#Spanish grammar for advanced learners

[mylanguageclasses]

Mastering the Passive Reflexive 'Se' in Spanish

Introduction The passive reflexive ‘se’ is one of the most versatile and commonly used constructions in the Spanish language. It allows speakers to express actions in a way that emphasizes the action itself rather than who is performing it. This structure is particularly useful when the subject is unknown, irrelevant, or generalized. For example, instead of saying “Someone sells fruits here,”…

[kaikhou]

learning spanish as a foreign language and having the opposite distribution of understanding to my heritage language, as in the type of language i’m having the most trouble understanding is simple everyday language spoken around family. sure i can read this scientific article fairly easily but god forbid my bf’s mom asks me what i want for dinner

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Spanish Learning Resources So You Can Run at Windmills in Fluent Spanish

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Spanish specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dreaming Spanish - A website that is also a YouTube Channel. This is a comprehensible input site with videos about a variety of subjects with multiple hosts from multiple countries. It has content for learners from absolute beginner to lower advanced. It lets you sort videos by dialect, subject, length, etc. The free version has a lot of content. The paid version is $9 a month and has many more videos and allows you to track your listening hours. The website is in English but all videos are entirely in Spanish.

Lawless Spanish - A free website with resources to learn Spanish relating to grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. The website also has worksheets, charts, an AI chatbot, and reviews of different learning resources. The website is in English.

Spanish Boom - A free website with beginner lessons and free readings with audio and visual aids. They're also associated with a service called Esidioma that provides paid courses with tutor help for around $23 and also sells books. Prices are in Euros but they also sell to people outside of Europe. The website is available in multiple languages.

studyspanish.com - A website with free verb drills and grammar lessons. It's commonly used by high school Spanish students. They also have a blog that hasn't updated in a while but there is an archive to read through. They have a paid tier with access to their podcasts, vocab lessons, and their Spanish learning app which is $10 a month or $120 for a lifetime membership. The website is in English.

Speaking Latino - A website marketed at Spanish teachers but it's in English and has guides to colloquial Spanish and slang in a lot of different countries and a free blog with tips on sounding like a local in different countries. It has a paid tier but that's mostly useful for Spanish teachers. They also sell slang dictionaries for various countries that are usually less than $10.

UT Austin Spanish Proficiency Exercises - A bunch of free grammar, vocab, and pronunciation guides for various tasks you should be able to do in Spanish at various levels from one of my alma maters, the University of Texas at Austin. It's got videos of people from different countries pronouncing things. The podcast links often don't work for some reason but the grammar, vocab, and video links should work fine. The website is in English.

SpanishDict - A free dictionary website and app with a search feature that also has curated vocabulary lists on various topics and articles. They have a paid tier at $13 a month with a writing coach and subscriber only curated lists and articles. Personally I don't think their paid tier is all that special but it's up to you. The website is in English.

BBC Bitesize Spanish - Bitesize is a free study resource for kids and is sorted by level. It has articles aimed at little kids as well as secondary school aged teens studying for their exams or planning to study abroad. The website is in English and available worldwide, not just in the UK.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Hola Spanish - A channel by a woman named Brenda from Argentina who makes videos about grammar, pronunciation, culture, media, and general Spanish tips for upper beginner to advanced learners. The channel is almost entirely in Spanish with occasional vocabulary words translated into English onscreen. There are subtitles in Spanish onscreen but sometimes they randomly disappear.

Butterfly Spanish - A channel with free lessons from beginner to lower intermediate. The host also makes videos about useful phrases and listening practice videos. The channel is mostly in English.

Spanish After Hours - A comprehensible input channel for beginner to intermediate learners with vlogs, history, Spanish tips, and news. The descriptions and video titles are in English but the videos are all in Spanish. The channel host is from Spain.

Easy Spanish - A channel part of the easy languages network that makes a combination of videos with useful phrases and terms for beginners and interviews on the street with locals. They have teams in both Barcelona and Mexico City and there are dual language subtitles in Spanish and English onscreen. The hosts also have a podcast for intermediate to advanced learners.

My Daily Spanish - A catchall channel that has lessons, discussions of grammar, culture topics, vlogs, vocabulary, and other various things. The host is from Spain and also makes a lot of YouTube shorts. She mostly speaks in Spanish but occasionally uses English or has English translations onscreen.

Spansh Boost with Martin and Spanish Boost with Mila - These channels are run by a couple from Argentina who also work as tutors on italki. They often appear on each other's channels and both have their own podcasts and vlogs and general content videos that they make discussing their lives, giving tips, and discussing culture. Mila also makes a lot of videos playing the sims.

Spanish Boost Gaming - Run by Martin from Spanish Boost, this is a lets play channel in clear and easy to understand Spanish. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish and a few other languages as well and it's an actual let's play channel. He plays a variety of video games, makes jokes, and says cuss words and everything.

Mextalki - A channel run by a couple of guys from Mexico city that has listening practice, podcasts, street interviews, and Mexican Spanish specific lessons. Some videos have dual language subtitles onscreen while others do not. The channel is majority in Spanish but in a few lesson videos or portions of videos they will speak in English a bit.

Espanol Con Juan - A channel that teaches Spanish in Spanish from upper beginner to upper intermediate. Juan has grammar lessons, vocabulary lessons, and videos about culture. He is from Spain and the channel is entirely in Spanish. He also has a podcast for more advanced learners.

READING PRACTICE

Vikidia - A wikipedia type website specifically made for kids. The articles are short and written in more simple easy to understand Spanish. The website is in Spanish and made for native speaker kids.

Spanish graded readers by Olly Richards - Spanish has short stories and dialogues for beginner and intermediate, books in easy Spanish on world war 1, world war 2, western philosophy, and climate change. There's also dialogue books specific to Mexican Spanish and Spanish used on social media. The books usually go from $5-$20 new depending on how old they are and whether or not you bought a digital copy. These are really easy to find at used bookstores for cheap though, especially in the US.

Conatilteg Digital - This is a mobile app that provides digital versions of the free textbooks for children provided by the Mexican Ministry of Education both historic and current. The link I provided is for iOS but the app is also available on android and the app is available in multiple countries and not just Mexico. The app is entirely in Spanish and categorized by grade from preschool to secondary school so it's a resource appropriate for all levels and may be enjoyable for any kids you know that are learning Spanish. You can also view their browser website here. (also entirely in Spanish)

Hola Que Pasa - A free website with news articles for learners from beginner to intermediate difficulty. They also provide audio and have the news articles available in podcast form. Every article has certain phrases highlighted that you can hover over and get and English translation of. The website is in a mix of English and Spanish.

