Estudiantes, after joining our Private Facebook Group you will have access to the video library I created where I read over each daily email and add in additional commentary.

While not, essential, some of you may find it helpful.

Here's the link!

Hola,

Welcome to the first day of the Fluency Hour challenge. You made an excellent decision to join.

In one month, the system I'm teaching you will become a part of your daily routine and you won't be able to help but become more and more fluent in Spanish every day.

Before you get started, though…

Have you already reviewed and followed the instructions in both Getting Started Emails:  #0A and #0B?

If so, that’s awesome. Great work.

If not, PLEASE make sure to go back to review those and THEN come back to this one. They’re important. :-)

Ok, if you’re ready, let's begin.

Every Fluency Hour email (like this) will contain:

• How to learn Spanish tips and/or encouragement.
• Your daily assignment.
• Brief Explanation of a potentially confusing topic. 

#1 Fluency Hour Tip of the Day: What Is Fluency?

Most people think “fluency means perfection. 

It does not. 

Fluency is simply the ability to speak or write a foreign language easily and accurately. 

This month, work on getting the idea of ‘perfection’ out of your mind. It’ll only hold you back.

#2 Today’s Assignment:

Note: 

You’ll see in each Fluency Hour assignment that there are 3 different types of “immersion” assignments: ocean, swimming pool, and jacuzzi. 

While this might sound funny, the idea comes from learning to swim and the level of difficulty of each environment:

Ocean Immersion = difficult, real-world environment, unpredictable

Swimming Pool Immersion = intermediate, must swim to survive, controlled environment

Jacuzzi Immersion = easy, relax and decompress 

Here at Fluency Hour, I like to begin each day with the tough stuff.

Ocean Immersion: 10 minutes

Listen to Episode 1 of the “Mexican Fluency Podcast”. 

https://shows.acast.com/latino-fluency-podcast/episodes/1-bienvenido-al-latino-fluency-podcast

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify (if you use either one, make sure to subscribe!) 

The goal here is to simply listen for 10 minutes. Timers are our friends here at Fluency Hour - set one!

Swimming Pool Immersion: 30 Minutes

If you haven’t already, make sure to first get a Pimsleur membership here and then download the smartphone app to be able to access your lessons.

There are 5 levels of Pimsleur Spanish with level 1 being for beginners and level 5 being for upper-intermediate.

At Fluency Hour, I let you decide which level to begin with. If you’re a complete beginner or a beginner who knows a little but wants to build a great foundation, start with level 1. 

If you have some experience, I’d recommend considering beginning with Level 2 or 3. 

However, it’s very important to simply choose a level TODAY, begin lesson 1, and stick with your chosen level for the month.

Pimsleur Pro Tips:

• 
  You can (and are encouraged to) do this “on the go”. Take a walk, fold some laundry, wash some dishes, drive your car, etc. The idea is to begin integrating Spanish learning into your busy adult life, not the other way around.
• 
  Pimsleur language lessons are designed to be 100% audio-focused. You are supposed to use your ears, mouth, and brain only. Don’t take any written notes or pausing to look stuff up while working through Pimsleur lessons.
• 
  Embrace the mistakes. You will make tons of them throughout the Pimsleur journey. Simply correct yourself, refocus, and keep trying to improve, mimicking the speaker.

Take a quick 3-5 minute break.

Hola,

Welcome to the first day of your Fluency Hour challenge. You made an excellent decision to join.

In one month, the system I'm teaching you will become a part of your daily routine and you won't be able to help but become more and more fluent in Spanish every day.

Before you get started, though…

Have you already reviewed and followed the instructions in both Getting Started Emails: #0A and #0B?

If so, that’s awesome. Great work.

If not, PLEASE make sure to go back to review those and THEN come back to this one.

They’re important. :-)

Ok, if you’re all ready, let's begin.

Every Fluency Hour email (like this) will contain:

• How to learn Spanish tips + guidance
• Your daily Fluency Hour assignment.
• Brief Explanation of a potentially confusing topic.

#1 Fluency Hour Tip of the Day: What Is Fluency?

Lots of people think “fluency” means perfection.

It does not.

Fluency is simply the ability to speak or write a foreign language easily and accurately.

Again, fluency is NOT perfection – that’s proficiency, and it’s a HUGE difference.

Remember this as you study this month. Fluency is attainable. It’s just going to take some time, focus, and lots of consistency.

This month, work on getting the idea of ‘perfection’ out of your mind. It’ll only hold you back.

#2 Today’s Assignment:

Note: You’ll see in each Fluency Hour assignment that there are 3 different types of “immersion” assignments: ocean, swimming pool, and jacuzzi. While this might sound funny, the idea comes from learning to swim and the level of difficulty of each environment:

Ocean Immersion = difficult, real-world environment, unpredictable

Swimming Pool Immersion = intermediate, must swim to survive, controlled environment

Jacuzzi Immersion = easy, relax and decompress

Here at Fluency Hour, each day we’ll begin with the tough stuff…

Ocean Immersion: 10 minutes

Begin by listening to Episode 2 of the “Mexican Fluency Podcast”.

Also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify (if you use either one, make sure to subscribe!)

The goal here is to simply listen for 10 minutes. Timers are our friends here at Fluency Hour - set one!

Swimming Pool Immersion: 30 Minutes

If you haven’t already, make sure to first get a Pimsleur membership here and then download the smartphone app to be able to access your lessons.

There are 5 levels of Pimsleur Spanish with level 1 being for beginners and level 5 being for upper-intermediate.

At Fluency Hour, I let you decide which level to begin with. If you’re a complete beginner or a beginner who knows a little but wants to build a great foundation, start with level 1.

If you have some experience, I’d recommend considering beginning with Level 2 or 3.

However, it’s very important to simply choose a level TODAY, begin lesson 1, and stick with your chosen level for the month.

Pimsleur Pro Tips:

• You can (and are encouraged to) do this “on the go”. Take a walk, fold some laundry, wash some dishes, drive your car, etc. The idea is to begin integrating Spanish learning into your busy adult life, not the other way around.
• Pimsleur language lessons are designed to be 100% audio-focused. You are supposed to use your ears, mouth, and brain only. Don’t take any written notes or pausing to look stuff up while working through Pimsleur lessons.
• Embrace the mistakes. You will make tons of them throughout the Pimsleur journey. Simply correct yourself, refocus, and keep trying to improve, mimicking the speaker.

Take a quick 3-5 minute break.

Jacuzzi Immersion: 10 minutes

Download the Duolingo app on your phone and set up an account.

Steps:

1. Work your way through your Duolingo course. Feel free to test out of the more basic lessons if you already know some Spanish
2. Once you get to a Duolingo Story, read along and repeat out loud after each speaker. Slowly absorb the Spanish content and pay attention to what you’re hearing (and seeing).
3. Read slowly, trying to mimic the accents you hear.

That’s enough for today.

Tomorrow I’ll teach you an easy trick for beginning to take effective notes on the new words and expressions you’re seeing/hearing in your Duolingo course (especially the Stories section).

Hasta mañana,

Levi “Let’s Get Fluent” Flint