Ever since the first Samsung Galaxy Note launched back in 2011, mobile professionals have been using the S Pen to write, annotate and highlight their way through the work day. The advanced stylus allows a user to get more done on their phone, making the device not just a screen for content consumption, but also for creating and doing.
Designed to feel like a real pen (complete with a subtle pencil-on-paper sound as you write), the S Pen is great for note-taking, drawing and navigating your phone. But, with the next-level power of the Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra, there is a lot more you can do.
The S Pen even acts as a remote for controlling your camera with gestures, playing music and media and flipping through presentation slides.
Whether you are new to the Galaxy Note series or a long-time user, you can achieve a new level of productivity with the S Pen using these 13 smart tricks.
1. Screen-off Memos
Notetaking with the S Pen is as simple as writing in a notebook. With Screen-off Memo, you can quickly and discreetly jot notes without unlocking your Galaxy Note20, wherever and whenever the moment strikes.
To use Screen-off Memo, pop out the S Pen when the phone is locked and just start writing. Easily add additional pages as you go by clicking the down arrow. When you’re done, hit Save and everything will be stored in Samsung Notes. From there, you can share and export (see tip number five below).
With Screen-off Memo, if the solution to a tricky problem just hit you and you’re in a meeting or on the train, you can still capture it without having to fumble around for a notepad and pen. Don’t miss a moment — take out your S Pen and just start writing.
2. Screen Write
Drawbacks: It’s easy to forget action items from the notes and fail to then keep promises. It’s hard to review them when every 8 or so pages is one on one notes for someone mixed in with everything else. 3) The Mobile Phone Note. The miracle of today is that we all carry a computer in our pockets and purses. A coffee before class might work for some, but you should always make sure you're feeding yourself the right brain fuel to keep you going. Highlight, underline and capitalise your notes. By underlining and using CAPITALS, it's easier to make out key points in your lecture notes.
Next time you go to the store, share your shopping list on Keep and watch as items get checked off in real time. No need for text messages back and forth. Get things done together, faster. Are you looking for discount Large Post-It Notes online? Here at Staples we have the best deals on Large Post-It Notes with pricing from $45.99 to $160.41. Compare over 4 total Large Post-It Notes and find the lowest prices and deals: Post-it® Flex Write Surface, The Permanent Marker Whiteboard Surface, 3' x 2' (FWS3X2) - from $45.99. If you begin your notes too early, you might find yourself recording all of the details and writing everything down. Be choosy and stingy in your note taking. Instead of recording notes the moment you begin a source, mark the margins, underline phrases, and then return to take notes after reading the entire article or chapter.
Annotating images, charts or documents is easy with Screen Write. In fact, you can add notes to absolutely anything you are viewing on your Note20.
Take out the S Pen or tap the pen icon on the right side of the screen to open the Air Command menu. In this menu, tap Screen Write. This will immediately take a screen capture of the content you were reviewing and open the S Pen annotation tools. You can now add notes with the S Pen, crop the image and share your illustrated thoughts via email or your preferred messaging app.
If it’s a longer document, use Scroll Capture to do it all at once. Tap the Scroll Capture tab with your S Pen and hold it to capture additional pages. Then hit Done and continue with your annotation on the multipage screen capture.
3. Annotate PDFs
Samsung Notes also gives you the ability to import PDFs and annotate them without downloading an additional app. And with the refined S Pen giving you a truer pen and paper experience, adding a quick sketch or comment now comes as naturally as it would if you were making notes on a memo someone left on your desk.
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This flexibility can come in handy throughout the workday. If you notice an interesting research report that just came out, for example, you can open it right up in Samsung Notes, easily add your impressions with the responsive S Pen, save and share. No need to search for the right app to open your PDF — just access it from within Samsung Notes and you can capture your thoughts while they’re fresh in your mind.
4. Write on Calendar
Coordinating schedules has never been easier with Write on Calendar. This smart shortcut will open your calendar to the current month and let you add notes and share in an instant.
Need to share your availability for a meeting and circle some preferred dates? Take out your S Pen, tap the pen icon to open the Air Command menu, and select Write on Calendar. Your calendar will open instantly with a handy set of annotation tools. Circle and block out dates, add notes and then hit Save.
Write on Calendar can also be accessed directly by hitting the pen icon at the top right in your Calendar app. This allows you to quickly sync your schedules so you can get back to the day’s events.
5. Convert your handwriting
On-screen keyboard got you feeling all thumbs? Use your S Pen to write naturally, then instantly convert your handwriting to text, ready to paste into an email or convert into a Microsoft Word document.
