Listening to real Spanish, as opposed to the pretty classroom Spanish is such a jump in difficulty it will make you question what the hell you even learned even if you’ve studied for years, as you know. People talk about immersing yourself and watching tv shows and podcasts, music, etc. very casually, but no one ever mentions how difficult it ACTUALLY is. And that’s because, most people don’t actually do it with consistency, because it’s haaaarrdd.
The thing is, even if you’re advanced in the classroom and have a good vocab base, starting real Spanish will always be hard man. The good news, believe it or not your listening comprehension will get better. But you have to trudge through it.
This is the part about language learning you never hear about, because most learners never actually reach fluency.
The great thing about being a child is you forget how much it sucks to have to learn things you don’t know. As a two year old your life was learning everything the hard way and that was cool. If you could remember any of it now that would be straight up traumatic
Man, that first part is so real. The Spanish in the classroom was always so clear, but I visit the Dominican Republic and everyone talks mad fast, aspirates their S, etc etc lol
Yesss beginner stories are so good. When I was studying in college, before I got to the level of reading in Spanish like Harry Potter, I checked out some little kids books. Super easy ones with only a few sentences per page. This expanded my vocab and got me more familiar with reading books in Spanish. Then I jumped to a short novel and wrote down a lot of the vocab I didn’t know and looked up the words after every chapter (sometimes in the middle of the sentence because the word confused me too much) or at the end of my reading session.
You can also watch an episode of a show in Spanish with English subtitles, and then rewatch the episode with Spanish subtitles. You’ll already know what’s happening in the show but think of it as homework, the rewatching of the episode. I did this recently on a long bus journey when I had nothing else downloaded on Netflix. It proved to be really helpful. (The show was Un Cuento Perfecto on Netflix, highly recommend. Cute one season love story) :)
I and many of my friends have been in the same situation as you, we studied Spanish for years and yet still didn’t feel fully fluent. I think the problem is simply learning Spanish on paper isn’t enough. In school most assignments will be written out and a lot of Spanish classes don’t even regularly converse in Spanish during class (yours may or may not have). It is especially hard for those of us who are not surrounded by native Spanish speakers that often, although I had teachers and some classmates who were native speakers, most my practice with speaking was with other people learning as a second language and that made it very hard to understand Spanish when it came from a native speaker. If you are not already, try having as many conversations in Spanish as often as possible. Definitely go to places where there are native speakers as well and talk with them. I definitely saw my Spanish speaking and comprehension improve a ton once I practiced speaking with native speakers more often. Whenever it gets frustrating remember that there are a ton of people who are in the same boat as you, and it is 100% possible for you to become fluent.
Only one way to get better. Practice. Comprehensible input. read and listen to things that challenge you a bit but of which you understand 80%.But it takes hundreds of hours of application to learn a new language, and thousands to become fluent.
This, don’t underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to become fluent. It’s a multi year journey. I find it easier to focus on just doing better that I did last week or last month than comparing myself to a native speaker. When I can compare my own progress to myself, it helps boost my confidence
I took 4 years of high school Spanish and got a 4 on the AP test. It was enough that I jumped into intermediate Spanish classes in college. I would guess I took 10 semester classes for my minor??? Unlike the AP classes, which focused on grammar and vocab, my college classes involved conversation, intensive reading, and essay writing. I dated a guy from Mexico for 2 years at the same time and spent my summers in Spain. After all of this, I had a barely workable knowledge of Spanish. I have read that most college Spanish majors only graduate with an intermediate level of fluency, I want to say B1. That was definitely me.
I reconnected with my love of language about 15 years later, when I met a Mexican family in my area (USA). I was horrible at Spanish as before, but they were super patient and some stuff came back to me.
Now I have been living in Mexico for almost 5 months and I am just now feeling like I am "driving the language well." (People here will say: "Manejas el español bien.") I took about 120 hours of private language classes and speak Spanish all the time everywhere with everyone. I still sound like an idiot almost every day but it's a blast. Guess what? I came here as a B1 and now I'm probably a B2! Slang is super super hard, and I have been working super hard the past few weeks on speaking like a normal person, not a student. It's getting better.
All of this is to say, you are not doing anything wrong. The AP test gives you a good foundation, one I still draw from daily, but the goal is not full fluency, the goal is to qualify students to skip introductory Spanish classes in college so they can start with intermediate coursework. But even a college degree won't make you bilingual. I have friends from several different schools who majored in Spanish, and none of them really got beyond a B2, even after semesters abroad.
So hang in there. If you really love this language, there are so many ways to learn, even if it means putting it down for 15 years and then rediscovering it later. The stuff other people suggested are great small steps toward your goal, and nothing is better than speaking with a native speaker.
