#as an intermediate spanish speaker

[ego-sum-ex-altiora]

My Roman Empire is the fact that if my school offered Latin, I would absolutely take it (no matter how pretentious it would make me)

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[honeyviscera]

waahhhh i can feel myself losing my spanish bc im not practicing it regularly and it SUCKS bc in high school i did ib spanish and like i genuinely knew a fair amount of the language like it felt really good and our spanish teacher said we were like one of the most advanced classes she's had but now since im not taking classes or anything i can feel it slipping from me and im like no :( come back :(

[imtryingtolearngerman]

as a spanish learner, i find it so shocking when i randomly understand a basic portuguese sentence

low key wanna learn portuguese

[adhd-languages]

Learning through immersion

(Specifically Spanish, for intermediate-advanced learners. Most of this can be used for any language though)

Consume native content without looking up anything. Just enjoy it. (Something written, or something which has a transcript/subtitles)

Now consume it a second time

Write down any interesting sentences. (Ideally with pen and paper, for it to stick)

Anything that has something that looks like a word you know, but is in a tense you’re not sure, just a new use of a tense, some interesting expression or vocab…

Go onto SpanishDict and type in those interesting conjunctions, figure out what tense they’re in

Learn that new tense! Either through SpanishDict (they have lessons for pretty much everything) or just google lessons online. This can be as in depth as you like, or you can just google a quick explanation

Create new vocab list of new words and quickly run through it

Re-consume native content after going through all your sentences with a new enlightened mind

On this run you can also read aloud (or mirror, if you have audio) the interesting sentences you wrote down. With feeling, please.

Then write something in your own words, using new grammar and vocab you’ve studied. Or speak aloud, and record yourself. You should try to write other sentences using a similar structure as whatever new interesting tense use you’ve found. If it suits you, get a native speaker to check your sentences, using Busuu, or HiNative, or something similar.

This is just one way that I’ve been enjoying recently. To be honest, you can cut out pretty much any of these steps depending on what suits you, how much time you have, etc.

The important thing is that you’re paying close attention to your content, and you absolutely need to write your own sentences afterwards.

Unless you genuinely have no interest in communicating with native speakers — maybe you just want to watch tv or read in your target language and that’s fine — but if you do want to be able to communicate, you’re going to need to practice. You should also be practicing speaking aloud. If you have nobody to talk to, talk to yourself.

This strategy is really useful for when you’ve self-studied the basics of a language and you don’t know what grammar you need to study next. Just let

[stolen-wolfbread]

(Free) Brazilian Portuguese Beginner Resource Masterlist

I've seen a lot of posts for European Portuguese, but none for Brazilian, so here we are! All resources are available for free (or at least have free trials.)

The items highlighted in yellow are what I, personally, use and recommend.

The items with asterisks are closer to intermediate level.

I will continue to update with new resources as I discover them. If you have any suggestions, comment or reblog!

Text

Textbooks

101 Brazillian Portuguese Expressions

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

FSI Brazilian Portuguese Fast 1 | 2 (+audio)

ClicaBrazil*

Learn Brazilian Portuguese - Word Power 101

Complete Brazilian Portuguese

IE Languages

Modern Brazilian Portuguese Grammar

Português para principiantes

( +more in the Mega Folder from @salvadorbonaparte)

Handouts

List of Irregular Verbs

Top 100 Portuguese Phrases to Learn

Verbs in Brazilian Portuguese

Blogs

Uncle Brazil

Video

Channels

Brazilian Talk

Fernando - FWBP

Lennon Brito

Plain Portuguese

Portugués con Philipe Brazuca (For Spanish-speakers)

Speaking Brazilian Language School

Street Smart Brazil

Playlists

Brazilian Films with English Subtitles

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Basic Phrases

Easy Brazilian Portuguese: Learning From the Streets

Portuguese From Brazil

Super Easy Brazilian Portuguese

Audio

Podcasts

Brazilian Portuguese Podcast

Brazilian Talk

Brazilianing

Carioca Connection

Fala Gringo*

Língua da Gente

LinguaBoost

Papo Vai

Read Books in Brazilian Portuguese With Me*

Speaking Brazilian Podcast

Tá Falado! (Compares Spanish and Portuguese languages)