To use this feature, simply take out your S Pen and launch the Samsung Notes app. Take your handwritten notes (selecting from options that include pen type, line thickness and color). When you’re done, hit Save and then tap the handwriting-to-text icon on the bottom menu. Your handwriting will be converted to text (with quite remarkable accuracy), and you can then choose to copy that text into an email or message.
Samsung Notes is smart enough to recognize email addresses and phone numbers too, so you can just click and call from your handwritten notes.
You also have several other options for exporting from Samsung Notes, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and PDF formats. After saving your notes, just tap the menu icon at the top right, and choose which file type you’d like to export it as. The Microsoft Word export option is right there on the Galaxy Note20, which has Office Mobile preloaded. Select that and you’ll instantly get a Microsoft Word document that contains both the converted text and the original handwritten notes. It’s extremely useful if you included a sketch or diagram that you want to keep on file.
6. Smart Select
Zero in on exactly what you want to share with the Smart Select feature, which allows you to lasso anything you can see on your screen and export it as an image. First, open the content that has the snippet you want and tap Smart Select in the Air Command menu. From there, you can select or lasso the exact content you need and quickly save or share it. You can even extract text from the selected content, quickly sharing and repurposing it as you see fit.
7. Video editing
The S Pen makes editing videos on your phone quick and easy. After you’ve captured content on the Note20’s next-level camera system, tap the pen icon to access the powerful native editing tools.
With the precision of the S Pen, you can quickly trim a video clip, add filters, touch up faces and add music. The S Pen is especially useful if you want to add captions or handwritten annotations on a video or photo — a great way to communicate complex visual information to a colleague. For captions, tap the CC icon, select the text style and color and then add your copy. For annotations, tap the painter’s palette icon and start writing or drawing.
8. Translate
Browsing the web and come across something in another language? Hover your S Pen over a word or phrase for an instant translation, then tap the sound icon to hear it pronounced. This convenient feature helps you communicate more easily and efficiently while on the go, nearly anywhere in the world.
You can even translate text in a photo, thanks to optical character recognition (OCR). To get started, open the document, website or photo of the text you want to translate. Pop out the S Pen and tap Translate in the Air Command menu. At the top of the screen, you can set the languages you want to translate from and to. Then simply hover the S Pen over the words, and tap the sound icon to hear the pronunciation. To toggle between translating a single word and an entire sentence, tap the text icon at the left of the Translate overlay.
9. Magnify
Need to get a close up? Magnify lets you hover over anything on your Note20’s screen to zoom in by up to 300 percent. View photos or drawings in precise detail, even while you’re on the go. When paired with the Space Zoom feature on the Note20 Ultra’s powerful 108MP camera — which gives you up to Super Res 50x zoom capability — there’s nothing you won’t be able to see or capture in the course of your work.
S Pen as remote control
These last few tips leverage the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capabilities and motion sensor built into the Galaxy Note20’s S Pen. Rather than using the S Pen as a pen, it becomes a remote control, responding when you press the button on the side and execute simple gestures. To explore this functionality, go to Settings > Advanced Features > S Pen > Air Actions. Here you can view and customize what will happen when you press the S Pen button. We’ll cover just a few of the ways you can use the S Pen as a remote control in our final four tips.
10. Run your presentation
Leave an impression in your next meeting by using the Note20 to present and the S Pen to advance slides in Microsoft PowerPoint. You can keep your presentation moving smoothly from up to 30 feet away thanks to the S Pen’s BLE connectivity.
To present from your phone, you can either launch Samsung DeX using an HDMI adaptor, or you can use Smart View to wirelessly mirror your screen to a Wi-Fi-capable display. DeX, Samsung’s platform for transforming your smartphone into a desktop experience, will give you a more complete presentation experience.
Once Samsung DeX launches on the presentation screen, pull down the notification menu on your Note20 and opt to use your phone as a touchpad. Now you can use your finger or pen to navigate on the presentation screen and open the PowerPoint slides. Tap the icon to go into presentation mode and start your pitch. You’re free to move around the room as you present: Click once on the S Pen button to advance slides, and twice quickly to skip back.
11. Control your camera
Want to take a group photo at the end of a successful off-site retreat, or during a break at your next conference? Wish you could remotely snap that commemorative picture from atop a tripod without accidentally disturbing the camera? Simply set up your Note20 to capture the shot, take out the S Pen and get into position. From there, just click the S Pen button to take a photo.
