Yo Shane, I like what you said about understanding leading to speaking ability. Have you ever spoken a word in English that you had only ever read before and someone corrects you on its pronunciation? This shows that once you get to an advanced enough level, you don't actually need to practice speaking individual words in order to include them in conversation. This is the level I would like to get to in Spanish!
Another very useful, honest and encouraging video. One revelation I've had in the past week has been the manner in which I try to listen to Spanish radio (most of which I only get the gist of). I have always really struggled with native speech, partly due to lack of vocab but also, I think, because I panic while I'm listening and get left behind trying to work out what something meant. This week, lying in bed one morning with RTVE news in my headphones, I found myself listening in a completely different way, which transformed things. Instead of being the struggling, panicking, listener I sort of placed myself into the flow of speech that I was hearing, as if what was being said was coming out of my own mouth, sort of like when I pay attention to the process of 'being breathed' during meditation.....and suddenly I stopped panicking or getting left behind and stayed relaxed and in the flow of it. Of course, I still couldn't understand everything, but I reckon I understood twice as much as I ever have before. It's quite weird and I wondered if you or any of your followers have also tried this? If not, I would really recommend trying it.
This is an incredibly well stated summary of the process. I feel that a lot of videos are like "You should do this, because I heard someone say that you should..." (I am guilty of this), but here you've said: "I found x, and then I tried this instead, and that worked better." Really excellent video. 10:00 - haha, I've also watched IT Crowd in a language (French for me)! I found that some jokes were funny all over again because you lose the normal "cue" for the joke in your head, and then the jokes comes and you're not expecting it, and you get this double high of laughing at the joke, and having understood it in the first place. Also, the steps definitely go 1. Drink Sangria, 2. Speak Spanish. No need for 98 other steps.
Thank you very much! Given the quality and planning of your videos that means a lot from you 😊 I’d seen a few of these types of videos that were a bit more “story time” style and I knew I wanted to focus on what I was actually doing in relation to the languages. I found the IT crowd was actually a bit 50-50 in Spanish, so much of the humour in that show is captured in the voices of the original actors for me, but still enjoyable!
Sir can you recommend some good channels for comprehensible input at beginning stage. I am from Nepal and English is not my native language too but I understand you perfectly and I am 18 years old 😊
I can relate to your story as a language learner. I have studied French almost three years and as an adult it is possible to learn a new language. I also used Duolingo, Paul Nobel...Stephen Krashen things, and that is what I use to teach Finnish. Congratulations:)
I enjoy your content. Question: I like the idea of reading Spanish but only understand about 2% of what I am reading. Maybe a little more. I have been reading “Spanish short stories for beginners, volume 2” by Lingo Mastery, so it is easy content. How should I read to improve? I’ve been studying 1.5 hours per day for 5 months using a lot of different tools, including RU-vid Spanish training videos, apps like duolingo which I think has helped the most, drops, italki for 2 months (was 1 time per week and increased to 2 times per week). Listen to Spanish blogs and music. I also have a Spanish speaking friend I write to but have to use Google translate to converse as he doesn’t speak English. Thank you.
I watched this video 18 months ago and now i'm 600 hours of CI into spanish. I can now see how true this video is. The point where you have listened to so much input that you become comfortable with ambiguity and just let the things you don't understand pass is a real magic moment.
It's interesting what you said about looking up vocabulary. I did the same at the start, I think you kind of have to a bit just to start communicating but of course as you say, you don't retain most of it, or at least so i thought, BUT something strange started happening me about 2 years in, those words that I had looked up near the beginning started to come out automatically when I was speaking or writing. I am sure these words weren't ones I had just absorbed via imersion because the words that were coming to me were quite rarely used, words I would use maybe once or twice a year. I can't be alone in experiencing this.
I'm a little slower than you, my target is 2000 hours listening and 1 million words reading. My plan is 2 hours a day, every day for 3 years. I'm at 1040 hours and 20,000 words so far, and I understood every word of your interview with the god who is Juan.
I started out by singing along to Mano Negra songs without understanding anything I was singing and getting all of it wrong lol. "Mesta dando....mala vida....badabeep badabaaa mi corazón" ^^ Man those were fun times :-)
oh my gosh, I love IT crowd. I should go back and watch it in Spanish. Very interesting to hear you talk about your process. I feel I have had a lot of the same feelings on my journey. Thanks for sharing!
really needed to hear this as someone who is wondering when i'll be advanced in spanish. The "Speaking More Confidently" part at the end was really refreshing as i've been struggling a little bit mentally with spanish atm even though I understand 90% of what I pretty much watch or read most the time. Its not that i'm worried about being perfect but its the "advanced plateau" that I guess you could call it is what makes me wonder as Spanish is my first foreign language and the unknown always worries learners I suppose. Good video very relaxing with the music, calm narration of your points, and great explanation/advice from your journey with your own experience. Btw how is your other language learning going i'd love to hear about your russian or portuguese
Thank you very much! I’m glad you found it useful 😊 currently my other languages are secondary to Spanish for the most part whilst I focus on getting to C1 but I’m still doing bits in the background
This is a great video for me to see right now. I had been so nervous to start using iTalki, and had even dipped my toe in a couple times and then made up an excuse to justify why I'm not ready. Thankfully, my Spanish level has finally reached a point where I was confident to give it another go, and I've had three lessons in the past two days! It's a huge rush to speak in another language like this for the first time, and I can totally see how you became addicted to it. This is one addiction I hope to develop! I favorited this video to make sure I can easily come back to it in the future when I feel my motivation waning.