Spanish in Levels - A world news website in Spanish for learners. The articles are separated into three different levels and the website is in a mix of English and Spanish. Each article also has audio.

PODCASTS

Spanish for False Beginners - An unscripted podcast about various topics hosted by a guy from the UK and a guy from Spain. The podcast is aimed at people who find beginner content to be boring but still find intermediate content to be too difficult. English is very rarely used.

Uforia/Univision - Uforia is a free app aimed at native speakers in the US and has Spanish language radio, music, and podcasts. Univision in general is also useful if you like American and international news and programming in Spanish.

Radio National de Espana - Another site for native speakers, this is Spanish National Radio. They have a variety of free podcasts and radio programs.

Spanish Obsessed - This is a series of lessons in podcast form for learners from absolute beginner to advanced.

Storylearning Spanish Podcast - This podcast tells different short stories in Spanish and is aimed at upper beginner to lower intermediate learners.

Radio Ambulante - A Spanish language podcast from NPR that's similar to something like This American Life that tells stories from around Latin America. Although it's aimed at native speakers, the language used is clear and understandable and transcripts are available. They're also aware that a lot of intermediate and advanced learners use them for listening practice and they have developed a free app that helps with comprehension and vocabulary when listening to their podcast.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS

Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish - A self study textbook written in the late 80s that still mostly holds up for beginner to upper beginner Spanish. A paperback edition of the textbook is about $25 and used copies and ebooks are also usually available wherever you like to buy books. It's also half off on Amazon pretty often.

Complete Spanish step-by-step by Mcgraw Hill - This is a complete version of the McGraw Hill budget option, the spanish step by step series that focuses on the most frequently used words and grammar. It's $25 new but the individual books in the series usually cost less than $10 and used versions and ebooks are available.

Complete Spanish Grammar from Mcgraw Hill - This is a workbook as well as a textbook that usually costs around $20. The complete Spanish all in one version of the book costs about $40. Used versions of these books can be difficult to find because people tend to write all over them but ebook versions are available. You can also find their beginner workbook for around $18.

Practical Spanish Grammar - This book is usually around $25 but because it's not a workbook it's fairly easy to find used copies. An advanced grammar textbook is also available.

SERIES FOR LEARNERS AND KIDS SHOWS

Destinos - This is a series of over 50 episodes of a telenovela made for Spanish learners. The plot revolves around a group of siblings searching around the world for their long lost half sibling they just learned that they had so the series includes a lot of different Spanish dialects.

Extra Spanish - A 13 episode sitcom made to show in Spanish classrooms that revolves around a group of friends in Spain and a student that just moved there.

Dora la Expladora - Yeah if you remember Dora the Explorer from your preschool days it also unsurprisingly exists in Spanish. You can watch clips and some full episodes on YouTube and buy full seasons for around $8 each on Amazon.

PBS Kids in Spanish - A few PBS Kids shows like Cyberchase and Daniel Tiger have been dubbed into Spanish. The link I've given goes to a place to buy them on Amazon Prime but if you go digging on their YouTube channel or the PBS Kids website you also might be able to find them for free. They don't always make it easy to find though.

Plaza Sésamo - The Spanish language localization of Sesame Street for Mexican audiences with its own unique characters. The YouTube channel has a huge amount of content on it and often has episodes streaming live.

[latinare]

This is a really vague question maybe you have some insight on.

I'm monolingual; I very casually study Spanish, ie duolingo, very slowly reading Harry Potter in translation, bantering with my mexican coworkers, etc, but I'm barely past where I was ten years ago in college. My grandparents native language was Sicilian, and so that's really been the dream to someday learn Italian. But for where I live, Spanish is a very practical language, and Italian really isn't. I'm scared to stop the small amount of Spanish study that I currently do and lose it, but at the same time it's not my ultimate goal. There are really only so many hours in the day.

How much Spanish do I need to learn before I can put it to bed and start clawing my way through Italian? Can you think of any benchmark I could use? I realize it's not an either/or situation, but I was hoping you might have some advice as someone whose language journey seems to be much more advanced that my own.

Thanks for your time and any thoughts you might have!

This is a good question and I think one all language-learners struggle with. I don't know that there's one good answer, but I have a few thoughts that may or may not be helpful.

When you study something, even if you have to set it aside at some point, you don't lose it completely. The next time you pick it up, it's easier and quicker to get back to where you were. It's okay to study cyclically.

You can study things in the cracks of your day. I have Latin vocab pinned above the sink to learn when I'm washing dishes, and I translate posts for this blog while I'm nursing my baby. I read Geoffrey of Monmouth when I have ten free minutes and feel like it. It doesn't look like enough time to study a language, but it adds up.

Studying a second language in the same family can be fascinating because they share cognates (cousin words) and grammar elements. Digging into this can deepen your understanding of both. (Sicilian and Spanish are both from the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family.)

Finding a way to work a little Spanish into your week may help you retain what you've already learned. (Maybe leave Harry Potter in your backpack to read when you're in a queue or waiting room?)

One of my personal language-learning benchmarks is being able to understand spoken humour, so I'd contest that bantering with coworkers in Spanish makes you more than monolingual. :)

Ugh, I feel like I'm not saying much that's concrete. I really hope you get to study Sicilian though! Best of luck with both, and any future linguistic endeavours too!

[sadie-the-dragon-slayer]

Self / Independent Learner's Guide to Language Learning From Zero

-a mini study plan I used this for Spanish, French and Italian, it is my favourite way of starting to learn. It won't teach you the langauge but if this is your first time, if you feel confused and don't know where to begin, this is for you! -this is kinda romance langauge based but might give you ideas if you are learning from a different family too -this is very notebook / writing based since i prefer learning that way Step 1: Preperation

First of all, ask yourself "do i already have some amount of immersion in this langauge?" As humans, we learn from immersion a lot. Songs, but especially visual media is incredibly heplful. I never studied japanese but after watching a few animes i picked up 5-10 random words. Passive vocabulary, being familiar to most common words will be your biggest friend. If the answer is no, before start studying ANYTHING do some immersion. e.g. I watched dix pour cent for French and learned arrêt which means stop because characters were shouting to each other all the time.

After making sure you have some immersion or if you already have some, PREPARE YOUR RESOURCES. Make a file in your computer, reblog tumblr posts, save links. Search for pdfs in google. (x language a1 pdf / x langauge a1 grammar book / x language a1 reading) Free PDF's and and useful websites. The more the merrier. Why? Because when you actually start learning you will slowly realise them half of them are not actually useful, too advance, too simple, not in your preffered style etc. You will en up using same handful amount of resources again and again but before that, you have to TRY EVERYTHING. You are unique and so will be your learning process.

