90 Day Challenge Review for the (Spanish Language)------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I’m a person very driven and before I set out on a journey, I list my goals and the methods by which I will achieve them; then I push on to the end. I track my progress throughout the journey in order to make the changes I deem necessary. But Woooooo (sigh of relief) Have you ever committed yourself to doing something for 90 days and realized by day 30, that 90 days is a long time to be extremely focused on anything! I wish this challenge was called the ¼ of a year challenge instead, so you will be fully aware of what your committing to from the start. Haha. In this review I hope to explain my progress and methods I used during this 90 day challenge. Hopefully helping others to get a better idea of what they can do in their 90 day challenges’ after reading what did and did not work for me.-----------------------------------------The Beginning - Before I began this challenge I felt my Spanish level was at a mid to high intermediate level. I could usually hold a conversation with people at a more basic level although I would struggle. Listening had its’ challenges but usually I could understand a good amount of material. But a lot of the time I would get stumped easily speaking to native speakers because their response was so fast and the range of vocabulary they used would leave me confused or with only a general idea of what they were saying to me. My reading level was pretty good but more suitable for article reading or simple stories because of the glaring holes in my vocabulary. My writing was decent but yet I lacked some structure here and there. Speaking on a variety of subjects was always a big challenge. I could do things like, ask general questions and say responses very slowly, but for the most part it was very tough. At the end of the day, I was very frustrated because I seemed to have hit a wall and I was stuck. I felt I had achieved an intermediate level in the language but I couldn’t seem to get past that point. I hit, “The intermediate Wall”… I knew I had to take some time to completely commit myself to Spanish unlike any time before. This was my first language (besides my mother tongue) I had begun learning, And I couldn’t wait anymore, I had to take the 90 challenge.-------------------------------------------------------- Reading -I already had a Spanish book I had begun reading (or struggling through) before the challenge, somewhere around 560 pages of pure reading of fiction. This book had tons of new words for me that I’m sure a lot of native Spanish speakers wouldn’t know the meaning to. (And you know a word is going to be tough to learn, when you put it in Google translate and the word is transferred to your native language and you still don’t know what it means, haha.) Basically in the past I would underline these words while I read and , later I would go back and write these words in a notebook and write the definition across from it. Then I’d study all these words later. This was a HUGE time consumer and wasn’t very fun. I decided to forgo that during this challenge, instead I continued reading through this long book only underlining words I didn’t know and continuing. I read just about everything in the LingQ library; from interesting content to not so interesting content. After I finished my first Spanish book I had started previously, I began to read the books here in the library at LingQ mostly because they had a ton of new words I wanted to add to my vocabulary. Often I would find myself being bored by some more difficult readings but pushing through nonetheless. I also incorporated a lot of reading of articles on Yahoo Espanol as well. My goal was to bring my overall words of reading to one million which I achieved; reading 742,410 during this challenge, roughly 8,000 words of reading a day.----------------------------------------------- Listening - This was an area that I knew I needed the most work in, so I dedicated myself to listen to 3hours of Spanish a day during this challenge. I achieved this by using my phone and the tunein radio app, to listen to a variety of Spanish speaking shows. I listened while I drove, while I was doing mindless task at work. And listened while I did many other activities like, workout, run, house chores, etc. I also watched Spanish tv shows and Spanish soap operas. I watched a Spanish movie or two and listened to Spanish music from time to time. Most of the time I enjoyed listening! I even got hooked to a few telenovelas.! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Writing- I made sure not to take writing for granted in this challenge. I tried to write 1,000 words a week. I wrote to pen pals on different sites, I texted to Hispanic friends in Spanish. I opened a word document and basically kept a diary in Spanish. I also would read articles in English and translated them into Spanish. This really helped me with the art of translating ideas from your native language into a second language. It showed me how things aren’t always translated verbatim, or word for word, rather it’s about translating the idea. This translating article method also had other beneficial effects that I can’t explain but I could defiantly feel something happening good in my language learning part of my brain. I enjoyed doing this too because I was translating interesting articles and I felt like an interpreter! I think one of the most beneficial parts of my writing was this; I went through my grammar notes and found those areas in Spanish grammar that I struggled with most. I made it a point to Use these grammar rules in my own authentic writing. I would even write out different conjugations and tenses of words until I came to the understanding necessary. Incorporating difficult grammar rules was key for me.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Speaking - Originally I wanted to speak about 3hours a week. Though I realized quickly that finding people to speak too online with which you can have profound conversations regularly is a lot harder than expected. Now I know you can find speaking partners easily online, but if your speaking to all these different new people eventually you won’t make that much progress in your speaking ability because you’ll only cover the same general material and questions such as, “how long have you been learning English/Spanish”. “Where are you from” “what do you like to do in your free time” etc. this is all good but at a certain point you need consistent language partners whom you can get into more deep unique conversations. And these types of partners or friends are harder to come by because everyone has their own busy schedules and can’t always be available when you’d like. I got about 26hours of speaking in during this challenge.