This document is meant to answer any commonly asked questions that are seen in the Spanish Refold server. It is split into the different stages. There are also some “answers” that are only there to give you an idea of where to go.
Apologies for some weird phrasing in the Table of Contents, I wanted everything to fit. If you don’t like Notion for some reason, there is also a Google Doc version.
Thankfully, you can always change which Stage you’re in. If you realize you made a mistake, you can just change! Here’s the official guide to find your level: “What’s my level?”. The most common places to start are: Stage 1, Stage 2A, 2B, 2C, Stage 3A or Stage 4. If you’re unsure, give it a few weeks of trial and error and place yourself where you think you’ll learn the most. Just keep in mind that since Refold is “out of order” (when compared to traditional learning), your speaking might be much better than your comprehension.
There is a great, free quick start guide on the Refold website. That’s the best in depth answer, but here’s a quick summary: Start a regular routine with Spanish, learn your first 1000 words, figure out your immersion setup and start immersing. It’s highly recommended to read the quick start guide, but if it’s too much information, or you want a simple checklist to follow, go to the “question” “Tell me how to start?”
The main thing you won’t get at school is input. You should spend as much time immersing Spanish as possible. Especially if you discovered Refold after a few years of Spanish classes, you should be able to just right into beginner content. Many people love Olly Richard’s short stories, Dreaming Spanish’s beginner-intermediate content and Easy Spanish’s conversations. Many high schoolers (and other people) spend a lot of time on YouTube and converting that to Spanish might be the best way to get you hooked! Other than getting a lot of comprehensible input, you can also make sure that you know the core 1000 words from the ES1K deck.
Discord is an instant messaging service with over 140 million users per month. The entire platform of Discord is separated into servers, such as the Refold Central server or the Refold Spanish server. There are thousands of servers covering every topic imaginable. Each server is then subdivided into channels where different kinds of conversations take place. On the left-hand side of your screen, you should see your server list and then the channel list for the particular server you are in. The title of the channel usually explains what it’s for. Some of the channels have a little
icon. This indicates it’s a voice room where you can enter and chat with other connected users. Most features are fairly self-explanatory or simply take trial and error, but one of the most useful features is the ability to control what kinds of notifications you receive. By right-clicking on any server or channel, you can “mute channel” or “mute server”. Since communities can be so large on Discord, it’s not uncommon to have constant notifications, which are often very annoying. So muting things disables that. Most people are more than happy to answer questions if you can’t figure something out as well.
Como se puede ver, una gran parte de la gente de Refold Spanish están aprendiendo español. Pero eso no significa que no se puede aprender nada aquí. Por ejemplo, muchas personas tienen preguntas sobre tú idioma, pero necesitan preguntar y también recibir respuestas en inglés. Entonces, puedes practicar tú "output" en inglés. También, hay varios estudiantes que hablan español muy bien y pueden ayudarte entender más sobre Refold o inglés (si es tu lengua meta). Puedes hacer tus preguntas en #solo-español. Estamos encantados de ayudarte y conocerte.
Honestly, as much as you can stomach! The more hours of input you have, the faster you will learn. Many successful people immerse for ~1 hour per day. Most milestones happen after each 100 hours, so keep that number in mind. Doing less than 30 minutes of immersion per day can make it very difficult to see results and might cause learners to be discouraged. A good way to “force” more immersion is by switching something you do in your NL to Spanish. That way, you don’t need to find time for something new.