Spotify Playlists

Brazilian Boogie

Brazilian Pop Mix

Brasilidades

RADAR Brasil

Raízes Brasileiras

Top 50 - Brazil

Top Songs - Brazil

Web Apps/ Mobile Apps

Flashcards

Anki | Speaking Brazilian | 55 Sounds

Linguno

Memrise | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Dictionaries

Forvo (Pronunciation dictionary)

Priberam (Cites differences between European and Brazilian)*

Word Reference

Courses

Duolingo | Old Duolingo for Web | Old Duolingo APKs For Android

Language Drops

Keyboards

Lexilogos

Type.it

Communities/Forums

HiNative

r/brazilianmusic

r/language_exchange

r/Portuguese | Discord Server

[hobbit--punk]

In case anyone’s wondering how our move to Madrid is working out, today involved my landlord toting a duffel bag full of chainmaille, plate armor, and a broadsword up to our apartment so he, my husband, and I could all nerd out about historical clothing together. The three of us wound up comparing notes through broken English, terrible Spanish, and Google Translate for an hour. 

Landlord: has mad metalworking and leatherworking skills, but no sewing skills and minimal woodworking skills. Needs a gambeson for his chainmaille and wants a wooden horse crest for his plate helmet. Can’t speak English well enough to find tutorials on YouTube.

My husband: has some metalworking skills including several years of making chain maille whne we were in uni, and mad woodworking skills including beginning carving. Has been wanting to learn to make swords for longer than we’ve been married.

Me: Has intermediate sewing skills, mostly in historical clothing and making quilts, is a native English speaker who knows how to find just about any skill set tutorial on YouTube. Has been wanting to experiment with medieval clothing.

Today has been a good day, y’all. 

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

As a native Spanish speaker and an English teacher myself, let me say, she does have some control of the language in terms of vocabulary, and her pronunciation is not terrible. However, she makes mistakes in the tenses of the verbs and she clearly has no fluency, she memorised most of this little “speech” and that’s why it sounds unnatural.

She has no detectable “Argentinian” accent, she sounds more like LA Spanish to me. Again, not terrible, but more basic/intermediate than advanced.

To be honest, she’s better than I thought she was. She’s clearly a well educated woman, sadly, we all dislike her for her actions, and we assume every word out of her mouth is a lie. In this particular case I dare say she wasn’t lying about speaking Spanish, she’s got the basics down. She’s probably been rehearsing her speech, it’s not hard to find Spanish speakers to practice with in California.

🤷🏽‍♀️

I agree. She sounds like me when I try to speak Spanish on vacation - I had 6 years of Spanish in school so I have a passing familiarity with the language but I’m so rusty that I have to re-teach myself phrases, vocabulary, and pronunciation when I travel to be able to speak it and it does sound more like rote memorization than fluent conversation (which I could do 17 years ago!).

So to my untrained (and deaf, so please be kind to me if I’m missing something) ear, Meghan sounds like someone who once had a Spanish education but lost the skills from non-use and has recently had a crash course in it.

But that isn’t the same as claiming to be conversationally fluent in Spanish after all this time, and that’s not what she demonstrated this weekend; she can make a speech in Spanish (which anyone can do if they practice long enough because honestly it’s just mimicking sounds and pronunciation when you don’t know the words), but she can’t hold or follow a conversation in Spanish - which we know because she needed headphones for that one conference and all of her answers were in English.

And there’s a lot of speculation, from Sussex Squad and the rest of us, that because Meghan has claimed to be conversational in Spanish, she speaks to her household staff in Spanish - which started after a rumor that Meghan’s household staff is largely Hispanic because of assumptions that the domestic workforce in CA is largely Hispanic - that’s why I made the post I did suggesting that because she didn’t sound conversationally fluent (to me) and she needed translator services all weekend, we can probably debunk those claims that she speaks specifically in Spanish to her staff.

(For some reason I can still read Spanish pretty well but being able to read Spanish doesn’t help when you’re asking for directions!)

[spanishskulduggery]

I love scrolling through your blog because of all the great resources and explanations! I’ve been speaking Spanish with my partner (who only started learning English a year ago) everyday since 2020 but I took a little CEFR test today online and got B1, which seriously shook my confidence. How do I start filling in the gaps in my knowledge and learning all the stuff I’ll never pick up just speaking at home?

