What's the best way to (start) learning a language? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by vladmech@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I traveled to Japan for a few weeks last year and had grand plans to learn a bunch of phrases, but got lazy and punked out. I still had a great time, everyone was super kind, but it was embarrassing how well so many folks spoke English and I couldn’t even be assed to put in a bit of work.

My wife is half Mexican and we’re in California, and she gets a lot of people initially talking to her in Spanish, which she can’t speak beyond an ordering food level, and would like to change that.

What’s the best way for us both to get to a beginning conversational level in Spanish? I tried Duolingo a while ago and it was eh, and I’ve heard it’s all AI these days. Any other recommendations?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago

Comprehensible input will be useful for both of you, but particularly for your wife if she already has some Spanish. Dreaming Spanish is what I've been using, but there's also plenty of comprehensible input channels on YouTube.

[-] davel@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Their old URL seem to be broken, so:

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Looks like they're having some DNS issues atm.

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I use dreaming spanish too! And vidioma.com for mandarin.

For anyone interested, here's a detailed explanation from the ppl at dreaming spanish on why it works.

this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026

45 points (100.0% liked)

Asklemmy

53267 readers

513 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago

MODERATORS