Estimados Amigos,
This is a update to my 2M words read milestone post from December 2023, as well as my numerical goals posts from a little over a year ago. I’ve linked those in a comment below, along with a couple of other posts from 2023 that influenced me at the time. I provide this as one use case for reference to others on the path. I’m not saying you should do what I do. This is long like a book, but I’m no expert. Your mileage may vary! My L1 is English and I learned 1 other language to fluency prior to this experience. I was 45 years old in 2020 when I started. Though I love to read, primary goal is to learn to speak and understand orally in a natural and comfortable way.
My Results
- Quantitative results: I’m sure there is variability in how we all track these numbers, but these are mine. I like to set goals so I have milestones at each 1M words read, with accompanying targets for the others. (more on this in the comments)
- Qualitative assessment of my comprehension: I perceive a major difference in comprehension from my 2M words read post. I can read most non-fiction that I would understand in my L1 unaided. I understand produced audio (podcasts, audiobooks, news) well and while it takes a few episodes to acclimate myself, I can understand some native tv series and radio talk shows with speakers speaking more naturally. I generally understand natives speaking to me, though not always when they are speaking to others. I feel like I’ve reached a point of minimal resistance and functional capability for comprehension. I probably crossed that line closer to 3M, but I’ve not reevaluated my approach until this year.
- Qualitative assessment of my production: My written and spoken output has improved, and I can communicate in the language, but while my oral fluency is generally good, I find I trip up due to my lower frequency of speaking, occasional lack of, or inability to recall, vocabulary, and certain areas of the language that I need to think about to say because they don’t have the same automaticity as much of the language where the words just come to me.
Changes and my 2025 path forward
- Increase relative focus on production and conversation practice: I still intend to get to 4 Million words read and 800 hours of listening this year, as I had planned, because I am well ahead of schedule there, but my primary focus will now switch to developing output.
- Last year I tracked 54.5 hours of conversation, but almost half of this is in my Spanish exchange group, where I’m not actually speaking as much. (It is great for making Spanish speaking friends though!) I only averaged 2.4 hours with a tutor each month.
- This year I plan to do a blitz and increase my speaking hours. I signed up for WorldsAcross with a monthly membership for unlimited classes to make this happen. (not cheap, but workable for me)
- I will also increase my writing output. I continue to do drills with ChatGPT to work on automaticity, I also write essays about topics I want to be able to speak about (creating language islands)
With the base I have developed, and focusing on output, I think I can achieve the level I had imagined when embarking on this Spanish learning journey this year, which is using the language comfortably (but of course not perfectly, and with plenty of room to improve!). With language learning there is never an end, but I’m really excited about where I am!
In the comments below, I will share more about how I got here and the referenced posts. To reference a prior post, there was and will be Tequila involved, not to mention arepas, tacos, tortas and lots of other good stuff!
Thanks for reading. I hope it can be of some reference.
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How I got here
- Prior Background: I took one year of Spanish in high school around 1990, and I liked it. In college I studied engineering and also took Japanese, because there was a program for engineering Japanese and it just seemed cool. I was an exchange student, an intern and took my first post college job in Japan. I ended up living in more almost a decade. But also had stayed interested in Spanish. I trained in Texas, and have visited Panama, Peru, Mexico and Spain. I’d try to start learn with books, CDs, Duolingo, but I never felt I would get anywhere, so I’d abandon it.
- Deciding to learn During the quarantine in 2020, I decided to use my “would-be” commute time to really try to learn Spanish. It was only 20-30 min a day at first, but that’s how I started. I heard about comprehensible input and lingQ soon after and have been very consistently reading and listening since then.
- Changes along the way
- Adding time with the language through listening practice. Once I developed some capacity to understand, I began to listen to podcasts while doing other things, extending my learning time while doing chores, etc. I used LingQ playlists, youtube videos, and podcasts like coffee break Spanish and many more aimed at beginners.
- In 2023 I read an post here about extensive reading vs intensive reading and Reading while listening (RWL). I began to do a lot more of both and my comprehension improved much faster along with it.
- Now in 2025, as I noted in the OP I will focus more on output.
What I learned that I would do differently
- CI earlier, but not at the start If I were to start again, I would use whatever beginner resources were available to jump start my ability to use CI. I don’t know how much the resource matters, but just what I need to get me to mini-stories, graded readers, or ChatGPT generated short stories with progressively increasing level.
- RWL extensive reading earlier I don’t think I needed to spend as much time trying to understand and memorize everything as I did early on. This really slowed me down. I think RWL + extensive reading does most of it, and I’d supplement with targeted deliberate practice for words or other things that weren’t sticking through natural repetition in input.
- Start the switch the emphasis to output earlier I think I could have weighted the emphasis to output earlier. At least from my 3 Million words read for speaking, and I would use the ChatGPT writing drills and language island development along the way much earlier, too. I didn’t really start writing until last year.
If I had know all of the above, I think I could have shortened the learning process by a year, or even two (from 5yrs to 3yrs). This would obviously vary for more distant languages.
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One other thing:
I used this chart from this forum to set goals for milestones for myself when I was on my way between 1 M and 2 M words read.
There was much discussion about these in a prior post, as what it takes to get to the CEFR levels varies greatly. The point of this table was rather to show that the jump between each CEFR level is much larger than he last one.
I don’t really care about CEFR Levels, but I like having Milestones to shoot for, so this is my most recent milestone chart:
I removed the CEFR levels, and just have milestones per 1M read. I didn’t have goals for Words written until later on, so that is why the Level 1 - Level 3 goals are so low. I’d adjust those up from L2 if I learn another language. I also increased the speaking hours to 200 from 160 for L4, reflecting my change in priorities. I hope to blow past it, but we’ll see. I’m not sure I’ll bother tracking after L4.
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Particularly your “what I would’ve done differently”.
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I’m glad you found it useful!
but while my oral fluency is generally good, I find I trip up due to my lower frequency of speaking, occasional lack of, or inability to recall, vocabulary, and certain areas of the language
Will you add Anki into the mix for improving your recall of active vocabulary? or will you keep reading and listening to a variety of content. In hindsight, absorbing new input/content will take care of it by itself?
What is your strategy to address it?
I try to use the words that I have trouble recalling in a few different ways.
I have ChatGPT run L1-> L2 translation drills using the words and phrases I want to recall.
I write sentences, paragraphs or essays using the words. I use Chat GPT for corrections. Sometimes I’ll by write them by hand, too. I also think doing this with groups of words and expressions in the same general topic area (language island) helps to reinforce each other.
I import the text I wrote or even just lists of words and phrases into LingQ so I can read and LingQ them. I set them to status 3, which I exclusively use for words and phrases for which I want to train recall .
While doing flash cards, I filter to status 3 and only do L1->L2 flash cards in LingQ. I let them promote automatically to status 4 if I get them correct. That leaves them underlined so I can easily notice them later. If I can’t recall them when I run into them again, I set them back to 3 and repeat.
I keep this status 3 list is pretty short and focused. I find most words stick with just repetition though input, so I reserve this for the ones that don’t.
I think incorporating the words into conversation shortly after training recall works well, too. I haven’t had frequent tutoring sessions, so this hasn’t always been practical for me, but I may be able to do it more now that I will do them more often.
What have you found works for you?
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