This can be difficult because it's partially skills and partially knowledge, and each person is different

(Also can be difficult when speaking with native speakers who use "incorrect" grammar aka the way they speak is correct but not how formal Spanish wants you to speak, like saying "ain't" in English isn't correct but it is what sounds natural)

Like if you take the test and you're great at everything but the listening part (that was me on my exam years ago) then it's a skill thing

Knowledge is easier to fix. It depends on what your gaps are though. There are some big things like understanding subjunctive or preterite/imperfect that are common missteps... and there are minute details that trip people up. Like they always try to make sure you know y/e or o/u

In practically every major competency exam for Spanish, you'll see something like siete _ ocho horas "seven (or) eight hours" or something equivalent and it wants you to put "or", but it should be siete u ocho horas because o "or" turns to u when it precedes a word with O- or HO-

Spanish Grammar Online: Contents (Enrique Yepes, Bowdoin)

This is what I usually recommend for people who are more intermediate because it gives an overview of the major things you should know. There are some minor things that aren't addressed though

I would also recommend WordReference, Linguee, and Contexto Reverso which are my usual go to resources for finding the right words / seeing how something is translated

Also don't knock Wikipedia in Spanish - the amount of times I've had to look up specific geographical names/spellings or especially looking up names of specific animals/plants/minerals... it's truly a lifesaver and you get to practice your reading

[martinshep]

Intro post!!

󠁗󠁨󠁯󠀠󠁵󠁰󠀠󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁩󠁮󠁧󠀠󠁴󠁨󠁥󠁹󠀠󠁨󠁯󠁧󠁻󠁷󠁵󠁮󠁧󠁬󠁥󠀠󠁴󠁥󠁸󠁴󠀠󠁥󠁮󠁤󠁳󠀠󠁨󠁥󠁲󠁥󠁽Hi I go by Martin, Shep, or Riley (they/them, but it/its to friends) I'm 21 and from Australia.

Autistic with ADHD, huge nerd. Agender anthro dog therian!

I make art on @martinshepart

Make sure to check out my alterhuman dictionary project here!

All my posts or reblogs where I say something are tagged #martin originals

More details under the cut!

Martin Schäfer

★★★★☆ Reviews (4)

★★★☆☆ arrived with no issues but item is kinda mid

★☆☆☆☆ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ would not shut up about languages

★★★★★ very good dog arrived in good condition

Item condition:

Slightly damaged, still working

I'm autistic and ADHD and still struggling with executive dysfunction. Still learning how to recover from being a former gifted kid and never learning how to socialise. If I'm being annoying or obnoxious please tell me!

Agender because I do not understand gender, although unsure if it's just the human concept of gender I don't understand.

Therian and transpecies! Specifically an anthro german shepherd mix border collie, possibly with some other herding dogs in there. I also identify a lot with becoming a virtual/uploaded consciousness? Not sure what to call that. Also I'm thesean. If you don't know what that is here's my post about it.

Demisexual and platoniromantic/flectic. Not exact labels but the closest I can get without using an encyclopaedia worth of text to describe myself.

I'm an artist and I'm open for commissions! Check out the pinned post on @martinshepart for details!

Tags

#martin originals - all my posts where I say/ask a thing #poked beast - asks answered by me #martinshep's art - my visual art #martinshep's music - my auditory art #martinshep's languages - my languages related art

Other blogs

@martinshepart - my art blog, I put all my art there @martin-schaefer - my alt nsfw blog that I'll probably rarely use

Current special interests and hobbies:

(Note my knowledge of any of these is not as exhaustive as most people's)

Illustrated art

Cartography

History (esp cultural and economic)

Linguistics (esp lexicography and orthography)

Semiotics

Cosmology

Quantum mechanics and general relativity

The most horrid music you can imagine (breakcore, mashcore, shoegaze, dariacore, noise pop/noise rock)

3D modelling

Fursuit making

Kandi bracelets

Learning Spanish (just starting out)

Learning Dutch (Also just starting out)

Game design/dev (once I get my shit together and learn C#)

Music making (once I get my DAW working)

Furgonomics

Cooking/food prep

4D games

Languages I know, am learning, or am planning to learn:

If you speak one of the languages I'm learning and are willing to help me out please let me know :D

English - I'm a native speaker and specifically speak australian english

Auslan - Taking classes on it and soon will be taking a tafe course on it.