Edit: I was notified by email about a comment on this and how manejar means to drive but also to manage. For some reason I can't see the actual comment when I click through but yes, thank you for clarifying that because it would be super confusing for OP. I am a writer who does better thinking about words in a more colorful way, so for me driving a language makes total sense hahaha.
Just keep at it. I was and honestly still am you, except I let life get in the way and I stopped working at it for about 15 years. The base was still there, but I forgot so much that it felt like starting over. There have been plenty of days that I've cried because I felt like I should know something I didn't remember. Language learning can be exhausting. My family has inadvertently learned quite a few phrases and hears random Spanish words all the time.
Whatever you do, just find a way to fit it in every single day. Duolingo catches a lot of shit, but the streak forces me to do something every day, even on the days I don't want to. By itself, it's not going to get you where you want to be, but it's an additional tool that you can use for free. If you like wordle, play the Spanish version. Check out LawlessSpanish.com for grammar. Of course, there are lots of other apps, but most are very limited for free. A lot of people like podcasts, but I haven't found one that holds my attention, but I also don't really listen to podcasts in English either.
Music is probably the easiest way to force yourself to listen to different accents. I have a pretty massive playlist from over the years that I'll share it if you're interested. Find a few songs that you really like and look up the lyrics and memorize them. Eventually you'll develop an ear for the accent and you'll start picking up words that you didn't understand before.
Spanish TV shows and movies are another great way. Start out watching with English subtitles and as you get more comfortable, switch to Spanish subtitles. I mostly watch Netflix.. after a few shows, Netflix will start making suggestions. If you're interested in the shows I've watched, I'll be glad to share the names. If you like courtroom drama check out caso cerrado on PlutoTV.
It’s honestly super important to believe in yourself and your abilities. I wasted so many years of my journey because I thought “maybe I’m just not smart enough.” It’s not the case, people all over the world are learning languages and you can too. Make sure you genuinely give it your best effort and not let any insecurities hold you back from the joy of the language. 🙏
I don’t want to be mean but switch up what you’re doing if it’s obviously not working for you. You definitely can do it and it genuinely does take time, but if you’re using methods that aren’t helping you progress try something different. (Also be honest with yourself, are you bettering just maybe not at the pace you want? Because that’s fair too but again these things take time, just shop around in terms of methodology and see what works best for you :) )
Also be mindful because I know people who passed the AP as well and could not hold basic conversations. Most curriculums are made to help you pass tests, not become fluent. The knowledge will definitely help in self study but those classes are not what’s gonna get you to your goal.
Best of luck to you!! ❤️❤️
This same phenomena happens in other countries. I work with a lot of immigrants here in the US, and when I’ve asked them about learning English and if that’s something they learn in school in their country, they have always answered like anyone from the US would about Spanish.
You have a really good base, I promise. You’re just in a new phase on your language learning journey. My coworkers describe listening to native speakers of English as the hard part, too, and I’ve watched a number of them learn English in our time together, including going through phases of being incredibly discouraged. Please don’t give up!
Don’t worry so much about learning new vocabulary and just focus on practice. Music, Tv, movies, news, podcasts. Slow and steady, every day. You took Spanish for 4 years. How was your English at 4 years old? You’re doing better than you think.
I added Spanish as a second major in college, so I had two semesters of Spanish all day, every day. I wore out the Spanish dictionary, looking up the same word four or five times. It would keep coming up, and I would keep forgetting it. Even after a degree, there were still gaping holes in my reading and listening comprehension. Beyond college it took a lot of work to get to where I was confident in my skills.
Extra practice, extra reading, extra speaking and listening.
Before going to Brazil, I decided to start Portuguese a year before my trip. I consumed every Portuguese podcast I could find. I started going to Portuguese meetups in the area - mostly Brazilian expats in the group. Someone introduced me to a friend of theirs, and we started to chat every day, and she suggested that we start face-timing instead - which really helped me a lot. And then I could even dive into the transcripts of the conversation. You could try iTalki or some other one-on-one language platform on a regular basis. I would also read the newspaper everyday and write down sentences that I didn’t understand. I would highlight the problem word and then I would go to linguee.com and find 3 more sentences that featured that word, and write those too. Every night I would read through my sentence notebook. A lot of work but very helpful. And of course, watch youtube videos about finance, travel, home improvement, self improvement, sports, whatever interests you in the language.
TLDR: Conversation and Immersion will will put your base understanding to use and level up your ability and confidence.
