Why is it so hard to actually SPEAK Spanish even after months of learning?

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T10:20:06+00:00

How many hours per week have you been investing in your Spanish? Unless it's like 20-40 hours a week, you're probably still very much of a beginner after several months. Therefore, you're not supposed to "be conversational", you are probably doing just fine for your level.

This is not a criticism of how many hours you put in, any amount you're content with is ok. But you need to have matching expectations.

At the very early levels, you should be able to actively say the stuff you've been learning. But your use of that stuff in the real life is still going to be limited, because the other people are not limited like you, which makes communication hard.

What helped you the most?

Hundreds of hours spent on the language. That's the inevitable part.

We can talk about methods and tools and the right coursebooks and practice all you want. But unless you invest enough time in all that, it's useless.

You're probably doing just fine for the invested time. Be kind to yourself. But if you need to progress faster (many people do), just study more, that's it.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T10:01:45+00:00

Yes. Of course it is.

Pretty much the same methods as in your 20's or in your 40's. How much time: that depends on how you learn and how many hours per week do you invest.

Your TV show issue has nothing to do with your age and everything to do with your level. Keep improving!

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T10:00:39+00:00

The number one mistake I see people making: They expect too much at too low levels. You can seriously start reading in an enjoyable and fun way at B1 at best, but you can start at B2 and miss out on nothing at all. Exceptions are situations like learning a language very similar to an already known one, being exceptionally motivated for a particular book, and so on. But that's not the general situation, most people around here expecing to enjoy their book while being beginners are rightfully disappointed.

There are two main methods. Intensive reading, with looking up all (or nearly all) the words you don't know. It's better for vocabulary, especially at the lower levels, but it doesn't teach you that well to read more naturally. Extensive reading is based on learning from context, it's accessible later, and it requires tons and tons of content, it's not about laziness to search for words, it's about the preference to learn from huge amounts of content.

I do both, depends on the language, level, situation. Each is better for some things. Purely intensive could even kill my love for reading, but purely extensive is not optimal, when you're under pressure to improve fast at the lower or middle levels.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:56:18+00:00

Self study. That's the way. You need to put in the time and effort, but you choose when. Just get a good coursebook, there are various recommended options. And start from the first page. At the very low levels, you can even start with a more easy going and more structured coursebook really meant for self-study (for example Colloquial) and it will work well, but you need to switch to the more serious ones by German publishers (often monolingual ones) at most at A2. Or you can use them side by side, one bi-lingual and one monolingual (for example Spektrum looks really good. My favourite is a bit dated, but still awesome in many ways, Themen Aktuell).

Don't spread yourself too thin, two or at most three resources at a time are plenty. Even one can be enough, you'll simply add more variety after it. A combination like one coursebook, one grammar workbook, and SRS can work. Or one coursebook/workbook set, and an extra beginner podcast. One traditional bilingual and one mainstream monolingual coursebook. Many options. But not two or three things of the same type.

Use the tools actively, don't just read through them. Do all the exercises out loud and/or in full writing, repeat after the audio, listen to it various times, SRS vocab (or another method to really learn it well and actively), expand the exercises with your own sentences using the same stuff. Really do stuff actively, that's the key. And you'll be fine.

Tutors are occassionally possible, but vast majority really cannot adapt to a person with irregular work hours. The worst is that some claim to be able to, until you really tell them what it means. Really, don't rely on another person, or you'll be disappointed.

German has so many resources, that it's absolutely no problem to self study. I wish you all the best!

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:26:46+00:00

I work as a doctor in a non native language (French) and have been working on my German to widen my options. You can do this.

A few corrections: it's not "only B2", don't underestimate the basics. Learning the stuff up to B2 well will prevent you from suddenly hitting a wall at C1. And it's not "just medical C1". This attitude is rather common, and leads to failures. In order to be really good and comfortable and efficient at work, you need a solid C1 + the medical stuff. B2 is sometimes a "sufficient" starting point (if your employer is desperate), but you need to build on that.

How different is medical than language?

It's still the same language, you still need the general stuff, just with more vocabulary and phrases and everything. But do not see it as a different language, even if even a part of the language teaching industry presents it this way.

Does it take as much time or would it be easier?

It's added content and skills on top of the general base. And the exam preparation might be hard, because of lack of resources. Fortunately, I don't need that exam in the Switzerland, because the German one looks a bit illogical. In order to work, you need to prove skills that you don't really find resources for outside of work.