Toki pona - mi kama sona, kepeken tenpo suli. mi pilin e ni: sona toki pona mi lon meso. (I'm learning, slowly. I think I'm at an intermediate level.)

Hindi/हिंदी - मैं बुनियादी हिंदी वाकयों बोला सका। मैं कोश में शब्द मिलना बहुत अक्सर। (I can say simple sentences. I have to look up words in the dictionary very often.)

German/Deutch - Ich kennen en bisschen deutch, aber jetzt ich lernen nicht. (I know some german, but I'm no longer learning it.)

Dutch/Nederlands - Ik spreek een beetje nederlands. Dezelfde als duits echter. (I speak some dutch. Same as german though.)

Spanish/Español - Estudiaba español. Sé mucho poco. (I'm learning spanish. I know very little.)

Croatian/Hrvatska - Still getting around to learning the basics.

I also want to learn arabic and mandarin at some point but I'm waiting until I'm learning fewer languages.

Me↓ (art by snowflake-sage)

Me↑ (art by snowflake-sage)

Feel free to message me if you want to hang out in vrchat, infodump to me, get help with art or 3d modelling, lust over my fursona, or just chat! I'm an attention whore so don't think you're bothering me!

I also have a discord server:

I like to listen to fucked up horrible awful music

Here's a google doc (currently under renovation) with a bunch of recommendations that's still a work in progress, I plan to add more to it as time goes on too

I'm like a year late to make this but whatever

[crystal--riot]

dusts off this blog. sooo... I'm picking up Spanish again! I want to try and spend at least a month trying to learn the basics and see where I'm at. my current goal is to be intermediate by next year!

I currently have a large vocab list, a handful of cool resources, and have found two native speakers to practice with 💖

I also have the desire to learn ASL, Chinese, and perhaps another language such as German, but I will be focusing on Spanish for now :)

gracias, ¡hastas luego!

[rigelmejo]

Dreaming Spanish Levels - A good reference in general for progress milestones when studying X hours

I'm about to paste in the entire Levels Guide Dreaming Spanish has on their site, if you make an account and look at their levels. It's on this Progress page, when logged in. A less detailed version of the Levels can be found on the roadmap picture on this public Method page. I want to paste in the detailed levels descriptions, because I want to be able to reference them in my notes generally, when I'm not logged into Dreaming Spanish.

Level 1

Starting from zero.

Hours of input: 0

Known words: 0

Videos to watch: Superbeginner

What you can do: The sounds of the language sound weird to your ears. You can't tell many of those sounds apart from each other. When hearing the language, it’s hard for you to know when one word ends and when the next one begins. Even when you guess what a sentence means, many times you can’t guess at the meaning of the different parts. You can't say any words and be confident that a native speaker would understand you.

What you need to do: Listen A LOT. The listening needs to be very comprehensible. The best materials are classes or videos where the teachers speak in the language, but make it easy to understand by using a lot of drawings, pictures, and gestures. Crosstalk is the most efficient activity that you can do, if you can find speakers of the language. Reading is not recommended until later on, especially if you care about having clear pronunciation. Practicing writing or speaking is not recommended yet.

What you are learning: You mostly learn individual nouns for concrete things: car, nose, elephant. Action verbs: walk, eat, sing. Adjectives for simple emotions and sensations: happy, scared, cold. Adjectives for physical properties: blue, tall, fat, beautiful. Interjections are the clearest words early on: Hey! Wow! Hi! You may learn the numbers early on, but this depends quite a lot on the kind of content you listen to.

Level 2

You know some common words.

Hours of input: 50

Known words: 300

Videos to watch: Beginner

What you can do: You understand some common words, even if you are not 100% sure how to pronounce them. You can now guess the meaning of some 2-word sentences, like "go home", or "eat cake". There are only a few words that you could produce yourself. For many words, you’re still not sure what sounds they’re made of.

What you need to do: Listen A LOT. You are still best served with Crosstalk or classes or videos where the teacher(s) speak in a very comprehensible way. However, with a few words under your belt you are better prepared to make the most of that input. Those words will help you understand the rest of the input you are listening to. Reading not recommended yet.

What you are learning: More verbs, since nouns help you understand them. Still mostly nouns and verbs for concrete things. Many expressions are learned as a chunk. You don’t know what their parts mean yet. Grammar for basic sentence order. Many common function words will remain unclear for a long time.

