I researched the most effective ways to set goals and stay motivated and realized I needed to replace Duolingo with new routines. It was time to go back to first principles and define what I wanted to accomplish so that I could make progress on my terms. It turns out learning new vocabulary spoken by a robot and always with a transcript, wasn’t actually getting me there. Like most other successful language learners, I wanted to be able to listen and speak- to communicate with the people around me. All I had to do was put my time in and I’d get rewarded.īut why did I want to learn Spanish anyway? The allure of gamification gave me a feeling of daily progress. Why? Because instead of thinking critically about my goals, I let Duolingo set my goals for me. I spent three years steadily floating along a Spanish plateau. How I Broke My Duolingo Streak and Started Actually Learning Spanish My conclusion is that I got stuck at this level because I’m so good at studying. Three years and I was stuck around lower intermediate level. The phrase ¿Puede hablar más despacio, por favor? (“Can you speak more slowly, please?”) was my best friend. But I couldn’t understand anyone speaking naturally. In my first three years learning Spanish, I was dedicated. But I wasn’t even fluent after those three years…Īfter reading about Benny’s approach to learning a language in three months, three years seemed like a long time. Studying for 1,033 days meant almost three years of Spanish learning. Don’t they say that it takes 10,000 hours to master something? But I didn’t feel like a master. When thought about it, I should have felt proud. That’s learning every day for 1,033 days-24,792 hours.

I learned Spanish, every day, for 1,033 days. Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

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