Taya Teaches Spanish

One of the BEST ways to improve your Spanish?

Start bringing it into your everyday life 🇪🇸

In this video I ask Alexa:

👉 “¿Cuánto queda?”

A super useful structure in Spanish to ask about time remaining

Quedar - to remain / be left

You’ll hear:

- ¿Cuánto queda? → How much time is left?
- Quedan 5 minutos → 5 minutes are left

But it’s also commonly used with indirect object pronouns 👀 (to whom/what):

- Me quedan 2 episodios → I have 2 episodes left (they are remaining to me)
- Le queda poco tiempo → He/She has little time left

And honestly?

Devices like Alexa are a surprisingly powerful way to practise Spanish at home 👀

Low-pressure, low-effort… but genuinely effective for speaking practice. Especially if you don’t have many chances to speak out loud.

And because she speaks fast with no subtitles, she’s also great for training your listening skills 🇪🇸

Things you can try:

🗣 Change your Alexa/device language to Spanish (mine is in bilingual mode)

🎵 Listen to Spanish music & podcasts

🏷 Stick post-it note vocab around your house

🤖 Use AI tools to practise conversations

📱 Narrate your day out loud in Spanish

📝 Keep a short diary in Spanish

🧠 Repeat useful everyday phrases until they become automatic

Because confidence doesn’t come from “knowing Spanish”…

It comes from USING it ✨

👇 What do you usually ask Alexa (or Siri/Google) for?

How would you say it in Spanish?

Write it below and I’ll help/correct it 👀

And if you have any other study/practice tips — share them too!

Who says you’ve got to be in Spain to practise pronunciation and speaking? 🗣️🇪🇸🇬🇧

Once you learn the relatively few pronunciation rules of Spanish, the world becomes practice. And because Spanish is phonetic, your brain starts reading everything in “Spanish mode” 😅

At least, that’s what my husband and I get up to in the UK.
(We also do the opposite — anglifying Spanish words — in Spain too) 😂

But in all seriousness, I genuinely have to pronounce my hometown Carlisle as:

“Car-lee-sleh” 🇪🇸

instead of its actual British pronunciation:

“Car-lyle” 🇬🇧

for people in Spain to understand what I’m saying 😅

👇 Comment your town or city name for others to practice I’ll reply with the Spanish phonetic version to make sure you know how to say it like a native Spanish speaker.

Who knew there were so many actions involved in ‘sacar la basura’? 😅

These are all common verbs you’ll hear in lots of different contexts.

Which verb was knew for you?

Quitar - to remove / take off or out

Atar - to tie

Sacar - to take out

Bajar - to take (something) down(stairs)

Tirar - to throw (out or away)

Coger - to grab / get (in Spain 🇪🇸)

Poner - to put

Tell me in the comments 👇

And give me an example using it in another context 💬

You might know how to wish someone Happy Birthday in Spanish…

¡Feliz cumpleaños! (or better yet, ¡Felicidades!) 🎂

But the song?

Is a little different 👀🇪🇸

Listen & look carefully, and tell me in comments in Spanish ⬇️

¿Cuántos años cumple mi suegra (Mother-in-Law)?

And send to someone whose birthday is this week 🎉

Do you know what the objects YOU use every day are called?

Tell me… ¿Qué hay en tu escritorio? 👇

The real reason you want to learn Spanish…

is NOT fluency.

Even if you think it is.

What you’re actually chasing is:

1. BELONGING
To feel accepted in places you weren’t born in.
To be part of them- not just pass through.
To experience the world as a participant, not just a visitor.

2. BEING UNDERSTOOD
Not just your words, but you!
Your values, your personality, your effort to respect the culture.
Not being “just another tourist” relying on English.

3. To be TAKEN SERIOUSLY
To be seen as someone who’s invested. Curious. Capable.
Who made the effort and deserves a seat at the table.

Fluency isn’t the goal.
It’s a byproduct of effort and consistency.

What actually matters?

How it makes you feel about yourself…

and how others feel when you’ve made the effort to meet them in their world.

Do you agree? I’d love to hear your thoughts 👇

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Follow along if you want to learn Spanish that’s actually used in Spain, in a way that’s realistic, human and from somebody who’s done it 🇪🇸 🗣️ .spanish