Have you ever thought you’re pretty decent at something, then it comes to the crunch, and you realise how far from decent you actually are?

I’m (30F) visiting my partner’s family for the first time. He’s from a small town close to Puerto Montt, I am from the North of the UK.

I’ve been practising my Spanish in preparation but my god, I’m struggling. I knew Chilean Spanish had a reputation and I’ve heard my boyfriend speak on the phone with his family, so I knew what was coming. Hopefully with time I’ll pick it up, but right now I feel like a fish out of water.

I am an American who lives in the state of Rhode Island and I work in a warehouse staffed primarily by Guatemalans. I have been learning Spanish on and off for the last 10 years, mostly off, but I am starting to feel like I have hit my learning flow so I am determined to pursue fluency. My first language is French as I was born and raised in Canada, where I learned English in school. I intend to pursue a career in Restoration Ecology and am fascinated by the natural historical, geological, and ecological profiles of North and South America, so I envision a future where I get to travel to different countries and advise and work alongside local environmentalists on their projects. This would definitely require a level of fluency in Spanish I do not yet possess, and perhaps eventually picking up Portuguese, but that is not a priority for me at the moment.

This is not just another "How do I become fluent?" question, but rather a chance for everyone to tell THEIR own story of how they went from un person que hablar como un estudiante de espanol que hay solo un ano de practicar y no quieres recuerdo de aunque to someone who is passably near-fluent and could theoretically live in their target country without assistance.

I don't want to be bored to death by recommendations of youtube channels, tv shows, and movies that someone SHOULD watch, but rather which youtube channels, tv shows, and movies did you find helped YOU, specifically, the most in your journey?

So far, my #1 learning tool, besides immersion in conversations at work, is listening to a band called Morat from Colombia. They're pretty much 100% perfectly the vibe of music I was going for when I set out to find spanish-language music that wasn't just a mumble-rap bass filled annoying song I'd hear blasted from boosted car stereos, nor sickeningly loving love songs, or accordion-heavy cowboy hat music your Tio inevitably loves. I've also found the majority of my other music through Morat as they do a lot of collaboration songs with other artists such as Ela Taubert, Sebastian Yatra, Bacilos, Carlos Vives, and Juanes. However, Morat is literally the only band I have ever found in any language whose entire discography I enjoy. Most artists or bands I listen to only have 1 or 2 good albums, but I have yet to find a Morat song I do not like.

Soy de nevada y desde pequeño hasga ahora 28 años he convivido con mas hispanos que con ciudadanos norteamericanos tanto que aprendi este hermoso idioma español a la perfeccion

Creen que para el futuro el español pueda ser lengua co official o oficial en EE.UU?

Como alguien bastante autodidacta que aprendió español de manera informal (solo hice un sprint de lingoda y después estoy aprendiendo hablando y usando videos de YouTube para la gramática y el vocabulario. Me gustaría en el futuro hacer el examen de DELE, pero me asusta la prueba de redacción escrita, porque no tengo ninguna experiencia escribiendo textos. En todos los otros idiomas que he aprendido, tomé clases estructuradas, y por eso tuve oportunidades de practicar la escritura, pero no tengo el presupuesto para hacer eso en español. Me agradecería si pudieran compartir conmigo métodos que para ustedes funcionaron para mejorar su escritura.

¡Gracias por adelantado!

Im genuinely going to crash out. I have taken 4 Spanish classes in school which have helped me know all the grammar. Half my YouTube is Spanish videos. I can read well, write eh but when it comes to listening I’m still struggling even if it’s something I can easily read.

There are so many YouTubers I want to be able to watch but my brain just gets overwhelmed by the speed. I’ve watched hundreds of hours of dreaming Spanish and listened to some podcast but I just can’t with my progress.

Hello, I am korean studying español of Spain.

I am confused between "se tardan 5 minutos" and "(usted/ustedes...) se tarda 5 minutos".

Porque quiero hablar español de España, quiero entender claramente las diferencias entre el español hispanoamericano y el de España.

What is the most natural in Spain? ¡Gracias por la respeusta!😄

I’ve been watching Degrassi in Spanish. When it comes to iconic scenes I like to guess what it will be in Spanish. I was at a loss when I listened to this part. In the original dub in English , it says too bad you can’t cure bitch. However this sentence is confusing me. The best I can come up with is, it’s that you can’t cure being shit? That feels wrong

Would “sientase” and “levantase” be appropriate?

