---
title: 'Can I Learn Spanish in 30 Days?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPtCeW_v-_k'
video_id: 'QPtCeW_v-_k'
date: 2026-08-18
duration_sec: 937
channel: 'Max''s Monthly Challenge'
---

# Can I Learn Spanish in 30 Days?

> Source: [Can I Learn Spanish in 30 Days?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QPtCeW_v-_k)

## Summary

In this video, the creator takes on the ambitious challenge of learning conversational Spanish in just one month, documenting his strategies, progress, and setbacks. He combines audiobooks, vocabulary apps, and regular conversation practice with a fluent roommate and online tutors. Despite facing a serious health issue mid-challenge, he manages to build a solid foundation and achieve basic conversational ability by the end of the month.

### Key Points

- **Challenge Introduction** [00:03] — The creator announces his goal to learn conversational Spanish in one month, marking a year of monthly challenges. He acknowledges this is one of his most ambitious challenges yet.
- **Initial Strategy** [00:23] — His plan includes a couple of hours of audiobooks daily, about half an hour of vocabulary practice in an app (targeting 500-1000 words), and regular conversation practice with his Spanish-speaking roommate and online tutors.
- **First Spanish Lesson** [01:11] — He takes a lesson focusing on learning vocabulary through conversation, including phrases like '¿Cómo se dice...?' (How do you say...?) and '¿Qué significa...?' (What does it mean?).
- **Vocabulary Building with Memrise** [02:17] — He uses the software Memrise, which adapts to his performance—repeating words he struggles with and advancing when he does well. This helps him build a broad vocabulary base.
- **Conversation Practice with Roommate** [03:34] — He practices conversing with his fluent roommate, focusing on conveying ideas and seeing progression in their conversations, even if it's just saying something and getting a full response.
- **Advice from Expert Connor Grooms** [04:19] — He seeks advice from Connor Grooms, who previously completed a similar challenge. Connor emphasizes focusing on pronunciation first, building a base of basic grammar, and learning fundamental words like pronouns, articles, and numbers.
- **Describing Around Unknown Words** [05:26] — Connor demonstrates how to describe unknown words (e.g., 'grape' as 'a small fruit used for wine') but notes this doesn't work for abstract concepts like 'tener' (to have).
- **Progress by Day 21** [06:39] — By day 21, the creator can have basic conversations about daily life and food, and has built a vocabulary of over 300 words. He also mentions a flesh-eating bacteria from a mosquito bite that has been causing health issues.
- **Late-Night Study Session** [08:58] — At 11 PM on a busy day, he commits to doing at least an hour of Spanish before sleeping to maintain progress, showing his dedication despite a hectic schedule.
- **Health Struggles and Adaptation** [09:38] — He reveals the flesh-eating bacteria has been extremely painful, affecting his sleep and energy. He reduces his study goal from four hours to half an hour to an hour a day, relying on what he learned when feeling better.
- **Strategic Shift** [10:44] — He moves away from bouncing between online tutors and focuses on audiobooks (Michel Thomas), Anki for spaced repetition, and regular conversation practice with his roommate.
- **Final Results** [14:07] — By the end of the month, he can comprehend Spanish well and convey his ideas, though not at full conversational fluency. He expresses satisfaction with the outcome despite averaging about 1.5 hours a day instead of the planned 4.
- **Health Update and Future Plans** [15:01] — His hand is fully functional again after the bacterial infection. He announces plans to revisit all twelve challenges from the past year in the next month.

### Conclusion

The creator successfully builds a foundational ability to comprehend and speak basic Spanish within a month, despite significant health setbacks. His experience highlights the importance of consistent practice, adaptive strategies, and focusing on core vocabulary and pronunciation.