Google x language A1 curriculum. (you can try adding "pdf" at the end of sentence as well) It "probably/ hopefully" exists. If you can't find that way, learn which offical exam is necessary (e.g. for French it's DELF/DALF, in english there is IELTS and so many more) If you are lucky, you can find a langauge teaching enstitute's curriculum and you can find in what order they teach things. This was very helpful for me because sometimes you don't know what to study next, or just want to visualise what do you need to learn, it is helpful. I printed one out and paste it to the back cover of my notebook. You won't need this one YET. I'll explain in a second. Keep reading.

Get a notebook. I don't prefer books while learning from zero because it will be filled with vocabulary you don't know. My pereference is no squares no lines empty ass notebook and colorful pens. I'm a person of shitty doodles. I love to draw and visualise things. It really helps my brain. In A1, your knowledge is absouletly zero and your brain is about the explode with realising GREAT MASS of knowledge you need to learn in order to be "fluent" . So keep things away from being "too much" if you want to avoid a burnout.

Set a timer. If you want to avoid burnout, the secret is always quit when you feel like you can go another round happily. Quit when you are dopamine high. If you study too much, next day you'll wake up tired, want to rest etc. and make it harder for you to create a habit. I did this mistake with French by studying 4-5 hours everyday for around 30 days. I completed my challenge, completly quit and then didn't come back for MONTHS.

You will be re-studying A LOT. Language learning is repetition. You will start by studying "the A1 curriculum". But, because this is your first time your focus will be on the vocabulary and general comprehension. You are trying to re-wire your brain, and learn a different way of thinking and living. It's not easy. It will take time. It will be painful at times. But it is 100% worth it.

After you finished studying your curriculum, you'll take a short break and then study the curriculum AGAIN. For a second time. Because you already know the basics, this time you will be able to focus more on the little things you weren't able to comprehend the last time. e.g. articles or whatever little frustaring thing your langauge has. Also focus more on basic prononciation and especially reading aloud. Find a realistic text-to-reader. Copy-paste a text. Listen and repeat.

Get a new Youtube and Instagram account dedicated to langauge study. How many good resources exists and where they are is really depens on which langauge you are learning. For english, youtube is better. For French, instagram is better. You have to see for yourself. If you get a seperate account for your langauge algorith will learn faster and you won't be distracted by other stuff. Short form engaging videos are the best for absolute beginners. Re-watch things and try to repeat them out loud. It's called shadowing and is your future best friend.

If you want to learn how to speak, you first need to how to write. If you can't write sentences without looking at google translate (or reverso) you won't be able to make up sentences in your head. If you want to learn how to write, your first need to learn how to read. You need to start in this order but also don't be perfectionist. Do it even if you do it wrong. They will be fixed eventually and won't stick. Record yourself speaking even if the text you are reading is 90% google translated. Why? Beacuse speaking will enhance your vocabulary in a way no other thing can and that's the core of reading. So this isn't a linear thing. It's actually a circle!

Step Two! Ok, Sadie, i got my notebooks and read through all the warnings where do i start? *First page: [] means written is target langauge

[x notebook] x= your target langauge

Add something cute and make you feel happy to open up the notebook. It can a drawing, a picture, anything. First page is your entrance to your new home. Make it welcoming.

*[My name is X. I am Y years old. I live in Z.] *Greetings. Main articles if there are any. Yes, no, please, thank you. *What is your name, what do you do for living, how are you, where are you from, how old are you, how many langauges do you speak, numbers from 0-100. If there are multiple way of saying these things and probably there are, just write one. You will eventually learn others. Baby steps. *write a basic ass text of two people having a conversation asking and answering these questions.

*the alphabet and how to pronounce the letters. basic letter combinations that change into a different sound. a youtube video about this 100% exists.

*personal pronouns and if there is a "am/is/are" verb the conjugation of it. (in spanish there is two unfortunately) *artciles and basic noun endings. a couple exemples of nouns in x form but takes y article. *first 5 most common verbs. learn the conjugation, try writing basic ass sentences. (e.g. to come, go, have, speak)

*three more verbs (e.g. to eat, can, to want)

*take some time to fully comprehend. check your curriculum list to look and see if you want to add anything. e.g.for spanish that can be ser vs estar, for spanish is can be "how to ask questions in french" becaue it's way harder compared to other langauges.

*take some break from grammar and learn some vocab maybe. it can be colors, or feelings. (i am sad, i am hungry etc.)

*start studying most common verbs. usually a form of categorization exists. usually it's verb ending. (unless it's a language like turkish where every verb either ends with -mek or -mak lol.) Start with 10- 15 most common verbs. You will also be learning some vocabulary by default. (try to stick to regular verbs if you can, if not that's fine) (Do not learn any verbs you won't be able to use immediately.)

*Learn basic adjectives and how they work so you can form more detailed sentences.

*After comprehending how to form basic positive negative sentences and some verbs, congratulate yourself, because you deserve it! *Learn how tell time. "What time is it? It's x'o clock."

*learn clothing and how to simply describe physical look e.g. hair color, eye color, beard, glasses...

*learn the verbs of daily routine. be able to write a generic ass "i wake up, i do breakfast, i eat lunch at school, i sleep" sort of text.

*demonstratives. this that. these. those. you can add some vocabulary you like. this is a cat. this is a tree. you can add placement adjectives now or later. (the cat is under the sofa. the bird is on the table etc.)

*Now you know a lot of things! Take some time and focus a bit more on the vocab, let your brain process things, do some passive immersion. avoid a burnout at all costs. *learn how to say "there is" (if you want more vocab transportation and city centre themes can be included.) *learn how to talk about your hobbies. This is the generic A1 curriuculum. You are able to understand basic things, you have a generic comprehension. That's all it takes to be considered A1. If you want to pass it though, what you need is a good grammar source. For French and Spanish Kwiziq was very useful. I couldn't find a good online grammar resource for Italian yet. (please ask more experienced langblrs for recs.) Slowly learn more vocab (since A1 is more vocab based. If you hate Anki and Quizlet stuff check Linguno. Actually check Linguno anyway it's a banger and i'm gonna die on that hill.)

If you don't have have native friend to ask questiones and you don't have any ethical concerns ChatGPT can be useful. I'm using it for French for months. Why are we using this particle here, why this and not that, can you give me some example sentences.... you can play guess the animal, ask for writing prompts and then make ChatGpt find and explain your mistakes to you. It's very handy.

*Don't be scared to share about your journey on Tumblr and most importantly ENJOY!

