A Gringo’s Guide to BaseLang: 7 Tips to Improve Your Experience and Spanish Level
I’ve said it before. I’m sure I’ll say it, again. I’m a big fan of BaseLang. If you’re looking to learn Spanish quickly, it’s one of the best ways to do so.
The services offers unlimited one-on-one Spanish lessons for a low monthly payment. You pay once and can take as many private lessons as you want each and every month.
If you’re serious about studying Spanish, there’s no better way to get hours of lessons for a great price.
Seriously, I’ve heard of dudes taking 70+ hours of private Spanish lessons with BaseLang in one month.
That comes out to a little bit under $2 USD an hour. You just can’t beat that type of pricing for private, individual online Spanish instruction.
But BaseLang is more than just a great price. The service is fantastic overall, especially if you learn how to get the most out of your monthly BaseLang subscription.
That’s why I’m writing this article. If you’re thinking about signing up for BaseLang, well – you should! BaseLang rocks.
But make sure to check out my tips and tricks below, too. If you follow this advice while using BaseLang, you’re sure to get incredible value out of the service.
And when that happens, you’ll be learning Spanish faster than ever before!
Click here to sign up for BaseLang!
What is BaseLang?
If you’re reading this article, then I’ve got a hunch you know a little about BaseLang. If not, let me break it down for you:
BaseLang is an online service that offers unlimited one-on-one Spanish tutoring lessons with professional teachers through a video conferencing system. For one low monthly price, you can take as many Spanish lessons as your heart desires.
Now, there’s a little more to it than that. In fact, if you want to know more about the online Spanish language learning service, then check out my BaseLang review.
In the review, I detail everything you need to know when deciding whether BaseLang is a good way for you to learn Spanish or not. If you’re still on the fence, it might clear some things up.
For those sold on BaseLang, keep reading. Below, I detail exactly how you can get the most out of the Spanish language learning service.
A Gringo’s Guide to BaseLang: 7 Tips to Improve Your Experience and Spanish Speaking Ability
Enough with all the ado, let’s get into the meat and potatoes of this article. Err, I mean the rice and beans. Whatever works. Just give me a damn bandeja paisa sin chicharron and I’m happy as a clam.
Here are seven tips that’ll ensure you get the most out of BaseLang:
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Finding the Perfect Teachers
Finding the perfect teachers is the most important thing you can do when learning Spanish with BaseLang.
Seriously, a good Spanish professor will have you learning 10X faster than an average one.
Luckily, there are dozens of great teachers on BaseLang. Your goal is to find 2-3 BaseLang professors that vibe well with your Spanish learning goals.
Then try to book all your lessons with these teachers. You’ll develop a personal relationship with your teachers and they’ll become invested in helping you learn Spanish.
I find working with 2-3 different teachers consistently far preferable to taking classes with half a dozen new professors each week.
Just test out a couple dozen BaseLang professors for your first few weeks, then pick a few that vibe well with you.
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Hour Blocks Are Better
In BaseLang, you book 30-minute individual Spanish lessons. You can book a lesson for 30-minutes or hours on end.
If you’re serious about learning, you’re far better off booking 1-3 hours straight. Ideally, You book an hour or two of lessons with the same professor.
30-minute lessons are fine and dandy, but you’ll find your brain starts to switch from English mode to Spanish after about 20 minutes of warming up.
If you just book a 30-minute lesson, then the class is basically over once you start to find your flow speaking and understanding Spanish.
By booking an hour or more with the same teacher, you’ll see results skyrocket because you’re able to get into a Spanish “flow state” and stay there during longer lessons.
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Cut the Chit-Chat
If you’re doing 30-minute lessons, you have to remember to cut the chit-chat. Be friendly, but value your time.
Venezuelans are friendly people. It’s easy to start chatting with them in elementary Spanish and spend the first 15 minutes of a lesson exchanging pleasantries.
Once you finally get into the curriculum, you only have 10 minutes left in the lesson and it’s impossible to get much Spanish learning done in such a short time.
Now, this is perfectly fine for beginners. You need to listen in Spanish and get comfortable exchanging pleasantries.
But for those of us looking to go from a beginner to intermediate, you’ll need to keep the pleasantries short and sweet.
You want to spend as much time studying the BaseLang curriculum as possible – because it’s damn good!
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Always Take Notes
My first month studying with BaseLang I barely took any notes. My Spanish level improved greatly, but I’d say that had more to do with one amazing professor than my study methods.
Recently, I started getting serious about studying Spanish. So, I’ve started taking notes on every lesson and creating flashcards afterward.
Why? Because I understand the power of writing things down when learning. By writing something down, you’re bringing the phrase into life.
You’re literally breathing life into your Spanish learning and comprehension by writing things down.
I’ve noticed great improvements over the last few weeks and my stack of notecards is rapidly growing, along with my vocabulary:
Soy un nerd.
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Come Prepared
If you’re booking 30-minute lessons on after another, then you need to come prepared to your BaseLang classes. You want to make the most out of every minute learning Spanish with a Venezuelan professor.
As such, you’ll want to prepare for class. Open up the BaseLang portal before class and log in. Scroll through lessons and figure out where you are in the program.
Open up some slides and decide exactly what you want to study today. Have a notepad by your side and write down exactly what you’re going to study.
Have Zoom open and message your professor for the day five minutes before the class starts. Make sure they know you’re ready to rock right away.
By taking a few minutes to plan out what lessons you’re going to study and quickly reviewing the curriculum, you’ll save yourself a lot of time while in the lesson.
This will help maximize the time you spend with BaseLang and further improve your Spanish speaking ability.
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Bring a Bottle of Water
Last, but not least – always have some water next to you during your lesson. Just place a water bottle next to your computer before the lesson begins.
Why? Well, one of the biggest benefits of BaseLang is getting your pronunciation correct.
Your BaseLang professor should be correcting your pronunciation every time it is incorrect. For a gringo like me, this helps my accent significantly and helps me seem like I know more Spanish than I actually do.
But I noticed it gets harder and harder to pronounce Spanish words properly if my mouth is dry.
After about 20-30 minutes of talking in Spanish, my pronunciation goes to complete shit. I start sounding uber Gringo once, again.
My mouth gets dry and my tongue simply doesn’t move like it needs to when learning and speaking a second language, specifically a romance language.
Then I take a few swigs of water and everything goes back to normal. My Spanish accents instantly improves and I begin pronouncing things much better. No harm, no foul.
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Never Book on Sunday Evenings
Just. Don’t. Do. It. Trust me on this one…
The Internet connection with BaseLang is pretty good most of the time. I really haven’t had any issues with poor connections or lost Zoom calls – except on Sunday evenings.
In major metro areas in Venezuela, the Internet connection is horrific. People are sitting in their homes on Whats App, NetFlix, Facebook, and more.
I’ve had more issues taking lessons on Sunday evenings than I’ve had any other day of the week combined.
Just avoid Sunday evening lessons. The Internet in Venezuela is too congested at this time and it can be hard to communicate with Zoom on a bad connection.
Caracas, Venezuela.
A Gringo’s Guide to BaseLang
That’s it. A few quick tips on how to get the most out of your monthly BaseLang membership.
Overall, I’m pretty enamored with the service. Seriously, BaseLang is pretty dope.
If you’re serious about learning Spanish and willing to pay a monthly fee, you’ll find your speaking and listening skills skyrocketing when using BaseLang.
No hype. Just speaking from personal experience and my results. BaseLang works if you put in some effort and I couldn’t recommend the service enough.