Need a different angle or a close-up? The new motion sensor in the S Pen gives you more control of the camera with simple gestures. Swish the pen upward to switch between cameras, and circle the pen to zoom in or out. You can start recording a video using the S Pen as well, and make use of those gesture controls to ensure you get the right shot.
12. Remote control music and media
You can use the S Pen remote control to play and pause music and media as well.
First, set up your Note20 to begin playing the music or video clip of your choice, whether it’s in Samsung’s native Gallery app, or another streaming service like YouTube, Netflix or Spotify. You can now stop or start the track or video as desired with a click of the S Pen button.
If you’re hosting an event and want to control the music or a video presentation from the floor, you can discreetly make that happen from afar with your S Pen — all without missing a beat.
13. Anywhere actions
If these Air Actions weren’t powerful enough on their own, you can access four new gestures on your Note20 device. Customize your Air Actions so you can use one of these gestures to navigate your Note20, or even access apps and features whenever you like. Just go to S Pen settings > Air Actions and configure actions and apps according to your preference.
A growing number of business apps now support Air Actions — for example, the Bluejeans video conferencing platform lets you mute and unmute your mic with a click of the S Pen’s button.
The Galaxy Note20 with S Pen is built for the new way you work, all day, every day.
Learn more about how the new Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra can support your work from anywhere. And see how experts predictworkplaces will evolve in the new normal.
Do you keep pledging to start writing diary entries and blog posts—and failing?
Even if you’re not the most naturally adept writer, writing practice is absolutely critical to your Spanish learning progress.
It’s the best way to fully synthesize your Spanish knowledge.
Yet writing in Spanish gets a bad rap as something arduous and complicated. Is it really that bad?
It’s kind of like a non-runner stepping on a treadmill—at first it can feel miserable and frustrating, like a total grind.
But imagine if you just stepped on a treadmill for a couple minutes every day? After weeks and months, you’d eventually be able to run miles without breaking a sweat.
Many learners think that writing in Spanish is difficult, when really we’re facing yet another “practice makes perfect” scenario.
The more you write, the easier the words will start flowing from your fingertips.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Benefits of Getting Good Spanish Writing Practice
We’ve got quite a few options for writing practice these days, beyond pen and paper. At this point, many of us have learned efficient keyboard typing from a young age (thanks, Mavis Beacon!) and we’re constantly tapping things out on our smartphones, tablets, e-readers and so on. So, are there benefits to writing by hand versus using technology?
It boils down to long-term versus short-term learning. When typing, your brain skips out on processing much of the material, and content goes from your ears or eyes straight to your fingers. The information isn’t processed in your brain. You can avoid this somewhat by copying things down in your own words, rather than creating an exact textual replica of the content at hand. Laptops are also notorious for getting students distracted, so watch out for that, too.
The upside to typing is that you’ll be able to copy things into a document quickly and accurately due to these factors. This is better for getting organized and preparing neat study materials. If you’re pressed for time and want to have a typed copy of your notes to refer back to later, typing may be the way to go.
Research shows us that the benefits of handwriting are beyond question. It employs our fine motor skills and engages various regions of the brain, switching on muscle memory and helping us remember words and phrases better through repeated gestures. When writing by hand, we’re also more likely to slow down and write things in our own words.
While we’re not learning extremely foreign characters here, like if we were learning Chinese, we Spanish learners benefit from the fact that handwriting boosts recall of new shapes and symbols. Those new syllable combinations, accents and Spanish letters (ñ, ll, rr) will become better cemented in our minds. Cursive handwriting takes mental processing power to a whole different level, if you want to get serious about your Spanish writing practice. Plus, despite what they say these days, penmanship still counts for something, even if it’s just a point of personal pride.
Tips for Getting Great Spanish Writing Practice
- Make it part of your daily routine. As you’ll see below, many types of Spanish writing practice can easily fit into your everyday life—you write more than you even realize.
- Read voraciously. Never stop reading. Get into the habit of reading any Spanish language material you can get your hands on. Magazines, newspapers, books, children’s stories—it’s all good. Change all your devices to Spanish interface so your brain gets subconsciously ingrained with Spanish syntax, grammar and vocabulary.
- Prepare your keyboards. You’ll need to enable both your smartphone and laptop to understand and produce Spanish writing. Keep reading to see how to do this!
How to Prepare Your Keyboards for Spanish Writing
Before we jump to the keyboards, depending on your system, you might need to install a foreign language package.
