How I learned Spanish in less than a year FAST (self taught)

Curious about how I learned Spanish in less than a year fast? Yes I am self taught, and no it isn't as black and white as it seems. How I learned Spanish still required a lot of work, and even though I learned Spanish fast, it didn't lead to all positive results. Watch till the end of the video to see how I accomplished this self taught, as well as a pep talk for if you already think this isn't possible for you.

Remember, your language learning story matters, no matter where you are in your journey. Be kind and vulnerable, and always cultivate the wonderful human you are behind the languages you speak.

Write me down in the comments how you learned Spanish and if you were also self taught, or chose the classroom/course route. Make sure to check out my other socials where you get to see even more content from me below!

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[Countrygirl]

Thank you for this video I love this I’m a 40 year old African-American and I went into healthcare as a medical assistant and quickly learned in the state of California. If you don’t know Spanish in my career, you can’t get a job easily. I started practicing Spanish believe it or not a lot of Hispanics laughed at me. I was very discouraged, but I decided to keep pushing and hired a tutor. It was affordable I had to cut down on my spending to pay for it but I am still learning. I am in month three and I’m very determined. So far I’m starting to understand what people are saying, even though I don’t speak it yet.

[lynntfuzz]

Your time in Germany sounds like a dream- 3 days of classes and 4 days of travel, lots of friends who spoke Spanish. What an amazing experience! Sign me up!!!

[joreneelanguages]

Great video, I really appreciate your honesty and this perspective that is so rare online!

[HasufelyArod]

I am a Mexican man, and I will definitely enjoy watching this.

Also, I'd like to help you whenever you have a doubt.

Spanish is my native language and sometimes I make translations.

[jackgunn]

Good point about not everyone having the same time and opportunities to learn the way you did. For most of us, it will take much longer than a year.

[GypsieSeeker]

I’m glad you were able to work so consistently on Spanish to have those great results! I took Spanish in high school because I thought it was the “most useful” language but never really got into it. Even now it would be one of the relatively easier languages for me to become fluent in, but no way am I going back 😂 maybe a different Spanish language one day, like Galician 😇

[bookswmadi]

This is a really well done video! i took notes to apply to my own studies, haha. I want to say that I love seeing your video quality improve since I subscribed late last year. Good job! I also love how you were honest at the end. I watch a lot of these videos because I simply enjoy listening to others speak about their journey to learn a language, and so many of them ignore the possible "privileges" they might have had during their time learning.

[autumnteacozy]

Another good video! I love hearing your stories of your language journey. And while I didn't have the same privileges and experiences as you, I still think the info you gave was valuable 😊

It's an interesting topic though. Learning in a pre-covid world vs. a post-covid world and what that did to language learning. Along with dealing with mental health, trauma, a full time job, etc.

[zachariahtatman]

Wow great video!

Its really awesome to see your videos getting cleaner, and editing getting better! I can tell you are improving! Also I love the mention of "language laddering"! I have never heard of that concept before and I would love to see a video on that topic explaining maybe what it is in more depth and to see an example of you using it!

Also just a thought but I would love to see a "Key Takeaways" bullet point list or section lol, the information you cover is so valuable! but I get kind of overwhelmed by all the possible ways to learn 😅😅😅 A most important points graphic on the video would make it easier to digest the most valuable key points.

As always AMAZING WORK EMILY!!! So proud to see your growing! 💪

[kiddmode]

This has got to be the greatest overall language learning video I’ve ever seen. Thank you for making it, it was very informative and will definitely help me in my journey. :)

[Yihwa_G]

I appreciate your honesty about the significance of time and effort in language learning and can relate to some of your points. I enrolled in a language program in South Korea for one year. Within that year, I was able to pass the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) II level 5 (second highest level). After being constantly praised by teachers, native speakers and friends, I stopped saying how long I had been studying Korean and just said "for a while". Because it felt somehwhat fake. Yes, I learned the language super fast, but I am also a Mandarin speaker, which turned out to be an advantage, and I did nothing but learn Korean for a whole year, living in the country and using Korean all day at school and after school. I'm not a language learning genius, I just spent a good 2000+ hours learning the language in that one year and another probably 1000+ hours using and consuming it.However, the greatest struggle was exactly what you mentioned. When I started another language after Korean, I felt so pressured and stressed because now I could only actively study for about an hour a day and maybe 30 minutes passively listening to the language. After having such great success with Korean, I experienced the opposite with this new language and eventually had to give it up for mental health reason. It took me another 2 years to develop a healthy expectation for myself, and then I started with a completely different language and set myself the rule of learning no more than 1 hour a day. Fortunately, that worked. I am not a language learner, but a person with diverse interests who also happens to enjoy learning languages.

[sheeliekittie]

btw, i know you're a busy bee already =) but, do consider going back to portuguese! it would be so interesting to see a video about the similarities and differences among the romance languages, what's similar, what's not. for some reason i never confuse french with spanish, but omg, i speak portuguese when i WANT to speak spanish and vice versa all the time. as you're also someone who comprehends the grammar and how this is important when building a relationship with a language. i would be interested to know your thoughts on how we can better keep track of all these crazy past tenses!

[friedchicken]

It was a blessing to have that many friends. And the environment.

[chrisbunka]

Actually brushing up on Spanish learned from 25-30 years. But your video and a discussion panel at anime convention in Chicago in 2022 gave me an idea: I can watch some anime episodes in Spanish as I know YT has some floating around.

[carmenperez]

Hello. I am from Spain and I have a question for you all? Is it easy for u to learn México spanish better than the spain one? Regarding pronunciation maybe of “c” “z” and other letters?

[sheeliekittie]

creo que eso es la verdad para mi - solo en mi opinion, espanol es mi idioma preferida, no ce, pero mi relaccion es muy especial y ah, para decir verdad me encanta!! ^.^

[VivasPuertorriquenos]

Why is “yo caminado” is wrong and “yo caminé” correct I understand some verbs like “hablar” for instance “I speaked” is wrong but I still don’t get why it is a big deal I have looked at all sorts of literature and it still doesn’t satisfy me when they either say “it’s the Spanish language and not English” or “it doesn’t provide the complete idea or context” when it clearly does like the shortest sentence in the world “Jesus Wept.” It conveys the idea of -ed in the -t suffix I am being critical because it is frustrating when I can see that it could be done and simplify the language but no I have to be given unconvincing arguments I am just asking a critical question is that bad.

[Countrygirl]

I use coursera from UC Davis it’s great!

[CandidoFinda-op]

Hello Very good your class of espanhol teacher

[gs_]

Which is your language resource guide?