How do you know when you've advanced from elementary to intermediate to upper intermediate to advanced?
Hello SpanishDict Friends,
http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/test/elemental.asp
The above is a link that asks you 10 questions per "level" to ascertain your understanding of Spanish. It appears that in order to be considered Upper Intermediate one should know many, many idioms, as well as be able to know when to use the Subjunctive.
I was surprised to learn about the many ways to use "como", particulary where it is placed within a sentence. For example, if como is in the forepart of a sentence it means one thing, and another when located in the dependent clause.
What should one know to be considered to an intermediate learner (not speaker)?
And does SpanishDict have a lesson on when to use como and what it means when placed in a "fore-clause" or in a dependent clause within a sentence?
6 Answers
This is one of the best links I've seen on the definition of fluency:
It's all a matter of degree. I've been studying Spanish for almost 40 years, off and on. I'm not fluent. I consider myself intermediate. By the standards in that link I'm probably a Conversationalist. I can hold conversations, read books and newspapers, watch TV and movies, and get almost all of it. But I still go off the rails frequently.
Reading is easier than speaking, obviously. To speak at an intermediate level I'd say you should probably at least be able to think in Spanish frequently, without having to translate in your head. I'd say to be an intermediate learner probably having a decent vocabulary and a working knowledge of most of the verb conjugations would be a prerequisite.
Knowing idioms is one of the big things to advance up the ladder. Como is one of those words that has a multitude of uses, idiomatically. I don't think there's a specific lesson on how to use that one word.
"I find listening the easiest"
I felt a need to respond to this. I have been learning for only about a month, and have already been deemed intermediate by 3 different native speakers(Spanish). My fiancee is native to Monterrey Mexico, a northern Mexican city. I have spent time observing her accent versus southern Mexicans, and have also observed accents/ways of speaking in Spain. I can tell you with great confidence that there is a HUGE difference between reading, and listening, because, and I'm not sure if you've noticed this, Spanish is often spoken with unusual pronunciation in many different regions. For example, my fiancee recorded a video of herself thanking some friends for their help in Spanish, and I got her to type out everything she said word for word. I spent about 30 minutes reviewing the recording in slow motion, matching the words to what I hear, and found that, in many cases, not only does she mispronounce many words, but she also skips words, and changes their structure in pronunciation. Example: She said "premio del concurso", her pronunciation was "premair concurso"(spelled out for English sounding pronunciation). As you can see, she completely skipped over "del", and changed the ending of the word "premio". I confronted her with this, and it took around 15 minutes of me looping one specific part of a word she spoke to her over and over again for her to finally realize that she had done this. I asked her if this was normal speech where she is from, and she said yes, that everyone speaks that way there. What's my point? My point is that spoken Spanish from a native speaker is often MUCH different than what is proper, and therefore is often nearly impossible to keep up with, especially if they speak it rapidly.
I've been studying Spanish for two or three years and I consider myself advanced. I can understand most movies, and read some amount of books as long as they aren't too complicated IE Lord of the Rings (El señor de los añillos). That's not to say I can understand everything, I have days where I feel like I am terrible at Spanish, and I can't seem to understand anything, and days where I feel like I am great at it. I am in an intermediate college course, and everyone in there would not get past the initial stage. No one would. They can barely manage a conversation and they are supposed to be intermediate. I scored Intermediate 2, barely, on there and I doubt if most of my native friends would have gotten a perfect score on that one. It's tough. I wouldn't really call that site a great measure because it doesn't take conversational fluency into account at all. It seems to be strictly a test of your grammar skills. If you ask me "level" should be based on how well you speak, but then I think I'm in the minority on this one, still, better to learn all the grammar you can while you gain your conversational fluency.
I think, to know how you are getting along with grammar and vocabulary, online tests are useful. You could do loads of them if you wanted, and take an average from the results.
Some include listening comprehension, well they'll help you know how you are getting on in that respect - however, some are, in my opinion, far too easy compared with what you'll hear on tv shows and in real life.
Reading - your progress surely will be obvious to you as you understand more without recourse to the dictionary/friends.
Talking, my own weakest point - although I'm given to understand my accent is quite good, I find it hard to think on my feet still, so I cannot happily describe myself as more than Intermediate in that area. I know it would improve quickly if I lived somewhere where I could talk every day in real situations, or had more time for Skype. :(
My personal opinion is that it's not so important to label yourself as this/that level, but rather to keep trying, and to realise that you will improve with every thing you do.
If only to express a dissenting view: I find listening the easiest, followed by speaking, reading and writing (in that order). The only real difference between oral vs written Spanish (and this holds for most languages) is that the latter tends to use somewhat more complex grammatical structures and a larger vocabulary (as partial compensation, with a written language, one can spend time trying to puzzle out the meaning while the oral language need to be processed in "real time").
Listening is the easiest because I'm not responsible for knowing the grammar and I needn't know the vocabulary (it's enough to recognize it [people's recognition vocabulary is greater than their active vocabulary]). When listening/reading, I needn't be concerned about the difference between ser/estar, por/para, imperfect/preterite, indicative/subjunctive, etc. I can safely assume that the person speaking/writing does know the difference and has used the appropriate form.
Even vocabulary; because of the similarities of Romance languages (and their influence on English vocabulary) It is often easy to guess at the meaning of a word in Spanish (because of its similarity to some word in English). For people with limited speaking/hearing skills this may be much easier when confronting a written text but, because of the close correspondence of the written to the spoken language, it is also quite easy to do in an aural context (if one has a firm grasp on the phonetics of the language).
Tests can give you a crude or basic idea of your level if you keep getting similar results from different tests and they all give you intermediate But a far better guide is the verbal or written feed-back from experienced native speakers/teachers
I received feedback from Cogumela here who is a well respected native speaker, and also from a qualified native teacher from Spain called Mariluz with whom I had received some lessons ionline through Skype ncluding an asssesment lesson She told me, in an e-mail that my level was higher intermediate. In addition I received the same feedback from a native speaker, a girl from Colombia (South America) which has been confirmed through online tests too.
The key, in my view, is in the consistenecy of results: whether obtained through the feedback from native speakers or through non native Spanish teachers at school, or through Spanish tests online or exam boards they should all be saying the same thing. Please also remember that assessmente should cover all aspects of learning a language; reading, writing speaking and listening These are all important and many people have not reached exactly the same standard across all these areas some of us find some aspects more easy than others: eg reading more easy than listening and so have reached a different level of proficiency across these various areas.
I hope this helps 