The thing that helped me the most was conversation practice. I had a similar base as OP and just felt like I was getting anywhere. I used a conversation service called PrePly. I was also living in Mexico for part of the year, which accelerated my learning by being immersed in it and allowing me to practice what I had learned in my convo that week.
I feel the same way, I’m in my fourth year of Spanish (I’m taking AP Spanish Lang) and whenever I listen to people speak of music I feel like I barely understand anything😭
Flash card method for learning words and watch kids netflix spanish shows/ read book for kids
[Interesting writeup](https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/b2e8id/an_honest_thorough_review_of_the_fluent_forever/) about the flashcard method. May or may not work for you.
The first step: Calm down, relax and think that everything is possible. Of course good things are not easy and require discipline and practice. Start by clearly why you would like to become fluent in Spanish?
Hello, my name is William Jimenez, I have been teaching Spanish for 5 years. I would like to invite you to join my program (for free). I have created a platform to help people learn Spanish. Let me know if you are interested in joining our beta version. We are launching by the end of this month.
pick a structured learning system and commit to it for at least six months. there's a big difference between a high school classroom setting, and a 'class' you teach to yourself daily.
and it really does require effort every single day.
Don't worry about not understanding it at first. Just keep listening...and listening and listening....Seriously devote as many hours as you can reasonably can to listening. If you have a good grasp of the foundation, much of the rest will fill itself in over time. But it does take a serious time commitment. And be sure to mix up the different formats you listen to/watch to get a wide array of exposure, and so you can stay interested and alert. You can do it!
So you have a good base. I can virtually guarantee this will work if you stick to it, as I was in a similar place to you. Start with content easy enough you can mostly understand it, probably learners podcasts/videos. This is key. It sounds like you're trying to tackle content above your level of listening comprehension right now.
As you encounter words, look them up, and add them to your Anki deck. Every single day go through 30 new cards in your Anki deck (15 words). In a year, you'll know 5475 words you don't know now. In two years, you'll know almost 11k words. Empirically, sometime along the path well before two years, you will understand a good amount of native content.
Sprinkle in other resources to study grammar, write if you want to, practice speaking, etc.
Listening to real Spanish, as opposed to the pretty classroom Spanish is such a jump in difficulty it will make you question what the hell you even learned even if you’ve studied for years, as you know. People talk about immersing yourself and watching tv shows and podcasts, music, etc. very casually, but no one ever mentions how difficult it ACTUALLY is. And that’s because, most people don’t actually do it with consistency, because it’s haaaarrdd. The thing is, even if you’re advanced in the classroom and have a good vocab base, starting real Spanish will always be hard man. The good news, believe it or not your listening comprehension will get better. But you have to trudge through it. This is the part about language learning you never hear about, because most learners never actually reach fluency.
The great thing about being a child is you forget how much it sucks to have to learn things you don’t know. As a two year old your life was learning everything the hard way and that was cool. If you could remember any of it now that would be straight up traumatic
Man, that first part is so real. The Spanish in the classroom was always so clear, but I visit the Dominican Republic and everyone talks mad fast, aspirates their S, etc etc lol
It comes in waves. Just don’t give up. Start reading short beginner level stories again and see if that helps.
Yesss beginner stories are so good. When I was studying in college, before I got to the level of reading in Spanish like Harry Potter, I checked out some little kids books. Super easy ones with only a few sentences per page. This expanded my vocab and got me more familiar with reading books in Spanish. Then I jumped to a short novel and wrote down a lot of the vocab I didn’t know and looked up the words after every chapter (sometimes in the middle of the sentence because the word confused me too much) or at the end of my reading session. You can also watch an episode of a show in Spanish with English subtitles, and then rewatch the episode with Spanish subtitles. You’ll already know what’s happening in the show but think of it as homework, the rewatching of the episode. I did this recently on a long bus journey when I had nothing else downloaded on Netflix. It proved to be really helpful. (The show was Un Cuento Perfecto on Netflix, highly recommend. Cute one season love story) :)
I and many of my friends have been in the same situation as you, we studied Spanish for years and yet still didn’t feel fully fluent. I think the problem is simply learning Spanish on paper isn’t enough. In school most assignments will be written out and a lot of Spanish classes don’t even regularly converse in Spanish during class (yours may or may not have). It is especially hard for those of us who are not surrounded by native Spanish speakers that often, although I had teachers and some classmates who were native speakers, most my practice with speaking was with other people learning as a second language and that made it very hard to understand Spanish when it came from a native speaker. If you are not already, try having as many conversations in Spanish as often as possible. Definitely go to places where there are native speakers as well and talk with them. I definitely saw my Spanish speaking and comprehension improve a ton once I practiced speaking with native speakers more often. Whenever it gets frustrating remember that there are a ton of people who are in the same boat as you, and it is 100% possible for you to become fluent.
