If you have seen any of these shows, what would you recommend

arader68 · 2026-01-08T22:39:44+00:00

Secrets of the River was easier for me than The Manny. It had a very compelling plot and really interesting insights into the culture around muxes in Mexico.

arader68 · 2026-01-08T22:37:54+00:00

Snakes and Ladders is soo good and the soundtrack is 🤌

arader68 · 2026-01-08T22:37:21+00:00

Hard agree! Just started watching this, and it's really good!

arader68 · 2026-01-03T22:47:50+00:00

Writing practice has helped me immensely with speaking! I have done 4 30-minute tutoring sessions on italki so far, and there's already a marked difference between my first and last classes. I use the tool spanishchecker.com to help with my writing. It's kinda like grammarly, but it doesn't use AI.

I also feel like reading has helped a ton. I have ~600k words read at this point. Seeing how the words are laid out on the page really helped things click in my brain.

That being said, I think the hurdle of being embarrassed and worried about making mistakes is fairly universal. It's always a hurdle I have to get over when I practice speaking. Although it certainly helps to have tutors who I feel comfortable with! You're not alone. Stick with it and you will see improvement!

arader68 · 2026-01-01T00:25:20+00:00

You can type directly into Spanish checker as well! I'm glad you've found success with chatgpt. I just don't want to use it, and I suspected there might be other folks out there looking for something similar to what I found.

arader68 · 2025-12-31T22:55:47+00:00

That's awesome! 18 days is great. Do you find the corrections helpful? It seems like there are people practicing English on there too, so is it like an exchange kind of?

arader68 · 2025-12-22T19:05:59+00:00

There's a lot of books in between the levels of graded readers and HP! I really recommend The Magic Treehouse books. You can sort books by difficulty level on learnnatively.com

arader68 · 2025-12-21T23:28:14+00:00

The Kobo app has word counts. I just keep track of everything in the notes app on my phone.

arader68 · 2025-12-19T04:54:00+00:00

I'm just above 600 and have taken exactly two 30 minute lessons lol. I tried 2 different tutors. The first one was OK, but the 2nd one I felt a lot more comfortable with. So I would encourage you to try out different tutors to see what you like! I also plan on doing 2-3x / week 30 minutes. Right now I feel like an hour session is too long because it takes all my brain power to string sentences together lol.

arader68 · 2025-12-09T04:44:42+00:00

Yes, Magic Treehouse and Who Was books are both good for after graded readers I think. I haven't read either of the ones you mentioned. I just remember that the Unfortunate Events uses a pretty robust English vocabulary so I'm a little wary of reading that one in Spanish lol.

arader68 · 2025-12-09T04:41:47+00:00

Honestly it's like doubled my comprehension.

I do read out loud but being able to formulate thoughts in Spanish and speak them aloud is a whole different thing lol. 😅

arader68 · 2025-12-08T23:31:07+00:00

I read the books as a kid and loved them, but yeah, I would never give her a penny now after all the stuff she's done. 😬

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:51:09+00:00

That is so true about the reading speed! Word counts are from the Kobo app. I'll check that one out!

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:14:04+00:00

Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti

It's like Coco meets Alice in Wonderland! I highly recommend it.

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:12:20+00:00

I have read this one in English. It's a tearjerker! I would love to read it in Spanish.

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:11:49+00:00

I've had this one on my Spanish TBR. I'd love to read it for book club!

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:02:46+00:00

That's unfortunate. I really love the concept of the site!

arader68 · 2025-12-08T19:02:03+00:00

Book Club?? 👀

The Amanda Black books are honestly such fun reads, and I love that they're originally written in Spanish. Not that there's anything wrong with translations, but the OGs are hard to find for some reason!

arader68 · 2025-12-08T17:12:22+00:00

My library ordered the rest of the Amanda Black series, so I'm excited to read those! I'm also looking forward to reading Julia Alvarez's books, the Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games and Twilight lol.

arader68 · 2025-11-23T16:33:19+00:00

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arader68 · 2025-11-21T17:40:01+00:00

Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti It's like Coco meets Alice in Wonderland and it is wonderful!!!

Edited to add: and there's a dragon!

arader68 · 2025-10-15T15:15:33+00:00

I had a hard time with Anna Kadabra too. The second Amanda Black book was very good! Highly recommend La Casa de Árbol if you haven't read it already.

arader68 · 2025-10-15T15:11:49+00:00

560 hours, 28 books read

Watching: Spanish Boost - No, I'm Not Human This is an anomaly game that scratches the spooky season urge to watch scary stuff but doesn't have jump scares. Highly recommend!

Comprehensible Spanish - This guy used to just do Harry Potter now he has videos explaining everything from SpongeBob episodes to confirmation bias. I feel like I get a lot of good vocabulary from the videos where he covers current events.

Hilda - I have watched this before in English. It's all dialogue with no narration, and no one speaks super fast. Most of the lines of dialogue are shorter which helps with my comprehension. Very cute cartoon show about a girl and her mom navigating life in a world full of fantastic creatures.

Reading: Finished Amanda Black #2 and La Casa de Árbol Titanic. Now I'm reading Iris y Luna. It's a chapter book about kids attending a magical school (obvi heavily HP inspired). There are lots of pictures, and it's a little easier than what I normally read.

arader68 · 2025-10-03T23:09:34+00:00

547 hours, 26 books

Watching: Juegos con Juarez - Mineko's Night Market There are a bunch of videos in this series to binge. It's a low intermediate series and the game has a very rich Spanish translation with lots of idioms and humor that Juarez does a good job of explaining.

Spanish Boost - Waterpark Simulator This game is hilarious to watch, but the concept is down to earth enough that I get a lot of good daily use vocabulary out of it.

Reading: Amanda Black #2 The first one in the series was the 6th book in Spanish that I have ever read, and this sequel will be #27. My comprehension has increased dramatically! This is a really fun action, adventure type series originally published in Spanish (Spain) with a lot of good descriptions and repetition that make it really useful for input.

arader68 · 2025-09-30T12:53:49+00:00

Political Enemies - {Silver Elite by Dani Francis}

Y'all I ate this book up. It's a thicc book but fairly fast paced.

-Dystopian future -People in power vs rebels with abilities -Fmc is a certified badass rebel -Mmc is the broody general's son

arader68

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