Level 3

You can follow topics that are adapted for learners.

Hours of input: 150

Known words: 1,500

Videos to watch: Intermediate

What you can do: You can now understand people if they stay within certain topics. They still need to talk to you in a way that's appropriate for you, but you know many words, and you don’t rely exclusively on visual information. You still aren’t completely used to the sounds of the language. You have a good intuition for basic grammar, like sentence order. You can sometimes feel it when other learners make mistakes. It sounds wrong somehow. You can now say quite a few words and that will already be useful when traveling to the country.

What you need to do: Listen A LOT. Now you can listen to videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use as much visual input, and may even be able to take advantage of really easy audios and podcasts that are catered to learners at your level. Crosstalk is still the best way to spend your time. At this level it becomes easier than before to do crosstalk over the internet using video call software, so you won't need to find native speakers where you live anymore. Reading is still not recommended if you care about your final achievement in pronunciation, but it starts becoming possible to understand lower level graded readers.

What you are learning: Because you are starting to get used to what the language sounds like, and what kinds of sound combinations to expect, you start learning words faster, without needing to hear them so many times. You learn nouns faster and faster. Knowing a decent amount of nouns helps you also learn more adjectives. You start learning more abstract terms for feelings, appearance, and more abstract verbs: to need, to have to, to be good at, etc. You are now getting used to more complicated grammar faster.

Level 4 (purple-blue on the DS site)

You can understand a person speaking to you patiently.

Hours of input: 300

Known words: 3,000

Videos to watch: Intermediate

What you can do: You're at the intermediate level! You can understand a patient native speaker. You still miss some words, but the speaker can explain their meaning to you without resorting to translation. You can understand a range of daily topics without visual support like drawings or pictures. The sounds of the language are becoming clearer now, and you are getting used to how the sounds are likely to be combined. That helps with retaining new words. If you tried speaking at a store, you could get your point across most of the time, but you still struggle producing even some basic words. Making friends in the language is now possible, but you need to find people who are quite patient, because not everybody will want to make that effort. Depending on your tolerance for getting negative reactions, you may want to wait a bit longer before speaking.

What you need to do: Listen A LOT. You can understand videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use any visual cues, and can now benefit from listening extensively to audios and podcasts for learners everywhere you go, anytime you can. Crosstalk is still the best, most efficient way to improve. You can now make friends with whom you communicate only in the target language. While you will learn a lot when listening to people speak to you, speaking this early will invariably result in hard-to-fix non-native pronunciation, noticeably bad grammar, and poor word usage. If you really want to start having conversations with people it's recommended that you don't try to actively practice grammar or vocabulary, but rather speak in single words or simple sentences that come to mind easily. Reading is still not recommended if you care about your final achievement in pronunciation. By now you could understand slightly more difficult books, but still mostly just graded readers.

What you are learning: Surprisingly, in this phase you learn many common function words that are taught right at the beginning of most language courses. These words are used very frequently, but carry very little meaning. For example: the verb "to be" (or equivalent), prepositions (in, at, on), conjunctions (therefore, so, and), and even some pronouns. Once you become aware of a new word, you’ll encounter it everywhere. At this point you may start feeling that there are many more words that you don't know than words you do know. The exposure to less controlled speech allows you to notice many new words. Don't worry, you'll eventually also acquire those words the same way you acquired all the words you have learned until now. By this point you are full on acquiring all kinds of vocabulary, both concrete and abstract.

Level 5

You can understand native speakers speaking to you normally.

Hours of input: 600

Known words: 5,000

Videos to watch: Intermediate/advanced

What you can do: You can understand people well when they speak directly to you. They won’t need to adapt their speech for you. Understanding a conversation between native speakers is still hard. You’ll almost understand TV programs in the language, because you understand so many of the words, but they are still hard enough to leave you frustrated or bored. Conversation can be tiresome, and if you try to speak you can feel a bit like a child, since it will be hard to express abstract concepts and complex thoughts. You understand most of the words used during daily conversation, but you still can’t use many yourself. If you try to speak the language, it will feel like you are missing many important words. However, you can, often, already speak with the correct intonation patterns of the language, without knowing why, and even make a distinction between similar sounds in the language when you say them out loud.