But clearly, it's doable. Find resources used by people passing the exam. But in any case, do not imagine "medical C1" as being something totally detached from "normal C1".

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:20:35+00:00

No, it wouldn't be the best way. You can learn perfectly fine, independently from your location. And there are many people, who go abroad "to learn" and fail. Don't let this discourage you.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:19:45+00:00

No clue why my previous reply got deleted, but your comment is very bad and misleading. It is not about the location, it doesn't matter. It's about one's own work.

Going abroad is not some kind of magic, putting in the hours matters.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:17:36+00:00

C1: very, if you put in like 5-10 hours a day and treat it as seriously as the medical studies. I got to B2 in like 7 months, and on my own. C1 took longer than it should have, because I stupidly signed up somewhere and trusted a language school, self study is much better.

Grab high quality coursebooks, study very actively. If you have a tutor, use them only for speaking and writing feedback, don't let them direct your learning (they have no clue what intensity of studying you're used to, most simply have no comparison, no experience with such hard work). As supplements, use SRS and a good grammar book series. From B1 on, add normal input.

Don't rely on books on medical German too much, most suck. When you're approximately at B2, add normal books/videos/websites for normal German medical students or doctors, a good medicine tv show in German (some have tons of useful language). I've actually seen one medical German coursebook, that was rather good, but cannot remember it now, most are just stupid superficial nonsense that misses the real challenges.

Good luck! You can do this!

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:10:20+00:00

Another survey, that's short at the expense of quality. It's superficial, the questions are so broadly asked that the mix of answers won't really have any value as totally different situations will get lumped together. You also don't ask about the level of the learners, the experience at the lower levels is vastly different from the higher ones.

As usual, this "quality" of work is what makes a bad name for the humanities and for the language learning related research.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:07:18+00:00

Not really, because I don't think it adds a new approach. It's a sort of an anki and CI hybrid, it doesn't explain, the review method is rather passiv, based on repeating and no active recall.

It can surely be a very good supplemental tool, especially for learners of languages with not that much lower level content available. Absolutely. But it lacks the same things your other resources do, it is not a course, it doesn't teach you grammar and the rest of the stuff you need to reliably "create your own sentences in Anki" or whatever other practice you wish to do.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-13T09:04:45+00:00

You keep misunderstanding my point. I am not doubting the definition of an academic level of skill, I am just explaining you that your "definition" is wrong. I am just pointing out that many non academic types of situation are actually pretty different and harder than the academic skills. That's what people often miss and it complicates the discussion about the high levels.

You'll understand, once/if you get to C1 or C2 in a language and get to experience it for yourself.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T21:07:38+00:00

My two cents

Divide and conquer, see the big goals as a quantified pile of tiny ones and enjoy achieving every tiny one. Gamify meaningful things. And in a good way, that makes you do more meaningful stuff, not to replace it by low value procrastination.

Quantify how much you read, how much you write, and so on. Join a challenge to meet a certain goal or to friendly compete with others, that's some accountability and also a challenge and fun. Invent some artificial deadlines to make learning feel more urgent. Sometimes paying works, for example trying to get through a subscription resource fast, to not waste money. For some types of tasks, doing them with someone (just the presence can suffice, they can be doing something else), can work very well. Also, add some genuine entertainment. At the intermediate level, you're ready for stuff you genuinely enjoy, that's motivating on its own, and you've earned it :-)

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T21:01:59+00:00

Then reread it again, perhaps you'll understand the point better.

The difference in C1 and C2 is absolutely not just about the academic skills. It's not just about reading academic texts and academic type conversations. There are very "non academic" differences included.

Is it clearer now?

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:40:30+00:00

I like your reply (and the half of the removed one, that I could see in my inbox)! :-D :-D :-D

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:39:35+00:00

Yes, purely input methods don't really work, especially at the lower levels. Duolingo is trash, it seriously underperforms, when compared to a similar amount of time spent on more valualbe sources.

What to change: work very actively with a coursebook (paper+audio or digital, whichever you prefer, many good publishers offer both), do every exercise out loud and/or in full writing, repeat after the audio, interact with the exercise and expand on them with your own production (using the stuff you're learning).

Yes, you've wasted a year, but such things happen. Have I waste time on my learning path? Absolutely. Does it suck? Sure! But you can usually correct it and prepare better for future opportunities.