[indigostudies]

What are those apps you usually post in your productivity updates?

hi! here's a breakdown of apps i use, as well as websites and other resources i've used/use for my learning (mainly chinese, though some of these resources can be used for other languages as well).

apps i use every day:

dot languages: this is a chinese-specific app where you select your hsk level, and then read articles at that level. there's a pop-up dictionary, an option to show pinyin, post-article vocab practice (audio, matching, translation, and writing), and the option to have your articles either in simplified or traditional.

TOFU learn: a blend between flashcards and writing, you can find decks for various things, including hsk level-specific decks, and you learn new vocab with the stroke order and then write each new term three times—once with an overlay (so the term is visible), and then two times from memory. there's also a review function, which helps you practice terms you've already learnt, and each term has audio that goes with it. i use it for chinese, but there's decks for esperanto, french, german, italian, japanese, korean, norweigian, portuguese, russian, spanish, swedish, and turkish.

the pleco dictionary app: my favourite chinese dictionary app; allows you to translate from english to chinese or chinese to english, has options for writing, radical, vocal, and keyboard entry, and has both traditional and simplified characters.

ankiapp: this one's not particularly complicated; it's a flashcard app, where you can make your own decks or download decks other people have made. it uses a spaced repetition system to help you remember terms—you rate yourself from worst to best on how well you remembered the term, and that determines how many times it'll pop up afterwards. it also gives you an overall grade for each deck, which is a nice way to measure your progress.

duolingo: probably my least favourite of all of the apps i use; the chinese course isn't the best, and now that they've removed the notes/grammar information option, there's no way for people who aren't already fairly familiar with the language and its inner workings to learn them if they exclusively use duolingo. it's okay for maintenance practice, though, but i'm already almost finished with the entire course and i would say it barely reaches to lower hsk 4, so i wouldn't say it's a good tool if you're more advanced.

apps i have but use less often:

readibu: this is sort of like dot in that it's an app for reading in chinese with a pop-up dictionary. however, that's where the similarities end; readibu has novels, short stories, and articles aimed at children, and each of those are further split into genres. readibu also lets you add your own web-pages and read them on the app, so you can use its pop-up dictionary with them. it's aimed more to intermediate and upper intermediate learners, with hsk levels ranging from hsk 4 to hsk 6. the only reason i rate dot above readibu is because dot has a larger range of levels (hsk 1 through hsk 6 i believe? but it may go higher) and exercises built in to help you learn the vocab.

the chairman's bao: also a chinese reading app, though if you use the free version, you only get one sample article per hsk level (hsk 1 - hsk 6). i believe that every so often you get a new sample article for each level, but i'm not sure what the interval on that is. it also has a pop-up dictionary and a flashcard option for saved vocab.

du chinese: another chinese reading app; it has articles divided into newbie through master (six levels in total, though they don't line up perfectly with the hsk in my experience), and new articles are free for a certain period of time before becoming locked behind a paywall. there's a pop-up dictionary and a vocab review/test option for vocab you save.

memrise: flashcards with audio, depending on whether you're using an official course or a user-generated deck. decent, but it can get repetitive.

hellotalk: not exclusively chinese, but i believe it started off mainly aimed that way. you set your language, and then your target language, and then you can talk to native speakers who have your language as their target language. potentially incredibly useful, but if you're like me and extremely introverted you may have a hard time using this app, since it requires a lot of one-on-one interaction.

slowly: i haven't actually gotten around to using this, but it's sort of like a digital penpal app, as i understand it. you can learn more about it here.

websites and other miscellanea:

this massive mega drive by @salvadorbonaparte (languages, linguistics, translation studies, and more).

this masterpost by @loveletter2you (linguistics, languages, and language learning books/textbooks).

this masterpost on chinese minority literature by @zaobitouguang

the integrated chinese textbooks by cheng and tsui, which are the textbooks i use for self-study—there's textbooks and workbooks, as well as character workbooks (though these can easily be cut out without suffering from the loss).

mandarinbean: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, with a pop-up dictionary and the option to read in traditional or simplified

chinese reading practice: reading, beginner through advanced (three levels), with a pop-up dictionary and some additional notes included on vocab and language-specific things non-native speakers might struggle with or not know.

hsk reading: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, divided into three sections (beginner, intermediate, advanced). does not have a pop-up dictionary, but does have an option to translate the text, post-reading quizzes, and notes on important vocab with example sentences.

my chinese reading: reading from beginner to advanced (four levels); has a pop-up dictionary, the option to play an audio recording of the passage you're reading, notes on key words, things that are difficult to translate, grammar, and post-reading comprehension questions.

the heavenly path notion website, which i would say is one of the best resources i've ever found, with a massive number of guides, lists of chinese media in a variety of forms, and general resources.

chinese character stroke order dictionary: what it says on the tin; will show you the stroke order for a given character.

hanzigrids: allows you to generate your own character worksheets. i use this very frequently, and can recommend it. the only downside is if you want to create multiple pages at once, you have to pay; however this can easily be circumnavigated by creating only one sheet at a time. you can download the sheet as a pdf and print it out for personal use.

21st century chinese poety: a resource i only came across recently; has a massive collection of contemporary chinese poetry, including translations; much more approachable than classical poetry, which can often be incredibly dense and hard to parse due to the writing style.

zhongwen pop-up dictionary: if you're reading something in chinese on a website that doesn't have a pop-up dictionary, this is a must. i've never encountered any words that it doesn't have a translation for so far, including colloquialisms/slang. i use it to read webnovels, and it's been a fantastic tool. you can also save vocab by hitting the r key when you're hovering over a word/phrase, making it easy to go back and add terms to your flashcard deck(s).

chinese reading world: a website put together by the university of iowa; split into three levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), with thirty units per level, and ten modules per unit, as well as multiple proficiency tests per level. each module is split into three parts: a pre-reading vocab quiz, the reading with a number of comprehension questions based on it, and a post-vocab reading quiz. it also rates you in relation to someone with a native proficiency based on how quickly you read and answer the comprehension questions, and how many vocab questions you get right.

jiaoyu baike: an extensive chinese-to-chinese dictionary, put out by the taiwanese ministry of education. you can find an extensive write-up on it here, by @linghxr.

social media etc: see this post by @rongzhi.

qianpian: another chinese-to-chinese dictionary; @ruhua-langblr has a write-up on it here.

this writeup on zero to hero by @meichenxi; initially aimed at chinese learning, but now has expanded greatly.

music rec's: this masterpost by @linghxr.

tv/film: youtube is a great place to find chinese tv shows and films, and they often have english subtitles. if you can't find something on there, though, you can probably find it either on iqiyi or asianvote, which have both chinese and other asian shows and films (though you'll want an adblock if you're going to use the latter). i use these a lot to watch things, and have discovered a lot of media through these, and then novels through those when i went searching to see what they were adapted from.

polylogger: a website for logging the amount of time/type of language study you do. has a wide variety of languages, and the option to follow other people. still, it's a fairly basic site.