-----------Vocabulary- I wanted a way to solidify my new vocabulary words into my passive or active vocabulary. At the end of every week I reviewed 200 flash cards while watching NFL!!. Also I would change the status of words while reading. I would review daily LingQs once and a while. I also reviewed the vocabulary I wrote down in my notebook from the Spanish book I was reading. At the end of my challenge I also looked though all my LingQs (from the vocab page view) and changed the status of words I knew. During this time I added 22,923 words to my known words, 9386 LingQ’s and 2506 LingQ’s learned.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Conclusion- I went all out for this Spanish challenge (Because of the time I had available during that part of my life) I made my goals in all these language learning areas quite hefty in order to more efficiently raise my level of Spanish; and also to better understand what it takes to improve and the amount of time I can actually maintain in my daily life without getting stressed. But my ultimate goal in this challenge was to be able to say confidently that I have an advance level in Spanish. I achieved that goal!!! All of this Spanish input and output has really brought my Spanish level to Advance. I can read a wider range of materials without much trouble. Large books can still present its troubles, but my vocabulary is big enough to infer the meaning of words from context. With one million words of reading in any language I believe you should be pretty advance. I personally was not a big reader until I began learning languages, but it can be quite enjoyable with interesting content. Reading is a very important part of learning languages and is necessary to build your vocab. It is better to build your vocab through LingQ because you can instantly see the definition and see the word marked when it appears again in other content. After you get about 22,000 or known words in the romance languages, your more equipped (in terms of vocab) to go on your own and read advance books. Listening was so essential for me. Because I have listened and read so much Spanish at this point, I understand 90% or more in almost every situation. It’s important to listen because People have different accents, and your brain needs more exposure. After adding 272 hours of listening to my plate during this challenge, I can watch television with ease. And now, I am so much more confident to talk to natives. I know I can understand them because I’ve heard so much Spanish already, it’s embedded in me. I haven’t had a situation yet where a native has completely confused me with their words. When I walk up to talk to a native I am confident because I know I have put in the time and I am reaping the results of that, I am not afraid that I won’t understand !!! I now I have a thorough understanding of Spanish grammar, some things I’m still getting accustom too but I have a very very high understanding of pretty much all grammar concepts in Spanish. My speaking is now the only thing I feel is lacking. While I can speak in general conversations, very well; conversations that are profound are still difficult at times. To speak well you have to practice speaking more!. When I speak with someone for an extended amount of time I can always tell my level of Spanish speaking has improved because it feels more natural. It’s tougher to speak Spanish in a English country but I look forward to taking more opportunities to speak because I know as I speak I will become fluent in a matter of time because I already have the reading, listening, grammar, writing, and everything else I need to speak fluently.! I am glad that I did this challenge to finally know and have experience of what it takes to bring a language up to such a high level. I would not do this challenge again because it’s too much pressure!!! But I would recommend too others to do the challenge at least once to try to get a feel for how much time commitment you can give to a language without going insane. Its good motivation and momentum you need to get yourself over the hump in your language studies. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Time Wasters – In my opinion there are a few time wasters in language learning that I don’t think were beneficial to me 1) Trying to learn every word of books you read through writing them down , underlining it and finding the definition, and studying it later takes up a lot of time. (I had to be the king of doing this). At this point I don’t think it was worth it. I think it’s better to build your advance vocabulary here at LingQ then moving to more advance material outside of LingQ. LingQ saves you a lot of time. Which is why I got It in the first place. 2) flash cards are good but creating your own takes too much time, review your daily flash cards at LingQ when you have time; and allow other words to be learned through reading a lot and seeing those words over and over again in reading within different contexts, Trust me it works!. ------------Future Language Learning Plans - Now that I no longer will be studying Spanish deliberately, A new challenge is presented to me at this point in my language learning journey. How do you maintain a language? I will be trying to make Spanish a natural part of my life through various different activities that I enjoy. In the meantime I will focus on Bringing my Swedish level up to advance and beginning French and Russian. Now I know what it takes and know what works for me in language learning. I will continue to grow my process of learning languages as well. And I will use the principles of learning languages in other areas of my life with things that require a process of learning! Thanks, And Best wishes in your language learning endeavors. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. God Bless!
sorry, it wouldn’t allow me to make paragraph breaks .
shift + enter will give you paragraph breaks. Not too late to edit and do this, to make it more readable:)
Congratulations!
