I'm a native English/Russian speaker who took a few Spanish courses in high school and college, and recently decided it would be a waste if I didn't finally learn to speak it fluently, at least like a child. In some sense, I suppose I already do. I can read many things and spoken slowly enough can understand partially -- but there is some mental block, mostly in the smaller, connecting words and other "minor" details that are actually major and completely central to the language. So I drill duolingo from time to time but it seems like mostly a waste of time since I know a majority of the words, and the ones I don't know such as "curtain" aren't critical for me. I always had the idea to visit Spain for several months to force myself to adapt to the language but that's been impractical thus far. I knew reading would be good too and your story of learning Japanese is inspiring, so I think I will find some children's books or Mexican menus. Thank you
I highly recommend LibriVox audiobooks for listening comprehension. My German had deteriorated greatly from when I was living in Germany and I decided I wanted it back so I listened to Anna Karenina in English and German, chapter by chapter. Wonderful book, beautifully read in English and in German. LibriVox has Don Quijote in English and Spanish though I can’t speak to the quality of the reading.
FYI, if you are interested in the gramatical explanation of a level, you could log into the web version of Duolingo (your same account will work) and they are all there for many languages, as well as several other features (depending on the language) such as a full dictionary of words you've studied, and each has its own "health bar". There are also flash cards although now Duolingo has a separate app for that called TinyCards.
I'm not affiliated with them in any way but with the number of people I've convinced to use it, I should be getting commission.
Live in NYC and can confirm these exist. A buddy of mine actually has acquired several, and doesn't always use them on traffic stops, waiting for a "better occasion".
I'm a native English/Russian speaker who took a few Spanish courses in high school and college, and recently decided it would be a waste if I didn't finally learn to speak it fluently, at least like a child. In some sense, I suppose I already do. I can read many things and spoken slowly enough can understand partially -- but there is some mental block, mostly in the smaller, connecting words and other "minor" details that are actually major and completely central to the language. So I drill duolingo from time to time but it seems like mostly a waste of time since I know a majority of the words, and the ones I don't know such as "curtain" aren't critical for me. I always had the idea to visit Spain for several months to force myself to adapt to the language but that's been impractical thus far. I knew reading would be good too and your story of learning Japanese is inspiring, so I think I will find some children's books or Mexican menus. Thank you