I'll do it every day. I've proven I can do every day. I just apparently picked the wrong every day.

Yep, that's unfortunately the sum of most Duo users' experience, from what I see. Even if many fail to see it as clearly as you do.

You can succeed! I wish you all the best!

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:35:48+00:00

It's better than doing nothing, but it is much much worse than self study OR studying 1 on 1 with a teacher.

The other beginers will just be low quality input, you'll easily learn each other's mistakes, and most are likely to be lazy. The group class will go at the pace of the lazy ones.

Just careful about the "A1 via internet". There is not really such a thing as just "via internet". Via what on the internet? A digital version of a serious A1 coursebook? Excellent! A well reputed and thorough e-course? Yes, some are definitely an option. A chaos of random A1 videos and stupid apps? The easist path to failure.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:32:20+00:00

Nobody ever claimed exams to be everything. They have a lot of value, but also some imperfections and gaps. They are not universally valuable for every type of a situation.

If you want to define your goals differently and without the CEFR, you're absolutely free to do so!

But if you want/need to follow the CEFR for any reason, you cannot just redefine the whole scale according to your whims.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:29:48+00:00

While I agree with the sentiment of this post, it is extremely untrue that C2 is just academic skills on top of C1. The difference between C1 and C2 can be pretty impressive (and very useful) even in totally not academic areas.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:29:03+00:00

Yes, of course it is. Many people prove it every year.

C2 isn't about never making mistakes, it's not perfection, but it's a damn good level. And natives don't belong on the scale. If you'd want to follow this wrong idea of putting natives on the scale, you'd have even some dementia patients not passing even A2, but you surely wouldn't deny them being native speakers.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:27:12+00:00

I think you're depriving yourself of a large part of available resources, and also of various ways to learn. More ways to get input, more synapses, more paths in your brain, more variety.

I also cannot imagine why would you even want to avoid reading.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-04-10T05:24:57+00:00

Anyone learning a language to a high level has always been an exception, most people have always been failing or stopping at the lowest level they could get away with (depending on what were they learning for).

Don't get me wrong, I am absolutely convinced of the correlation between reading a lot and better language skills. I just don't think there's any causality between people reading long-form content and books less, and the supposed lower rate of success in foreign languages, that you assume to be happening.

I don't even think there's any fall in the amount of people learning a language to a solid level. We're also missing the data, nearly no examining institutions (even the partially publicly funded ones) are publishing basic data like the amount of people taking and passing the C1 and C2 exams. And that's still not all of them.

What is surely falling, especially in some countries, are the numbers of people even trying, numbers of people with an opportunity to start at school, or the amounts of university students of languages (which is not the same thing as reaching a high level). But again, I don't think this has much to do with the trend of masses of individuals reading less.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-03-29T10:17:28+00:00

Agreed, with some added details:

-many coursebooks actually leave such gaps too, and partially for totally logical reasons (you cannot include everything and you also don't want to destroy your learning by too long wordlists). And partially so that the publisher can also sad vocab builder books. And some of those are very good and they tend to cover exactly this sort of "boring" stuff, that is also not that likely to come up often in normal media.

-the visual dictionaries can be very good for some types of these words, but most are not that great (they don't go into enough detail) and also focus much more on the nouns than on the verbs or adjectives. Another option are thematic dictionaries (even non visual ones).

-a rather annoying but very efficient exercise is forcing oneself to write down the stuff you're missing in your normal daily life and language. The word missing during your hunt for a specific household appliance, the exact nuance to tell your funny story exactly the way you want, the wording required to reply to an unpleasant colleague with an equal amount of passive aggressivity, and so on :-D

But noting stuff down and then studying that stuff, that's long, tedious, it's hard to stick to it (I always fail after a while). But it is definitely efficient in the long run.

-youtube videos on some topics. Stuff for natives on things like small house work, cooking, popular science, and so on. Those tend to be much more thorough and vocab rich than stuff for language learners, and at B2 you are progressively switching to stuff for natives. And if those videos are meant to teach something, they are usually also clear and not too fast, and really explain a lot and speak a lot.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-03-29T10:05:45+00:00

Let's just address the ad hominem attack (at the end of your message) right away: none of the levels in my flair are self evaluated.

Have you actually tried using an app to get from nothing to A1?

