I Learned French in 12 Months
I&#x27;ve been hacking language learning for about five years, and I&#x27;ve spent ridiculous amounts of time trying and reading about different strategies. I&#x27;ve been to Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and Puerto Rico to try immersion in different settings.<p>Getting to a solid level of competency in a language actually is not that hard. It just requires dedication and consistent practice.<p>That said, native speakers operate on a different level entirely. In my recent visit to Barcelona, I had no problems asking for directions, talking to the hotel staff and people in bars, chatting it up with friends in Spanish, etc. However, walking into a noisy &#x2F; crowded restaurant where the language is going 100 miles an hour is a totally different scenario.<p>As much as I want to believe otherwise, I&#x27;m of the opinion that getting to a level of &quot;automatic&quot; response where you can fluidly handle any situation requires living in a country where the language is in your face all day every day--and even then it still takes real effort.<p>A friend of mine, who&#x27;s a US ex-pat living in Madrid is of the same opinion. After three years living there, he still doesn&#x27;t feel 100% confident; although, he admits that he has spent most of his social time around English speakers.<p>None of this is intended to discourage anyone at all. In fact, learning Spanish ranks as one of the best decisions I&#x27;ve ever made; however, I think it&#x27;s important for folks to go in with realistic expectations, as there&#x27;s big difference between functional competency--with a language and fluency with fluency being a &quot;white whale&quot;.