Refresh Your Spanish Online: A Restart Plan After School, University or a Long Break

In short: refreshing your Spanish is much faster than learning from scratch. Vocabulary and grammar you once understood stay with you passively far longer than the ability to speak on the spot. A good plan has three parts: find out honestly where you stand today, put speaking at the centre for six weeks, and reactivate vocabulary from your life now rather than from your old school book. Online one-to-one lessons make this work with two lessons a week alongside a job.

I'm Santiago Garnica, a Spanish tutor from Bogotá and a lawyer (Universidad del Rosario). Many adults took Spanish at school, at university or during a stay abroad. When they want to restart, almost everyone says the same thing: "I still understand quite a lot, but I can't get a sentence out." This plan is built for exactly that.

Why your Spanish isn't gone

It feels as if you've forgotten everything. Usually that isn't true. What fades is mostly fast access: the word that won't come when you speak, the verb form you have to conjugate in your head first. What often remains is recognition. You can read a menu, catch sentences in a film, spot the tenses.

That's good news. Recognition is the foundation. You don't need to rebuild the knowledge; you need to make it retrievable again. And you train retrieval by speaking, not by reading.

Who this plan is for

• You studied Spanish at school, for example up to the Abitur or Matura, and have barely used it since.
• You took university courses or did an Erasmus semester, and that was years ago.
• You spent time in Latin America or Spain and can feel the language fading.
• You have a trip, a project or family in the Spanish-speaking world and want to speak confidently again.

If you've never studied Spanish, Spanish Tutor for Beginners is the better starting point.

Quick check: where are you today?

Answer honestly and without a dictionary. The levels roughly follow the can-do descriptions of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR):

Can you do this spontaneously in Spanish?	If yes, your active level is roughly
Introduce yourself, say where you live and what you do	A1
Order in a restaurant, ask for directions, set up an appointment	A2
Tell what you did last summer, with background and detail	B1
Argue your opinion on a work topic and respond to objections	B2

Many returners understand at B1 and speak at A2. That gap is normal and closes quickly. You'll also find free placement tests online. They're useful as a rough guide, but they mostly measure reading and grammar, not speaking.

What has changed since school

Many school books in German-speaking countries are based on the Spanish of Spain. That's fine, as long as you know what you need the language for now. If your goal is Latin America, a quick comparison helps:

Often in the school book	In Colombia and much of Latin America	English
vosotros habláis	ustedes hablan	you (plural) speak
el ordenador	el computador / la computadora	computer
el móvil	el celular	mobile phone
el coche	el carro	car
el zumo	el jugo	juice
vale	listo, dale	okay
he comido (today)	comí (today)	I've eaten

A note on coger: in Colombia and Spain it's a normal word for "to take". In Mexico or Argentina it has a vulgar meaning, so use tomar there. How big the differences are overall and which variety suits you is covered in Latin American vs Spain Spanish. Why real Colombian Spanish sounds different from the textbook is in Colombian Spanish vs Textbook Spanish.

The 6-week refresh plan

This plan assumes two 50-minute lessons a week and about 15 minutes of solo practice a day. If you have less time, stretch it over ten to twelve weeks.

Week	Focus	Homework
1	Level check, set a goal, get the present tense flowing again	Say five sentences about your day out loud, every day
2	ser / estar, asking questions, describing daily life and work	A 60-second voice note about your job
3	Past tense: preterite for events	Tell your last weekend in six sentences
4	Imperfect for background, telling stories with both tenses	Describe a past trip with context
5	Future and plans, first wishes with quiero que…	Explain your plans for the next three months
6	20 minutes of free conversation, review of weak spots	New level check and next goal

The present tense usually comes back quickly. The past takes longer, because it's the biggest hurdle for German speakers. If you're unsure there, see Preterite vs Imperfect for German Speakers.

The five structures that need to come back first

Not everything in the school book matters equally. These five structures carry most of an everyday conversation:

1. Present tense with the key irregular verbs: ser, estar, tener, ir, hacer, poder, querer, decir.
2. ser and estar: who you are and how you are. More in Ser vs Estar.
3. Two past tenses: fui, hice, tuve for events; era, estaba, tenía for background.
4. Future with ir a: Voy a viajar en marzo. In daily life that covers almost every plan.
5. Conversation glue: entonces, o sea, la verdad, por eso, ¿cómo así? (Colombian for "what do you mean?"). They make even simple sentences sound natural.