It’s easy enough on a computer keyboard: just check out “keyboard” settings in your control panel and change the “input sources.” There you can either select the Spanish or U.S. International keyboard, depending on what you prefer.
The Spanish keyboard has a separate key for ñ (where your “:;” key is located), ¡/¿ (where your “-_” key is located) and some other symbols, but the letters are all in the same spot. If you’re going to be living in a Spanish-speaking country and using computers in a library or university, you might want to become familiar with this keyboard layout. And if not, it’s a simple way to experience cultural immersion from home!
Your other option is the U.S. International keyboard, which keeps all of your symbols and letters in the same spot. To enter an accent, simply hit the apostrophe key followed by the vowel—no holding necessary. To type an ñ, simply type ~ followed by the letter “n” or “N,” again no holding necessary. The ¡ symbol is “option+!” and ¿ is “option+?”
No matter which keyboard you decide to use, displaying your keyboard’s map on-screen will be really handy at first. If you want to learn the Spanish keyboard and keep forgetting where certain keys are located, another option is to cut small papers, write out Spanish characters and tape them onto the appropriate keys.
Last but not least, choose a simple command as a keyboard shortcut to switch between language inputs with ease. I use alt + shift to rotate between inputs. This helps me switch fast and furiously while chatting with friends in Ecuador and the United States on Facebook at the same time.
Now, your computer keyboard is good to go. But what about the device that’s in your pocket all day long and serves as your main means of communication and daily life management? Let’s get the smartphone on the same page.
Both iPhone and Android users need to go through the same process. First, locate your “keyboard settings” screen. Usually you can long-press a button on your keyboard to get there. Select Spanish as a secondary input method. Once you’ve done that, you can long-press your space bar at any time to jump to Spanish.
If you want to take it all a step further, go to “settings” to access your phone’s “language and input” screen. There, you can swap your whole phone’s English operating system for a Spanish version.
11 Creative Ways to Get Daily Spanish Writing Practice
1. Get to blogging!
It’s amazing the things we’ll do when we’re assigned deadlines and threatened with poor grades. One thing I did? I wrote many, many blog posts. Looking back over these blog posts, I was absolutely thrilled to read my old thoughts and perspectives in my own voice. You’ll never regret starting that blog, even if you write terribly—but you will regret not starting a blog. So, start today!
WordPressis a blogging favorite, thanks to its easy-to-use interface. You can produce incredibly polished, professional-looking blogs here without being a total blog expert.
Bloggeris clean, simple and connected to your existing Google account. It’s the easiest way to create and manage multiple blogs, interact with other people in the real world and keep track of interesting posts in an extremely neat and tidy newsfeed.
Tumblris positively ideal for the non-committal blog writer. This is a great place to just fool around, have fun and post any multimedia content that catches your eye. You can write lengthier posts if the mood strikes you, but on the other hand can post hilarious cat pictures with one-word comments attached. If you’re reluctant to start a blog, start here. Odds are good that you’ll find something interesting to post and comment on every day! Read more about learning Spanish with Tumblr here.
2. Find writing buddies.
HelloTalkis like WhatsApp for those of us without any friends who are Spanish natives. You’ll get all the fun of an international, multimedia messaging service, but with a language learning spin on things. It’s essentially a social media site built specifically for the needs and desires of language learners.
Meeting people is beyond simple here, as users are a particularly enthusiastic and dedicated crowd. You can search for a fellow language learner who fits the bill (someone who’s a native Spanish speaker) or plug in your information and let them find you (or both)!
Spanish is one of over 100 language options offered here, so you can chat with someone in Spanish and offer them interaction in whatever other language you know well. Send messages back and forth, make free phone calls and connect yourself with the Spanish-speaking world.
Not sure about making phone calls to a new person right away? HelloTalk is made for modern social media users—it will read every text message you receive out loud in standard Spanish pronunciation, so you’ll get a great sense of the natural flow of Spanish even if you never ring someone’s phone. You can also speak Spanish directly into the app and have it typed out properly for you. HelloTalk will even go so far as to correct your grammar and spelling along the way—hoorah! And if you’re at a total loss, simply speak or write in English and HelloTalk will pop out a perfect Spanish translation.
1password 6 3 download free. italkiis often recommended to Spanish learners who are seeking tutors and chat buddies, but one often overlooked feature is the italki Notebook. It’s like a blog for language learners, but much, much simpler than your typical blogging platform.
Simply make your profile and start writing entries. The longer the better, because users here really take their writing practice seriously. The longer you write, the more in-depth feedback you’ll receive on your work. Return the favor to the community and correct some English language posts as well!