Önskar dig lycka till!
Thanks for your very interesting review!
I second Julie, try and edit the post with paragraphs. It is really interesting to hear about your experience, but I’m guessing quite a few people will skip this one because text without paragraphs is really hard to read.
Well done by the way! You were very committed and it sounds like you made all kinds of progress!
Thanks, I think there was some kind of error because I copied and pasted this from a word document and it kept not working when I tried to do a paragraph break. i tried again but nothing seemed to work so I just added in some artificial lines to help break it apart.
Thank You !
No Problem , Hope it helps you with your Spanish learning journey !
Tack Sa Mycket ! Om du nagonsin vill byta sprak lat mig veta. jag behover mer manniskor att trana svenska med. !
Try replacing the text with this version below. Could probably do with a few more paragraphs, but that’s personal taste 
90 Day Challenge Review for the (Spanish Language)
I’m a person very driven and before I set out on a journey, I list my goals and the methods by which I will achieve them; then I push on to the end. I track my progress throughout the journey in order to make the changes I deem necessary. But Woooooo (sigh of relief) Have you ever committed yourself to doing something for 90 days and realized by day 30, that 90 days is a long time to be extremely focused on anything! I wish this challenge was called the ¼ of a year challenge instead, so you will be fully aware of what your committing to from the start. Haha. In this review I hope to explain my progress and methods I used during this 90 day challenge. Hopefully helping others to get a better idea of what they can do in their 90 day challenges’ after reading what did and did not work for me.
The Beginning - Before I began this challenge I felt my Spanish level was at a mid to high intermediate level. I could usually hold a conversation with people at a more basic level although I would struggle. Listening had its’ challenges but usually I could understand a good amount of material. But a lot of the time I would get stumped easily speaking to native speakers because their response was so fast and the range of vocabulary they used would leave me confused or with only a general idea of what they were saying to me. My reading level was pretty good but more suitable for article reading or simple stories because of the glaring holes in my vocabulary. My writing was decent but yet I lacked some structure here and there. Speaking on a variety of subjects was always a big challenge. I could do things like, ask general questions and say responses very slowly, but for the most part it was very tough. At the end of the day, I was very frustrated because I seemed to have hit a wall and I was stuck. I felt I had achieved an intermediate level in the language but I couldn’t seem to get past that point. I hit, “The intermediate Wall”… I knew I had to take some time to completely commit myself to Spanish unlike any time before. This was my first language (besides my mother tongue) I had begun learning, And I couldn’t wait anymore, I had to take the 90 challenge.
Reading -I already had a Spanish book I had begun reading (or struggling through) before the challenge, somewhere around 560 pages of pure reading of fiction. This book had tons of new words for me that I’m sure a lot of native Spanish speakers wouldn’t know the meaning to. (And you know a word is going to be tough to learn, when you put it in Google translate and the word is transferred to your native language and you still don’t know what it means, haha.) Basically in the past I would underline these words while I read and , later I would go back and write these words in a notebook and write the definition across from it. Then I’d study all these words later. This was a HUGE time consumer and wasn’t very fun. I decided to forgo that during this challenge, instead I continued reading through this long book only underlining words I didn’t know and continuing. I read just about everything in the LingQ library; from interesting content to not so interesting content. After I finished my first Spanish book I had started previously, I began to read the books here in the library at LingQ mostly because they had a ton of new words I wanted to add to my vocabulary. Often I would find myself being bored by some more difficult readings but pushing through nonetheless. I also incorporated a lot of reading of articles on Yahoo Espanol as well. My goal was to bring my overall words of reading to one million which I achieved; reading 742,410 during this challenge, roughly 8,000 words of reading a day
Listening - This was an area that I knew I needed the most work in, so I dedicated myself to listen to 3hours of Spanish a day during this challenge. I achieved this by using my phone and the tunein radio app, to listen to a variety of Spanish speaking shows. I listened while I drove, while I was doing mindless task at work. And listened while I did many other activities like, workout, run, house choir, etc. I also watched Spanish tv shows and Spanish soap operas. I watched a Spanish movie or two and listened to Spanish music from time to time. Most of the time I enjoyed listening! I even got hooked to a few telenovelas.!
