I am moving through my learning at the same pace that was required of my students 3 years ago. Three years ago new students had a 4 hour English learning block that focused on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
My last group of four hour block students challenged me to work on my Spanish for the same amount of time daily with the same strategies that I used with them. The only difference is I am the teacher and the student.
It has taken a few months to build up my skills and resources but it has been worth the effort. I am able to read at a B1-B2 level on the European Frame work. I am finding a new book every two weeks and purchasing the hard copy.
While I can go on about what I am doing to move forward at this pace I am looking for like minded people who are studying Spanish currently and would like to share a super charged experience for 30 days. For the month of June I am going all out and investing in daily tutoring lessons and a variety of programs. My topic areas of study will be working on a house, gardening, yard work, shopping, swimming, and ocean life. I would love to share this experience. I have also considered volunteer work in Spain or Mexico for a 4-6 week immersion.
2 Likes
How did you get to B1-B2 level from ground zero? What resources did you use? How many hours per day? And, what was the balance between reading vs listening? Did you use LingQ? Timeline? When did you start your Spanish language journey? To be honest, you are on the right track. One thing I have observed while living in Germany - immersion will only work if you have reached some sort of B1-B2 level like you are getting more value/meaning from sentences below that level picking up language is a straining process. Had I known this fact before arriving in Germany, I would have built my foundation back home.
That’s awesome, I really like the idea of teachers subjecting themselves to their own methods - I wish all fields did this 
I started with pimsleur it helped with learning words and phrased. I was also listening to audio books in Spanish of books that I had just finished in English. I started my journey with walking and listening while I took my daily walks. In January I began my journey with adding portions that represented what I was teaching my students. I have lessons that focus on looking at a picture and identify what is happening in the picture. During the last month or so much of my work has started to pay off. I am watching an English movie tonight for the first time in a long time.
1 Like
Great! Treat it as a reward for making progress in Spanish. Best wishes for your onward journey!
I have been on my journey for about a year. When I started I worked with in-put for about 2 hours per day. In January of this year I moved up to 4 hours per day with about 4 days off during the last 6 months and that was because of doctors appointments. I am at the point were I will start taking one short day per week only because it is a huge overload now that the content is at a higher level. Also my students do take 2 days off a week and I am starting to feel physically drained. I am unsure how I will structure my day off but I will still work on Lingq on my day off.
When I came to LingQ within a month I also had 6000 known words after that you kind of notice you stick with the basics. I would say a lot changes going from 6000 to 10 000 known words. I don’t want to speak for Steve Kaufman, but he sometimes says you have to move on and just keep reading and finding new things to read.
You’re going at a pace of almost 100 LingQs a day. That means another 3500 words a month so in the summer you’re going to be at 12 000 known words. I genuinely believe you have to be around 35 000 words. So that means you’re going to be in the summer at 30% of where you need to be.
I know that people discourage just looking at the LingQs and known words, but its really uncanny how much correlation I see between mastery and known words.
I am with french at 21 000. and feel like I understand around 85%. of what I read and around 25% of what I hear. I just started doing 100 LingQs in French since one week and it will give me around 1000 known words a month so going from 21 000 to 35 000 will take me another 14 months.
I’m thinking of doubling the LingQs I do to around 200 LingQs, because I. would love to be there in 2021 so I can go for immersion in 2022. Anyway just thought I would chip in with my opinion.
I can work through about 100 words a day but I am doing so much more outside of the program right now. If I double down on this program for 3 weeks I would be able to each 20,000 words next month.
I would have to start putting in over 5 hours a day of study and work. I might be able to pull it off if I want the increase bad enough.
I break my time up into 30 minute blocks and 1-3 hours if I am watching tv. I have worked on developing what works best for me and keep adding and removing every 2 weeks to keep variety. It takes planning every weekend but a good plan can keep anyone moving forward.
How long do you plan on staying with French? Do you plan on taking a formal test for placement?
I am planning on testing in December for the European Frame Work. My goal is to test at about a B2 level in reading, writing, and speaking.
I will continue next month and plan on reaching 8,000 known words by the end of this month. I have been sick but I still put in the time every day without hesitation.
A little side note. For June I will be using baselang for unlimited tutoring. We can make all the lingqs in the worlds but we have to apply what we are learning. If you can muster the time and effort I challenge others to spend 30 days in June applying what you have learned. As an avid open water swimmer I can train on land, practice drills on land but all of the practice and theory does little good if we don’t jump into the water.
You will survive swimming in the ocean with other great swimmers. No one will let you die. They might give you a kick board and some help along the way.