Join me on my journey to native fluency in Spanish

I have a confession to make - I made no New Year Resolutions for 2024. However there is a target that I’d really like to hit, even if I do not accomplish anything else. I want to achieve near native fluency in Spanish. I’m not putting a time limit on this goal either, I don’t have to reach there by the end of 2024 by any means. This is a life goal that I would like to accomplish without putting too much pressure on myself (I get overwhelmed pretty easily).

It seems as though I’m always admitting secrets on this blog. I have 1 more secret to admit - my 421 day streak on Duolingo is fake. I’ve missed more lessons and used up way more streak freezes than I’d like to admit. If you minus all my absent days on Duolingo over the past 16 months, it would mean that I was only active on Duolingo for 383 days. Have a look for yourself.

Be more consistent.

In order to achieve my goal, I need to be more consistent. I’m not going to fool myself or anyone else into thinking that I won’t miss another day of Duolingo ever again. That’s unrealistic. It’s an impossible promise to keep. I believe that the number of days that I missed were a direct reflection of my mental health those months. Some months I was feeling overwhelmed whereas others I was simply distracted. This year, I intend to teach myself how to take better care of my mental health, how to manage my emotions, and how to manage my time. Hopefully this would help me to be more consistent.

Habit Tracking

I’m going to stick to my tried and true methods of language learning such as interacting with native Spanish speakers and of course utilizing my favourite language learning apps - Duolingo, Anki, Language Transfer etc.. Last year, I kind of started habit-tracking but I ironically lost track due to my aforementioned lack of consistency. This year I’m going to recommit to tracking my progress in my language learning journey like the bullet journalers do. This way, I can monitor which methods I gravitate to, and which ones work.

Trying New Methods

Some of the new fun language learning methods, I’m excited about trying out this year include:

• Rewatching my favourite TV shows in Spanish on Netflix

• Watching new TV shows on Netflix in Spanish

• Listening audiobooks in Spanish (please send in recommendations if you have any)

• Reading books in Spanish

Expand My Vocabulary

One of my main goals (within the greater goal) is to expand my vocabulary. It’s something I already have a lot of fun with in English. I also want to have a “plethora of vocab’, a whole bag of verbs that I must grab” (A reference to one of my favourite songs). I feel a little embarrassed when I’m interacting with academics in Spanish and cannot grasp a lot of the vocabulary that they use. I intend to achieve this by reading books written in Spanish. I’ll begin with children’s book and then work my way up from there.

Building a Community

I often feel alone in my language learning journey because I have very few friends that commit to learning a language and follow through with it. On that note, I invite you to pick a language that you may be interested in learning, choose at least 1 language learning method that best suits you, (it doesn’t have to be Duolingo, even though it’s my #1 recommendation), and come join me. Let’s learn a language together!

PUBLISHED: 12th January 2024 by Lichelle Hills.