What you need to do: Listen A LOT. You'll be able to understand more advanced materials for learners. Listen to audios and podcasts daily if you want to learn fast. Crosstalk is still as good as always. You may start feeling you are not getting much out of getting input about daily life topics. Try getting input about new topics. Easier TV programs and cartoons should be accessible too. The purists who want to get really close to a native speaker and get a really good accent may still want to hold off on speaking and reading for a little more, but if you do start speaking and reading it's not a big deal by this point. You'll still end up with better pronunciation and fluency than the vast majority of learners. If you want to start reading, by this point you'll be able to understand books targeted at children of lower grade levels, and you can skip over graded readers. If you start reading, try setting every gadget you own (PC, phone, Google and Facebook settings, etc.) to the target language, and following speakers of the language on social media.

What you are learning: This level can feel frustratingly similar to the previous one. You will still feel that there are many more words that you don't know than words you do know. You'll now feel many more instances of finally understanding that word that you have been hearing since forever. It may feel like these words are infinite, but no! Continue doing what you are doing and you'll little by little fill in all the missing gaps. For some words, you’ll even wonder why you hadn’t learned such a basic word yet. Learning abstract words (democracy, absence, patience) will be your bread and butter, as will be learning more and more grammatical connectors. At this level you’ll mostly finish up the grammar and the different sentence types. While still not being able to make the most complex sentences yourself, you’ll become able to understand almost every type of sentence.

Level 6 (green-blue on the site)

You are comfortable with daily conversation.

Hours of input: 1,000

Known words: 7,000

Videos to watch: Advanced

What you can do: You can really have fun with the language at this point. You are conversationally fluent for daily purposes of living in the country and you can get by at the bank, at the hospital, at the post office, or looking for an apartment to rent. In spite of that odd word that is not quite there when you need it, you can always manage to get your point across in one way or another, and by now you are already making complex longer phrases. At this level, for the first time, you start feeling like you are actually thinking about what you want to say, and not about how you want to say it, even though you may fall back on thinking about how you say things, especially in stressful situations or when feeling self-conscious. Using humor in the language is much easier now. You can understand TV shows about daily life quite well (80 to 90%). Shows about families, friends, etc. Unscripted shows will usually also be easier to understand than scripted shows, as long as they are not too chaotic or rely too much on cultural knowledge. Thrillers and other genres will still be hard.

What you need to do: Listen and read A LOT. It's also a good idea to get massive input in authentic media, be it TV, podcasts, radio, movies, etc. If you can't find a lot of easy media in the target language, you may find that videos and audios for learners are still more efficient for acquiring new vocabulary until you get a bit better. If your target language has many common words with a language you already know you may be able to understand quite well things like TED talks and university lectures. Lots of reading is also recommended if you want to be literate and if you care about reading. You'll still want to read books that are targeted at elementary school children, although maybe you don't need to stick to the lower grades. Nonfiction will often be much easier to understand than fiction. By this point, speaking and reading are completely unrestricted, and it's really encouraged to make friends in the language. If you live in the country, join as many social activities as you can. Live in a shared apartment, go to bars, join dance classes, a sports team, anything! Set your PC, phone, and all your online profiles to your target language. Make a list of daily things you do in your own language, and find alternatives to do them in your target language.

What you are learning: You may find the odd common word that you haven't learned yet, but by now your known vocabulary pretty much covers everything that you will usually want to say during everyday conversation. If you make friends and have real conversations, or watch certain TV shows, you will now be learning a lot of slang. By now, your knowledge will cover most sentence structures and grammatical words, so you will rarely learn these anymore, unless they are specific to certain registers of the language. You will mostly learn specific vocabulary used in formal speech or in writing. Most words that you learn now will be words that are used in more formal registers of speech like in the news, words used in formal writing, literary writing, or technical terms used in the specific fields that you are interested in: politics, technology, science, or 13th century woodblock prints. If your language doesn’t share a lot of its specialized vocabulary with your new language, you may still have to work on this for a long while.

Level 7

You can use the language effectively for all practical purposes.

Hours of input: 1,500

Known words: 12,000+

Videos to watch: Advanced

What you can do: You can understand any general content effortlessly, including newspapers, novels, and all types of TV shows and movies. You might still struggle with technical texts in unfamiliar fields, heavy regional slang, and shows with intricate plots. You speak fluently and effortlessly, without thinking about the language. While native speakers might still detect a slight accent, your clarity and fluidity make your speech easy to understand, and no one considers you a learner anymore. You may still make some mistakes, or miss a specific word here and there, but it doesn’t hinder you from being an effective member of society.