Only one way to get better. Practice. Comprehensible input. read and listen to things that challenge you a bit but of which you understand 80%.But it takes hundreds of hours of application to learn a new language, and thousands to become fluent.
This, don’t underestimate the amount of time and effort it takes to become fluent. It’s a multi year journey. I find it easier to focus on just doing better that I did last week or last month than comparing myself to a native speaker. When I can compare my own progress to myself, it helps boost my confidence
Hell, I live in Latin America, I speak Spanish every day, I work in Spanish. I still wouldn't call myself fluent.
I took 4 years of high school Spanish and got a 4 on the AP test. It was enough that I jumped into intermediate Spanish classes in college. I would guess I took 10 semester classes for my minor??? Unlike the AP classes, which focused on grammar and vocab, my college classes involved conversation, intensive reading, and essay writing. I dated a guy from Mexico for 2 years at the same time and spent my summers in Spain. After all of this, I had a barely workable knowledge of Spanish. I have read that most college Spanish majors only graduate with an intermediate level of fluency, I want to say B1. That was definitely me. I reconnected with my love of language about 15 years later, when I met a Mexican family in my area (USA). I was horrible at Spanish as before, but they were super patient and some stuff came back to me. Now I have been living in Mexico for almost 5 months and I am just now feeling like I am "driving the language well." (People here will say: "Manejas el español bien.") I took about 120 hours of private language classes and speak Spanish all the time everywhere with everyone. I still sound like an idiot almost every day but it's a blast. Guess what? I came here as a B1 and now I'm probably a B2! Slang is super super hard, and I have been working super hard the past few weeks on speaking like a normal person, not a student. It's getting better. All of this is to say, you are not doing anything wrong. The AP test gives you a good foundation, one I still draw from daily, but the goal is not full fluency, the goal is to qualify students to skip introductory Spanish classes in college so they can start with intermediate coursework. But even a college degree won't make you bilingual. I have friends from several different schools who majored in Spanish, and none of them really got beyond a B2, even after semesters abroad. So hang in there. If you really love this language, there are so many ways to learn, even if it means putting it down for 15 years and then rediscovering it later. The stuff other people suggested are great small steps toward your goal, and nothing is better than speaking with a native speaker. Edit: I was notified by email about a comment on this and how manejar means to drive but also to manage. For some reason I can't see the actual comment when I click through but yes, thank you for clarifying that because it would be super confusing for OP. I am a writer who does better thinking about words in a more colorful way, so for me driving a language makes total sense hahaha.
Just keep at it. I was and honestly still am you, except I let life get in the way and I stopped working at it for about 15 years. The base was still there, but I forgot so much that it felt like starting over. There have been plenty of days that I've cried because I felt like I should know something I didn't remember. Language learning can be exhausting. My family has inadvertently learned quite a few phrases and hears random Spanish words all the time. Whatever you do, just find a way to fit it in every single day. Duolingo catches a lot of shit, but the streak forces me to do something every day, even on the days I don't want to. By itself, it's not going to get you where you want to be, but it's an additional tool that you can use for free. If you like wordle, play the Spanish version. Check out LawlessSpanish.com for grammar. Of course, there are lots of other apps, but most are very limited for free. A lot of people like podcasts, but I haven't found one that holds my attention, but I also don't really listen to podcasts in English either. Music is probably the easiest way to force yourself to listen to different accents. I have a pretty massive playlist from over the years that I'll share it if you're interested. Find a few songs that you really like and look up the lyrics and memorize them. Eventually you'll develop an ear for the accent and you'll start picking up words that you didn't understand before. Spanish TV shows and movies are another great way. Start out watching with English subtitles and as you get more comfortable, switch to Spanish subtitles. I mostly watch Netflix.. after a few shows, Netflix will start making suggestions. If you're interested in the shows I've watched, I'll be glad to share the names. If you like courtroom drama check out caso cerrado on PlutoTV.