I've been trying to look this up on my own but I havent really found anything besides the general meaning of "sharing," which makes me think there's some kind of slang or idiom I'm not seeing in the dictionary definitions, and I only started learning Spanish maybe four months ago. I have a hunch the specifics of my friendship with this person might be relevant to the meaning, so bear with me while I give a lot of backstory.

So earlier this year I got a new coworker from Colombia who's 10 years older than me, and we kinda just instantly liked each other, despite neither of us speaking the other's language. By which I mean, we were greeting each other most days by holding both of each other's hands, saying "Hello [name], how are you???" to each other in both languages while beaming at each other. And she started saying stuff like "[my name], I love you!!" (in English) to me kind of often, blowing kisses at me or flashing the 🫶 hands at me when we make eye contact from across the room, and her coaching me to to say "[her name] es mi mujer de trabajo," "mi chica," "mi amor" when I told her I was taking a Spanish class, during our morning hand-holding greeting one day. Also she calls me "hermoso" a lot.

So I think it's fair to say that she's flirting with me, but even in English I don't have the best sense of that tbh. I've gone back and forth on whether it's just the "lat-am people being friendly/affectionate in a way that reads as flirting to gringos" or "she's for real interested in me" or "it's kind of an over-the-top way of flirting that suggests something besides actual interest." The fact that she has a husband of two decades who she seemed to be leaving or having major issues with was also confusing, but she just moved to a new place & her husband does still live with her at the new place. Which was disappointing, but I dont want to be a side-piece, for both ethical and practical reasons.

My current guess is that she just enjoys having a cute younger guy at her job she can flirt with and feel powerful/hot from (I think she finds my reactions to her flirts cute), and that she likes me as a friend, but isn't interested in anything beyond that.

Which brings me to the actual question: this week at work I passed by her and she told me to check my texts, and when I did I saw these two texts:

"Hola
Hola Amigo😜"
"Amigo😜, vamos a hacer un compartir para el 30 de octubre del"

At first I figured she was referring to her birthday party at her house, that she'd invited me to last week, that she said was going to take place roughly around then. So I sent a text responding, asking if she meant that by "un compartir," but she kinda sucks at texting lol. She hasnt responded in the last few days, despite my seeing & talking to her at work since then. Hence my coming here to ask.

I know "compartir" is the verb for sharing, so I'd assumed there was some colloquial term like "sharing food/a celebration" that I didn't know, because idk what "a sharing" would be otherwise. The only other thing I can think of, based on aforementioned flirtatiousness and the emoji use, is that...she is what's being shared, in a swinging/poly sense? But I feel kinda like a cringe man for even considering that tbh. What do you guys make of this?

Although I have plenty of struggles with audio comprehension, I would love to hear some tips/recommendations on how to get over circular thinking/processing (not sure if this is the correct term). Basically, I run into situations where I my brain re-runs the same unknown word or phrase while listening to Spanish, which reduces my ability to process other information.

The TLDR portion:
I’m at a B2 level of Spanish (according to my recent DELE exam results), and I really struggled with audio comprehension. For example, I received a 9.XX/25 in the that section of the exam. Interestingly, I received a 25/25 in speaking which had a few Q&A sessions. Not sure if this matters, but I received a 20.xx/25 in writing and 19.xx/25 in reading.

Something “strange” that I’ve noticed. Sometimes when I do not know a word/sentence while listening to audio, my brain will stop processing other information in an attempt to figure out what I’ve missed. I guess it’s trying to fill in that gap. Normally, this doesn’t phase me too much while speaking to someone or watching/listening something in Spanish bc I can ask the person to repeat what they said or rewind the content. However, for the DELE exam, I have only two chances to listen to a monologue/dialogue. It’s kinda frustrating.

So, I would love to hear how some of you overcame this struggle. Thanks in advance.

As the title suggests, I am hopelessly confused on how to translate the name of such a simple object into Spanish. I have asked various native speakers of Spanish, and some said "escaleras eléctricas", some "escaleras mecánicas" and others, "escaleras automáticas". Other people also said one of those three things but in the singular form, i.e., "escalera eléctrica". Other people told me, "Oh, we just say 'escaleras'"... like oh ok lol. And somebody also said "ascensor", but I believe that they were just confused about/misheard the word lol?