[tearsinthemist]

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

[18shadesofmay]

dont ask how i know pt2, give me tips to learn german.

ok so ive completed C1.1 level german so i have tons of material if you (or anyone reading this) ever wants any.

duolingo/similar apps could get you off the ground, but that’s basically all they do. when i started, i was doing duolingo and although it helped, it couldnt really get me too far. so basically, apps like those are crap. just my opinion, it has worked for people, but i find it too repetitive, and honestly not a feasible option if it's your primary teacher. you need other forms of instruction.

if you’re serious then a good language course would be amazing, BUT you can get close to fluency even with just youtube.

some thoughts:

youtube channel: easy german (they have readymade playlists for each language level from A1 (absolute beginner) to C1 (advanced learner). they also have english subs, so that helps :)

BEST RESOURCE OUT THERE: DW learn german with Nicos Weg. It's fun, it's informative, and it plunges you into german culture in a way no other site i've seen does. basically you follow the story of a spanish guy that goes to germany to find his aunt and makes new friends. there's tests, practice and stuff after every chapter. it's very real-life oriented and great for day-to-day umgangssprache (conversational comprehension).

if you're just starting out, one very important point to note (one that helped me pick up some pace along my journey) is to have comprehensible input. you need to be consuming the language as much as possible, BUT still at your own comprehension level. if you can't understand a word then it's a waste of time.

youtube channel: Natürlich German is a super channel that focuses more on "acquiring" the language than learning it. it's straight countless hours of pure consumption. highly rec.

what's just as crucial, if not more, than consumption is good and consistent producing. keep writing. if possible, speaking. without an outlet, you'll be great at understanding stuff but will struggle to form basic sentences, because structure and grammar can't be mastered without formation. i could GLADLY help you out here, reach out to me anytime.

for building vocabulary: seedlang is THE BEST. it follows a flashcard-system and it's works wonders, i dont even know how i built so much of my day-to-day vocabulary with just a couple lessons on seedlang.

lastly, watch german films, shows, listen to german music, just try to expose yourself to the language as much as possible. starting off is the hardest bit. uske baad you're just building on what you already understand about the language. it'll be hard and it'll be rewarding.

you'll do great, dm me if you ever need anything ;)

[shu-of-the-wind]

hello! apologies if you've answered this before (I tried searching but Tumblr search is awful). I recall you mentioning all the languages you have studied, many of which are quite distinct from each other. I was wondering if you have any advice for learning a new language? specifically any tips for someone with ADHD as a lot of the common tips I see online haven't helped me keep up with my language learning goals :/ thank you in advance for any advice/resources you can point me to!

hi @kyradic!! i haven't answered this before actually and i love questions like these so i'm so happy you asked!!

so for context for me i have inattentive adhd, which means if something is not right in front of me, i WILL forget it. this means i set a lot of alarms for myself, book time in my schedule to at least try to study (i do welsh on monday, arabic on wednesday, japanese on thursday, and chinese on saturday). i don't always succeed--a lot of the time i forget or have something else i need to do--but having that time booked means it keeps it in my mind that i need to study or at least look at some vocab.

to actually study, i do a lot of vocab games (you can find these online for a lot of languages, for japanese there's shiritori or other flashcard games you can find if you google) and i listen to a lot of podcasts in the langauge i'm trying to learn even if i don't have a fucking clue what someone is saying. the biggest thing about learning a language is hearing it, getting used to the rhythm, understanding how native speakers pronounce things, and (this is a big one) i listen to a lot of music in the language i'm trying to learn and try to teach myself the lyrics. it makes it more of an activity (karaoke baybee) but also teaches you how to speak faster, more fluidly, and with more native speaker-style pronunciation than just reciting shit off of duolingo or rosetta.

i also watch a LOT of tv in the target language. telenovelas have been my best albeit dramatic friend for spanish listening comp. it does way more for me than studying out of textbooks because it means i'm listening to native speakers, their contractions, different styles of speech, and i get some entertainment out of it. legit i know someone who studied for their chinese exams in college by watching c-dramas and aced all their courses.

the biggest and most important thing for me though is finding a buddy. language is not a thing you can learn on your own. there are loads of discord channels for various languages (if you're looking for a japanese learning community, seitokai's nihongo is a good one that i am a member of, and i can get you a link to their discord). it lets you body-double or find an accountability-buddy to make sure you study instead of getting distracted. generally there's also a bunch of other learners in those communities of various levels so you can ask for advice or help, you can have conversations (or try to, part of learning a language is learning how to be okay with communicating in broken grammar until you get better, and that is 100% okay; so long as you can make your meaning understood, that is all that matters) or practice pronunciation or play games or read books or do anything you need to do that will help you, specifically.

i hope this helps! i'm not sure what language you're trying to learn but there are definitely adhd friendly resources out there that aren't just "knuckle down and memorize these words." that being said if you're learning a language with a new alphabet, you WILL have to do that sometimes, and it's best to do that with a body double so you don't get bored, annoyed, or frustrate yourself into executive dysfunction about it.

[rigelmejo]

Chinese Listening Experiment - Some Thoughts on how to apply Dreaming Spanish method to other languages when learning to read

If you are not familiar with Dreaming Spanish, the method is basically Comprehensible Input Method or ALG, and a decent portion of the people who learn using Dreaming Spanish just follow that method (purist approach) or use other study methods in addition to the Dreaming Spanish Method (non-purist approach). I find the subreddit for r/dreamingspanish quite friendly because it is welcoming to people who've taken traditional classes before/currently, who've studied with flashcards/anki, and anyone else who does things outside of Comprehensible Input for study. The subreddit r/dreaminglanguages is also friendly of people studying with mainly Comprehensible Input that have also done other methods of study before/may be doing other methods at the same time.

Comprehensible Input Method is basically watching videos (or taking in person classes or livestream classes) of a teacher speaking your target language only, and using visuals like images and gestures to give you enough context to understand what the main idea they're conveying is. So you learn the target language entirely IN the target language. You go through lessons for 'beginners,' 'intermediate' and 'advanced' learners (the lessons tend to be labelled or named for the level of learner they make the lesson 'comprehensible' for). Eventually you engage with other content in the target language - other stuff made for learners that's entirely in the target language (like learning podcasts for 'beginner' 'intermediate' 'advanced' and graded readers).