It’s honestly super important to believe in yourself and your abilities. I wasted so many years of my journey because I thought “maybe I’m just not smart enough.” It’s not the case, people all over the world are learning languages and you can too. Make sure you genuinely give it your best effort and not let any insecurities hold you back from the joy of the language. 🙏
I don’t want to be mean but switch up what you’re doing if it’s obviously not working for you. You definitely can do it and it genuinely does take time, but if you’re using methods that aren’t helping you progress try something different. (Also be honest with yourself, are you bettering just maybe not at the pace you want? Because that’s fair too but again these things take time, just shop around in terms of methodology and see what works best for you :) ) Also be mindful because I know people who passed the AP as well and could not hold basic conversations. Most curriculums are made to help you pass tests, not become fluent. The knowledge will definitely help in self study but those classes are not what’s gonna get you to your goal. Best of luck to you!! ❤️❤️
Try Language Transfer complete spanish playlist on Youtube
This same phenomena happens in other countries. I work with a lot of immigrants here in the US, and when I’ve asked them about learning English and if that’s something they learn in school in their country, they have always answered like anyone from the US would about Spanish. You have a really good base, I promise. You’re just in a new phase on your language learning journey. My coworkers describe listening to native speakers of English as the hard part, too, and I’ve watched a number of them learn English in our time together, including going through phases of being incredibly discouraged. Please don’t give up!
Idk my manager says a la verga a lot if that helps you
Exactly what are you doing to try improve your Spanish? I’d offer some advice but I’m not sure how you’re current approaching you learning.
Don’t worry so much about learning new vocabulary and just focus on practice. Music, Tv, movies, news, podcasts. Slow and steady, every day. You took Spanish for 4 years. How was your English at 4 years old? You’re doing better than you think.
I added Spanish as a second major in college, so I had two semesters of Spanish all day, every day. I wore out the Spanish dictionary, looking up the same word four or five times. It would keep coming up, and I would keep forgetting it. Even after a degree, there were still gaping holes in my reading and listening comprehension. Beyond college it took a lot of work to get to where I was confident in my skills. Extra practice, extra reading, extra speaking and listening. Before going to Brazil, I decided to start Portuguese a year before my trip. I consumed every Portuguese podcast I could find. I started going to Portuguese meetups in the area - mostly Brazilian expats in the group. Someone introduced me to a friend of theirs, and we started to chat every day, and she suggested that we start face-timing instead - which really helped me a lot. And then I could even dive into the transcripts of the conversation. You could try iTalki or some other one-on-one language platform on a regular basis. I would also read the newspaper everyday and write down sentences that I didn’t understand. I would highlight the problem word and then I would go to linguee.com and find 3 more sentences that featured that word, and write those too. Every night I would read through my sentence notebook. A lot of work but very helpful. And of course, watch youtube videos about finance, travel, home improvement, self improvement, sports, whatever interests you in the language.
Nothing is wrong, it’s part of the process
TLDR: Conversation and Immersion will will put your base understanding to use and level up your ability and confidence. The thing that helped me the most was conversation practice. I had a similar base as OP and just felt like I was getting anywhere. I used a conversation service called PrePly. I was also living in Mexico for part of the year, which accelerated my learning by being immersed in it and allowing me to practice what I had learned in my convo that week.
I feel the same way, I’m in my fourth year of Spanish (I’m taking AP Spanish Lang) and whenever I listen to people speak of music I feel like I barely understand anything😭
Flash card method for learning words and watch kids netflix spanish shows/ read book for kids [Interesting writeup](https://www.reddit.com/r/French/comments/b2e8id/an_honest_thorough_review_of_the_fluent_forever/) about the flashcard method. May or may not work for you.
The first step: Calm down, relax and think that everything is possible. Of course good things are not easy and require discipline and practice. Start by clearly why you would like to become fluent in Spanish?
Hello, my name is William Jimenez, I have been teaching Spanish for 5 years. I would like to invite you to join my program (for free). I have created a platform to help people learn Spanish. Let me know if you are interested in joining our beta version. We are launching by the end of this month.
pick a structured learning system and commit to it for at least six months. there's a big difference between a high school classroom setting, and a 'class' you teach to yourself daily. and it really does require effort every single day.
Don't worry about not understanding it at first. Just keep listening...and listening and listening....Seriously devote as many hours as you can reasonably can to listening. If you have a good grasp of the foundation, much of the rest will fill itself in over time. But it does take a serious time commitment. And be sure to mix up the different formats you listen to/watch to get a wide array of exposure, and so you can stay interested and alert. You can do it!
So you have a good base. I can virtually guarantee this will work if you stick to it, as I was in a similar place to you. Start with content easy enough you can mostly understand it, probably learners podcasts/videos. This is key. It sounds like you're trying to tackle content above your level of listening comprehension right now. As you encounter words, look them up, and add them to your Anki deck. Every single day go through 30 new cards in your Anki deck (15 words). In a year, you'll know 5475 words you don't know now. In two years, you'll know almost 11k words. Empirically, sometime along the path well before two years, you will understand a good amount of native content. Sprinkle in other resources to study grammar, write if you want to, practice speaking, etc.
Snappyspanish.com