How Good is My Spanish after 2 Years? (progress update)
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Table of Contents
My daily Spanish routine
How much time have I spent learning Spanish this year (and in total since I started)
How good is my current level?
How long will it take for me to get fluent?
My future goals with Spanish
It’s hard to believe it’s already been 2 years of learning Spanish.
It feels like not that long ago I decided to see how much Spanish I could learn in just 2 weeks before me and my wife’s trip to Spain.
For those of you who have been following my Spanish journey, you know that I’ve kept a slow but consistent learning pace.
I didn’t have much time to devote to Spanish, but I felt:
I’d rather learn Spanish slowly than not at all.
A year ago I made a detailed progress update on my first year of learning Spanish (with a video of me speaking Spanish).
Now that I just passed my 2-year mark of learning some of you have requested a progress update.
I’ll break down exactly what I have done this year, including how much time I’ve spent in total.
I’ll also share where my current level and what my future goals are with Spanish.
My hope is that you’ll get a clear picture of how much time it takes to reach my current level in Spanish.
Plus the exact actions and activities it takes to get you there.
My daily Spanish routine
Has my daily routine changed between my 1st and 2nd year?
To be honest, not really.
I still have the same goal of listening to Spanish for 30 minutes a day.
It has become part of my daily morning routine to turn on a Spanish video as I’m getting ready and making breakfast.
That daily exposure of hearing the language is incredibly powerful.
It makes the language form inside your brain the way natives naturally speak.
You’re building up a database of vocabulary and expressions.
When these get familiar and strong enough, you can then start using them yourself.
Once you do speak it’s going to sound much more natural.
Because you’ve downloaded the language to your hard drive (brain) directly from native speakers.
I also read every day until I hit at least 1,000 words in Spanish (this is tracked by the app LingQ that I for reading).
This takes me about 15-20 minutes a day.
I don’t have a set time for reading. I just do it here and there throughout the day when I have a chance.
I prefer to do it as early as possible though (both because my brain is fresher, and to make sure I hit my daily goal in case something comes up that I need to take care of).
My goals of listening to Spanish for 30 minutes and reading 1,000 words are non-negotiable.
I do them no matter what (and succeed 99% of the time).
There are two reasons for this:
Regular and consistent exposure to the language gives better results over time, than less frequent exposure with more intensity.
When it has become a habit, it’s easy to continue. Once you break it, it’s harder to start again.
This routine has both psychological benefits (a daily feeling of accomplishment) and it’s very effective in a language learning sense (since those minutes spent consistently compound over time - and time spent with the language is the most important thing to see progress).
What I’m reading
I love immersing myself in a good book.
This year I have been reading about a variety of topics such as: Christianity-related topics, business, finances & health.
My favorite place to find books is Kobo (they have a large selection of e-books in Spanish.
I just try to find books that I find interesting and would like to read in English, and instead buy them in Spanish. I then import them to LingQ.
I like reading different kinds of books just for variety’s sake.
Reading is something that I do in all the languages that I learn, for several reasons:
Reading is the best way to expand your vocabulary.
You’re able to learn and dive deeper into topics you’re interested in.
It’s easy to track your progress with apps like LingQ, making language learning feel more like a fun game. (It also gives you a clear visual of your progress, even when you don’t feel like you’re progressing).
Reading makes listening easier.
What I’m listening to (and watching)
Just like my first year, I’m a regular user of Dreaming Spanish.
It’s a wonderful resource.
It’s so easy to just click play on a video. They have a lot to choose from and new videos coming out all the time.
(for more on Dreaming Spanish read my detailed post about it)
Other things I watch include:
YouTube videos (about language learning, travel, or anything I find interesting)
Pro Korean StarCraft tournaments (with Spanish commentators)
TV shows dubbed in Spanish (like Seinfeld, for example)
“Sermon of the Week” from Bethel Church in Redding, CA (they have a Spanish YouTube channel with Spanish language interpretation)
All of these are things I like to watch anyway.
Why not watch them in Spanish instead and make it a language learning activity?
That’s basically my whole language learning philosphy.
Conversations with Spanish-speaking tourists
While I did get some speaking practice during 2022 (since we spent 3 months total in Spain that year) it was still a small part of my Spanish learning.
My level was not very high at the time, so conversations were a struggle.
When we got back from Spain, I only encountered Spanish speakers every so often.
