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- Level 25 Spanish
Level 25 Spanish
Those of you who are English speakers and have reached level 25 Spanish, are you fluent? Did you learn solely from Duolingo and the podcasts?
30 Comments
1617
I don't think fluent but I can have casual conversations with friends, give directions, order food, buy things in stores, and pretty much do the daily rountine stuff. Happy learning!!
517
I am not level 25 but will be one day in the near future. I also struggle with fluency. I at least get the opportunity to practice as I live in an area with a lot of Mexicans. I also take trips to TJ just to get away and practice. Today I saw a guy rolling a cart and confused a basic word as I stated esta pagando helado? He looked at me with intrigue as I walked away and I thought vendiendo you idiot! But I will continue taking chances and making mistakes and one day I will hopefully be able to hear and respond and not sound like a 4 year old child.
I finished the tree and made level 25 (but I notice now that the "level" thing seems to be gone). I'm definitely not fluent. I also dropped off for over a year from Duo. I enjoyed it, but at the time my major motivations for learning had disappeared. At the beginning of 2018, I started a quest for a new place to live. The process was frustrating and time was running out on my lease. I have a friend from Mexico (yup, one of those Trump is trying to get kicked out) who had broken contact with me for a few months because of a boyfriend she acquired. It turned out for the worse and she resumed her friendship with me. About that time, I complained about my home search and she told me her sister had a house to rent. It wasn't ready yet, but I was desperate. Somehow, we worked it out.
Now I have a land-lady who speaks NO English. Sure, a few phrases like "thank you" or "how are you?" but conversation was impossible. My friend is frustrated that her sister won't learn English. But then, my friend struggles; I'm the only person she speaks English with. This came as a shock to me, but if you speak Spanish, there are major chunks of the USA where you don't have to speak English at all.
Slightly funny aside: I took her and a couple bilingual little girls to lunch at a Thai restaurant. It was a place I liked for years, but they have let quality drop recently. I was disappointed in my meal and she with hers. A bus-boy came up to clear the table and he struck up a short conversation with my friend. He bad-mouthed his own restaurant and said there were much better places. I was amused. Nobody on staff nearby had a clue what was being said (staff being all Thai). I was happy that my Spanish was to a point that I could follow along. I didn't let on that I understood or I suspect the bus-boy wouldn't have talked the way he did.
One day my landlady's girls were at my house. One is 8 and bilingual. The other is 3 and Spanish only. If you want to improve a language and practice with less fear, talk to children. I asked the older girl her name. Then I tried the same with the little one and she turned shy. I asked the big sister if she spoke any English. Nope. "Como se llamas?" Now I got a reply. "Cuantos años tienes?" Then came the universal 3yo response: hold up 3 fingers silently.
I have a long way to go. I have a great vocabulary and book-learning grasp of grammar. But formulating a sentence live feels like doing calculus. But I'm back to having reasons to learn. Wish me luck.
Definitely not even close to ten percent.
Hi. I am running on empty. TGIF and TG my lessons are finished. Have some fun, everybody.
I love Duolingo, too! Level 25 is my Oz. I went into this fight realistically. My goal was insane. Now, I will be fluent in 2020.Si, claro?
Does anyone but me worry about the adolescents using Duolingo as an incentive? My mobile app is very youth oriented. The vocabulary is urbane. I have not found the way to down vote in the different format. Lingots can be purchased with real currency.
Hey Buddy! How's Brad tonight?
Hi Catherine, my lessons are done for the day as well. It is still mid afternoon here in the land of Cali. Level 25 is my mid term goal. It is written in stone. I don’t like to see it’s image tarnished. I agree with your less than 10% assessment. I haven’t used the app since my first month. I am shooting for conversational by Spring 2019.Enjoy your weekend!
1814
I don't know if I was alone in not knowing what you meant by A2 or B1, but just in case anyone else isn't:
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
I would guess I'm at least an A2 and possibly a lower B1.
Okay, I just found a free test on the internet and it said I was B1.
I had 10 minutes to answer 15 multiple choice questions. I did it in 5 minutes but it didn't tell me which ones I got wrong and I was guessing on some of them.
I'm not sure if that was a valid test or not.
1814
I thought I'd be able to find it again, but couldn't. I think I googled CEFRL test and maybe included the word Spanish. I thought it had "free" somewhere in the URL, but I'm not seeing it now.
I did find this thread though:
1814
I'm like just about everyone else who answered. I'm not fluent. If I were, I'd write this en español.
I've improved but a lot of that was because I was out of practice for years.
To really become fluent I think I need to talk to others regularly and read and watch TV in Spanish more often.
Anecdote:
When I was in high school they had a program for students to spend a few weeks in Spain or South America. (They alternated destinations each year).
Of course not everybody could go, but everyone who did came back light years ahead of those of us who didn't.
I've only been to Mexico a handful of times and never for very long but even that was beneficial.
1789
I recently tested at B2, but I wouldn't say I'm fluent. I can communicate fairly well in full sentences, and make myself understood. If I don't understand something, or don't know a specific word, I can usually work around it, and explain what I'm trying to say.
I also use Rocket Spanish and work with a couple of tutors on Skype.
There is no substitute for speaking and listening with native Spanish speakers.
Google something like
Spanish language exchange
For a local one near you and meet up :- you WILL improve dramatically.
www.paseoatraves.wordpress.com
My silly blog about my days wandering about in my bad Spanish
791
No you can not learn solely from Duolingo. It is not 100% accurate (no where near) and it does not give you speaking practice with accurate feedback. It is still a very good tool to be used in conjunction with others.
517
I will have to admit that the duolingo stories are really helpful as well. I encourage listening to them to hear the language better
I'm at level 25 in spanish-and 70% through the course. I've Also taken the esperanto course, used a bunch of video lectures from Great Courses and taken a bunch of Italki tutoring sessions. I also listen to whatever movies I watch in spanish.
I've been at this about a years.
This one pegs me at A2 spanish and A2 German.
https://www.arealme.com/german-vocabulary-size-test/en/ this gives a 3850 word german vocabulary, a 5360 spanish vocabulary and a 4300 italian volcabulary. I studied german in high school. I get what italian I have from studying spanish.
It gives me 36000 word english vocabularly which helps a bit too.
I think this is a better test, but it is also a longer one http://quizlevel.cambridgeinstitute.net/index.php/en/ I expect to be a solid B1 when I finish the entire spanish course-all 567 Crowns as far as reading.