What you need to do: Listen and read A LOT. Add variety to what you read and listen to. By this point it's easy to find media in the target language that you understand very well, but it's also easy to get comfortable and not seek new challenges. If you want to continue improving, simply do things that you have never done before. Try reading a book by a new author, try watching a show about a topic that you're unfamiliar with (about space, about the Middle Ages, about lawyers, etc). If you live in the country, try joining activities that are new to you: a sports team, an improv group, comedy nights, etc.

What you are learning: You will continue learning slang, and learning about the culture, and that will allow you to understand more and more cultural references. You can explore other regional dialects of the language, ancient literary versions of the language, or vocabulary in other technical or scientific fields that you may want to learn about. You will still encounter new idioms and proverbs, but they will almost always be clear from the context. And of course, you can start learning your next language!

[qsmpspanishclass]

¡ʜᴏʟᴀ ʏ ʙɪᴇɴᴠᴇɴɪᴅᴀ ᴀ ʟᴀ ᴄʟᴀꜱᴇ! / ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴄʟᴀꜱꜱ!

The QSMP Spanish Class is a discord server that aims to teach fans of QSMP Spanish from English, however it is friendly to everyone looking to join a community with both Spanish and English speakers!

features & mods beneath the cut!

Our server has three tiers, novice (principiante), intermediate (intermedio), and expert (experto)- the level you can view is determined by reaction roles!

We also welcome people who use Spanish as a first language, though there are no tiers for learning English, and it would be more a safe space to practice than anything!

Additionally, we host game nights & events to practice speaking, and offer a space to share creatives like art and writing- both related and unrelated to the QSMP!

The QSMP Spanish Class has 3 m̵̢̯͌ô̸̠͚͌̏͜d̸͚̼͖͂ę̴̟̯̊͗r̷̢̟͙̄̃a̸͈̫̿̇͂ẗ̸̛͍͈̳́͊ơ̶͎̻̖r̸̪̈ș̵͔̬̊͆̚!

Ghost Town!

"Hello! We're the Ghost Town system, pronouns depend on the alter! We're the founders of the QSMP Spanish Class, and we've taken 5 years of Spanish and are planning to study abroad after 3 more years studying! Our tumblr is @theghosttown & our favorite CCs on the QSMP are Quackity, Jaiden, Luzu and Mariana!"

Zee!

"Hey! My name is Zee, they/he, or el/elle in Spanish! I am a minor, and Slimecicle is one of my favorite ccs. English is my first language, but im working on learning Spanish! My tumblr is @dreams-your-smp, and your always free to shoot me an ask to say hi!"

Fran!

"Hello there :) I'm fran (they/them). I spent five years learning Spanish in school and recently picked up learning it again. I'm also currently trying to learn Portuguese and am a big fan of practically all of the creators on the qsmp"

The QSMP Spanish Class has 2 additional moderators selected via election, and 1 further moderator selected by other m̵̢̯͌ô̸̠͚͌̏͜d̸͚̼͖͂ę̴̟̯̊͗r̷̢̟͙̄̃a̸͈̫̿̇͂ẗ̸̛͍͈̳́͊ơ̶͎̻̖r̸̪̈ș̵͔̬̊͆̚!

Chris!

Heyooo, I'm Chris (He/Him) I'm latino (VIVA COLOMBIAA) and spanish is my first language, my art tumblr is @chrisartshere and im just happy to be a menace

B!

[To be updated!]

Frank!

Hiya! I’m Frank, she/her/hers. I’m American, and English is my first language. QSMP Spanish class is teaching me Spanish, and I’m also semi-fluent in ASL! My tumblr is frankjonesthenerd, and my AO3 is the same. Multifandom with an emphasis on MCYT and Star Wars. Come hang out with us!

.