As Italian I think that the most important languages to learn are English and Spanish. It's a surprise to find an English mothertongue trying to learn another language. Great!
Another excellent video Shane! I've recently started learning Portuguese and I was wondering if you could recommend any content youtube or otherwise? Are you still learning it btw?
Thanks! I’m not actively studying it much at the moment by I do hope to get back to it soon! I spent most of my time with podcasts to be honest, two intermediate ones that I found quite useful were “fala gringo” and the “Carioca connection”, other than that I did like a YT channel called “Tira do papel”
Some great channels to follow for interesting native content are Canal Nostalgia, Fatos Desconhecidos, and Portal dos Fundos. Good luck with your Portuguese journey, Joe!
Hey Shane ! I recommend a fella called Shane Godliman ! Hahahah …and Lightspeed Spanish. I have basically ignored grammar , it drove me insane and I ended up hating learning .I then just watched a lot of Spanish speaking etc.I let it wash over me . It worked ! Only problem is that I don’t speak anywhere near as much as I should but I do understand a lot of rapid español now. I will continue to speak more. I do have a friend in Mexico and when I make mistakes speaking he just says ‘it doesn’t matter to us because understand you anyway ‘ that helps me a lot. He does correct me though 😀
Haha thanks Lee! Sounds like you’re on a good path mate, I’m sure once you start speaking more regularly you’ll see a big increase in your outputting abilities 🙌🏽
Great vid mate. Really like your humble approach. I'd like to ad that writing in Spanish is also a really important practice method. I keep a small diary in Spanish which I use to get down small paragraphs, new sentences, phrases etc. Then I read them out loud a few times or try and memorize them. Later, I practice speaking some of these phrases on Italki.
Love this video, Shane 🙌🏽 This is spot-on, very honest, and represents my experience with learning Spanish pretty well. Currently in that phase of looking for more challenging content to push myself. Cheers!
Question: I see IT crowd in the video. I know IT crowd is on Netflix but the Spanish subs aren't the same as the Spanish audio. Anyway around that? Crunchy Roll actually has some awesome audio on some anime. But as soon as you chose Spanish audio you can't chose Spanish subs anymore :(
Unfortunately I don’t think there is any way around that. Sometimes it’s kind of fun just to notice the little differences but I can be a bit annoying too
@@ShaneGodliman was afraid so. Well in the end maybe it can indeed be a positive thing because you are getting 2 ways/forms of input describing the same message.
Don’t know to be honest but I have been teaching on italki too so that makes it a lot easier because I can just transfer credits over to my student account. But you don’t have to pay for lessons if you can find someone/people to do a language exchange with, I’m just impatient and prefer to pay (when possible)
@@ShaneGodliman Exactly what I have done, language exchanges, sure its 50% in each language, as opposed to 100% with a lesson, but you get to meet and talk with real people, the same with language exchanges which are opening up after Covid. And there are so much free resources available online, if you can organise yourself, and accept the learning process may take just a tad longer, in the end its more rewarding, and a ton cheaper too. Best of luck.
@@paulc5453 I agree with what you said about language exchange. For me, a language exchange isn't an efficient use of my time and all of mine seemed to have zero structure. I've only had one italki lesson and it was WAY more productive than the free exchanges I did with people but I couldn't justify spending the money on lessons which is why I only did one. Luckily my mom and my best friend speak Spanish. :-)
@@ill2daMAX It is all about what works for individuals, we are all different. I am retired, have lots of free time, so language exchanges work well, I have experience of I talkie and Baselang. If you can find a really good teacher, they work, the trouble is for every really good teacher there ate 9 or 10 average/poor ones. Buena suerte.
Good video. Your Spanish language journey sounds very similar to the journey I had with my second language in 2019-2023. If I knew in 2019 what I know now, I would have got to fluency a lot sooner!
Your spanish is great, you achieve great results,you are an inspiration for me ,I am trying to learn russian and also indonesian (bahasa indonesia ) greetings fron Spain
It's wonderful to listen to your experience. I am about to finish my six-months course Spanish. More or less, I learned all the grammar rules, but still, it is really difficult to begin a conversation. Any advice, plz?
There is one God, who created Heaven and Earth. He made us in His image and likeness. He made us to worship and we chose to rebel against God. As a result we are seperated from God but God didn’t leave us. Instead God sent His one and only Son, His Son is Jesus. He was born of a virgin and lived a life without sin, though He was tempted in every way as we are. He went on the cross and He willingly took our sins past, present and future. Jesus died in my place for my sins, paying my debt to God and purchasing my salvation. Jesus died but He rose on the third day victory over satan, sin, demons and hell. Jesus tells us to share this story of the Good News and there’s a God that lovingly pursues us. Jesus is coming to judge the living and the dead and those who trust in God will forever be with Him in His Kingdom and those who do not will suffer forever in hell.
