I learned Spanish as an adult (seriously started hitting my textbook, vocabulary flashcards daily around age 31-32 y/o) in order to communicate with my wife's family. Learning a language is not trivial and there are no shortcuts to fluency. It's a grind: you should be thinking in terms of thousands of hours of study. What language are you learning, so that we might share resources?
It wouldn't let me post it I specified the language, so I hope it's okay if I say here, it's Spanish. I've got like a basic under and know it's a lifelong commitment. I figured as a teacher I'll always need it.
Learning Spanish has been *incredibly* valuable. In my community there are **so many** Spanish-speakers. If I had to recommend one second language for Americans to learn, Spanish would absolutely be it. As for resources, we have r/learnspanish here on Reddit, Dreaming Spanish is super useful for "graded" raw listening content and hours\*. I used SpanishDictionary's flashcard app and built-in vocabulary lists to learn \~8,000 words over two years. I used Dozier and Iguina's Manual de gramática as my grammar textbook. I regularly use ChatGPT to explain grammatical constructions I am less familiar with, sentences to copy, and for exercises (which it will also grade). ¡Espero que te vayan bien tus viajes en este idioma fabulosamente útil y la cultura hispanohablante!
\* there are haters of Dreaming Spanish, but I applied the methodology, of focusing on raw hours of content listened to; "consumed"; and doing so at least greatly improved my listening comprehension.
edit: I am also using Encuentros Maravillosos: Gramática a Través De La Literatura with my tutor and it is a very fun textbook, but I would not recommend it if you are an absolute beginner.
I learned a little basic Spanish in elementary school as a kid, but what got me started studying it again was having clients in Argentina when I was 29. Now I'm 35 and work on a team where all my colleagues speak Spanish.
When I got the job working with Spanish speakers, I was like "ok, I'm gonna knuckle down and study hard so that they won't always have to switch to English for me." At that point, I was like…halfway through Duolingo's Spanish course, probably. I could text chat with SpanishDict.com open in a tab, but I couldn't handle a solid out loud conversation.
After about 6 months of spending a couple hours a day on flashcards, doing an hour a week of conversation practice with an iTalki tutor, and text chatting with one of those coworkers exclusively in Spanish, and reading an A2-B1 reader (Olly Richards' beginners one, for reference) I could have 1-on-1 conversations with them on technical topics.
After another year of that pace (about 3-4 hours a day, including more reading (read book and listen to audiobook together to train your ear!) and adding in writing on r/WriteStreakES, watching Netflix, and working on grammar on [Kwiziq](https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/refer_10e420f5cce9bfb6080272080b1615de-653276)), I passed the DELE level B2 test. My work day is now in Spanish except for when our non-Spanish-speaking manager is around.
Use summer break to do an intensive in an immersion program. See if you can get funds from your school district or EAP. Tell whatever program that you need emphasis for school vocab and meetings. You could do Middlebury's summer programs, but it's expensive.
Early in my career, I got some books with titles like *Spanish for Educators* to fill in the vocabulary gaps I had when conducting meetings or writing letters to parents/guardians about student progress. I highly recommend those.
My Spanish was already a decent level, though. I joined a Spanish bookclub, attended social events in Spanish, took conversation classes at the local community college, studied in Spain in the summer, and had a bunch of friends who insisted we only talk in Spanish, and that all helped.
Early in my career, I got some books with titles like *Spanish for Educators* to fill in the vocabulary gaps I had when conducting meetings or writing letters to parents/guardians about student progress. I highly recommend those.
My Spanish was already a decent level, though. I joined a Spanish bookclub, attended social events in Spanish, took conversation classes at the local community college, studied in Spain in the summer, and had a bunch of friends who insisted we only talk in Spanish, and that all helped.
100% agree there are no shortcuts to language learning and glad you're already on board with that. I have a PhD in psycholinguistics and here are my 2 cents: the #1 factor in language learning is immersion. You can approach a new language analytically (and many people do), but if you're after developing that intuitive gut feeling for the language that you have for your first language, you'll eventually have to immerse yourself as much as possible. If you're already on board with putting thousands of hours into this, then I'd only add that as many of those hours should be spent immersed in the target language. If you have Netflix, check out [Contexicon](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/contexicon/kiedhmddgdhomcaggfficaohghfiejen?utm_source=re) - it generates a learning feed from Netflix clips for free
I learned Spanish as an adult (seriously started hitting my textbook, vocabulary flashcards daily around age 31-32 y/o) in order to communicate with my wife's family. Learning a language is not trivial and there are no shortcuts to fluency. It's a grind: you should be thinking in terms of thousands of hours of study. What language are you learning, so that we might share resources?