That has now changed.
Right now where I live, it’s the tourist season. I meet Spanish-speaking tourists a few times a week that I talk to.
These are not long conversations (typically 5-10 minutes), but it has been great to be able to “test myself” and also develop my speaking ability a little bit more.
Speaking with natives fuels my motivation to learn more, and it’s just fun to see that the time I have spent has paid off.
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How much time have I spent learning Spanish this year (and in total since I started)
Since very early on I have kept track of my listening time in Spanish.
Dreaming Spanish makes this very easy. It automatically sums up everything you’ve watched on the platform and outside the platform (which you add manually).
It also tells you your current level and how far you have to the next level (according to their framework).
My total input listening time over the 2 years I’ve been learning Spanish is:
438 hours.
That’s exactly 36 minutes of listening each day.
This means that I listen slightly more than 30 minutes on average (during StarCraft season I get a bit more input).
The first year I listened 208 hours and this year 230 hours. It’s pretty much the same over these two years, with a slight increase this year.
(anyone else but me who loves nerdy statistics like this??)
I try my best to hit my 30-minute goal every day. Because I know how psychologically powerful this is for motivation.
But even if I happen to miss the goal, that’s okay.
(I counted 16 days where I missed the goal when I reviewed the past year on the Dreaming Spanish page. These days I still listened to something, whether it was 5 or 15 minutes).
If I miss it, I don’t let it bother me.
Life happens.
I just continue the next day and hit the goal then.
It's important to have a daily target though.
Because if you do, you’re going to do a lot more than if you didn’t have that goal (even if you miss a day on occasion).
Level of focus when listening
I try to stay focused when listening, but sometimes I find myself spacing out.
(partly because I’m doing other things while listening 90% of the time)
No big deal.
Some days are better than others.
I just realize that tomorrow will probably be better.
If it’s difficult for me to pay attention it might also be that the content is not interesting enough.
In that case, I switch to watching something that will better keep my interest.
It could also be that I have too much stress or didn’t sleep enough the night before.
I try to prioritize sleeping enough and keeping my stress levels low as much as I can.
They are very important when learning a language as they increase your ability to focus.
How much I've read
As you can see I have read 642,045 words total during my 2 years of Spanish.
Around 360,000 of those are from this past year.
I have also reached 20,322 “known words”.
LingQ, which I use to read, keeps track of all these statistics for me. Which is a very motivating feature.
My goal was to reach 20,000 before I reached my 2nd year of learning.
I did this through a method of “backtracking”, which I talked about in my post How to set Language Goals in 2024 [that you’ll actually achieve and feel good about]
20,000 words is just a number, but it’s a fun way to measure your progress.
Knowing a lot of words is in the end what influences your current level the most.
The more words you know the more you’ll understand. You’ll also be able to express your thoughts and feelings better when you have a wide vocabulary.
I was able to reach this amount of “known words” and “words read” by reading on average 20 minutes a day for 2 years.
I’m currently reading my 6th book in Spanish and reading feels quite comfortable right now (especially when using LingQ).
Adding "listening time" from conversations
One thing I started doing this year is adding “listening time” from conversations I have to Dreaming Spanish.
If I have a 10-minute conversation with someone, I will typically add 5 minutes of that to Dreaming Spanish.
(To do this: click on “progress” and “add time outside the platform”)
Because I probably listen about 50% of the time in a conversation.
I only keep track of listening time, not speaking. Since it’s actually when listening to the native speaker that I’m learning the most.
I also add anything I’ve been listening to or watching from YouTube, LingQ, TV shows, etc.
This is then automatically added to the total listening time on Dreaming Spanish.
It also brings back fond memories to scroll through the “watch history” and see what you were watching and when:
“oh I remember I used to watch that show last fall when we were in the US!”
How good is my current level?
Just for fun (and to make it more concrete), let’s use the framework of Dreaming Spanish to measure where my current level is.
According to their system I’m currently at “Level 4”, which says:
“You can understand a person speaking to you patiently”.
However, when looking at these levels I feel I’m at “Level 5”, which says:
“You can understand native speakers speaking to you normally”.
Right now I’ve reached a point where I can watch any type of content.
I don’t have to limit myself to content adapted for learners.
I can typically understand about 70-80% (I always watch without subtitles).
It will of course depend on the genre though.