[nowtoboldlygo]

level three update for dreaming spanish! i just hit 150 hours of comprehensible input!!!!!!

if you're unfamiliar, there are a ton of comprehensible input videos out there in spanish, usually where a native speaker guides you through a story/discussion with pictures, lots of body language, and beginner-level vocab and grammar. there is proof that a language learner can learn to speak entirely by consuming video content at an appropriate level.

the goal is one thousand and five hundred hours total. terrifying, but i'm 10% of the way through!

quick facts for the curious:

i'm not speaking, reading, or writing for now. check out this page for more about the method - the general idea is immersion, with the goal of language acquisition, and the minimization of poor pronunciation and beginner-level demotivation.

it took me 47 days of study, over the span of almost seven months, to watch 50 hours of superbeginner and beginner content.

it took me 63 days of study, over the span of three months, to watch another 100 hours of superbeginner, beginner, and intermediate content, for a total of 150 hours.

within the last year i've only studied thirty more hours outside of comprehensible input videos - listening to language transfer, reading A1 level materials made for learners, and flashcard study. worth mentioning: over a decade ago i did study spanish for two years, and french for six.

[cow-stealin-gal]

“¿Los pájaros no se van cuando te acercas?”

(Don’t the birds leave when you get close?)

have a free little guy with this ask

*squee!!

“¡Ay, que lindo!”

(Aww, how cute!)

[hispanichorizons]

Best podcast to improve your Spanish.

🎧📚🌎 ¡Hola a todos! Today we have a post with a list of 🎙️ podcasts to learn Spanish. 🎧 Podcasts are an awesome way to improve your Spanish, since you can listen to these Spanish audio files anywhere and at any time. You don't even need an Internet connection! 📲 Most podcast hosts allow you to download them to your phone. Many of them tell stories, while others explain cultural or grammatical concepts, etc. They are really useful for improving your Spanish listening comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary almost effortlessly. 🚀 Additionally, you can get accustomed to different Spanish-speaking accents by listening to Spanish podcasts with various accents. 🗣️

📝 Here's the list of some great Spanish podcasts to learn Spanish, which is not intended to be exhaustive. It includes only some of the good podcasts that I know, and that can help Spanish learners:

👉 Learn Spanish Beginner: a podcast by Sergio Delgado, 5 minutes to stop being a beginner. 🌟

👉 Latin Ele: a podcast made by teachers from Latin America (Chile and Colombia), intended for intermediate and advanced students who want to improve their current skills in an entertaining way. They emphasize everyday communication. 🌎

👉 Sí Comprendo: a podcast to better understand the history and culture of Spanish-speaking countries. 📖🌍

👉 Faro Spanish Podcasts: covers different topics of history, culture, grammar, vocabulary, music, with speakers from Spain and Latin America. 🎤🎶

👉 Radio Españolizarte: a podcast aimed at intermediate and advanced Spanish students (B1-C2) who feel stuck and want to continue advancing in their learning. 🚀

👉 Spanish with Vicente: a podcast focused on intermediate-advanced students who want to listen to stories to learn vocabulary, grammar or get to know Spanish culture. 🎭🎨

👉 Vidas en español: a podcast about the lives of different Hispanic celebrities, to help learn Spanish and develop listening comprehension, to be more fluent when speaking Spanish. 🎙️🎬

👉 En Sintonía con el español: a podcast from the Cervantes Institute to learn Spanish. It includes interactive activities. 🤓📚

👉 Spanish for your career: a podcast for intermediate and advanced Spanish students who want to learn more about business Spanish and corporate culture. 💼

👉 Podcasts de Profe de Ele: Fran and Pepa are the protagonists of these podcasts. They cover different topics (friendship, fear, Spanish inventions, strange hotels...), and are accompanied by interactive activities on the Profe de Ele blog. 🎉🎭

👉 Spanish Language Coach: a Spanish podcast for intermediate level students with free transcripts. It deals with topics related to society, personal development, Spanish history or language learning. Everything is adapted for intermediate level students. 📖💻

👉 Learn Spanish with Hispanic Horizons: it's the podcast from Hispanic Horizons, mainly for A1 to C1 level students. Different topics are covered, they are usually very short, and almost all have the transcript and activities to practice them on our blog Horizontes de ELE. We usually also have the podcasts on our YouTube channel: Learn Spanish with Hispanic Horizons. 📚🌟 Also if you would like to Learn Spanish online or offline and get a certificate of international prestige, you can join our Spanish classes and

🤗 We hope that this list of podcasts to learn Spanish is useful for you. Surely, if you start listening to Spanish more frequently, you will improve a lot your Spanish listening skills. 🎉🎓