Learning Spanish for 1 Year (Timelapse) ✨ Progress Videos ✨ Beginner (A1) to Upper-Intermediate (B2)

So I've been learning Spanish for a year now. I wanted to have a measurable benchmark of my progress, so I recorded videos of myself speaking at different points along the way. In this video, I discuss why I started learning Spanish, and then I'll show you the progression I've made over the last 12 months. Then at the end I'll talk about the resources I used to teach myself Spanish. I hope this video can inspire anyone who's watching to understand that learning a language is within your grasp if it's what you want to do!
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I’m Meredith. I’m a language enthusiast and I live in Mexico and dedicate my time to teaching English as a second language, talking about my journey learning Spanish from zero as an adult, making YouTube videos, drawing and designing stickers/t-shirts, translation, and more.
If you like my content and want to support me or find me in other places on the internet, check out the resources below.
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Spanish Resources
✨ BASELANG Unlimited 1-on-1 SPANISH TUTORING 10% off:
✨ MEXTALKI: Sign up with my promo code for a free 1-hour class and conversation practice
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Resources I mentioned in this video:
✨ANKI
✨LANGUAGE TRANSFER
✨ESPAÑOL CON JUAN (PODCAST / YOUTUBE)
✨DREAMING SPANISH (YOUTUBE)
✨LEARN SPANISH AND GO (PODCAST)
✨NO HAY TOS (PODCAST)
✨QUIZLET
✨EASY SPANISH STEP-BY-STEP (BOOK)
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Timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:55 Timelapse
5:44 Talking about my progress and how I did it
6:59 Resources

[SpanishandGo]

Wow Meredith! Great video documenting your language learning journey. You're doing excellent! ¡Sigue así! Y gracias por compartir nuestro podcast en tu video. Nos alegra mucho que te guste.

[blueberrypoptart]

I’m about 4 months into learning Spanish and it’s great to see a realistic timeline for language learning.

[emilioibanez]

Omg your Spanish got so good, your accent is great as well, amazing job. You impressed me, if you keep going you’ll be almost native soon. Saludos desde Ecuador, me alegra mucho que te hayas esforzado tanto para aprender nuestro idioma y cultura. I hope that you keep going :)

[andrew_owens]

If you can pass a B2 level exam in reading, writing, speaking and hearing, you are fluent. If you get to C2, you are speaking almost like a native and more properly than most. For common languages like Spanish there are already well defined metrics.

[TheAnarchist]

I'm a native Spanish speaker myself (from Colombia) and I've been living in this for 23 years and never left the country and coming across this video has filled me with joy and a lot of respect. Your progress that you've made in Spanish in a single year is beyond amazing, I would go as far as saying that you're quite close (if not already) to an advanced level of Spanish.

Just as a curious fact. It took me nearly 4 years to go from B1 to B2 level in English. Of course I wasn't studying or immersing myself in the language every single day but I still used some English. But it took me less than a year to go from B2 level to C1 by forcing myself to listen to native speakers (podcasts, tv shows) and reading some books (literature) and it was tough but now I'm around the C1-C2 in English, it all pays off in the end.

I'm certain that you will become advanced in less than a year if you keep doing what you've been doing. Probably you'll be able to reach the C2 level in a few years. By the way, you're already fluent in Spanish in my opinion and you're well spoken. Greetings!

[kcorpora]

Great definition of what "fluent" is. It is true, your voice is very smooth!

[michealcrooks]

Been on the verge of giving up on learning German for a while, this is the motivation I need to carry on, well done!

[BillStreeter]

My goal in learning Spanish is really just to get to the conversational stage right now. And just enjoy improving as much as I can after that. I don’t really know or care what fluency means.

[geoffreykarty]

Your video is great, and very motivational. Unlike many videos, I really appreciate you actually showing your speaking ability, both where you were and where you are after one year. And thank you for sharing the tools and resources you used. Do you mind if I ask how much you studied and how often?

[CJ_Walks]

I was shocked to see that this was the only video available on your channel! I love how realistic it is. You went from basically understandable and able to have simple conversations to comfy conversations with errors every now and then. Not 0 to giving a description of the renaissance. Thank you so much for posting this. I really believe what you documented here is a really great way to acquire a language that is also (relatively) accessible! It's got all of the elements.
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1. Frequency lists to help understand material immediately
2. Material that is comprehensible
3. Hand-picked flashcards to boost what you want to know
3. SPEAKING and/or writing AS YOU GO (once you have a solid understanding and have learned the phonetics n whatnot)
Reading, Writing, Listening, and Speaking are all independent skills that need their own practice. They happen to be linked by vocabulary, so working on one area will reduce the amount of time you will need to put into any of the others, but you can't remove the need to speak entirely.
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I was trying to use the Refold method worked on by Matt vs Japan, but I was consistently disappointed at how little I could say or comfortably say despite how much content I could fully comprehend. When I look back, the most comfortable things I could say were the things that I had lots of speaking practice with in my 4 years of German in school (not a fast approach, but it was essentially my only speaking and writing practice.) I had to explicitly search this video out to find a realistic video of someone progressing their speaking skills, separated from the whole culture of immersion that is growing quickly. I love immersion, but it's not what's going to give you conversational skills. Theoretical knowledge and practical skill are two different things just like how understanding input and and being able to output are two different things.

Spending your time on reading/listening and speaking/writing respectively, may not be the most blazing fast path to understanding, but it's the most rewarding in my opinion because you are actually applying what you know to grow your ability to communicate *and* understanding of the language and culture.

[ClaireHawkins]

This is so helpful and inspiring! I just posted a video on my channel sharing my progress after two months of Spanish lessons. I'm so excited to see where I am in a year!

[m.springs]

This is so helpful. Thanks for posting. Restarting my language journey now and this is great motivation!

[Ash-olji]

Wow! I felt inspired and proud [of you] watching this. I've studied Spanish for several years formally and don't feel this kind of confidence speaking [yet]. I also haven't used my Spanish since the pandemic began, so I have lost quite a bit of my vocabulary and fluency. This motivated me to get back on track with my pursuit of improving my speaking/listening ability in Spanish. Thanks!

[orianaciao]

I'm from Venezuela, Spanish is my native language and I'm amazed at your pronunciation! Increíble, sigue así 👏

[charlygarciagza]

I'm surprised and really glad that you've picked up spanish as a new learning language, I am from México and I've living and working in USA for 2 years and I've seen that American people usually prefer learning other languages like french or german rather than spanish, that's why I am surprised seeing other people talking my mother tongue, I've followed your same strategy for english and after two years I am able to work in the tech industry 😀, watching movies mainly at first w/subtitles Then without subtitles, now I can enjoy Hallmark movies and A&E without subtitles 🎬

Keep going you are doing such an excelent job with spanish

[maitreyimaitreyi]

Tu español es genial, definitivamente tenés una clara facilidad para los idiomas. Saludos desde Argentina ;)

[tabbymrp]

ahhh... My Spanish level was A2 10 years ago, Life happened and I stopped learning, and I forgot most of the A2 grammar, I guess I am A1-A2 now don't know if I ever will be able to get to B1. Thanks for the video, I now feel inspired.

[Top_Striker]

You give me hope. Thank you. 🙏🏾 I’m only a month in.

[LadyRocibele]

Sinceramente, te súper felicito! Muchísima dedicación y perseverancia!

[DukeSaragono]

I've been learning Spanish for years and still not even close to fluency. Wow your amazing great job!!!!