## Transcript

challenge is to try to learn conversational Spanish in just one month celebrating a year of doing monthly challenges so it's probably one of my
most ambitious challenges gets really important is to think about the strategy that I'm thinking about breaking up my time is doing a couple hours of audio books then I'm gonna do maybe half an hour or so every day of vocabulary so
into an app with the goal of getting it somewhere to five hundred to a thousand the last and probably one of the most important things is practicing conversation so I'm lucky enough to have a roommate this big Spanish and then I'm
tutoring from people around the world that speak fluent Spanish I know I've not sure how I'm gonna go to be honest I've never learned another language before but I'm gonna dive in and see how we go vamos I think that means we go
we go vamos I think that means we go we're doing a Spanish lesson with my yes all right so in this lesson I want to focus with you on learning new vocabulary through the conversation and
to do that I want you to learn how to say how do I say for example phone how do I say phone so you say como se DISA phone and I will reply
telephone oh and then you could use that word that you just learned in your conversation the other thing I want you to learn is how to say what does it mean let's say I'm talking about my computer door Mike
word computer door even though it's pretty easy I want you to say can't see pretty easy I want you to say can't see me pika computed or that way you close the little all right go cast significant and comma said this
cast significant and comma said this here okay cool so part of my challenge with Spanish is learning a lot of vocabulary so even if I understand gonna be really challenging I also need it then understand just a whole series
it then understand just a whole series of words like couch and t-shirt and hair able to probably converse so one of the ways that I'm doing that is with a software called memorize and the cool thing with this software is it can see
struggling it'll keep showing you those words if you're doing well it will ignore those words and keep progressing you with new words and keep progressing you with new words today is day three or numero dia
words today is day three or numero dia be a numero tres what I've been doing for the last couple of days is I've been going through all these audiobooks my to like listen to Spanish think about it in my brain and it's a way to practice
kind of similar fun environment to a conversation I am lucky enough to have a roommate that speaks fluent Spanish on log you also has a channel over at and the goal is just to practice the things that I know try to convey
different ideas hopefully see the progression of the conversations and the up is just about saying something and getting to full roll
max como estas Miyama as mass to tell ya max max yo me llamo me Yama Yama Yama max max yo me llamo me Yama Yama Yama palbok C character como como estas get it si como estas si estoy
[Music] at least Hey okay okay
Foundation's really strong get really good at those and then you're good 80% so this is Connor grooms and he's also done a learn Spanish in 30 days challenge and he did really well so I've gone to him seeking some of the best
expert now that teaches people how to learn Spanish with his company base lang for me so the first thing you would do skip that like oh yeah my pronunciation is good enough no it's not your goal
should always be found in native regardless if you care about sounding down the road with your learning speed and with understanding people so focus on those sounds first get down the individual vowels get down forwards get
down sentences see how that flows get a native speaker to say in this part you're not doing exactly as I would then there's a building a base of the most basic grammar the building blocks you know there's some simple things like he
she that pronouns articles the a numbers these really fundamental blocks things these really fundamental blocks things like above below towards with but there so let's pretend I don't know the word for great voova I could sort of like
describe my way around that it's a fruit and it's small and they use it for wine and it's small and they use it for wine oh great oh yeah okay that but you can't oh great oh yeah okay that but you can't do that with never for instance tener
do that with never for instance tener una dirección no dirección good I una dirección no dirección good I enjoyed to have a direction and enjoyed to have a direction and el gimnasio in the gym yes II sent dear
el gimnasio in the gym yes II sent dear man said tear man killing well feel but it's like feel myself it's bad to feel you feel I feel myself to feel myself
you feel I feel myself to feel myself right how do you say we to meet someone [Music] have you said to find something in income trap it's that's right master is
it's that's right master is better so we don't have to say much
challenge and what's cool is I'm starting to be able to have basic roommate we can start to have a conversation about a day or the food that I'm learning and I'm slowly building up this Bank of vocab so that I
can start to express ideas I think maybe now I might even have 300 plus words in to really understand the grammar component and grammar is one of those school and now learning a new language it's just like there's so many different
rules and things to think about I've actually got this kind of you know for lack of a better way of describing it bacteria a flesh-eating thing that I
got from mosquito bite and so I've actually been in and out of the hospital new browser s in dollar and I've been to the L hospital to see where the doctor L