Writing- I made sure not to take writing for granted in this challenge. I tried to write 1,000 words a week. I wrote to pen pals on different sites, I texted to Hispanic friends in Spanish. I opened a word document and basically kept a diary in Spanish. I also would read articles in English and translated them into Spanish. This really helped me with the art of translating ideas from your native language into a second language. It showed me how things aren’t always translated verbatim, or word for word, rather it’s about translating the idea. This translating article method also had other beneficial effects that I can’t explain but I could defiantly feel something happening good in my language learning part of my brain. I enjoyed doing this too because I was translating interesting articles and I felt like an interpreter! I think one of the most beneficial parts of my writing was this; I went through my grammar notes and found those areas in Spanish grammar that I struggled with most. I made it a point to Use these grammar rules in my own authentic writing. I would even write out different conjugations and tenses of words until I came to the understanding necessary. Incorporating difficult grammar rules was key for me.
Speaking - Originally I wanted to speak about 3hours a week. Though I realized quickly that finding people to speak too online with which you can have profound conversations regularly is a lot harder than expected. Now I know you can find speaking partners easily online, but if your speaking to all these different new people eventually you won’t make that much progress in your speaking ability because you’ll only cover the same general material and questions such as, “how long have you been learning English/Spanish”. “Where are you from” “what do you like to do in your free time” etc. this is all good but at a certain point you need consistent language partners whom you can get into more deep unique conversations. And these types of partners or friends are harder to come by because everyone has their own busy schedules and can’t always be available when you’d like. I got about 26hours of speaking in during this challenge.
Vocabulary- I wanted a way to solidify my new vocabulary words into my passive or active vocabulary. At the end of every week I reviewed 200 flash cards while watching NFL!!. Also I would change the status of words while reading. I would review daily LingQs once and a while. I also reviewed the vocabulary I wrote down in my notebook from the Spanish book I was reading. At the end of my challenge I also looked though all my LingQs (from the vocab page view) and changed the status of words I knew. During this time I added 22,923 words to my known words, 9386 LingQ’s and 2506 LingQ’s learned.
Conclusion- I went all out for this Spanish challenge (Because of the time I had available during that part of my life) I made my goals in all these language learning areas quite hefty in order to more efficiently raise my level of Spanish; and also to better understand what it takes to improve and the amount of time I can actually maintain in my daily life without getting stressed. But my ultimate goal in this challenge was to be able to say confidently that I have an advance level in Spanish. I achieved that goal!!! All of this Spanish input and output has really brought my Spanish level to Advance. I can read a wider range of materials without much trouble. Large books can still present its troubles, but my vocabulary is big enough to infer the meaning of words from context. With one million words of reading in any language I believe you should be pretty advance. I personally was not a big reader until I began learning languages, but it can be quite enjoyable with interesting content. Reading is a very important part of learning languages and is necessary to build your vocab. It is better to build your vocab through LingQ because you can instantly see the definition and see the word marked when it appears again in other content. After you get about 22,000 or known words in the romance languages, your more equipped (in terms of vocab) to go on your own and read advance books. Listening was so essential for me. Because I have listened and read so much Spanish at this point, I understand 90% or more in almost every situation. It’s important to listen because People have different accents, and your brain needs more exposure. After adding 272 hours of listening to my plate during this challenge, I can watch television with ease. And now, I am so much more confident to talk to natives. I know I can understand them because I’ve heard so much Spanish already, it’s embedded in me. I haven’t had a situation yet where a native has completely confused me with their words. When I walk up to talk to a native I am confident because I know I have put in the time and I am reaping the results of that, I am not afraid that I won’t understand !!! I now I have a thorough understanding of Spanish grammar, some things I’m still getting accustom too but I have a very very high understanding of pretty much all grammar concepts in Spanish. My speaking is now the only thing I feel is lacking. While I can speak in general conversations, very well; conversations that are profound are still difficult at times. To speak well you have to practice speaking more!. When I speak with someone for an extended amount of time I can always tell my level of Spanish speaking has improved because it feels more natural. It’s tougher to speak Spanish in a English country but I look forward to taking more opportunities to speak because I know as I speak I will become fluent in a matter of time because I already have the reading, listening, grammar, writing, and everything else I need to speak fluently.! I am glad that I did this challenge to finally know and have experience of what it takes to bring a language up to such a high level. I would not do this challenge again because it’s too much pressure!!! But I would recommend too others to do the challenge at least once to try to get a feel for how much time commitment you can give to a language without going insane. Its good motivation and momentum you need to get yourself over the hump in your language studies.
