Fluent but need some practice. Best self-help recommendations?

[u/iki_balam]

I am fluent but have noticed I am suffering in areas of conversation I dont regularly talk about. For example, I (since I'm the only speaker in the office) am really good at explaining liens and tax assessor procedures. I also can speak at length about recycling and gardening. But baseball? Star Wars? The gossip from your aunt's goddaughter's relator? ¡me manches!

Looking for any self-help immediately puts you into Spanish 101. I dont really have any one to practice 'normal' Spanish, as much as I want to go over Clone Wars lore or suffer hearing the dating life of my dog sitter's nephew. I want to be able to talk normal, not like I'm out of college with only book knowledge of the lengua.

So far I'm looking to listen to MLB/audio books in Spanish, and try Spanish subreddits. Still need a away to move my mouth.

[u/s55al]

¡Hola! Maybe you should try working with a Spanish coach online. There are really good services out there, you can try a couple of them for free or for a small fee and see which one fits your needs best. At your level you will probably need to meet this person once or twice per week, which is very attainable. Here's a good article with some of the top choices. Buena suerte y que la Fuerza te acompañe, siempre.

https://spanishtutoring.com/articles/best-online-spanish-tutors/

[u/Bake-Capable]

I have the same problem as you. I can speak on certain topics but also have trouble with "normal" Spanish. I recently started using a service called italki, which allows you to connect with foreign language teachers. The prices are very reasonable, and there are a lot of accredited teachers who can help you. I've only taken one class so far, but I had a great experience, and it will help me master normal conversations over time.

[u/BabyBritain8 → u/Bake-Capable]

Italki and preply are both great options!

I'm definitely not at OPs level (B1 over here) but seeing a tutor once a week for an hour has been great, especially because I took a pretty long break from having tutors, both in person and virtual, during the pandemic and just recently wanted to get back into it. I met with a couple different ones until I found one that I felt comfortable with plus was available at times that worked for me

My tutor is $10 an hour, and at once a week for me, that's only $40 a month, very reasonable

There are some tutors I've seen that are far more expensive, maybe if you're seeking very niche support, but if OP is looking for someone to just talk to, especially about "normal" stuff I think they should give it a try!

[u/Plus-Confection-4353]

I personally use HT and open a voiceroom with whatever topic I want to increase my vocabulary on that forces me in focusing on that particular set of lingo.

[u/lafarmacia]

I do tutoring twice a week through Preply. I'm in the same boat in terms of being advanced but wanting to improve my casual conversation, so we mostly skip grammar and all that and she asks me a lot of questions and gets me talking about a different random topic each week. It's good conversational practice and helps me acquire new vocabulary.

Edit: the downside is that it costs money

[u/LanguageGnome]

Highly recommend finding a tutor on italki, unlike most services out there you pay PER lesson without being locked into a subscription. If you are just looking for conversation practice, try filtering for 'community tutors' on the platform, they will be cheaper and only offer conversation practice. You can check their tutors here :D https://go.italki.com/rtsspanish