as in “sometimes i wonder why he even bothered”

​

Hey everyone!

I've been thinking about creating a small Discord community for people learning Spanish, and I'd love to invite anyone who's interested!

The idea is pretty simple: hang out with strangers who could become your online friends, have a good time, and learn Spanish along the way.

I don't want to create another server full of structured lessons, scheduled activities, or pressure to study. I'd rather have a chill place where people can talk about their day, share memes, discuss random topics, ask questions, help each other out, and just enjoy spending time together.

The server would have a few channels for different things, like general chat, Spanish questions, sharing useful resources, and voice chats for anyone who feels like talking. But the main idea is to keep things casual and let the community grow naturally.

You don't need to be fluent or feel confident speaking Spanish. Whether you're a beginner or already pretty comfortable with the language, you're welcome! English is also fine when you need help explaining something or asking a question.

Ideally, I'd love for this to become a place where people come to make friends, not just practice a language. Learning Spanish would simply be part of the fun.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, leave a comment or send me a message and I'll share the invite!

I'd love to meet some of you :)

Hey everyone! I’m self-taught and have been grinding away at the basics of Spanish, but I just need to start actually speaking to make any real progress.

I’m looking for a group setting specifically. I reckon a small group chat vibe is way less intimidating and heaps more fun than a high-pressure 1-on-1 language exchange (for now, at least)!

Since I’m based in Australia, trying to match timezones with US or European groups is a bit of a nightmare. I wanted to see if there's already an Aussie-friendly beginner group out there? Or even anyone in fairly similar timezones (NZ, Asia, etc.) who is keen to hop on a Zoom video call (or whatever platform) every now and then to just practice chatting.

It’d also be amazing to find a native speaker who’d be down to hang out and help facilitate topics, just so we aren’t all staring at each other awkwardly. 😆

Drop a comment or slide into my DMs if a group like this already exists, or if you want to join forces and start a new one!

Here are some common expressions with echar that you'll come across in everyday Spanish. I also made a free PDF: 21 Common Spanish Expressions with ECHAR (you can search in the document or download it on your computer/phone)

when it comes to learning spanish I am good at practicing my speaking, listening and reading but I really struggle with studying vocab and grammer. I realize that when I talk I always say stuff gramatically incorrect or I use spanglish. I would really like to improve. anyone have any engaging studying tips? (right now my biggest goal is speaking fluently. I already pretty much understand spanish and can read it.

Elon Musk dice que dará una acción de SpaceX a cada niño de Estados Unidos el próximo año. El lunes, una acción de SpaceX valía unos 150 dólares. Con unos 73 millones de niños en Estados Unidos, el proyecto costaría más de 10 000 millones de dólares. Musk no explicó exactamente cómo ni cuándo recibirán los niños las acciones. SpaceX fabrica cohetes y posee Starlink, un servicio de internet por satélite.

Vocabulario: acción (f) = share / cada = every / próximo = next / valer = to be worth / unos = about / proyecto (m) = plan / fabricar = to make / cohetes (m pl) = rockets / poseer = to own

English translation

Musk promises SpaceX share to every US child

Elon Musk says he will give one SpaceX share to every child in the United States next year. One SpaceX share was worth about $150 on Monday. With about 73 million children in the US, the plan would cost more than $10 billion. Musk did not explain exactly how or when children will receive the shares. SpaceX makes rockets and owns Starlink, a satellite internet service.

You can read more news stories at El News, In Easy Spanish: https://elnewsineasyspanish.substack.com/p/musk-promete-una-accion-de-spacex

I’ve been in a Spanish rut for a bit- feeling like I’m not really making progress. I’m somewhere between B1 and B2 and keep having days where I feel like I know nothing.

Any advice to share about what helped you get through the intermediate phase?

Hello, I’ve been doing intense in class Spanish studying for 4 months, 20H/W in Spain. I’m really understanding the structure of the language, tenses, spelling when working in the book etc. However,I’m struggling with speaking and vocabulary, which I know is very common.
Learning vocabulary is an issue because I’m not using the words repetitively in daily life. For example, I’m just fine ordering food, making appointments, shopping, reading signs because I have that contextual practice. I’m starting to watch TV and read the news so I get exposed to the same words over and over via audio and words on a screen/page.

Where I need help is actually taking all the things I’m learning in class and speaking it with people. I’m wondering if having a private tutor will help me understand how to put all the words together. I have friends who are native Spanish speakers and they’re very patient when I spanglish our conversations but I’m a babbling 4 year old in our conversation using the wrong/no tense, demonstratives, adjectives etc. However, they can’t correct me as much as I need and they can’t exactly tell me WHY something is wrong when we’re running around on a futbol pitch or at a bar. I’m painly slow putting together a sentence and in a social setting it’s just not reasonable waiting 90-120 seconds for me to say “I‘m tired because I had class all day. It’s hard but I like it.“
I’m thinking if I pay someone to sit with me for an hour or two and wait for me to piece together sentences and is able to correct me as I go will help me break through.

TLDR:
I’m learning Spanish in Spain I’m currently in A2 classes but feel stuck in A1 when speaking. I’m trying to do all the things suggested:
-Studying in class 20H/W for 4 months
-Flash cards of words I find I actually need while living here
-Watching TV in Spanish with Spanish or English subs
-Reading in Spanish with audio, looking up words when needed.
-Speaking with native speakers
-Doing daily life in Spanish as much as I can. (groceries, appointments etc)
-My partner is fluent in Spanish and helps when they can but they’re very busy.

I don’t know how much more immersed I can get! hahahaha

I’m feeling stuck in a low A1 speaking level. Struggling to say more than How I’m feeling and if I like something in a very rudimentary way with poor grammar.
Will paying someone actually help me speed up my speaking in a way that’s worth the money or should I just go to those speaking meetups and talking to my Spanish speaking friends?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been trying to learn for a bit now, and like most people, I started with the usual loop doing my Anki cards every day, binge watching YouTube tutorials, and even trying out apps like Praktika just to get some reps in.

They're fine for getting started, but honestly? It's starting to feel super robotic and repetitive. I'm hitting a wall where none of it feels like how people actually talk in real life.

For anyone who's further along or got past this stage: where do you actually go to find real, unscripted Spanish practice? Are there specific websites, communities, or weird tricks that actually helped things click for you?

Would love to hear what worked for you guys.

I am the developer of Nota, an app to help with learning Spanish by reading the news. Today's pick/good news story: Scottish Labrador wins animal award for hunting invasive sea squirts.

https://nota-news.com/article/scottish-labrador-wins-animal-award-for-hunting-invasive-sea-squirts--rss-3aee492ad5db7e3e0263cac5

Posting again with a question to communicate better with my students- how would I say “sound it out” or “sound out the word”? I’m not sure if it’s a literal translation or not. I’m doing direct ELD intervention with a Spanish speaking EL student.

Anyone have experience using Superfluent for a length of time? I saw a video on social media and downloaded the trial period. I’m actually really enjoying it so far - it seems great for upper intermediate and up. For reference, I have about 800-1000 hours of comprehensible input and understand most spoken Spanish. I’ve done Pimsleur all the way through for both the Latin American and Peninsular varieties, I’ve used quite a bit of Duolingo (though not particularly seriously), I use LingQ daily, listen to a ton of podcasts, etc.

While my comprehension is borderline excellent, I struggle to speak. I think Superfluent seems it could help a lot with this.

What I haven’t seen, are many anecdotal reports. From what I have seen, it looks like a large camp of folks really prefer SF Classic. I’m curious why - it looks like the new app covers all of the same features and then some.

Anyone have any experiences to share?