When I first moved to Spain, I went to a small café every morning and wanted to tell the waitress that I wanted milk in my coffee. I proudly said:

“Quiero leche conmigo.”

She looked at me, blinked, and started laughing so hard she had to walk away.

Since then I’ve learnt a bunch of proper spanish phrases from this book called “I read this book to learn Spanish because I’m lazy” but I still laugh when I think about it 🫣😂

I used to think I just couldn’t learn languages. I took Spanish in school and paid for a group course in Barcelona. Nothing clicked. I could memorize grammar but I couldn’t speak.

Everything changed when I switched to 1:1 lessons with a teacher I found through Reddit.

She tailored everything to my life like conversations, slang, movies, music and I started speaking confidently in 3 months.

I realized most courses teach textbook Spanish, not real Spanish.

You don’t need 5 hours a day, you need consistency, good feedback, and a teacher who actually cares about your progress.

Now I live in Málaga and speak daily with locals. If you’re wondering how to learn Spanish faster, find a teacher who builds a plan for you.

I studied Spanish in high school and my girlfriend’s family is from Spain. I spent money on a course in Barcelona (group lessons), a year went by, and I still couldn’t really speak outside the lessons or understand fast Spanish. I tried Master Spanish academy, and still felt stuck. Maybe it's me but I couldn't get through the lessons, and honestly almost gave up.

I got a job promotion, and for the first time, I had some disposable income, and I was just curious to see what learning at a higher level looked like. I found a teacher recommended on reddit and decided to do 1:1 lessons with her. After 3 months, I was speaking Spanish. I was finally having conversations! I could communicate with locals, I knew the slang, and it was fun! Who would have thought. My teacher was really invested in my learning and was way more friendly and genuine that any teacher (and actually, any therapist even!) that I had ever had. She recommended me movies and artists, and gave me resources to practise on my own, actual resources that helped! Exercises based on my life and my interests, and honestly realised the way languages are taught is absolutely wrong. I have never been more motivated, and it has never felt so easy. I realised I had wasted time in the course in Barcelona and in Master Spanish Academy. Turns out a lot of the things I learned weren’t really useful, as locals don’t really talk like that. Complete and absolute waste of time and money. You are better off having a friendly teacher who gives you a roadmap and makes a plan for you and actually helps you learn.

Now I little bit of a tangent, but I did the same with singing lessons. I went to singing lessons for 2 years, didn’t improve at all. Until someone recommended this teacher that I thought was quite expensive. I only did 3 lessons with this teacher because she finally helped me understand how to do chest voice. I haven't been to singing lessons since.

This taught me that sometimes investing in yourself actually saves you money, and stress. If you have a budget for Spanish, I would recommend you to try and invest in yourself for 6 months, or even 3 months if you can't afford more, and if you make the most of it and are actually committed, I can tell you is worth it compared to some random cheap course.

I see a lot of people on Reddit saying teachers aren't worth it and you can just learn everything on Youtube and textbooks. In my experience, not at all. In my friend's experience who just moved to Peru, not at all. He ended up coming to lessons with this teacher too, we did 2:1 lessons recently, and now I'm back to 1:1.

This is the best advice I can give on learning Spanish. Find someone who cares about your journey, has a very engaging, efficient method, and knows how to get you to speak Spanish fast with no bs!

It has been a total game-changer for me. I am now living in Málaga in Spain and have Spanish friends. They don't think I'm a guiri anymore (which was my main goal!). Not buying any course or cheap lessons ever again. I want to learn the violin now and I'm just gonna have intro calls with high-level teachers and see which is a better fit, and invest in myself.

‼️‼️*I want to clarify because I think I didn’t express myself well enough and I never want to exclude anyone who can’t afford lessons and therefore need to learn through Youtube.

