?

If you’re teaching Spanish as a second language—or learning it yourself—here are some of the topics my students have worked on after class to become more confident when they actually live the language:

• SER, IR, and ESTAR in the simple past and imperfect
• LO, LA, and LE — direct and indirect object pronouns
• Common chunks in Spanish
• Common Spanish phrases, expressions, and sayings
• Counting and saying numbers naturally in Spanish
• Irregular nouns and other tricky vocabulary
• Keeping a 7-day gratitude journal in Spanish
• Writing short answers to questions they struggled to answer during class

You don’t even need 30 minutes. Sometimes, five intentional minutes are enough to go deeper. The important thing is not how much time you spend. It’s knowing what deserves your attention.

Your Spanish Deserves an Investment

Learning Spanish is about developing the ability to understand, respond, express yourself, and participate in real-life situations without constantly translating in your head. That takes practice. But it also takes awareness.

If you know what you need to work on, five focused minutes after class can become a powerful investment in your progress.

So, instead of asking yourself: “Do I have time to study Spanish today?” Try asking: “What is one thing I can improve in five minutes today?”

That question can change the way you learn.

Ready to Invest in Your Spanish?

As a Real-life Spanish Mentor, I design personalized lessons around your goals, interests, and the situations you actually want to navigate in Spanish.

If you’re ready to make Spanish part of your real life, start this month. Book your first lesson with me and let’s discover together what your Spanish needs to move forward.