Time Wasters – In my opinion there are a few time wasters in language learning that I don’t think were beneficial to me 1) Trying to learn every word of books you read through writing them down , underlining it and finding the definition, and studying it later takes up a lot of time. (I had to be the king of doing this). At this point I don’t think it was worth it. I think it’s better to build your advance vocabulary here at LingQ then moving to more advance material outside of LingQ. LingQ saves you a lot of time. Which is why I got It in the first place. 2) flash cards are good but creating your own takes too much time, review your daily flash cards at LingQ when you have time; and allow other words to be learned through reading a lot and seeing those words over and over again in reading within different contexts, Trust me it works!.
Future Language Learning Plans - Now that I no longer will be studying Spanish deliberately, A new challenge is presented to me at this point in my language learning journey. How do you maintain a language? I will be trying to make Spanish a natural part of my life through various different activities that I enjoy. In the meantime I will focus on Bringing my Swedish level up to advance and beginning French and Russian. Now I know what it takes and know what works for me in language learning. I will continue to grow my process of learning languages as well. And I will use the principles of learning languages in other areas of my life with things that require a process of learning! Thanks, And Best wishes in your language learning endeavors. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. God Bless!
You’re welcome! Just nu satsar jag stort på Engelska. Men, visst… några ord kan vi väl växla då då. Dock, svenskan är inte mitt modersmål. Jag pratar och skriver vad det här kallas för SVENSKA FÖR INVANDRARE.
Hey, Thanks, I actually originally had It spaced this way when I copied it from the word document. I tried to copy and past your version, and like before, it copied in perfectly into the text box, but when I click save, it replaces all of the paragraph breaks with this computer formula it uses which is something like “b-r>/” then it still crunches all the sentences together.
I’m not quite sure why its not working correctly for me when I try to edit that original post. I tried it again on a completely new post (like this) and it worked… So there must be some kind of error in that text box of the original post. I’ll try to make those adjustments in future post ! but thanks very much for your help !
Heyho. Well that’s me out of ideas! There must be gremlins in your machine today.
hahaha Agreed !
Hey, well done for doing the 90 day challenge, and doing this review, I have started to read a bit more now too, but after reading your post I think I am going to stop looking up every word because it does take the fun out of reading, I would like to speak more too, you are right, it does take some effort to find people to chat too, anyway I hope you keep up the spanish, I am constantly studying spanish too but need to make more effort, i am the king in coming up with reasons for giving myself rest days!!
Congrats man! I do have a question though. During this challenge, were you mainly using LingQ as your language learning resource? Or did you use others along side LingQ?
Congratulations on your Spanish achievement!
Silly question…but, after pasting from Word and saving it, did you then choose edit, & use shift+enter to manually add line breaks (remembering not to click enter by itself until edit is complete)?
Great post. Lots of gold nuggets here. I was interested in this bit:
“Basically in the past I would underline these words while I read and , later I would go back and write these words in a notebook and write the definition across from it. Then I’d study all these words later. This was a HUGE time consumer and wasn’t very fun. I decided to forgo that during this challenge, instead I continued reading through this long book only underlining words I didn’t know and continuing.”
What people do with unknown words, I think, is really important. Lots of people will quickly check the definition (in their native language), or list it for further interrogation, flashcarding etc. Personally, I think it is best just to make a quick guess and/or just move on. When you have seen it 3 or 4 times in other places and contexts your guess will get better and the word will sink into your mind in a deeper, more natural way and you learn quicker over the long term, imo… After a while, checking the definition may be useful, as a confirmation, but checking the definition using a monolingual dictionary is more powerful than getting a translation, imo. I also think this depends on your level. Less than 5k words, not so important. Greater than 10k words etc, very powerful.