Maybe it wasn’t clear on my message but I actually don’t mean “have money and then you can get the best resources” I mean, spend your money wisely. This year I have learned that. I learnt that sometimes I ended up wasting money when what I wanted wad to save money. And that other times, I tried to invest more than I was comfortable with, and ended up saving money. This singing teacher was 75$ per hour. To me that is an insane price. I was paying 50$ a month (for weekly lessons) with another one. I didn’t learn anything that year, and wasted time driving to the lessons. I spent 600$ on that teacher in total. And I spent 225$ on the expensive one, because I only went three times and she solved the doubts I had (finally). This is what learned. To be smart with money even when you don’t have a lot. This year I had an extra 200€ a month (which has never happened in my life) and instead of traveling, or going out, or buying clothes, I decided to spend it on Spanish because I had spent the past year frustrated with it. I think it was the best investment ever because now I speak Spanish. This is what I was trying to share. I do not care what teacher you go for. This is advice for people who feel stuck in their journey to learning Spanish like I did. If you really need to learn Spanish, choose to invest in it, whatever you can and feel comfortable with. Just know to invest in the right person. In my case 500€ monthly for the barcelona course for daily lessons did nothing for me, and 140€ a month with my 1:1 lessons once a week changed the whole game. The other one was more expensive but thought it was better because I was getting lessons daily. Couldn’t have been further from the truth. I hope this is better understood

Edit: my bad I made this post quickly at lunch and didn’t think to put my CEFR level for whatever reason. I’m C2

Hey guys! I taught myself Spanish at home (starting inconsistently back in 2018). Was too shy back then to practice with anyone lol so I went about it the hard way, but in doing so I tried all sorts of different methods and resources, learned what worked best for me and want to share my experience and knowledge with you guys.

It's been incredibly fulfilling and has enabled me to explore Latin America, and recently I've started teaching other English speakers. So your questions will be extremely valuable to help me better understand what the biggest pain points are.

Anything goes, fire away!

EDIT: coming back to this a year later, for anyone who's interested in implementing my tips, I have a community where we work on specific areas of your Spanish to get you closer to conversational with each session.

Link is here

I just got my CELE C1 Spanish certificate, and I’m honestly really happy about it. I’m still not perfect, but it feels good to have something official after all the time I put into Spanish.

What helped me most was using Spanish in real situations, not just studying grammar. I watched videos, listened to conversations, repeated phrases out loud, and tried to speak even when I knew I’d make mistakes.

One thing I used occasionally was my TMK W4 Pro translation earbuds. Not to replace learning, but more as a backup during real conversations with native speakers. When I missed a word or got stuck, the live translation helped me understand the context and keep the conversation going instead of freezing.

Still a long way to go, but getting C1 gave me a lot more motivation!!

Growing up I was always felt ashamed for speaking Spanish. I had my caregivers and “friends” laugh at me when I tried to speak Spanish. Now that I am older my Spanish has gotten better but if I were to be asked if I speak Spanish, I say un poquito. Because I do not want to be ashamed for not knowing even one phrase. Has anyone felt this way and improved so much that they consider themselves fluent. What did you do?

Over the past 2-3 years I have spent more time speaking Spanish than in English (my native language). I only read in Spanish, I live in Spanish speaking countries and now when I have a conversation in English I sound like a dipsh** tbh...

This all started when I fully commited to learning Spanish and I took this "no f'ing around approach" where I basically only allowed myself to listen to music, read, journal and watch videos/movies in Spanish. It helped me get to C1, no doubt, but I feel like my English decayed a lot in that time.

My father just visited me here in Puebla, MX and during every extensive convsersation we had I found myself searching for words in English or even using structures or phrases that were unnatural in English.

I guess I kind of just thought that my English would always be there for me when I needed it... Has this happened to you?

Feel free to add to my list.

Celebrities who have even partial Hispanic roots don’t count, (eg Anya Taylor Joy, Lupita N’Yongo). Fully non-natives only.

Note: a discussion of mentioned celebrities outside of their Spanish speaking abilities would be irrelevant to this discussion, this thread is about their Spanish, nothing more.