Then eventually you engage with content in the target language made for native speakers - whatever you can comprehend the main idea of (vlogs, shows, comics, stuff with visuals tends to be easiest). Anything you already know the context for, such as shows and books you've read before in a language you know, may be easier to comprehend sooner since you already know the main idea of the material. Over time, the amount of content made for native speakers that you understand increases, and you expand the content you engage with (like novels, shows that talk about abstract subjects, podcasts, audiobooks). Once you are using content in the target language made for native speakers that you comprehend the main idea of, you are basically 'immersing' and can look up immersion study tips. To do a pure comprehensible input method like Dreaming Spanish advises, you would look up no word translations, you would look up words in a target language dictionary if you wanted to look something up.

Many people do Comprehensible Input alongside other study methods, such as looking up word translations and making flashcards because they don't actually care if some of their study activities involve non-target language material. (I don't use purely comprehensible input method to study, I do other stuff, I look up translations often, and I sure read a bunch of grammar guides as a beginner). Like I mentioned, the subreddits r/dreamingspanish and r/dreaminglanguages are fairly friendly to people doing a 'non purist' approach, such as people who continue to use translation tools and flashcards, or people who took traditional classes in the past/currently (which tend to explain grammar and vocabulary meanings not in the target language but in the language the learner is assumed to already know).

For the purpose of this post, I am going to be reflecting on how to study in the Comprehensible Input Method way, like Dreaming Spanish suggests to study (more or less), and how to apply that to various languages.

For languages using the latin alphabet, if you already know the latin alphabet? Or for any language where you already know the symbols of the writing system. Follow the study suggestions as Dreaming Spanish lays it out, it should work fine. So whether you study Spanish, or French, or Portuguese, find beginner-intermediate-advanced comprehensible input lessons and complete them, use children's shows with a lot of visual context as additional comprehensible input, use podcasts made for learners (who are at your level of understanding - so for beginners etc) entirely in the target language (or as close to only in TL as you can find) as additional comprehensible input. Eventually use TV shows with a lot of visual context (like action shows or slice of life) or TV shows you've seen before (and already know the context) for additional comprehensible input. Optional: I would suggest you also find a Comprehensible Input Lesson video that goes over the alphabet/writing system and the name and pronunciation of each letter, ideally find a lesson video IN the target language. If you cannot find a lesson video on the writing system in the target language, finding a video or website that shows a chart of the letters and pronounces them will work. If you have to read some non-target language text, I guess that'll technically not be pure comprehensible input. The main point is to see the target language writing system and hear the pronunciation. This part is not recommended/necessary in Dreaming Spanish, but since children learn the alphabet when they start school or beforehand, it might be useful to also learn it to make your efforts learning to read easier.

Dreaming Spanish suggests you can start learning to read around 600-1000 hours of comprehensible input - and I suggest you start learning to read WHENEVER you want (if you don't care about strictly following the suggested roadmap Dreaming Spanish has). When you're ready to learn to read, I suggest starting by turning captions on the videos and shows you're watching. I would suggest not counting time with captions on as 'comprehensible input hours' in terms of listening skills since you will develop reading skills more while watching the captions, but ultimately your decision what to consider this activity. Reading the captions will allow you to learn to read words you have already learned in listening. Additional activities: if you listen to any learner podcasts or regular podcasts, if you can find the transcript then read along to the transcript, this will also allow you to learn to read the words you can understand in listening. Find Graded Readers, particularly any graded reading material with audio files included (or use Text To Speech tools) and read along to audio. Find audiobooks, and read along to the text version of the audio. Finally, once you feel you've read-listened to enough material to feel you can usually recognize the spelled version of words you know, practice reading without listening to audio.

If the language is a writing system that is phonetic, but not one you already know - so for example if you're an English speaker learning Russian or Korean: Mostly, do what I suggest above. The additional parts will be highly recommended: if you can find any Comprehensible Input Lessons for learners that go over the writing system sounds and pronunciation, watch them and rewatch them. For example here's Korean Hangul lessons in Korean. You can look up videos or webpages that just list the writing system and play the audio such as this video for Russian. Alternatively if you cannot find any video lessons in the target language that explain the writing system, go break the rules and watch a quick video that explains the writing system sounds in a language you understand - yes it's not pure Comprehensible input method, but children are taught X symbols have Y pronunciation when they start school, and you'll want that same basic knowledge to start reading. After learning the basic writing system pronunciation, you'll continue to learn to read the same as the other suggestions above: graded readers with audio, captions on videos, audiobooks with text, podcasts with transcript, and eventually practice reading with no audio.

If the writing system is not entirely phonetic (such as kanji in Japanese, or hanzi in Chinese): Do the same as above suggestions, with a few additional steps. If the language has a phonetic writing system it ALSO uses, learn that first - so Hiragana and Katakana if learning Japanese, pinyin or zhuyin if learning Chinese. Learning those phonetic systems, do the same as suggested above, find any lessons IN the target language that go over the writing system sounds, and if you can't find something entirely in the target language then just use any video/chart/resource that includes the writing system and pronunciations. For the parts of the writing system that are not phonetic, you have a few options. First, you can research how native speakers learn the non phonetic portions - for kanji I've seen the methods of learn by rote memorization and phonetic equivalent tests (write kana for the kanji you see), for hanzi one friend I have studied by writing them a lot and another friend learned a lot of information about each hanzi (the components that make it up, the radicals, a few example words that use the hanzi - since hanzi meanings vary a bit depending on word they're in). If you are not going for a pure comprehensible input approach, it may be time to research the 'fastest' or 'best' way people suggest studying the writing system, and then do trial and error until you find the method that works best for you. You might see some people suggest rote memorization, writing a lot, mnemonic stories, SRS flashcards or apps, sight reading. In foreign language classes, which were not pure comprehensible input, I've had classes mnemonic stories used to teach kanji, and pinyin/hanzi equivalent writing hanzi over and over.

If the language has no phonetic writing system, things will get tricky - if you'd like to do a pure comprehensible input approach, it may be time to research how native speakers learn the writing system. Then do that. If you don't care about doing a pure comprehensible input approach, you will want to research how other people learned the writing system. Then try different methods people have used successfully, until you find one that works for you.

Regardless of if there is a phonetic writing system or not, when you start reading, any text with audio is going to be helpful for learning the writing system. So captions on videos, graded reader text with audio, transcripts with podcast audio, text with audiobook. It's just that depending on you, you may want to do additional study of the writing system beyond just following along to text while listening to audio until you 'recognize' words in the writing system.

