Background
Spanish is the first language I’ve explored beyond my native English. I took formal classes in middle school and high school back in the 1980s. Although I never progressed beyond an A1 – A2 level (See the CEFR levels, if you are not familiar with what I’m talking about), some fundamentals (especially pronunciation) stayed with me even after many years of not using the language.
I returned to Spanish when I finally decided I was ready to dedicate the time needed to become conversational in a second language. Part of the appeal was the familiarity I still had from my school days, but that wasn’t the only reason. Spanish also felt approachable because of its relationship to English. Both languages belong to the Indo-European family: with Spanish as a Romance language and English as a Germanic one, which gives them shared roots and a number of recognizable cognates.
The writing system is another advantage. Spanish and English both use the Latin script, which means their letters are largely the same. Spanish adds a few diacritics to mark stress (e.g., está versus esta) and includes the letter ñ, which represents a sound not found in English, as well as ü, which signals how the u is pronounced in combinations like güe and güi. This shared script makes the early stages of reading and writing far more approachable than in languages that use entirely different writing systems, such as Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, or Russian.
Finally, I live in the United States, where Spanish is widely spoken. That creates real opportunities to practice the language in everyday situations, something that isn’t as accessible with many other languages in this part of the world. And with nearly 600 million speakers globally, making Spanish the fourth most spoken language by population, there is an enormous range of learning materials available. That abundance makes it easier to find resources that match my interests, learning style, and goals.
Current Primary Resources:
- Pimsleur Spanish: one lesson daily (a strict expectation).
- Duolingo: Daily filler to stay in language and increase vocabulary. Aim for one unit per day (not a strict expectation).
- Lingopie: Listening to native content, typically between 10 to 20 minutes, once per day. Capturing and drilling vocab from this session using the built-in quizzes on the platform.
- Anki deck: drill daily. Start with high-frequency vocabulary and build decks organically from there as I encounter words or phrases I want to capture for long-term recall.
- Writing: Writing a journal entry in Spanish at least once a week. Starting out, the length will only be a few sentences per entry. This will increase organically as my vocabulary grows.
- Reading: Read books written in Spanish, starting with primers and/or graded readers, then advancing to legitimate adult novels. This also will likely be delayed until I have acquired enough vocabulary for the materials to be comprehensible to me at around 80% or higher.
Future Resources:
- Speaking: Pimsleur and Anki include speaking already as I say out loud the content of the lesson, but for conversational Spanish, I plan on including 30 minute sessions with a live person on the italki platform. Minimum once a month, but adding more sessions if possible. Sessions will be 30 minutes rather than an hour.
- After I complete Pimsleur Levels 1 – 5, I will replace my primary daily practice with Assimil’s Spanish with Ease.
Visit the Resources and Tools page for an expanded catalog of language learning resources I own.
Running log (sorted by date, in descending order)
2026-04-26
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 17.
2026-04-25
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, started Unit 17.
2026-04-24
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, completed Unit 16.
2026-04-23
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 16.
2026-04-22
N/A (worked on building Language Log website)
2026-04-21
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 16.
2026-04-20
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 16.
2026-04-19
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 16.
2026-04-18
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, began Unit 16.
2026-04-17
N/A
2026-04-16
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, completed Unit 15.
2026-04-15
N/A
2026-04-14
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 15.
2026-04-12
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued Unit 15.
2026-04-11
Anki: Completed learn/due for Spanish Verbs and Spanish Phrases decks.
Duolingo Spanish: Section 2, continued with Unit 15.
2026-04-10
Anki: Did Spanish Phrases and Spanish Verbs decks.
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 15.
2026-04-09
N/A
2026-04-08
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 15.
2026-04-07
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 15.
2026-04-06
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 14.
2026-04-05
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 14.
NOTE: I added Hebrew to my studies starting on this date.
2026-04-04
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 14.
2026-04-03
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 14.
2026-04-02
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 14.
2026-04-01
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 14.
2026-03-31
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 13.
2026-03-30
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 13.
2026-03-29
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 13.
2026-03-28
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 13.
2026-03-27
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 12, started Unit 13.
