I downgraded myself to beginner
I thought because I can read and understand Spanish, and because I can understand most of what I hear that I'm intermediate. Unfortunately, without having the structural background I'm just not there. So for now call me Lalo Novicio.
**I suddenly feel justified.
29 Answers
I feel your pain.
Despite my own apprehensions about leaving the shallow beginner's waters, I too, on occasion, have been urged, prodded, pounded and pushed into the deeper waters by those who would swear that I already know how to swim. For the most part, I just walk around that treacherously sloped surface on the points of my toes, nose barely poking up out of the water and arms flailing about wildly in the desperate attempt to keep form sliding ever deeper into that cold and unforgiving abyss that is "the deep end." Every now and then I see a bit of sunshine and am able to reach the side of the pool and pull myself up enough to get most of my head out—you have to take joy in the little victories whenever you can come by them.
I don't know about beginner, intermediate or advanced, but as I look around, it's hard not to notice that most of the just-out-of-diapers, still-sucking-their-thumbs, Yo-Gabba-Gabba-watching four year olds can already swim laps around me, all while laughing as I flounder and flop about.
Unfortunately, I have also been cattle-prodded into donning the mantle of intermediate and am forever being belabored by the mantra, "You need to change your level to advanced." My only comments on this are that if the language highway were a one-way thoroughfare, I think I would be just dandy. I can understand the bulk of what I hear or read with little problem, and I have a relatively decent (whatever that means) understanding of basic syntax; unfortunately, when it comes to driving on the other side of the road, I always seem to become a blathering idiot and start tripping all over myself. Honestly, I don't think that I can string three words together in Spanish without constantly second guessing myself.
Initially I thought that I might compare my own skill level to that of your average trauma patient who has just suffered severe to crippling brain damage and hasn't yet had the chance to undergo any type of speech therapy—but then I realized that such a boisterous claim would likely be insulting to the trauma patient.
As it stands, I think that I will stick with low intermediate 
Well for me l'm a beginner (please let me know if there's a lower level created that l don't know about 
)
When l first joined l was a beginner in both languages, and now l'm almost intermediate in English and still a beginner in Spanish 
it takes a lot of time and a lot of practice to be intermediate and it depends on how much you want it and how much can your brain handle! for some people it's really hard to study a lesson in one day for others, well they can finish all the lessons in one day! 
That's why l bought this absolutely wonderful thing!!
Buy it and get a mind-built dictionary in your head! only for 50$!
My wife and I had a 3 hour lunch today with friends from the Dominican Republic. My friend from Honduras was with us as well. Our waitress was my Puerto Rican friend Nancy, so we really had a mix of accents.
I usually become a topic of conversation because I'm the only gringo in the group, but mainly because I'm a gringo that speaks Spanish. Near the end of our visit, I commented that I had lost my conversation practice partners and needed to find someone else to practice with, and la cuñada from the DR said, "there's nothing wrong with your Spanish. I can clearly understand everything you say."
I have no idea at what 'level' I'm supposed to be, that's the most irrelevant measure I can imagine, for me. My goal is to speak fluently with Spanish speaking people, and I know that I'm very close to that. Even if I couldn't ever pass a written test administered by a college professor that can't speak the language, I will never call myself a beginner again. I've been told over and over how I never give myself credit for my accomplishments and victories and I "beat myself up" for my failures.
I've never been asked the question "at what level are you in your Spanish studies?", nobody has ever asked me "do you think you're doing pretty good/bad with Spanish?" or whatever. My 'test' is how well I feel after sitting 3 hours in a restaurant conversing in Spanish without having to grunt to push words out of my mouth and I feel really good.
I understand that if you are studying to pass tests, and maybe that's where you get your "level" from, I have no idea. I personally know two college level Spanish teachers that are "advanced" in their knowledge, but I would rate them beginner in their ability to speak the language. That makes the purpose of being at a certain level even more confusing to me.
Having said all that, I really respect those that have a working knowledge of the grammar and the ways to apply it. Lazarus comes to mind, he knows stuff about language that I don't think you can find in a textbook. People like that have been such a tremendous help to me.
Estoy muy contento en este momento porque tuve un buen día y pude hablar claramente y entender bien mis amigos. No quiero nada más.
Well the club just increased in population by one.
Those of us that are not in formal classes or programs seem to become a polyglot of learning. I for one have absolutely no clue where to rate myself. I have the grammar of a beginner, the vocabulary of a solid intermediate and pronunciation that approaches native level. I use forms and conjugations that I do not know the names of (in english ). and in some forms not even the Spanish names.
maybe classifying yourself as intermediate would be a goal to reach for!
The more you learn, the more you realize there is left to learn.
I still list myself as a fairly early beginner in the bio part of the profile page. I am trying to get to the point where I feel comfortable moving myself to a mid-level beginner.
jack o Brian said:
My goal is to speak fluently with Spanish speaking people, and I know that I'm very close to that.
Great, we are happy to see that from now on , you are going to post in Spanish, good job, as so far, you have always only posted in English
You can be fluent in Spanish and be completely ignorant of its grammatical rules. Most seven-year-olds in Spanish-speaking countries are exactly that.
