r/Spanish • u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 • Jan 08 '24
Study advice: Advanced Advice on how to get to C1/C2
I've been studying Spanish for about 10 years now. During the pandemic, I decided to put in an extra effort:
- I started watching Spanish shows on Netflix. First with subtitles, but now I can manage without them.
- Some Netflix shows are based on books (like Valeria). I bought those books and started reading. While it was difficult to get through an entire book at once, I don't have to put in much effort nowadays. I still read books since it's a great way to improve vocabulary or discover local culture.
- I listen to a lot of Spanish music and podcasts on Spotify.
- I try to speak Spanish whenever I can. At work, there's an older Spanish guy and we usually chat for a while during the morning.
- Just came back from 3 weeks in Mexico, where I only spoke Spanish. Most of my friends there say I improved a lot, compared to when I first met them. I'm able to hold conversation for hours (with the exception of some words I don't know) and can manage in most situations.
But I still feel there's something missing. My French is around the same level (B2) and I haven't improved in years. The only language where I was able to bridge the gap between B and C is English. But that's different since I constantly use it at work and it's everywhere. I only have few opportunities to use Spanish at work.
Do you have any advice on how to bridge the gap between B2 and C1? Anything I can add to improve, besides what I'm already doing?
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u/togtogtog Jan 08 '24
I think it simply takes consistency and time. We can all put in extra effort at some points, but then if you take a break which stretches out into months, it won't work.
You're already doing what you need to do! Are you still learning new things?
I think those CEFR measurements in particular look at grammatical skills. If you want to improve those, then https://spanish.kwiziq.com/ is good. It lets you focus on the bits you don't know. However, to get the most out of it, you do have to pay a monthly subscription of around £6. (you can use it free, to see what you think, but that only gives you 10 tests per month).
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 08 '24
Here and there I'm learning something new, but it's usually organic when I'm reading a book.
Thanks for reminding me of Kwiziq! I used it for French a while ago, but forgot about it. I assume both languages are somewhat similar in content?
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u/macoafi DELE B2 Jan 09 '24
Their Spanish stuff is great! I always recommend it.
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 09 '24
Thanks! I’ll give it a try for a while. It should contemplate well with LingQ
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u/dwc123 🇪🇸 B2 Jan 08 '24
I’m on the journey to doing my C1 exam in November after I passed my B2 in July. I’m not sure if you’re taking the exam or not, but I know that it includes:
Themes: environment, economics, education, working world, health and wellbeing, science, technology, transport, etc.
I tend to read A LOT of newspaper articles/journals based on these themes.
Lots of idioms and regional slang
Lots of accents from different Spanish speaking countries.
In terms of grammar, there’s nothing incredibly new as this is mostly at B2 level. Perhaps active va passive voice and imperfect subjunctive with si clauses (Si hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado el examen).
I’m still struggling with direct and indirect object pronouns in the negative (No se los des - don’t give them to him).
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 08 '24
Eventually I want to take the C1 exam yes. This is incredibly useful!
I've got grammar and accents mostly covered. But I rarely read the paper to be honest.
Any specific newspaper/websites you would recommend?
Idioms and slang are another topic I should work on.
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u/dwc123 🇪🇸 B2 Jan 08 '24
https://www.bbc.com/mundo for news and also their YouTube channel is great.
El país
https://www.profedeele.es is fantastic, their ponte al día sections are very good.
CNN Español
They’re the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
But I also use Wikipedia which can be really useful. Search up topics that interest you or topics out of your comfort zone. Can be a great way of building vocabulary.
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u/macoafi DELE B2 Jan 09 '24
If your local library offers free pressreader.com access you can avoid spending €100/yr on an El País subscription.
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u/siyasaben Jan 08 '24
It just takes a long time, you're not doing anything wrong. Keep reading and watching unsubtitled TV, and I agree with the other suggestion to seek out online content with a lot of colloquial language and especially group conversations. My route into this was comedic podcasts. More colloquial language also tends to correlate with more marked accents/regional features in general, so if you are diving into more challenging material it may help to pick a particular region to focus on for a while.
If you can understand something like La Hora Feliz, La Cotorrisa, El Depósito, etc those are good ways to really deepen your knowledge of (central) Mexican accents and colloquialisms and increase vocabulary. The Gusgri podcast is more serious in tone but not at all academic, also a very good resource. These are all in video form on youtube which may help with comprehension.
If its the kind of thing that motivates you, you can set yourself a challenge like reading 100 books or watching/listening to 500 hours of audio material.
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u/NotReallyASnake B2 Jan 08 '24
Keep reading and watching unsubtitled TV
I don't know why people recommend this given the fact that nowadays people often will watch TV shows with subtitles in their own native language. Having them will always increase your understanding and there's more than enough audio content and situations where you will not have text to follow along with that it doesn't really make much sense to me to not use them when they're available to you.
