How I Became Fluent Without Speaking to Natives (My Personal Story)

I’m sharing this advice for those who don’t have the chance to speak to natives every day — like having an Algerian spouse, for example 😄

Because here’s the thing — I don’t have any Spanish person close to me, and I’ve never been to a Spanish-speaking country. Yet, I became fluent! (Okay, maybe not C1 level 😅), but I can easily communicate in Spanish.

And I know you can do it too — even if you do have an Algerian person in your life, this method will take your learning further.

How it all started

Of course, I began with the basics: pronunciation, reading, and a bit of grammar — just enough to understand how sentences are built.
But the magic started when I focused on listening. Every single day, I listened to something in Spanish — simple audios or short videos I could find online. And I would repeat the same track for a whole week until it became engraved in my mind.
That’s when my brain started producing sentences naturally, just like what I had been hearing.

The secret to staying motivated

What kept me hooked was listening to captivating stories — series that I genuinely enjoyed.
Even when I didn’t understand half of the words, I was motivated to keep going because the story kept me curious. I would replay my favorite episodes over and over again.

And here’s a little secret 🤫 — I talk to myself a lot! So when a similar situation happened in real life, I would repeat the same sentences I’d heard in the series. That helped me start speaking full sentences, asking and answering myself — until I could understand 90% of what I heard (except when it’s super fast Spanish!).

How you can do the same for Algerian Arabic

_ Start with the basics — you can find everything on my website.

_ Begin your listening practice — check out the Speaking section on my site and my Listening Lessons on YouTube.That’s exactly why I created the “Test Your Listening” series — short excerpts from Algerian TV shows to help you get used to native sounds little by little.

_ Pick an Algerian series that interests you. Avoid comedies at first (they’re too fast!) — unless that’s your favorite type.

_If you’re a beginner, listen to just 5 minutes of an episode and repeat it several times. Your brain will slowly start recognizing sounds, words, and sentence patterns.

_ Speak out loud — repeat every new word or expression many times until it sticks!

And voilà — my personal recipe for fluency!
I hope you’ll reach it soon 💛