In fact, you can be an illiterate adult native Spanish speaker, totally fluent in spoken Spanish but unable to read and ignorant of grammatical rules. For such a person even "advanced" is inadequate. They are fluent. They are awesome at Spanish, but they probably shouldn't try to teach anyone Spanish grammar (that's not to say they can't teach someone Spanish, though, because illiterate, grammar-ignorant people teach their children fluent Spanish / English all the time).
I'm thinking you can put yourself back at intermediate, maybe even advanced (it's totally your call...I prefer to undershoot it a little, though). Just know your limits when giving answers.
I DON'T understand much of what I hear, but because I can read and write it and have a modest grasp of the grammar, I put myself at intermediate. I consider the ability to understand spoken Spanish to be a far better skill, one which I covet much.
I find intermediate a comfortable level. Nobody is surprised when I answer something a bit complicated. Nobody is surprised when I make stupid mistakes now and then.
But these levels are nothing outside of this forum. In real life, being able to quickly understand spoken Spanish and being able to quickly speak it are what counts. Two things I can't really do.
I lived in Colombia for about 3 1/2 years, traveled, gave trainings (about auditing), translated (both directions) for a psychologist and for an MD, taught and carried on extended conversations in Spanish. I can tell and laugh at jokes in Spanish. I teach a class at church about once a month, besides visiting with a number of native Spanish speakers. I call myself fluent in Spanish, but sometimes I wonder. Even with all the experience I have, I occasionally have to ask for confirmation of a word, a sentence structure or the gender of a noun. I almost never ask for a translation; a clarification is sufficient.
Even though I identify myself as fluent, I am a long way from being a native speaker. It's a life long pursuit that I'll never achieve. It's a fun trip, though.
I guess my point is, don't understate your abilities. They're probably a lot better than you think. Many beginners on this forum would be considered advanced or fluent by most of the non-bilingual population of the US.
In November I'll be going to Brazil (unless there's a delay due to visa problems out of the Los Angeles consulate). I'm looking forward to trying on a new language. Portuguese is a Romance language, but it's markedly different from Spanish. Wish me luck.
I keep my eye on the ball. I genuinely have a passion to learn Spanish, and I want to be able to read, listen and maintain conversations. Everything else will follow.
Here are some good tips:
Read as many books as you can in Spanish.
Watch Spanish videos with and without subtitles.
Find the courage to speak in Spanish, though you may be mortally afraid of messing up.
Practice grammar and writing as much as you can.
Keep looking for new ways to improve your abilities.
Your improvement will really show:
You'll be able to comprehend Spanish passages.
Your listening and speaking will improve.
You will be able to maintain long, difficult conversations.
You will be able to pass tests.
Your "Spanish level" will increase over time.
Which of these points is most important to you? Take your pick, but your improvement will involve all of these points as long as you keep practicing as much as you can. And remember... no hay mal que por bien no venga... you say you've downgraded to beginner, but you haven't gotten worse, you've actually learned something 
I don't really need to post, as everything has already been said!
As regards learning and fun, I'd just like to say that I sometimes wonder about SD, when I get hooked into a thread that is all in English, takes me a while to read through, leeching precious time from my Spanish studies 
...
2 things:
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Threads like this one do so much for one's confidence and motivation, I can't consider them a waste of time. Solidarity, people!
Don't get discouraged, and understand that time spent reading these forums should NOT be taken into account as time spent learning since much of it is really spent playing, and not learning at all. It's a good way to fool yourself, the best learning is talking with natives OR listening to TV shows, FYI you can find the subtitulos around the net, look for "Subtitulado" or subtitulos. PS take a break from the "rules" because compound sentences, clauses etc... are great for in the classroom but less so for actually speaking and knowing the language. Gracias
Welcome to the club - me too 
Just because I'd listened to loads of cd's and read a few on-line books I initially thought I was intermediate. After about 2 days participating on this forum I realised that actually I was lower than a rattlesnakes belly! If there was a level below beginner, that would have been me.
The terms beginner, intermediate advanced, whatever, are for students. At some point you must leave the world of academia and become a speaker of the language.
I can't tell you how many people I've heard call themselves "advanced" because they can recite grammar rules better than most, including me, but ask them to order a glass of water and they're completely lost, stuttering, stammering and grasping for the simplest of words.
If you can speak, read and understand much of what you hear, you are not a beginner, you are BILENGUAL, a SPEAKER of the Spanish language. I'm not sure why you beat yourself up and diminish your accomplishments, but you are doing yourself an injustice.
You may not know as much as you'd like, or learn as fast as you'd like, but you speak the language my friend, and you apply whatever label you like, but you are not a beginner. IMO, once you can converse in the language, these labels no longer apply, you are a Spanish speaker working toward fluency.
¡Ánimo! Now get back to doing what you love, learning even more Spanish!
When I signed up here about a year ago, I listed myself as "intermediate".
Now that I have learned a whole lot in the last 12 months, I think I really am "intermediate"
It will be awhile before I repeat that mistake. I still repeat some "beginner-level" mistakes, especially if I'm a bit tired.
To paraphrase Stadt, the more I learn, the more I discover how much more there is to learn. It's like running a race where the finish line is receding faster than my running pace. Sigh... 
My good friend Chris just said this:
Woo hoo!! I thought I was stretching when I called my self an intermediate, but it turns out....I'm bi-lingual!! woo hoo!!
