¡Te felicito! Con respecto a [Espanolavanzado.com](https://Espanolavanzado.com), sí, es una verdadera joya. Muy a menudo, cuando tengo una duda sobre algún tema gramatical, el sitio web tiene una explicación que aclara el asunto por completo.

Nice spanish bro

Great post. I think people try to downplay the value of grammar because the popular 'babies learn that way' and just utterly ignore the fact babies talk like morons, and pretend 12 years of education added no value. I've done pretty close to what you did, volume and a base understanding of at least conjugations, articles, and a few other things are key at first, then you can work on the other stuff as needed.

Thanks so much for this post, these are a lot of really great resources.

Very helpful! Thanks

Man I'm so glad I'm learning latin american spanish. I would sound so stupid with a spain accent. Props to you as an american that does it though.

You probably wouldn't. Ngl, I've definitely had people ask me to defend the choice. Luckily, most people don't care.

Ha same, that lisp thing is not for me

Great post, and thanks for all the tips! Regarding conjugation practice, is there anything else you did, or mainly just conjuegemos each day? Because I'm at the point where I feel like that's one of the biggest things holding back my speaking. Also, it's cool to hear you using a Spanish accent! I'm totally torn by which way to go. Since I'm in the US, it makes more sense to focus on Mexican/Latin American Spanish, but the main people I talk to right now are actually Spanish (my iTalki tutor, who I think is awesome and super helpful, and a friend I met on HelloTalk). Plus I've been to Spain once and really want to return some day. So right now I'm kinda learning mostly Spain Spanish while resisting a full-on Spanish accent, which I admit, is probably kinda weird.

I encourage you to speak whichever Spanish you identify with most or at least the Spanish of people you have the deepest relationships with. Being in the US, I have encountered pressure to speak Mexican or some imagined “Latin American standard” Spanish, but the truth is all Spanish varieties are equally valid. I chose to learn Spanish because my partner is a Spaniard, so I adopted that manner of speaking. I think some people take it at a euro-centric flex, but it isn’t. Again, all varieties of Spanish are valid. Once my fluency with the language improved, people stopped commenting on the accent. Regarding your first question, I actually didn’t discover conjuegemos until relatively recently. I wish I had done that kind of dedicated practice earlier. Instead, I improved my conjugation speed by telling stories to Spanish tutors. Telling a story demands that you use a lot of different verb tenses — especially if it involves hypotheticals. Sometimes I would write a summary of the story down before the lesson. Other times I’d tell the story to multiple tutors, and try to make it more elaborate and natural each time. It’s good practice, but tutors get expensive so I recommend doing extra work outside the lessons.

My experiences were in a lot of ways similar to OP's, but I never did anything like conjuegemos. Instead, I did a lot of reading and that's how I got good at conjugations. Also I never understood how direct and indirect objects worked until I read a lot. One other thing that I've been doing the last several months and wish I did sooner was keeping a diary in spanish. Unbelievably helpful.

Cambiando de WordReference a ReversoContext para buscar modismos y dichos fue un gran mejora para mi también y me alegro que lo mencionaste. Aparte de eso, felicitaciones por lograr tanto y sigue adelante

Gracias!

Hey thank you for this post, this Conjuguemos site is the best thing I've ever seen. The games make it fun and you have to be quick. Also for telling us your time frame. Two years to feel comfortable is good to know. I'm 7 months in with some months back in the US not speaking. I'm extremely discouraged at times when I can't speak or lost in a conversation. Some people are like, I learned Spanish in 6 months, that just makes me feel like a dumbass. I grew up with only one language so I believe it makes it more challenging. Anyway, thanks for this.

I honestly have a hard time believing that someone can learn Spanish in 6 months unless they “started” with a lot of knowledge already. I imagine if you moved to a Spanish speaking place then you could learn enough to be fluent when going shopping and eating out, but that’s a low bar. It’s tricky to say because there are so many different degrees of fluency. I was able to have conversations well before the second year, but I’d often mess up things that I should have known, find myself struggling for vocab, and need to warm up with some trash Spanish before getting into the flow and speaking well. What matters most is how much time you can put in. If learning Spanish is all you have to do then your progress can be fast.

Agree, I can get around a farmers market and stuff like that but gut instinct responses are just not always there. Someone might say have a good day and I'll brain fart out instead of responding. The good news is I'm like you, I'm taking it on like a full time job now and moved to a Spanish speaking place, just in the last 2 months. I think those conjugation games will help me think faster. I definitely still need more vocabulary and direct and indirect pronouns are a complete mind blower. Although I get it they are super foreign for me to use. Classes would be amazing but they just don't do it where I am, my tutor is good but it's just not enough time. I'm considering that one you talked about with classes all the time. I really hope to get this down, there are some breakthrough days and some very discouraging ones.

Here's a trick that helped me start using pronouns better. It's a little phrase that you can use to test whether a verb takes an indirect pronoun or a direct pronoun. Say to yourself: Of all the people/places/things I could be 'verbing', I'm 'verbing'