Comments on: How Long Does It Take to Be Fluent in Spanish?

By: Nate Alger

Nate Alger — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 19:27:58 +0000

In reply to LagartoGrande. Great points and thanks for sharing your experience. :)

By: LagartoGrande

LagartoGrande — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 12:17:37 +0000

Hi. Re: learning Spanish. I think being older, you possess more patience. By older, I mean, older than the majority of people. When learning another language as an “older” person, perhaps you might have the advantage of several things. There is no need or desire to immediately “be the best”. You are wise enough to know that we are being forced into pointless competition for the ultimate purpose of consumerism…somebody trying to sell you something, or coerce you into certain behaviour.
Keeping things simple is easier as an older adult. You have been around long enough to know how to keep it simple. You know how to simply ignore the distractions and work away at a task. “Time” is a consumerist construct, which is not applicable in learning another language. Would you not be more satisfied with taking your time and learning the basics of a language well, rather than knowing a lot but with only surface familiarity?

Simple basic phrases will slowly evolve into sentences…entonces, usted será capaz de comunicarse casualmente con sus amigos de habla hispana, y diviértete haciéndolo.

Salud !!

By: Nate Alger

Nate Alger — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 17:48:43 +0000

In reply to Gabe.

Hola Gabe, I am a bit biased, but we have a Spanish membership just for that thing: http://www.spanishlandschool.com/member

Or just get a good tutor that focuses on grammar and writing. 🙂

By: Gabe

Gabe — Sat, 31 Oct 2020 01:33:12 +0000

What way would be best to learn grammar and writing in Spanish?

By: Andrea Alger

Andrea Alger — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 03:45:35 +0000

In reply to Jim. Hola Jim, gracias por compartir esto con nosotros, es increíble, espero que llegues a ese nivel que buscas, un abrazo.

By: Nate Alger

Nate Alger — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 23:11:53 +0000

In reply to Trent Arce. You can do it, Trent!

By: Jim

Jim — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 15:18:46 +0000

In reply to Patrick Russo.

Patrick, I’m an older guy too, and I can relate.

I’m just wrapping up the last Spanish class that community college offers and that works out to 720 hours to reach intermediate fluency. My experience is similar to yours, and it is taking me longer. But I also struggled to learn German in high school, although in every other subject, I was a straight-A student, so maybe I just don’t have an aptitude for languages. I still get English, my native language, grammar wrong often.

I ran into a recent problem though – hearing loss. It became very apparent to me in my last Spanish course. I couldn’t recognize sounds. I couldn’t hear “n” or “a” and mixed up “d,” “t,” and “p,” etc. I’m getting a hearing aid to assist with this.

I don’t think it’s just me and my hearing, though. I think some Spanish language recordings are garbled, and the speaker is dropping the “n” or “a,” etc.
Sometimes I have to turn on closed captioning in English language programs because I can’t understand the actors. I notice that newscasters speak very articulately. I rarely have trouble understanding them. I think that’s because newscasters are trained to speak very articulately.

I heard a statistic that it takes seven years to become fluent in another language. It sounds like you’re on track Patrick.

By: Trent Arce

Trent Arce — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 21:29:30 +0000

I’ve been interested in learning languages for months (specifically, Spanish, Korean, and Hawaiian.) and as a southern Texan I’ve been taking Spanish classes in school. Over this summer, I’ve forgotten all of my learning! With 3 hours a day until then (though I probably won’t keep that up everyday, as I’m just like you with distractions.) and spending those hours with genuine learning it’d be 186 hours, which is around 1/3 of the recommended hours spent! (1/3.22580645161 to be exact, but that doesn’t roll off the tongue quite well, now does it?) Considering this will be my 2nd year in the class and there are 6 different years of it available.. I might genuinely be able to pull off the exam to skip that year of useless Spanish class!! We’re required 2 years of language study here and with that Spanish class out of the way I’ll have a free class spot I could use for some fun electives!

By: Noah

Noah — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 02:50:50 +0000

In reply to Valerie D. Johnson. Would love to know if you got anywhere, don't know if this notifies you or not.

By: Nate Alger

Nate Alger — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 17:24:39 +0000

In reply to Michael Hayes. Good to hear, Michael! Now just stay consistent with it.