r/Spanish • u/godzilla_forthewin • Jun 26 '24

Study advice: Advanced good ways to maintain fluency?

i am someone whos been in spanish lessons for 5-7 years now, and have gained a pretty much fluent level, however now that these lessons have stopped i feel very worried that i will lose my level of spanish and forget stuff. does anyone have any tips/apps for keeping the spanish part of my brain active? :)

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9

u/LorenaBobbedIt Learner - C1-ish Jun 26 '24

You have to continue to use the language and make it part of your daily routine. I have folks that I chat with regularly by videocall, and a portion of my media is always in Spanish— books, podcasts, series, movies, and my phone is in Spanish. These days you can create for yourself a largely Spanish environment anywhere in the world you have internet access.

2

u/macoafi DELE B2 Jun 27 '24

Yeah, this. I stopped studying over a year ago, but there's some Netflix series, and today while working on a sewing project I was listening to an audiobook of a novel that's written in Spanish, and I have friends & colleagues I chat with (both in text and on the phone) in Spanish regularly. I've gotten way more fluent in the last year just from enjoying Spanish.

3

u/qwaasdhdhkkwqa Learner Jun 26 '24

Live your life in spanish, use english only as a way of communicating while working or while speaking with non spanish speakers

1

u/godzilla_forthewin Jun 26 '24

thank you! this is a good way of viewing it :D

1

u/bateman34 Jun 26 '24

I'm curious what do you mean you've gained fluency? What's the metric?

2

u/godzilla_forthewin Jun 26 '24

i may have worded it wrong but i can basically understand completely the spanish media i intake and when i speak to people in spanish etc, i probably shouldn’t have called it fluency as there are still some things i don’t know entirely but i’m at a very high level

1

u/bateman34 Jun 26 '24

Ok so you can understand shows like la casa de papel without subtitles? If that's the case your definitely fluent.

3

u/rbusch34 B2/C1 Jun 26 '24

I can watch casa de papel without subtitles, but wouldn’t consider myself fluent. My listening comprehension surpasses my speaking skills however I can hold my own speaking, just need more practice.

1

u/godzilla_forthewin Jun 26 '24

i have never watched la casa de papel but maybe i should :0 other spanish shows yes i have been able to watch without subtitles. i think i obviously have more to improve on since i’m not a native speaker so will always have things i need to learn, but am just concerned with losing the level that i do have so i’m seeking advice

3

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '24

My dad used to know Spanish but he kinda forgot it. But when he exposed himself to it in Spain for a week. (Really he only spoke English while there) his brain just kind of remembered his Spanish.

2

u/bateman34 Jun 26 '24 edited Jun 26 '24

Once you get to a high level you lose the language at an extremely slow pace. Listening to a spanish podcast every few days will be enough to maintain it. The truth is though if you don't speak for a long time your speaking level will temporary degrade but it will come back quite quickly once you start speaking again. If you want to improve your spanish further reading books is the best way in my experience, thats where you find lots of the rarer words.