[hollwi]

The Quest for the Golden Owl

In a quiet town nestled between mountains, lived Byeol, a dedicated language learner. he had always been fascinated by the art of communication, the way words could build bridges across cultures and time. His trusty companion on this journey was none other than the vibrant, persistent green owl—Duolingo.

Every morning, Byeol would wake up to the soft chime of his phone. "Time for your Spanish lesson!" the notification would read. And there he was, Duolingo, perched on Byeols screen, his wide eyes gleaming with encouragement. But today, something was different. When Byeol opened the app, instead of the usual greeting, Duolingo spoke.

"Byeol," the owl began, his voice soft but serious, "you've worked hard to reach this point. But now, I must ask for your help. The Golden Owl has been stolen!"

Byeols eyes widened in surprise. "The Golden Owl?" he asked aloud, though no one was there to hear. "What's that?"

"The Golden Owl is the source of all language knowledge," Duolingo explained. "It powers our lessons and ensures that all learners can continue their quests. Without it, the world will lose the ability to learn new languages!"

Byeol knew he couldn't let that happen. Languages were his passion, his lifeline to the wider world. "What do I need to do?" He asked, determination flooding his voice.

"You must venture into the Language Forest," Duolingo replied. "It's a place filled with forgotten words and ancient grammar. But beware, the journey is fraught with challenges. Conjugations, vocabulary monsters, and tricky sentence structures await you."

Without hesitation, byeol grabbed his backpack, filled it with notebooks and pens, and set out on his journey. Duolingo flew beside his, offering guidance as they delved into the dense Language Forest.

The trees in the forest were tall, their leaves whispering in languages long forgotten. Byeol could hear faint echoes of French, Italian, and even Latin as he walked. But the path was not easy. Soon, they encountered their first obstacle—a Vocabulary Monster.

It was a hulking creature made entirely of words. Its body twisted with phrases in different languages, and it bared its teeth, which were sharp-edged letters. "Who dares enter my domain?" the monster roared in a deep, guttural tone.

Byeol felt a shiver run down his spine, but Duolingo remained calm. "This is your first challenge, Byeol. To defeat the Vocabulary Monster, you must demonstrate your knowledge of new words."

The monster advanced, hurling words like "libro" and "chien" at him. Byeol quickly pulled out her notebook, jotting down translations. "Book! Dog!" he shouted back. But the monster wasn't finished. It began mixing languages, throwing German and Japanese into the fray.

Byeol's heart raced, but he focused. "Buch! Inu!" he responded, matching the monster word for word. Slowly, the creature began to shrink, its power waning as Byeol demonstrated his linguistic prowess. Finally, with one last effort, he defeated the Vocabulary Monster, and it dissolved into a cloud of harmless letters.

"Well done, Byeol," Duolingo praised. "But the journey is far from over."

After a few days of travel, Byeol and Duolingo arrived at the Temple of Conjugation, an ancient structure covered in verbs. The walls were inscribed with countless forms of "to be," "to have," and "to go," in languages from around the world.

"This is where you must prove your mastery of verb conjugations," Duolingo instructed. "If you fail, you'll be trapped here, endlessly conjugating verbs until you get them right."

Byeol felt his confidence waver, but he knew he had no choice. As he stepped inside, the doors slammed shut, and the verbs began to glow, one after the other.

"Conjugate the verb 'to be' in Spanish!" a voice boomed from the temple walls.

"Soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son!" Byeol called out, his voice echoing through the chamber.

The temple responded with a low rumble, and the next challenge appeared: "Conjugate 'to have' in French!"

"J'ai, tu as, il/elle a, nous avons, vous avez, ils/elles ont!" she responded quickly.

The tests continued, each more challenging than the last. But Byeol didn't falter. His years of practice, his dedication, all paid off as he passed each trial. Finally, the temple doors opened, revealing a hidden passage leading deeper into the forest.

After what felt like weeks of traveling and overcoming linguistic challenges, Byeol and Duolingo reached the heart of the Language Forest. There, on a pedestal surrounded by a shimmering light, was the Golden Owl. It was even more magnificent than Byeol had imagined, its feathers glowing with the combined knowledge of every language in existence.

But before he could reach it, a shadowy figure appeared. "So, you've made it this far," the figure sneered. It was the Shadow of Forgetfulness, a dark entity that thrived on people abandoning their language learning.

"You can't stop me!" Byeol declared, stepping forward. "I won't let you steal the joy of learning from anyone."

The Shadow of Forgetfulness laughed, but Duolingo intervened. "Byeol, remember why you started learning in the first place. Use that passion to defeat him!"

With a deep breath, Byeol focused on the reasons he loved languages—the connections he made, the stories he could read, the cultures he could understand. His passion manifested as a bright light, which she directed at the Shadow.

The Shadow screamed as the light engulfed it, dissolving into nothingness. With the enemy vanquished, Byeol approached the pedestal and gently took the Golden Owl in her hands.

"You've done it," Duolingo said, his voice filled with pride. "The Golden Owl is safe, thanks to you."

With the Golden Owl secured, Byeol and Duolingo made their way back to the town. The journey back was peaceful, the challenges behind them. As they approached the edge of the Language Forest, the world seemed brighter, more vibrant.

When they returned, the town was abuzz with excitement. People were already returning to their language lessons, unaware of the danger they had been in. Byeol placed the Golden Owl on a pedestal in the town square, where it would be safe and watched over by all.

"Thank you, Byeol," Duolingo said, perching on her shoulder. "You've saved language learning for everyone."

Byeol smiled, looking up at the Golden Owl. "It was worth it," he replied. "But I think this is just the beginning. There's so much more to learn."

And so, with the Golden Owl restored, Byeol continued his language journey, ready for whatever challenges awaited him next.

°°°°°°°°°°°○°°°°°°°°°°°°

@starrihideshere

[inthewaytoamultilinguallife]

Hi there! Thanks for your blog, I love it ^_^ I was wondering if you have any advice for learning very similar languages at the same time? I have to return to my studies of Spanish soon, but I'm also learning Italian (~B2). I remember when I first came to Italy and started learning Italian my rudementary knowledge of Spanish was useful in some aspects and harmful others. I'm afraid that returning to it will result in me mixing them up constantly :(( Any words of wisdom? 🙏

Thank you so much! You don’t know how much this message meant to me, especially knowing I haven’t been that active with university and projects and finals!! ❤

And thank you for waiting until I could answer this too!

