Had my first real conversation in new language. Feeling terrific!

Wow. What a great rush that was. I heard some Germans taking at Starbucks, so I couldn’t stop myself from striking up a conversation. I haven’t been to Germany in over a year, and this was the first time it felt like I just had a regular, natural conversation in a 2nd language. We talked about their trip and some of the things they liked about the states, and they were very nice!

In hindsight I did notice I was speaking a bit slow, but it was still so satisfying to see how much improvement I’ve be able to make with about a year or so of just using lingq!
I’m so excited for my next trip to sit down with my friends families at the dinner tabl

Thank you Steve, Mark, and all Lingq! never
thought I would really be able to decent
speaking level!

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Congratulations! It took me over 10 years after starting with Swedish to speak to a native. To this date, I’ve still spoken Swedish more with Finns and Norwegians than Swedes.

I remember you saying this previously. For years I was concerned about speaking Spanish–especially in front of other Americans (for some reason)–but it was actually a fluent friend of mine and Benny Lewis who inspired me to “Just do it. You speak Spanish.” Granted, I don’t think I’ll every do the “Speak from Day One” per se as a way of learning, but it is a good motivator to keep going and preferable to the “Speak from Day 4,000” like you and I took.

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Nice work. It’s great when it happens, isn’t it?

I have a friend who talks to every Hispanic he sees. He’s super outgoing, quite bumptious, and loves the senoritas (he’s married to one). I personally don’t do this, but when I see a Spaniard, actually from Spain, I pounce like a ninja.

In my opinion, what matters more in the beginning (A levels) is listening, anyway. Speaking becomes more important in the intermediate stage, which I think is also a pretty natural time to start speaking as you can actually express yourself a bit more freely. “Just do it” is certainly well put - you are probably the only one that cares about your mistakes anyway.

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True!