It's not a sprint, it's a marathon.
The hardest truth I have come to accept is this: learning a foreign language to fluency takes a lot of time. There are no shortcuts, despite what adverts for "quick and easy fluency in three months" courses would had you believe. It takes real dedication and a regular commitment for years of your life.
It's possible you could do it within a year, but unlikely for most people. In my claim of years I'm assuming you have a full time job and other commitments in your life. As an example, a rough estimate from the ALG approach (see the last post) is that about 2000 hours of comprehensible input is required to achieve fluency comparable to a native speaker.
When I set out to master Spanish in 2021, I targeted a 4 year plan for fluency, hoping to achieve at least 1500 hours of input before the end of the 4th year, committing to roughly one hour a day. I think I am right on schedule for that, and while I am very happy with my progress, I accept there is still a long way to go.
(Of course, you may have a lot more spare time than me and, sure, if you can commit to 8 hours a day, then there's no reason why you cannot achieve fluency in a year. Some language learning schools, such as AUA in Thailand offer intense ALG courses based on this idea)
If you are serious about learning a language, you need to incorporate it into your life
This is easier said than done, but I can share my habits, for what they're worth.
There are a few ways in which I learn Spanish every day. I tend to watch YouTube for an hour or so before bed (don't worry, I have a blue light filter). Nowadays most of the channels I subscribe to are native Spanish speakers. They all do things I enjoy watching which usually involves gaming (Feelink playing Hearthstone, Atlas playing Marvel Snap, Luisón playing chess).
Similarly, I changed my default language in Netflix to Spanish. Initially I watched a lot of animé, which is a bit easier to follow than live action series. Later I tried to consume shows created in Spain, such as Casa del Papel (Money Heist), Las Chicas del Cable (Cable Girls), and El Vecino (The Neighbor).
I commute to work two days a week now, during which I listen to podcasts and audiobooks in Spanish. I listened to the entire Harry Potter series (because listening to something that you already know the story of is a pretty effective way of generating comprehensible input materials), before moving on to more native media such as Memorias de Idhún (which is mad, but I love it).
Essentially, I do things I used to do in English, except they're now in Spanish. They are things I have fun doing, which is important because
When you are enjoying it, it doesn't feel like work
That should go without saying of course, but if you're not enjoying it, progress will be slow and painful. The internet is a wonderful resource, and I have found a lot of really great learning tools just by googling; sometimes it's easy to overlook the obvious.
It is a humbling feeling to realise that in 22 and a half years, what I have learned barely took 20 minutes to write. It doesn't feel like much, but hopefully someone can find it useful.
Ciao ciao Mickey Mouse
L