You can then decide to schedule some time with a free language exchange partner or a paid, private language tutor here on italki, and they can check out your writing, correct it and offer you feedback.
WhatsAppis a multimedia messaging service used in Europe and several Spanish-speaking countries. If you’ve got friends who speak Spanish, take advantage of this relationship! Chit-chat on WhatsApp in your spare time, don’t forget to try out its microphone icon that lets you send short voice recordings to your friends.
Redditisn’t just for browsing diverse internet content, it also boasts a huge, diverse community that you can interact with. Try subreddits for specific countries and regions (such as /r/latinoamerica and /r/ecuador) or for the Spanish language itself (/r/spanish and /r/espanol). Heck, you can even go right ahead and lie your face off about your knowledge and life experiences. Tell stories that never happened to you. It doesn’t matter if you’re telling fake stories to internet strangers. The important thing is that you’re practicing your Spanish writing. Read more about learning Spanish with Reddit here.
3. Stay in touch!
We’ve all encountered some Spanish speakers in our lives, no matter where we live. Perhaps you know an exchange student from Argentina in your neighborhood, or you had a Chilean Spanish teacher in high school.
Did you ever live abroad in a Spanish-speaking country? Then I’m willing to bet you still have some Spanish natives on your Facebook friends list, Skype contacts or email contact list. Get in touch! A quick message saying “Hola, qué tal?” might open up a world of practice opportunities.
Write your old homestay family a lovely postcard or letter, and then ship that off via snail mail. It’s never too late to revive old connections, and people are always thrilled to see that someone thought of them.
4. Use social media for good.
Social media is a simple solution if you’ve got friends who speak Spanish out there on the internet. It also works for making friends and discovering new resources. Oh, and you can always broadcast your Spanish thoughts to the world without real-world friends acting as your audience. You could even create a separate Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook account to follow Spanish pages and post your thoughts.
5. Turn routine writing activities into Spanish practice time.
On a day-to-day basis, what do you usually write? Are you an obsessive list-writer? Do you make pro and con lists when confronted with big decisions? Do you like to keep notes or keep track of your schedule via day planner or calendar? Most people keep notes of some kind, even if it’s only a grocery shopping list.
Start managing your life in Spanish! Every little bit of practice counts. Plus, it’s been proven that thinking, speaking and writing in a foreign language helps you be an all-around better decision-maker.
Worried that writing accurate notes is too important to mess up with rudimentary Spanish? Well, that just bumps up the stakes and makes writing excellent Spanish that much more important!
6. Start some personal projects.
A personal writing project might be a diary, dream journal, scrapbook or nature journal (documenting the wildlife and plants in your backyard and beyond—yes, I’m a science nerd).
Writing is an extraordinarily valuable tool for self-reflection. Remember how we’re better decision-makers when operating in foreign languages? Turns out it doesn’t just stop at decisions—putting in some extra mental processing power while forming sentences generally helps us to be more thoughtful, insightful and careful with our words.
And, while this is somewhat up for debate in the psychological community, speaking a second language can actually give you a totally different perspective on the world—and yourself. You’ve expanded your linguistic and cultural horizons by learning Spanish and, to some extent, are learning to view the world through a Spanish lens.
That might just mean that you write out your thoughts more eloquently or romantically than you might in English (I mean, Spanish is quite a flowing, beautiful language). That might also mean you’ll be approaching your thoughts, ideas and feelings from a whole different angle.
Plus, all your personal projects will get an added layer of privacy security if your nosey little brother doesn’t speak Spanish. Unfortunately for me, my little bro started learning Spanish around the same time I did. Sigh.
7. Get lots of good reading material.
Reading dramatically improves foreign (and native) language writing ability. So, start applying this to your Spanish now!
Want to know what you can read?
Come on, you read some little thing every day. If you live on the internet like the rest of us poor souls, that means that you’ll read much, much more. As a full-fledged citizen of the internet, I’ll admit that I blitz through newspaper articles, essays, literary pieces, research journal publications, memes, blogs, BuzzFeed funnies, webcomics, emails, social media updates and more on a regular basis. Now, I may not retain all that information, but I’m definitely getting massive exposure to language.
Now, let’s change the language of all this content. Find your favorite sources of information in Spanish. All big internet businesses are extending their reaches to the Spanish-speaking world, so you’ll be able to enjoy BBC, CNN, Vice, BuzzFeed, Vogueand more popular information sources online in Spanish. Easy.
