u/Southern-Golf-8993

As forest fires once again engulf hectares of Spain and France, destroying livelihoods and ecosystems, spectators have been banned from the third stage of the Tour de France cycling race through the Pyrenees, which will be adapted as a forest fire burns the area.

It feels particularly dystopian that teams are sponsored by some of Europe's biggest climate criminals, Total Energies and Ineos.

TotalEnergies is one of the top 20 historical emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases. Its annual carbon footprint has been estimated to be higher than that of the entire country of France. Meanwhile, Ineos is an oil, gas and petrochemicals conglomerate, headquartered in London. It is one of the world’s largest petrochemicals companies.

Fossil fuel companies - who are profiteering from the energy crisis - should be made to pay for heatwave costs, not benefitting from marketing opportunities.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/sports/20260706-tour-de-france-bans-spectators-from-third-stage-as-fire-burns-in-french-pyrenees

I am a long-term lurker and occasional poster on the group. I am not a purist - my approach has been to "throw the kitchen sink at it" (I don't know if this expression is used outside the UK , but basically means I'm trying everything at once!)

My background was 3 years of Spanish at secondary school where I learnt the items in the pencil case and that was about it. When I decided to move to a Spanish speaking country, I took some in-person group classes and they were HORRIBLE for me - I realised I'd forgotten everything, and I found them really uncomfortable. Then I moved to Duolingo, which I loved, and spent about 2 hours every day until I finished the course.

However, on moving abroad, I realised I still couldn't say ni papa in Spanish. It was truly humbling and embarrassing. I was also upset I'd wasted so much time on Duolingo. I felt so stupid not to have critically examined this approach earlier.

My new routine, since last March, is: in-person group night classes (4 hours a week); 2 hours a week with my iTalki teacher, and a minimum of 2 hours a day input (mainly via "native" podcasts now but I also listen to Dreaming Spanish videos when I want something a bit more "chill").

Can I speak Spanish? Since January, my answer is "yes, badly". I can certainly communicate, but I still lack confidence and feel like a cavewoman when I'm around native speakers. However, I have a good grasp on the main tenses, my vocabulary is good, and I can understand pretty much everything (unless it's slang/ cultural references that go over my head). Compared to where I was a year ago, it's amazing. Compared to where I want to be, it's a long way off still.

Some things I've been reflecting on and wanted to share with others..

• Consistency is more important than talent. I really can't repeat this enough - trust the process. Just keep going. It can be boring, frustrating, and even demotivating at times, but just keep going. Sometimes you feel like you're going backwards, sometimes you will wonder if your brain is even capable of learning another language. Just keep going.
• You can't compare yourself to others: My partner has been learning Spanish at the same time. They have a great accent and speak more fluently. They have not taken classes nor really spend any time listening to podcasts etc. They hear a Spanish word/ grammatical rule once and it just "goes in". For a long time I was really upset and didn't understand what I was doing wrong. Here I was, putting in hours and hours every week, and yet they were still so much better than me. I had to get over this as my jealousy was holding me back and very counterproductive. We all learn differently and have different strengths. Turns out languages isn't one of mine, but sticking with it and working hard are.
• The benefits of the Dreaming Spanish model: Finding Dreaming Spanish was honestly a gamechanger for me. My comprehension is now incredible, and I have learnt so many more words, phrases, accents and sayings. But more importantly than anything else, I've really connected to the culture, history and human stories of the hispanohablante world. I can regularly be found crying over an episode of Radio Ambulante, learning about geopolitics with No Es El Fin Del Mundo, and I listen to daily news podcasts to keep up to speed on global events. The Dreaming Spanish guides are all incredible too! I honestly feel like I have a parasocial relationship with them 😆 I still regularly listen to the intermediate and advanced videos, and even some beginner ones as they're super funny. Massive shout out to the team - thanks for all your work!
• Speaking is a social practice. My nerves really hold me back when speaking. For me, what really helped is to find 'safe spaces' to practice. This has principally been via finding an iTalki teacher who I get on with super well. I cannot recommend it enough - I have had about 90 hours with one teacher and it's been the biggest gamechanger for me since finding Dreaming Spanish. In our world with some much AI - a plea to you - find a good teacher and pay them a decent salary, if you can! It will really prepare you to go into the "real world" and have conversations with native speakers.
• On the "smorgasbord" approach: I personally think for me, trying a bit of everything has helped. When I was learning to drive a car, I needed to understand how the gears and the engine worked before it really 'clicked into place' for me. To some extent, I think I am also someone who needs a bit of theory when it comes to grammar. However, I do not memorise lists, and I can't even remember the names of the different tenses. I also don't think that understanding grammar is that helpful to becoming a fluent speaker, which is my goal. I would so much rather be super strong with the basics which you need 80% of the time, than the more complicated grammatical rules you need 20% of the time.
• Reading books: I have recently started reading books in Spanish, which I'm enjoying (on the whole). I find reading harder than listening, but I can definitely see the benefits and will stick at it. I do find them a bit harder to fit into my daily routine, and I can find it more tiring than just watching a funny video.
• On Duolingo: Yes, I regret spending so much time on it. It wasn't entirely pointless, as I definitely learnt a lot of words and got a decent sense for some basic grammatical ideas, but for most people I really don't think it will work if your goal is to become conversationally fluent in Spanish.