2026-03-26
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 11. Started Unit 12.
2026-03-25
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 11.
Spanishdict: Level 2, completed Talk About Your Family, and drilled 40 Question Words.
2026-03-24
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 10.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 21.
Lingopie: News in Easy Spanish (4:33), Still Green (9:55), and did vocabulary review.
Passive listening: Caracol Radio (https://caracol.com.co/) – talk radio out of Colombia.
2026-03-23
Duolingo: Section 2, continued with Unit 10.
2026-03-22
Duolingo: Section 2, continued with Unit 10.
2026-03-21
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 10.
2026-03-20
Spanishdict: Level 1, completed Introduce Your Friends.
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 9.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 20.
2026-03-19
Duolingo: Section 2, continued Unit 9.
Spanishdict: Level 1, completed Introduce Yourself. Started Introduce Your Friends.
Pimsleur Spanish: I missed my lesson this day!
2026-03-18
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 9.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 19.
2026-03-17
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 8.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 18.
2026-03-16
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 8.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 17.
2026-03-15
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 7.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 16.
Lingopie: Rudolf the Reindeer (2 minutes) – listened and reviewed vocab with quizzes.
2026-03-14
Duolingo: Section 2, began Unit 7.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 15.
2026-03-13
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 14.
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 6.
2026-03-12
Duolingo: Section 2, began Unit 6.
Anki: Completed “100 Spanish Phrases” deck for the day.
Lingopie: Easy News in Spanish (4:17 minutes), Animated Classics – Don Quixote (5 minutes), Grammar for Starters (5 mins) – and the follow up quizzes for all three.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 13.
2026-03-11
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 12.
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 5.
2026-03-10
Lingopie: Listened to a variety of short content, equaling a total of 60 minutes.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 11.
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 5.
2026-03-09
Duolingo: Completed Section 2, Unit 4.
Anki: Completed Spanish Verbs deck for the day.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 10.
Reading: Easy Spanish Reader (Premium Fourth Edition. 2021). Primera Parte: 1. Enrique y Maria (p.1).
2026-03-08
Duolingo: Completed Section 2, Unit 3.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 9.
Anki: I created another deck. This one is 100 common phrases in Spanish. I drilled that deck today.
Lingopie: Watched “On the Tip of my Tongue” (S1E1), which is a kid’s show. 7 minutes. Practiced vocabulary I captured from that.
2026-03-07
Duolingo: Section 2, started Unit 2. Successfully completed “Jump ahead” to Unit 3.
Anki: Did my daily high frequency verbs (with built-in SRS).
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 8.
Lingopie: I watched “Basilisk” Season 1, Episode 1. 24 minutes. Marked some vocab and practiced it with the built-in quizzes.
2026-03-06
Anki: Created a “Spanish Verbs” Anki deck that has just over 100 high frequency verbs. The cards are set up so that the infinitive form of the verb is on the front, with the English translation and an example Spanish sentence on the back for context. A daily lesson is 20 words. I did my first round today.
Lingopie: Listened to “Contemos Historias” (“Let’s Tell Stories”), Season 1, Episode 1 (10 minutes long). A cumulative total of 62 words now in vocabulary on this platform, which integrates SRS. I practiced (using the “Quizzes” function) until I was caught up for the day.
Duolingo: Section 2, completed Unit 1.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 7.
2026-03-05
Lingopie: Watched “La Espera” (14 minutes). Captured 17 words of vocabulary. Drilled them with the built in quizzes. There is built in SRS for vocabulary. I plan on returning once a day for the trial period to see if I want to continue.
Duolingo: Started Section 2.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 6.
2026-03-04
Duolingo: Section 1, completed Unit 7, started Unit 8.
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 5.
2026-03-03
Duolingo: Completed through Section 1, Unit 6.
Memrise Spanish (Mexico): (Started over). Through level 4. [NOTE: decided to drop Memrise].
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lesson 4.
2026-02-28 through 2026-03-02
Pimsleur Spanish: Level 1, Lessons 1 through 3.
Duolingo: (Restarted from the beginning). Completed through Section 1, Unit 5.