How come I got to “Level 5” quicker though?
I have my reading habit to thank for that.
Reading is a form of listening and reading also makes listening easier. Because with reading, you’re exposed to a wider range of vocabulary.
You can also spend more time on each word and sentence since you can read them as many times as you want.
When listening, the words just pass by once and you either catch them or you don’t.
If you’re learning Spanish purely by listening, then I think you can expect to reach these levels by the hours indicated on Dreaming Spanish.
(what languages you already know will of course greatly influence this)
Am I happy with my current level?
Honestly, I feel very happy with my level right now.
Spanish is even more fun now during year two, than it was in year one.
I’m able to understand much more, so it has opened up the content I can enjoy.
It has made it feel more effortless to learn.
(which is helpful, since at the intermediate stage, it can be difficult to feel that you’re progressing).
This year I’ve started feeling more that Spanish is “mine”.
A part of my life.
To be honest, it took me quite a long time to feel that.
I didn’t have as strong emotional reasons to learn it as I had with Finnish and Cantonese.
I just got excited about it because me and my wife were about to go to Spain. And it was a language I had been interested in learning.
As far as speaking, I’m starting to feel more comfortable with it.
Even though I have to often search for words (many of them aren’t quite at the tip of my tongue yet), I can still manage in everyday conversations no problem.
One thing that has greatly helped me in my Spanish is that I have never felt:
“I have to get good at Spanish.”
I have felt zero pressure learning it.
It’s honestly a big advantage because:
I don’t have a bunch of negative and frustrating feelings connected to Spanish.
Feelings that would make me want to procrastinate and avoid it.
I have just enjoyed it and done my daily activities.
And after 2 years - here we are.
It’s a testament to what the famous martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee said:
“Long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity.”
How long will it take for me to get fluent?
Let’s use the metrics of Dreaming Spanish (again, just for fun).
If I keep the same pace of listening going then it would take me 2,124 days to get to a native level.
(Note: this is based on doing nothing but listening. Since I also read it wouldn’t take as long.)
That’s 5,8 years.
Yikes!
That’s quite a long time.
Doesn’t 6 years feel way too long?
I don’t think so.
For a few reasons:
A) My goal was never to become native level in Spanish.
B) I’m already enjoying the fruits of the Spanish I have learned so far.
Languages don’t only become fun when you’re at an advanced fluent level.
It’s a fun process all the way there.
My future goals with Spanish
Do I have any goals with my Spanish?
My goal right now is to get my Spanish to a level where I won’t forget it, even if I would stop actively learning it.
This is usually a solid B2 (even though I’m not the biggest fan of these definitions).
I don’t feel like I’m quite there yet though.
I’d like to continue until I’m able to express myself more effortlessly and have expanded my vocabulary.
Whether I end up reaching Level 7 (where I’m “comparable to a native speaker”) will remain to be seen.
Right now, I’d be happy to reach Level 6 (“You are comfortable with daily conversation”).
As far as my daily activities go, I don’t plan on changing anything.
It’s working, it’s fun, and it’s doable.
However, I might start focusing more on speaking this year.
I might end up taking more language lessons to practice conversations at some point.
I have been away from taking language lessons for quite some time now, but after having one recently I was reminded how fun and motivating it is!
I booked a lesson at LanguaTalk (which is in my opinion the best platform for online language lessons right now).
I took a lesson with a wonderful Argentinian teacher named Agustina.
I can highly recommend her as a teacher (book a lesson with her here). She’s professional, super friendly, and easy to talk to (and I just love the Argentinian dialect).
I find that having conversations makes vocabulary stick easier.
When you talk to someone you have a much more personal experience related to the vocabulary you’re learning.
You also develop more flow and confidence in your speaking.
At the end of the day, for me (and probably most of you who are reading this post) being able to speak Spanish with people is the reason why I’m learning it.
Related posts:
How good is my Spanish after 1 Year? (An honest progress update)
LanguaTalk vs iTalki - Which one should you choose?
Everything You Need to Know about Dreaming Spanish
My language goals for 2024 [and reflecting on 2023]
How to set Language Goals in 2024 [that you’ll actually achieve and feel good about]
The Blueprint to Spanish Fluency Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4
Learning Spanish… in Less Than 2 Weeks?!
How to speak Spanish in LESS than a week
1st week of learning Spanish - What I did