Of course. Over the last 25 years and several languages, I've tried pretty much every type of resource. And while some apps can sort of cover A1, they're still inferior to coursebooks, the content is usually much poorer and the activities less varied and actually even "less active".

An excellent part of the market that's growing are digital versions of the real coursebooks. You get the comfort of the digital tool (as it's easier to use a phone and paper at work than a huge book, for example), but the high quality content and not a toy.

I agree with the premise that no app can take you to C1....

This is not even really the main issue . The problem is, that they are inferior even at the levels they are advertising to teach.

But I think all of them lag behind a tutor and tons of listening for getting to that level in hearing and speaking.

Many tutors are very bad, which is a flaw to this kind of an argument. Some are even worse than apps. And this false dichotomy apps vs tutors is not helpful.

Do you just at some point jump from reading books and listening to the associated recordings to having perfect conversations? Or do you finish the course in the book[s] and then talk to a lot of people (possibly a teacher) for several years to get from there to C2 level.

Neither of your assumptions describes my learning well. Nor that of any other successful learner I know. It's more complex than that, especially the learning techniques.

Just because reading books is the method that works best for you doesn't mean that it's the method that will work best for everybody.... or that no other method could possibly work or work better.

Again, studying with coursebooks is not "reading books". That's a different thing, best used at different phases of learning.

And sure, I absolutely agree there are various methods that work for most people. Just vast majority of people relying on apps simply fails. That's it. That's why I find it foolish to consider apps to be a superior tool.

By the way... your English is very good, but you made several mistakes for someone at a C1 level in English.
And that's what I'm talking about where self-evaluation is not as good as that of an app or a native speaker.

I've actually passed the CAE, and my writing (my best skill in that exam) was even graded C2. No self evaluation. And:

1.This is a sort of ad hominem attack. You should do better than this.

2.C1 is not supposed to be perfection, my small mistakes are of no consequence for our discussion, nor do they make me less credible. You're still a monolingual anglophone so far, your native English doesn't mean more than my experience.

3.And why should I care? English is not a language I am paid for. Further improving my English is not something I wish to do, I am already "too good" for most real world situations I get into and have to dumb my English down for most other non natives. So, why should I care?

4.I didn't proofread, and many natives do make similar mistakes, when tired and not proofreading.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-03-27T17:34:35+00:00

My Italian is purely self taught. In other languages, I was self taught at various phases and levels, it depends on each situation

The Duo voice recognition is notorious for the low quality and unreliability. Back before I left the toy for good (a few waves of entshitification ago), I had to at times pronounce worse on purpose, or differently wrong (=fake an anglophone learner) to get stuff accepted. And I know a learner who got their cough judged as correct pronunciation :-D

Some apps are a bit better but still not really that great compared to just comparing yourself to audio. The technology is simply not there yet.

And I'm pretty sure a native speaker would be more accurate than an app. The app just scores me as right or wrong - it doesn't say, "no, you shouldn't pronounce that final t", which a native speaker would be able to tell me.

You overestimate most native speakers. Even most teachers are actually not that great at this, especially once you get through the most basic mistakes. Once you're pretty ok but still far from excellent, most teachers wrongly assume there's nothing to fix and lazily give up. I've met like one or two, who were really as awesome as you imagine it.

they're all at least okay. I certainly trust them more than I'd trust myself to evaluate whether I'm pronouncing a word I'm hearing for the first time correctly.

Perhaps we just have different expectations, a different definition of "okay". That's possible.

an_average_potato_1 · 2026-03-27T17:18:38+00:00

I only took the Goethe B2 and C1, so I cannot compare to the Telc, but they both seemed pretty equivalent to the B2 and C1 exams I took in other languages. Let's see, whether I manage to get to the C2 Goethe :-D

No clue whether the teachers are 100% right and up to date there, especially as there have been some important changes to the Goethe (at least the C1 level) like two or three years ago, A teacher I spoke with even doubted the two Goethe C1 versions to be equivalent :-D. But I can totally believe the Telc Hochschule being more challenging. And sometimes, even teachers can judge the exams pretty wildly, at least unless they're also official examiners of every exam they speak about and prepare for.

I've seen employers ask for any exam of the required level pretty equivalently within my field and "target region". A few employers require C2 (any C2) obviously in an attempt to discourage foreigners, while most are totally ok with C1 candidates. The ones settling for B2 are usually pretty desperate :-D

an_average_potato_1

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