I don’t know how much wisdom i can actually impart, but i can always try to help out a fellow language learner. What i will share are a few tips i discovered during my 14 years of learning languages (god that almost makes me sound old and experienced lmao), and in my 10 years of learning more than one language at a time. They are not rules and are very much shaped by my experience, so feel free to spice them up at will:

First of all, when possible: Avoid languages of the same family that are way too similar!: The more similar they are, the more difficult to keep them separated, as you might have noticed. But we all know how tempting it is to learn them all, and at the same time, even if we know that if we learn that one language we will be able to understand the others as well because of their similarities. I know you will ignore this one. That’s ok, I did too. There’s some fun to it. Also sometimes we just can’t choose the languages we learn, so let’s go to the “real” advice

Only start a new language once you’re advanced and comfortable enough in the other language you speak: For this I would say around a B1 level is ok, even tho I always started mines when I was at a A2 level, but I must say it was without me realizing it. From my own experience, I would say a B1 level is better. This is so you can concentrate on practicing using and improving one language you already know quite well, while learning new basic vocab and grammar exercises in a new language. if you start another language while you are still in the middle of bulking vocab and grammar exercises and memorizing rules and words, you might confuse the two or get overwhelmed

Consider using different methods for each language: With this I mean, for example, improving your Italian via immersion (watching tv, reading, talking to friends, etc), and studying Spanish the “traditional” way, with exercises and vocab cards, etc 

Consider learning one skill at a time: That is, concentrating on studying only writing in Spanish, and only speaking in Italian. This makes learning a language seem longer, and maybe a little boring for some, but it’s a good way to keep the languages separated in your mind, since you will be focusing on different aspects of the languages at a time 

Designate days and times for each language: Learning each language whenever you feel like it will create more trouble for you than needed, and make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated. A way to counter this is via a good structural learning routine. You can designate specific days to languages even if you don’t take language classes and even if you use all the languages each day.

What designating a day to a language means is just basically that, in that day, you will focus more on that language. Mondays and Sundays are for studying French, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are for learning English, etc, for example. You can even adapt this given your routine: for example, in my case, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are Uruguayan Sign Language days, because my sign language classes are Mondays and Wed, and most Deaf events are on Saturdays. I find it is easier to include them in a routine you already have, and not making a new one around the languages you want to learn

Assign times to them: An alternative, or addition to assigning days. It works the same, but might be more helpful if you have problems keeping or following a routine, too. Instead of assigning whole days, you make it a time of the day. So, instead of learning or using a language during the entire day, you do it only in the morning, and in the afternoon you can switch to another language. All you have to do is keep that order as much as you can without switching them up. This, as well as the day one, will help keep the languages more separated in your mind and help you not mix their grammar and rules and pronunciation, etc

On a similar note, use different notebooks and colors for each language (in ink, highlighters, notebooks, etc). You can also designate different parts of your house to study, or different places around town if you use the language in a certain place (classroom, work, friend’s house, etc). Make the distinction physical, palpable as much as you can

If you forget your routine… well, then now is the best time to start again: If for some reason you forget yo go to a class or sit down and study on your own when you were supposed to do it, PLEASE don’t give yourself shit for it. Do the studying right there when you remembered. Or the next time you are supposed to, if you have/want to keep the routine, 

Concentrate on one more than the other: I know I know, no one of us wants this! But it will help I promise! It doesn’t mean you have to forget one or leave it aside. Just put more time, effort, or a more conscious studying in one of them (I normally do it with the language I'm just picking up, since I already know of the other, and so I can do a more “passive learning” on the one I know the most, and center in the other one)

Learning more than one language at a time is possible, even if they are very similar! You just gotta be more organized than usual, I've found out

[danny-does-things]

Spanish resource recommendation

I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, but spanishdictionary.com is really great for learning spanish, grammar especially

There's a website and an app, and both function well as far as i've seen

It has a bunch of grammar lessons, from complete beginner to advanced, like ser vs estar, por vs para, preterite, etc.

For vocab it has a lot of flashcard sets on different topics, like activities, idioms, mexican slang, technology, and also some long lists of most used words for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners

Happy learning everyone, I hope this helps

[everythinginmyheart]

Discover the key difference between ‘tener que’ and ‘hay que’ to express obligation clearly in Spanish. My Language Classes makes learning Spanish grammar simple and practical, perfect for beginners and advanced learners aiming to speak naturally and confidently.

[mylanguageclasses]

Discover the key difference between ‘tener que’ and ‘hay que’ to express obligation clearly in Spanish. My Language Classes makes learning Spanish grammar simple and practical, perfect for beginners and advanced learners aiming to speak naturally and confidently.

[learnspanishinmexico]

Discover the Joy of Learning Spanish in Mexico City

Mexico has long been a top destination for travelers seeking vibrant culture, delicious cuisine, and rich history. But beyond tourism, it offers a unique opportunity for those interested in learning Spanish. Mexico City, in particular, has become a hub for language enthusiasts due to its immersive environment and excellent educational options.

Why Mexico is Ideal for Spanish Learners

Learning Spanish in Mexico is more than just memorizing vocabulary or practicing grammar. It's about experiencing the language in a real-world setting. Mexico's version of Spanish is clear, widely understood, and considered one of the most neutral accents in the Spanish-speaking world. This makes it a great place for beginners and advanced learners alike.

Living in Mexico allows students to use Spanish in everyday situations—whether ordering tacos at a street stand, navigating the metro, or having casual conversations with locals. This constant practice helps reinforce classroom learning and speeds up language acquisition.

Language Schools in Mexico City

Mexico City, being the cultural and political heart of the country, offers some of the best language schools in the region. These institutions cater to students from around the world, offering structured courses that range from beginner to advanced levels.

Many language schools in Mexico City use interactive and immersive teaching methods, combining classroom lessons with cultural outings and real-world speaking exercises. Classes are typically small, allowing for personalized attention and faster progress.

Moreover, these schools often provide accommodation options, cultural activities, and even volunteer opportunities to make the learning experience holistic and enriching. Whether you’re staying for a few weeks or several months, the city’s schools offer flexible programs to match your goals.

Cultural Immersion Enhances Learning

One of the biggest advantages of learning Spanish in Mexico is the deep cultural immersion. In Mexico City, you’re surrounded by a blend of pre-Hispanic and modern influences. You can spend your mornings in class and your afternoons exploring ancient ruins, world-class museums, and colorful local markets—all while practicing your Spanish with native speakers.

This cultural exposure not only enhances vocabulary and comprehension but also builds a deeper appreciation for the language and the people who speak it.

Conclusion

Choosing to study Spanish in Mexico, especially in a vibrant and diverse place like Mexico City, is a rewarding decision. With its high-quality language schools and everyday opportunities to practice, it offers an ideal environment for rapid and meaningful language acquisition. To explore some of the top-rated programs and plan your educational journey, visit learnspanishinmexicocity.com.

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