doctor when I'm talking about this in my lesson let's see one then I can talk about things that are going on in my life I see Sierra gusta Congress I shown
life I see Sierra gusta Congress I shown in espanol I really okay I got I got a is like let's do it come over to to proceso con el español que over to to proceso con el español que estas aprendiendo honest a moment see a
estas aprendiendo honest a moment see a friend or con liberals friend or con liberals new audio conversation on a log and then
new audio conversation on a log and then yeah classes the studio
Jesus dress or cuatro horas care idea but don t vs ocupada gone trabajo but don t vs ocupada gone trabajo tango in firma no si was incredible
miss Yentl it's yet though therefore hobbling so it's 11 p.m. and therefore hobbling so it's 11 p.m. and today I have just had a very busy days I
haven't had a lot of time to actually get some Spanish done so the goal is to get some Spanish done so the goal is to do an hour before I go to sleep at least to just make sure that I'm keep pushing myself and keep progressing necesito
myself and keep progressing necesito ayuda necesito ayuda ayuda necesito ayuda pero your continual I need help but I
pero your continual I need help but I continue let's do this span your old continue let's do this span your old tiempo it is day 21 of my learn Spanish that this is a really difficult challenge I've had I'm actually having a
really difficult month but I got is flesh-eating bacteria thing transferred by a mosquito by its absurdly painful and as a result I'm sleeping really
poorly and the medication that I'm taking makes me just feel like in a constant state of North Shore and I have headaches and I feel tired when I was trying to do originally four hours a day now I'm trying to do half an hour to an
that I learnt when I was feeling a bit better that will carry me through I do think it's a really cool skill to try to develop in a month let's see how I go
obviously having this flesh-eating bacteria has been something that's just really throwing me out of whack this month it makes it very challenging for me to be disciplined and have that mental pressure of learning something
and pushing myself where I'm also in some physical pain and I just want to relax and I just want to eat chocolate and I just want to sleep originally I do a lot of online training and I still think that that's a good idea
time there's only so much time that you can spend bouncing from different teacher to different teacher having introductory lessons to find someone that you can with I moved my strategy into mainly
using audio books so I've been going through all of Michelle Thomas and I'm doing a lot of review on that audio program I've been using a lot of Anki which is that SRS strategy and then the other thing just having conversation
of doing and it has his open to doing yes yes yes yes [Music]
voila they made a get a CS but then have when they made a get a CS but then have when I cover Stasi on conmigo wait gman okay I cover Stasi on conmigo wait gman okay this it is you have and ballet album oh
this it is you have and ballet album oh that's optimal Messrs does he also
that's optimal Messrs does he also mentions the Soleimani season mucho in a super a repeater here senator ever did see today we do more Valley Aparna Lisa
tempura the war capacity we need a large see visit our Oh Polly muchas gracias see visit our Oh Polly muchas gracias quiero una Harmon the for mayor Chimaera
quiero una Harmon the for mayor Chimaera China II wanna serve 20 interests and China II wanna serve 20 interests and como - I know chair cannot see munechika
como - I know chair cannot see munechika Alemannia K as when I see gotta see Katara Demi canal de youtube ok as muy loco
Demi canal de youtube ok as muy loco Alameda see so in the Australia a Alameda see so in the Australia a Alemannia chance easily encontramos and Alemannia chance easily encontramos and elder aunty AB llamas
Ultra McConnell Ressa Ressa feels smooth local parameter a lien put on a sturdy local parameter a lien put on a sturdy canal yeah want a cigarette in a focus canal yeah want a cigarette in a focus paint email ah see so much I can tell
try yeah some to say what is it uh no said that uh the ants so he's us toda el said that uh the ants so he's us toda el mundo data mundo which mass and loss you
mundo data mundo which mass and loss you need us los Estados Unidos he Australia need us los Estados Unidos he Australia India Ramon young see large manual CC to
be other level speaking Spanish could have enable a conversation like that is pretty impressive at least for an English speaker can speak Spanish in
only a month it is pretty amazing rhythm so that brings me to the end of the month I loved conveying ideas in another language I loved learning all of their little idiosyncrasies of another
language it was just it was super fun I came in with the intention of doing four closer to about an hour and a half a day I was still happy with the result I could comprehend Spanish pretty well I could speaking and convey my ideas I
Spanish if I want to get to that great conversational fluency which is something I'd love to do an update on the flesh-eating bacteria I've been to the mind for been to multiple doctors all signs are looking really good it did
get pretty bad and messy for a few days but it's looking way better my hand is fully functional again one thing that I want to show you guys right now which gonna be doing next month I'm actually going to be revisiting all twelve
challenges so I've done a full year now of challenges twelve challenges it's been a crazy little journey and I thought it might be fun to revisit some of these challenges can i still play violet can I still do a backflip and so
thank you for watching and following my journey thus far and happy learning journey thus far and happy learning [Music]