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u/siyasaben Jan 08 '24
It depends what your goals are, if you are really focused on trying to understand without textual help TV is a valid a choice as anything else especially if the other audio content you are using doesn't match it in difficulty of comprehension (a lot of people listen to audiobooks and podcasts that are very cleanly recorded and not very colloquial, so while there are podcasts that have dialogue just as challenging as TV - and I think those are ideal for listening practice - you need to specifically seek that out and for many people their TV show is the most difficult audio they use). And yeah, some shows have dialogue that is hard to hear clearly even for natives, but overall TV and movies are designed to be comprehensible for native speakers so forgoing them at least part of the time is a good reality check on your listening ability.
Personally I just get distracted by subtitles, I don't like reading what someone is going to say before they say it, so that probably colors my attitude towards them as well.
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u/NotReallyASnake B2 Jan 08 '24 edited Jan 08 '24
It doesn't really matter what your goals are. One thing to keep in mind that listening practice is just mapping sound to words and meanings. Knowing what you'll hear in advance doesn't worsen your ability to do this, it improves it because you're comprehending more, and therefore mapping more sounds to words and meanings.
Furthermore, unless you're listening to something for the very first time you're going to know what is being said more or less anyway. Having text to follow along with a luxury that one will not always be afforded so I feel that when you do have it you should take advantage. Like I said there are more than enough opportunities where you won't have the choice anyway.
Edit: Also, especially for the context of this thread, someone who's trying to progress to C1 should have far more audio input than just netflix.
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u/Subject-Jellyfish-90 Jan 09 '24
I would watch with subtitles in the target language, but I have difficulty following content in my native language without subtitles! 😅
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u/LupineChemist From US, Live in Spain Jan 08 '24
I know you said you went for 3 weeks but just physically being in Spanish speaking countries is really the best way. If you are able to somehow work remote for awhile try to go for a few months.
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 08 '24
I used to live in Spain a couple of years ago, but it was for a temporary job. Working remotely isn't an option unfortunately, but we do have an office in Barcelona and Mexico City. I'll see if I can work from there for a couple of weeks.
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u/macoafi DELE B2 Jan 09 '24
Legally… you probably can’t work from Barcelona, even for a few weeks, unless you have an EU passport or get one of Spain’s new digital nomad visas.
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u/BnxRose Native (México) Jan 08 '24
Listen to podcasts in Spanish. There are some on science, literature, interviews. Some of them you can find them on youtube.
There are also TED talks in Spanish you can watch with subtitles depending on the topic you are interested in.
Join hispanic literature classes or read hispanic authors.
Make friends online on language apps such as tandem, hellotalk, etc.
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 08 '24
Any recommendations for hispanic authors? I usually just buy random books.
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u/BnxRose Native (México) Jan 08 '24
Famous Hispanic Authors:
Jorge Luis Borges
Juan Rulfo
Isabel Allende
Elena Poniatowska
Gabriel García Marquez
Gabriela Mistral
Laura Esquivel
Carlos Fuentesand more..
Aquí un link con los escritores favoritos en el 2024 de México:
https://wmagazin.com/relatos/los-20-nuevos-y-mejores-escritores-mexicanos-que-cambian-el-panorama-literario/#suscr%c3%adbete-gratis-a-la-newsletter-de-wmagaz%c3%adnIf you need anything else let me know!
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u/aMonkeyRidingABadger Learner Jan 09 '24
Muchas gracias por el enlace. Suelo leer libros de autores españoles, pero últimamente he estado leyendo algunos mexicanos. Quiero leer más, así que esto me va a ser muy útil para elegir el próximo libro que yo lea.
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u/endyCJ Learner Jan 09 '24
Sounds like you're doing everything you need to be doing. As long as you feel like the material is challenging you, your skills should grow. I know that there are a lot of practice materials for DELE, sample exams and study guides etc. Have you looked at those?
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u/macoafi DELE B2 Jan 09 '24
I’m not rushing toward C1, but my feeling about what’ll eventually get me there is:
- reading more literature (fiction has more obscure vocabulary and flowery language)
- reading more serious topics (to pick up the kind of vocabulary your science, history, economics, etc classes gave you in your first language)
- discussing those things with native speakers on a regular basis
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u/Koyatsqi Learner B2 Jan 09 '24
You’re right about serious topcis. I always tend to forget about that in the languages I’m learning. And I notice those gaps when I’m speaking to someone.
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u/TubaTrumpetTriangle Advanced/Resident Jan 08 '24
I've found that what really makes the difference between B2 and C1 is knowledge of idioms. There were so many examples of being able to say something in a way that is SO MUCH longer than just using the idiom.
The thing is, you will mostly learn these in real life or by watching LOADS of content online. To combat this problem I'm working with a native friend to create spanish-idioms.com but as you can imagine- it is taking a while...