Award-Winning Spanish Courses & Classes in Tampa, FL

If you're taking a Spanish class at Alonso High School or the University of South Florida, through a job-related program, or on your own for whatever reason, Varsity Tutors can help you enhance your studies by enrolling you in a Tampa Spanish course taught by an expert instructor. Around 16.5% of people in Florida already speak Spanish. If that doesn't sound very high, it's actually more than 3.5 million people. Learning to speak Spanish in Florida makes a lot of sense for academic, social, and professional purposes.

If English is your native language, you probably know somewhere from half a million to a million words. That could make learning a new language sound daunting. Would you be surprised to know that of all those words, the top 1,000 make up 90% of language used? That's far more encouraging when you think of learning a new language.

The Spanish courses provided by Varsity Tutors are fully live and online. They're led by an expert instructor and you will have a number of classmates in your virtual classroom who are at a similar level of proficiency as you. You'll be able to interact with the instructor and fellow students, which can provide many benefits. Continue reading if you're curious to see what they are.

What type of Spanish subjects are studied during a Tampa Spanish course?

For starters, language acquisition happens best through using the language. No matter what level of proficiency you have when you begin the Tampa Spanish class, you can probably expect to begin having conversations, however simple or complex, from day one. You may watch a short Spanish video clip, or listen to an audio clip. You may only recognize a few words at first, but over time, you'll realize you understand it better and better. It's important to hear Spanish spoken the way real people speak it in everyday situations from the beginning, even before you can understand it all.

Spanish is like the other Romance languages in that its nouns are gendered. The gender has nothing to do with inherent masculinity or femininity of the word, but Spanish sentences are structured around the gender of the noun. You can then learn how to match articles, verbs, and adjectives with the noun's gender. They also need to match the noun's amount, whether it's singular or plural. As an example, the English word 'the' is replaced by the Spanish 'la', 'las', 'el', and 'los'. If that sounds complicated, take heart in the fact that Spanish rules have far fewer exceptions than English.

Pronunciation is an important thing to learn in order to show respect and feel confident that you'll be understood in interactions with Spanish speakers who don't know English. Your Tampa Spanish course will likely include a good deal of conversational practice, even when you only know enough words to say a few sentences. This helps solidify the words and what they mean in your mind, and also to practice pronouncing words correctly.

Other things your instructor can help you understand are verb conjugation, verb tense, adjective/ noun pairing, and how and when to use written accents. Further, if you are part of a class with a particular focus, such as Spanish for architects, for eco-tourists to South America, or students headed to Spain, your instructor can include the unique vocabulary and usage you need to function well in that setting.

How is studying with a Tampa Spanish class better than studying on my own?

There are a number of reasons it's better to study with a group led by a professional instructor, beginning with pronunciation. As mentioned, proper pronunciation shows respect and can help you be understood more clearly. Even though Spanish pronunciation is far easier to understand than English, you can still learn a word wrong when studying on your own. It's easier to learn it right than to have to relearn it later.

Another way studying in a live online Tampa Spanish class can be helpful is by eliciting a collaborative spirit in which you and your peers help each other, provide suggestions to help learn and memorize vocabulary, conjugation, and even history and culture of Spanish-speaking countries. Studies have shown that learning in this type of environment can improve learning and retention of information, which is the overall goal of learning a new language.

As mentioned, correct pronunciation is an essential part of learning Spanish, and that highlights another advantage of being in a live online class. Your instructor can make sure each student is pronouncing words correctly, and you are able to practice with your classmates and help each other out if someone's having a difficult time with a particular sound.

This leads to an advantage specifically provided by Varsity Tutors, which is the option to sign up for one-on-one tutoring sessions if you feel like you're falling behind the class or otherwise need some more focused study assistance. This time can be used to help your memorization ability, introduce new words or practice ones that you're finding difficult to pronounce, or catch up to the rest of the class in other ways.

There is certainly a lot of memorization involved in learning a new language, and your instructor likely has a variety of memorization techniques they can introduce to you, giving you the opportunity to try them and continue to use the ones that work best for you individually. Some popular memorization techniques are flashcards with spaced repetition, the loci method, building method, or using acronyms, among many others.

How can I get started in a Spanish course?

Whether you need supplemental time to study for your Plant High School Spanish class, your boss wants you to learn the language quickly, or you have your own personal reasons for learning Spanish, it's easy to sign up for extra help. Simply contact Varsity Tutors, answer a few questions about your current level of proficiency, your goals, your schedule, and other pertinent details. New courses start on a monthly basis, so our educational consultants can use the information you provide to enroll you in a Tampa Spanish course that matches best with your academic and scheduling needs. We look forward to helping you on your journey to fluency.