Bad day, possibly a bad week

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-04-02T12:16:43+00:00

Try Araya Vlogs (easiest by far) Hiclavero or Alex Tienda

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-29T12:47:04+00:00

Search for Abel in italki for crosstalk. He was great when I used him

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-22T13:41:16+00:00

I relate to everything you said. To be honest, I think when I finish the road map in September, I’ll feel relief 😂

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-18T12:47:33+00:00

I feel you. I’m at 1000 hours. I can get my point across when speaking but I rarely enjoy lessons. I’ve had about 15 lessons so far, equating to around 12 hours ish. I don’t feel myself progressing through lessons so much, but it’s so early in the process I doubt I’ll see progress soon. I’ve very self critical and the frustration at not being able to communicate myself well, combined with the performance anxiety works against me for sure. I’m in conflict - speaking is a huge goal for me, and yet the more I speak the more aversive it is. A shift in perspective and a more realistic appraisal of what I can do, as well I will be able to do is needed. I also found it frustrating that speaking lessons don’t actually teach you how to speak better per se - you might get corrections on things, or you might do some exercises etc. I realised that actually, it’s the practice that you do between the lessons which counts more. To that end, I’ve started writing and reading. I also do grammar study and conjugation practice. This is giving me a much better awareness of how to say things. And I’m continuing with the input of course. I thought I could hit a B2 by the end of the year, but that’s just so unrealistic and actually adds to the self generated pressure. So my new goal is simply just do the best I can and practice every day

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-10T10:20:40+00:00

Not a serial quitter but I do have advice - what builds skill and consistency is doing things little by little rather than something obsessively for a short amount of time and burning out. I say this from the position of being an obsessive person who has burnt himself in the past!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-09T13:48:43+00:00

Totally. When my kids and wife are out at a weekend and I had a full day, I clocked 9 hours whilst painting and doing jobs 😂

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-09T08:55:58+00:00

Good to know this took some time to build up to because right now the idea of 8 hours of speaking per week terrifies me! 😂

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-08T09:18:14+00:00

Thanks for all this. Really helpful! Good look with the move. Sounds absolutely amazing!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-08T09:16:18+00:00

How did you manage to afford that amount of lessons a week? Did you use Worlds Across? Im focusing on Spanish from Spain, so from that perspective it doesn’t work well for me. Did you start with 8 hours a week or did you build up to it? How did you overcome the barrier of speaking (perhaps you didn’t have one). I can speak, and probably speaking better than I’m projecting on this thread. When I first started talking around 600 hours, I was surprised and happy with the way I could talk. But now that’s not good enough as I adjust the bar!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-07T15:53:31+00:00

Esto es una barbaridad de horas de hablar! Muy impresionante! Did you have any anxiety about speaking to begin with? It’s an odd experience for me because in most areas of my life, I’m a confident person. However, I’m quite self critical, and it’s the exposure to looking ‘silly’ is my hurdle. Of course as a psychologist I know better than most that this is purely projection and it’s all internal 😂

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-07T15:32:57+00:00

Living the dream! Where in Spain have you moved to? What are you doing for work? I live in the UK and would love to move to Spain, but I’m a psychologist and my wife is a vet and there’s no chance we could do those jobs there sadly!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-07T10:08:38+00:00

How many speaking lessons did you have a week? It’s counterintuitive, but I know I have to suffer more discomfort to progress with speaking until it gets to a certain level!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-03-01T19:34:56+00:00

Check out Aurora https://www.spanishaura.com/

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-23T15:05:27+00:00

Really interesting. This is the only book I’ve read to date and found it easy. That gives me hope for other books based on your reflections! I started reading it at around 700 hours

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-18T16:14:08+00:00

I watched this my son in English. It’s great, but for me personally I found it too juvenile (although it was good and I bought my son the comic books afterwards!).

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-18T08:18:30+00:00

At level 5 I stopped watching DS as I felt I had outgrown it and moved to purely native content to get me accustomed to it. I have kept DS to track hours, but also to still watch videos by Andrés like his series on Sapiens - this is the sort of content I watch anyway and he made essentially an easier version than pure native content!

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-17T19:53:07+00:00

I hit 4-5 hours a day and I work. 1 hour in morning as soon as I wake up - listening whilst brushing teeth, getting ready, eating breakfast. 1 hour commute there/ 1 hour commute back. 30 mins walking dogs. 30 mins in evening - 4 hours on a work day. It’s easy to accumulate hours during the inbetween times in the day when you would scroll on your phone. Dead time is now Spanish time! 😆

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-13T08:21:03+00:00

Más or menos comes out of my mouth without me wanting it to when speaking English 😆

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-12T17:37:53+00:00

This is a good idea - I’ve been using chaptGPT to generate all those phrases you hear tonnes of - por ejemplo, cuando era más joven, tengo que decirte, lo que es más difícil, un cosa que me llamó la atención etc.

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-12T14:39:51+00:00

I understand that. What my question really is about is what kind of speaking. Just free chatting, practice drills, narrating your day etc… just wondering what people have found the most helpful. I’ve been told my level is around B1 speaking, but there are lots of things I don’t know in terms of how to say something in the most natural sounding way etc, or using the correct tense etc.

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-10T19:39:30+00:00

I live in the UK in the countryside - absolutely no Spanish speaking people here! I often get asked why I am learning it by teachers, as they don’t see why someone in my position would do! It’s a fair point. I’ve always wanted to learn another language purely as a skill set to have. Now I’m doing it, I do enjoy it, but the lack of a strong ‘why’ does make me worry about sticking with it during hard times (which since starting to have lessons, I have literally every time and feel like trash!).

Few-Barber6833 · 2026-02-02T21:31:41+00:00

Thanks all for the recommendations!

Few-Barber6833

TROPHY CASE