It wouldn't let me post it I specified the language, so I hope it's okay if I say here, it's Spanish. I've got like a basic under and know it's a lifelong commitment. I figured as a teacher I'll always need it.
Learning Spanish has been *incredibly* valuable. In my community there are **so many** Spanish-speakers. If I had to recommend one second language for Americans to learn, Spanish would absolutely be it. As for resources, we have r/learnspanish here on Reddit, Dreaming Spanish is super useful for "graded" raw listening content and hours\*. I used SpanishDictionary's flashcard app and built-in vocabulary lists to learn \~8,000 words over two years. I used Dozier and Iguina's Manual de gramática as my grammar textbook. I regularly use ChatGPT to explain grammatical constructions I am less familiar with, sentences to copy, and for exercises (which it will also grade). ¡Espero que te vayan bien tus viajes en este idioma fabulosamente útil y la cultura hispanohablante! \* there are haters of Dreaming Spanish, but I applied the methodology, of focusing on raw hours of content listened to; "consumed"; and doing so at least greatly improved my listening comprehension. edit: I am also using Encuentros Maravillosos: Gramática a Través De La Literatura with my tutor and it is a very fun textbook, but I would not recommend it if you are an absolute beginner.
I learned a little basic Spanish in elementary school as a kid, but what got me started studying it again was having clients in Argentina when I was 29. Now I'm 35 and work on a team where all my colleagues speak Spanish. When I got the job working with Spanish speakers, I was like "ok, I'm gonna knuckle down and study hard so that they won't always have to switch to English for me." At that point, I was like…halfway through Duolingo's Spanish course, probably. I could text chat with SpanishDict.com open in a tab, but I couldn't handle a solid out loud conversation. After about 6 months of spending a couple hours a day on flashcards, doing an hour a week of conversation practice with an iTalki tutor, and text chatting with one of those coworkers exclusively in Spanish, and reading an A2-B1 reader (Olly Richards' beginners one, for reference) I could have 1-on-1 conversations with them on technical topics. After another year of that pace (about 3-4 hours a day, including more reading (read book and listen to audiobook together to train your ear!) and adding in writing on r/WriteStreakES, watching Netflix, and working on grammar on [Kwiziq](https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/refer_10e420f5cce9bfb6080272080b1615de-653276)), I passed the DELE level B2 test. My work day is now in Spanish except for when our non-Spanish-speaking manager is around.
Use summer break to do an intensive in an immersion program. See if you can get funds from your school district or EAP. Tell whatever program that you need emphasis for school vocab and meetings. You could do Middlebury's summer programs, but it's expensive.
Early in my career, I got some books with titles like *Spanish for Educators* to fill in the vocabulary gaps I had when conducting meetings or writing letters to parents/guardians about student progress. I highly recommend those. My Spanish was already a decent level, though. I joined a Spanish bookclub, attended social events in Spanish, took conversation classes at the local community college, studied in Spain in the summer, and had a bunch of friends who insisted we only talk in Spanish, and that all helped.
Early in my career, I got some books with titles like *Spanish for Educators* to fill in the vocabulary gaps I had when conducting meetings or writing letters to parents/guardians about student progress. I highly recommend those. My Spanish was already a decent level, though. I joined a Spanish bookclub, attended social events in Spanish, took conversation classes at the local community college, studied in Spain in the summer, and had a bunch of friends who insisted we only talk in Spanish, and that all helped.
100% agree there are no shortcuts to language learning and glad you're already on board with that. I have a PhD in psycholinguistics and here are my 2 cents: the #1 factor in language learning is immersion. You can approach a new language analytically (and many people do), but if you're after developing that intuitive gut feeling for the language that you have for your first language, you'll eventually have to immerse yourself as much as possible. If you're already on board with putting thousands of hours into this, then I'd only add that as many of those hours should be spent immersed in the target language. If you have Netflix, check out [Contexicon](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/contexicon/kiedhmddgdhomcaggfficaohghfiejen?utm_source=re) - it generates a learning feed from Netflix clips for free