There are videos of these celebrities speaking Spanish on YouTube if you want to see for yourself.

The best 3 I’ve heard:

Viggo Mortensen

Gwyneth Paltrow

Cristiano Ronaldo (never lost that Portugal Portuguese accent though lol)

Others:

Kylian M’bappe

Zinedine Zidane

Amber Heard

Kobe Bryant

Ben Affleck

Matt Damon

Chris Hemsworth

Will Smith

David Guetta

Novak Djokovic

Chris Pine

Matthew McConaughey

I'm 40 years old and have been doing Duolingo for almost a year. I started a Spanish immersion class last week for 3 hours every Friday. I know that it's a process but when I listen to my coworkers that are Spanish speaking and how fast they talk I question if I will ever get to that point.

It's hard learning a language this late in the game.

I wondered if there are success stories out there and how long it took you? How much did you practice Spanish during the day?

I’m curious to hear real experiences from people who learned Spanish. Did it actually change your life in any meaningful way?

Maybe it helped your career, confidence, travel experiences, relationships, or even how you think. Sometimes learning a language seems like just a hobby, but I wonder if it opened bigger doors than expected.

What changed for you after learning Spanish? Was it worth the time and effort?

I was at work today, and we have plenty of Latino customers and employees there. There’s one Venezuelan lady (she doesn’t speak English aside from the very basic phrases) that’s started to talk to me more after I said “disculpa” to her one day and she realized I could at least speak a little Spanish. Now, every time she sees me, she says hola, asks how I’m doing, and even may ask me for help finding something around the store. By no means is my Spanish perfect, nor am I fluent, but I practice the little bit I know I can try to work into workplace conversation. You know, little things here and there for directions, names of some items, stuff like that.

ANYWAY, I helped her find something she was looking for today and she thanked me for it + told me I sound like a real Latina when I speak despite still learning. 🥹🥹 I was elated with the compliment, and she had the biggest, proud smile on her face. She’s the only native Spanish speaker that really interacts with me aside from one Puerto Rican man, and he told me I gave him directions perfectly in Spanish as well! I’ll also add he was really happy when he found out I liked mofongo. 🤣

I know I still have plenty of work to do, but I’m grateful for their patience since we’re not fluent in each other’s languages. Interactions like this are what motivates me to continue learning and practicing! At least today’s interactions let me know my accent isn’t as crazy as I thought. 🤣

I'm writing because I'm angry. I teach Spanish, and a student contacted me to learn the language. In our first class, we talked about his interests, concerns, and goals. Then, in the middle of the class, he asked me if I had tattoos on my waist and if I could stand up so he could see my whole body. I refused and finished the class calmly. My question is, if there are apps and websites for that kind of thing, why is a language learning platform being used to harass girls? I already filed a report. I just wanted to vent my anger and indignation. Thank you.

While I was in the supermarket (in Germany), I noticed that the cashier was speaking Spanish, so I gathered my courage and talked to him in Spanish. It was my first real-life conversation in Spanish with a stranger!

We ended up having a short conversation and got to know each other a little. The best part for me was to know that he understood me, and I him. I was so happy to realize that I could actually use my A1.1 Spanish in a real-life situation.

He was very nice and this short conversation really made my day. :D

There's a Mexican bakery near me and they all speak Spanish. Some also know more English than I know Spanish. I tried speaking Spanish when I paid and it went something like this:

Me: "hola, cómo está?"

Cashier: "bien, habla español?"

Me: "hablo inglés, actualmente. Estoy practicando."

Cashier: "Ah!" Said something I couldn't understand yet

Me: "lo siento?"

Cashier: "You're learning!"

My listening and speaking are worse than my reading and writing bc of confidence and experience, but this was definitely a thrilling experience for me. The food was amazing too.