Add the subjunctive once these five are solid. Exception: you can learn quiero que and espero que early as fixed phrases.

Refreshing online: app, course or one-to-one?

Each option has its place. What matters is how much speaking time you get:

Option	Good for	Less good for
Apps	Vocabulary, daily habit, listening	Free speaking, correction of your own sentences
Group course (e.g. adult education centre, online or in person)	Fixed structure, cheaper per hour	Little speaking time per person, fixed pace
One-to-one online with a native speaker	Maximum speaking time, your pace, your topics	Costs more per hour than an app

A sensible combination: an app for ten minutes of vocabulary a day plus one-to-one twice a week for speaking. What private lessons should deliver is described in Private Spanish Lessons Online. With me, a 50-minute lesson is $20 and the 10-lesson pack is $160.

Brush up quickly: 15 minutes a day

If you want to get back in fast, a daily routine matters more than long weekend sessions:

• 3 minutes: say five sentences about your day out loud, in the preterite.
• 5 minutes: a short Spanish podcast or video, once without and once with subtitles.
• 4 minutes: repeat one sentence from the audio (shadowing) until rhythm and stress match.
• 3 minutes: write three sentences in a small journal and read them aloud the next day.

It doesn't sound like much. Over six weeks it still adds up to more than ten hours of active practice.

Common mistakes when restarting

• Starting again at chapter 1. You don't need a whole textbook. You need the five structures above and your own vocabulary.
• Only understanding, never speaking. Series and podcasts help listening, but speaking only comes back through speaking.
• Waiting for perfection. Returners know the rules and get annoyed by every mistake. Speak anyway. Correction is part of it.
• Carrying old mistakes forward. Some mistakes from school have set in. The most common ones for German speakers are in Common Spanish Mistakes German Speakers Make.

You can roughly estimate how long your target level will take in How Long Does It Take to Learn Spanish?.

About the author

Santiago Garnica is a Colombian Spanish tutor from Bogotá and a lawyer from Universidad del Rosario. He teaches structured one-to-one lessons with explanations in German (B2) or English (C1). Rating: 5.0 ★ from 8 reviews. Book directly on garnica.co.

FAQ

How quickly can I refresh my Spanish?

Much faster than learning from scratch. If you once had roughly B1, the 6-week plan above with two lessons a week and daily practice is a realistic frame for getting back into everyday conversation. How fast it goes for you depends on the length of the break and your speaking time.

Is there a free Spanish placement test?

There are several free tests online. They're useful as a rough guide but mostly check reading and grammar. Your speaking level only shows in conversation, for example in a free trial class.

Do I have to start from zero again?

Almost never. Even after years, a lot of passive knowledge remains. Instead of starting at chapter 1, you reactivate the structures and vocabulary you need today.

Is an app enough to brush up on Spanish?

For vocabulary and habit, yes. For speaking, no, because apps rarely ask you to produce free sentences. The best combination is an app for vocabulary plus regular conversation with correction.

I learned Spain Spanish at school. Is Colombian Spanish a problem?

No. The grammar and most of the vocabulary are the same. You mainly add ustedes instead of vosotros and a few everyday words like carro or celular. The switch is smaller than most people expect.

Can I refresh my Spanish online without fixed course times?

Yes. With one-to-one lessons you book around your calendar and can reschedule up to 24 hours ahead. That fits a busy working week better than a course on fixed evenings.

Free trial class: your restart in 25 minutes

The fastest way back into Spanish is a first conversation. In the free 25-minute trial class on garnica.co we check what's still there, find the gaps and turn them into a plan for the coming weeks. Explanations in German or English when you need them. Exactly how the trial works is in What a Free Spanish Trial Class Looks Like.

Keep reading: Private Spanish Lessons Online · Colombian Spanish vs Textbook Spanish · Practice Spanish Conversation Online · Common Spanish Mistakes German Speakers Make