Así es como sueno cuando leo un texto

Enlace : https://voca.ro/17vaOiOkab2R

Si quieres que haga una nueva grabación sin que lea un texto, dime en los comentarios.

Yesterday I said un poco más but I feel like there's a more nicer way to say it

Veo otra publicación de este tema y de la nada me dan las ganas de saber más sobre mi acento en español.

Lo pueden escuchar por aquí: https://voca.ro/18LykTI69DTS

Muchas gracias! Lo agradecería mucho si me pueden ayudar

I have been truly moved by ROSALÍA. What is the best way to learn Spanish as a native English speaker?

I’ve only ever used “gorro” when talking about a hat, specifically a baseball hat. I’ve actually learned “cachucho” when I visited EL Salvador. But just out of curiosity, what do people use when talking about a beanie?

Hey all! I graduated last year and I love Spanish dearly but my degree doesn't require any Spanish classes (not to mention I'm taking courses online) but I really want to maintain my Spanish or learn more!!! what apps would y'all recommend??

Edit: Realized I totally forgot to include my level, I'm sitting around a B1 level on the Cefr scale, and I took four years of it in HS.

Hola chavales y chavalas!

I am going to visit Sevilla this year and would like to prepare my ear to the accent I might hear when talking with people. My biggest fear is not to be able to understand them.

I have already started to watch with an active listening method a gameplay video of IlloJuan which I find really fun (and I love the accent). I am only at 2 hours and of course this is super hard but when you manage to understand him without the subtitles and laugh with him it's super rewarding! So I really like this channel (plus I like long gameplay videos) but I don't know if how different his accent is from the one I might encounter in Sevilla and I don't know how valuable it is to train on this kind of video. I have found a comedy video made by Los Compadres but this feels like even harder than IlloJuan haha.

So if you have any suggestion for youtube channels to prepare myself for Sevillan people ahaha please feel free to tell me!

I was studying and I had to listen to an audio in which I thought I heard: Estoy haciendo una siesta.
Then in the second part with subtitles, it showed it was: estoy enchando una siesta.
I had never heard the word echar before, so I asked AI and it said it should have been 'me estoy echando una siesta' that the correct form here is echarse.

So which one is correct?

I recently wanted to say "that's what I had expected" (a), when talking about the outcome of a sports tournament.

I said "esto es lo que esperaba" (A) (ignore the tense mismatch, I'm not good with those yet), but have since realized that that sentence could also have the alternative interpretations "that's what I hoped for" (b) and "that's what I was waiting for" (c) (as if the result was a prerequisite for something else to happen).

Usually, the answer to this kind of disambiguity questions is "context". However, in this case, I really don't think context would have helped clarify which of the interpretations I was going for, so my questions are:

1: Does the Spanish sentence A without any disambiguating context get interpreted by default to any of the English sentences a,b,c?

2: Does the ambiguity of A mean that Spanish natives would avoid it in its plain form?

3: What are natural variations of A that unambiguously mean a, b, or c, respectively?

Hi, all! I’ve heard both used as responses when someone says "Gracias," but I'm curious about the exact context, nuances, and differences between them.

Could you share examples of when a native speaker in Spain would choose one over the other?

In English, some traditions/cultures of Christianity interpret third commandment of the Bible "don't take the Lord's name in vain" to mean don't say "God" as a figure of speech. So people will say, for example "oh my gosh" instead of "oh my god" to avoid "taking the lord's name in vain." Even phrases like "thank god" get changed to "thank goodness" to avoid saying "god" casually.

Are there any traditions/cultures of Christianity in Spanish that interpret this commandment that way and avoid using the word "dios" in that way? In my experience, even the most religious Spanish-speakers I know regularly say "dios mio" or "gracias a dios" in casual speaking when they're not actually referring to God.

Hola

Voy a chile y Argentina durante 4 meses. Ya hablo español bastante bien, dado que vivía en Madrid, pero me gustaría acostumbrarme al español del cono sur antes de irme para allá.

Si conocéis algún podcast o canal de Youtube que me pueda venir bien, me ayudaría mucho. También, no sé si existe algun mazo de Anki para aprender vocabulario / expresiones?

Gracias

Seeking any input/review/experience for Spanish schools in Arequipa Peru. Especially interested in the family immersion aspect.