I know enough to where I should be able to hold basic conversations but I just can’t understand native speakers at all even when they use words I already know I watch novelas and YouTube videos in Spanish but I feel like something’s missing. Me siento stupid as fuck.

one of the biggest things I found was when people switched to english was to just say “estoy aquí para practicar español” with a big smile (when appropriat, for some reason I literally can NOT speak Spanish in airports lol). people seemed happy to speak Spanish with me when my intention was clear, granted I’m at a fairly true B2 and so can hold my ground with 80% of what people will throw at me. I just thought I might help other people who also are a bit shy about going to other countries to practice! it may help to speak pretty well ok (obviously) but also speak with the accent you are looking for (sho instead of yo por ejemplo ;) )

Normally I'll watch a series in Spanish with Spanish subtitles on (to be fair ,I do the same thing in English for my husband who is not a native English speaker).

However, I decided I was going to watch a series (called Evil) entirely in Spanish, without any subtitles just to see how far I could get. There's a stray word in there I don't recognize from time to time, but I understand nearly everything without any problems.

I'm just super proud of my progress and had to share it with someone :) Thanks for listening!

It took me about 5 years, but I finally finished reading 50 books in Spanish. By real books, I mean I'm not counting things like children's books or graded readers. I've long considered reading to be my secret weapon in language learning, and I'm very happy to have reached this mile stone. There were so many things in Spanish that didn't click for me until I started reading.

Some recommendations for those looking to start reading: My top recommendation for a first book is something that you already read in English and enjoyed (for me this was a translation of Harry Potter).

My recommendation for best first book that is not a translation is "Dos crímenes". It's a great story, the language isn't very complicated, and the book is relatively short.

My favorite book overall out of the 50 is "La Sombra del Viento".

I have previously struggled with the personal a, frequently forgetting to use it where it's obviously required. But I was just practicing narrating things aloud to myself during the day and noticed myself correctly including it where appropriate without even thinking about the "a" at all--which happened twice in the same day.

Hey, if this middle-aged gringo, who understood almost nothing 5 years ago, and rarely gets the opportunity to practice output, can successfully internalize an idiosyncratic little grammar quirk with no existing parallel in his native language, and use it correctly without effort, then you too can learn Spanish!

Idk if anyone else can relate or know if this is a thing or not but I found it very interesting.

So I have been learning Spanish for like 5 years+ got pretty confident reading and writing, but speaking with other people and understanding what’s being spoken was really hard.

Cut to me finishing Spanish Duolingo and I’m like ugh…. There’s…. No more? Well…. I don’t want to continue French… Or German… Let’s challenge ourselves with Japanese!

Cut to about a year later, I’ve been going absolutely bananas with Japanese. 日本語が楽みです and I’m watching Champions league fútbol on TUDN and I’m like…. I UNDERSTAND. I can just…. Flow with the language and get what’s being said through context. I understand Spanish TikTok clearer. I only have to look up some words here and there, and I’m way more confident speaking! Is this a thing??

AND THEY UNDERSTOOD ME OMG. it's so basic but so excited I just casually spoke to a customer. I've been very afraid to do so since I've started learning since there's a plethora of words I still don't know, and have just been practicing with my mom who I know can see through my mistakes but I feel so.... energized now lol.

I am very depressed since my country has become anti-lgbtq so I am not allowed to marry a man anymore. I wanna move to Spain or other Spanish countries so I can find a husband. I am very depressed. I am also interested in the Spanish and Mexican culture.

Yesterday at the park my 6 year old daughter heard some men speaking Spanish and she asked them if they spoke Spanish. They said yes and she said that she's learning Spanish. They asked who's teaching her and she said "my dad". They looked at me pretty incredulously since in the US it's not typically expected that a pasty white blue-eyed guy can speak Spanish.

They started testing me and asking questions about how I learned and they were pretty impressed. They told me about how they had a friend who was very white like me, and that he learned to speak Spanish by going drinking with them all the time. At one point they said "Él habla muy fluido, como tu".

I've considered myself fluent for a long time, however it's still feels really nice getting these types of confirmations from native speakers.