Equally important is unplugging and getting offline for a while every day, as much for your Spanish improvement as for your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. Seriously, get off the darn internet. There are great Spanish language books out there for beginners, intermediate learners and advanced learners approaching fluency. And if you’re really resistant to putting down the technology, you could always resort to reading an e-book!
8. Keep writing apps handy.
As much as I want you to get off the tech for a little while, apps are just too handy to ignore. They can help you stay focused on writing on a daily basis. Blogging apps will keep you constantly connected to your blog, be it on WordPress, Blogger or Tumblr.
A simple notekeeping app or word processing app is great for keeping track of ideas when inspiration hits and you’re not near your computer. There are plenty of great, functioning and free apps like these for both iPhone and Android.
If you like using your phone or tablet for writing (this is ideal for light travelers), you could even use an app for journaling. Day Oneis the cleanest, best organized and all-around most aesthetically-pleasing app designed for this purpose.
There are all kinds of benefits to keeping a digital diary or journal. If you pick an awesome app like Day One, your journal is portable, automatically backs itself up and stores copies in case of emergency, lets you create rich multimedia entries and even gives you the option to publish and share if you’re feeling social.
9. Make Google Translate your trusted companion.
So, let’s say you’re on board with all these great daily writing ideas, but are still daunted by the task of actually writing in Spanish. If you’re at a high-intermediate or advanced level of Spanish and your writing skill is lagging behind, Google Translatecan teach you to write like a boss.
Some will argue that this is cheating, or not good practice, but I’ll personally testify to the benefits of using Google Translate to teach you to write.
Write what you want to write in your native language, or choose any old text in your native language, and then copy-paste it into Google Translate. Translate that sucker into Spanish. I know, it already feels like cheating. Now you’re going to go through and carefully edit the text, paying close attention to syntax, diction and grammar. You need to get this text to sound as close to natural, native-level Spanish writing as possible. When done properly, you can produce a glorious, smoothly-flowing Spanish text with this method.
If you’re submitting a paper for a classroom assignment, do not directly translate published English content—you should know better, that’s plagiarism, fool. If you’re a beginner or if you don’t feel totally familiar with natural Spanish syntax and language usage, don’t go this route. This is great for higher-level learners who’ve got Spanish reading, speaking and listening down pat, as they can employ their existing knowledge to get texts perfectly translated.
10. Time your writing activities.
It’s as simple as it sounds. Put pressure on yourself, add structure and come up with a little daily challenge. Time yourself for 10, 20 or 30 minutes and create a goal for that time period. Say, “I’ll write one quick blog post in 20 minutes,” or “I’ll describe the café around me in 10 minutes while I sip this latte.” Hold yourself to the allotted time and see what you can come up with!
Don’t be afraid to combine this tactic with your other chosen daily Spanish writing practices. For example, if you’ve chosen to write blog posts, diary entries or dream journal notes, give yourself a time limit in which to do this.
Without a time limit, you might never even get started because the prospect of writing a page of Spanish is too intimidating—it sounds like it might take two hours to accomplish. When you have in mind that the activity will only take 10 quick minutes to accomplish, it’s much easier to get motivated to start.
11. Narrate your daily activities.
This is a wonderfully simple activity that requires no extra work. It’s great advice for writers in general, because it gets you thinking creatively all day long. You’ll constantly be working on generating new Spanish sentences and descriptions.
For example, as you walk around the grocery store, describe the people and things around you in Spanish. When you’re debating buying something, mentally debate it in Spanish. After something hilarious has just happened to you, think about how you’d describe that event to someone in Spanish. Jot down any particularly great word choices or sentences in your notebook or note-keeping app for later use!
This isn’t just great for inspiring your writing—you’ll also get great practice telling stories and jokes in Spanish, which is essential for fun and fluent conversation!
After all, the whole point of learning Spanish is to communicate well with people, right?
Start incorporating these simple resources and activities into your daily life, and Spanish writing will soon become second nature!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing…
If you like learning colorful, memorable Spanish lessons like these, then you’ll love FluentU.
Keep It Write Notes Keep Things 1 8 Answer
FluentU takes real-world videos like music videos, commercials, news, and inspiring talks and turns them into Spanish learning experiences.
Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.
FluentU has a wide variety of videos—topics like soccer, TV shows, business, movies and even magical realism, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s Learn Mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.
The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and it recommends you examples and videos based on the words you’ve already learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning the same video.
Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes store or get it on Google Play for Android devices.
Keep It Write Notes Keep Things 1 8 Years
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn Spanish with real-world videos.