Still not fluent in Spanish.....

[LilyAnn13]

....after 6 years :(
And I can't understand TV, films etc
I'm so frustrated. I live in Spain and I have got to a certain level, but I should be fluent by now, surely.
I have been suffering with ill health for the past 3 years and my focus has been on that, so that probably hasn't help :(
Is anyone else struggling with their Spanish?

To be honest I would expect you to be.
My Spanish is pretty good but I wouldn't say fluent BUT I think I am better than I should be because of the way I was taught and the way I learn now.
I never translate into English, in fact there are some words and ideas that I struggle to translate if anyone asks me because there are some words (especially food) that I don't use in English. For example my DS knew that the fish he liked to eat was Pez Espada but he would have no idea how to order that in English.
I learned by immersion, in fact my teacher used to often teach from French to Spanish.
Hopefully that makes sense, although I would think that you would be pretty immersed already

Don’t beat yourself up about it.
it’s really no big deal- you do your best and that’s all you can do.

What are you doing to improve? And were you starting from scratch or did you have basic grammar and vocabulary?

Do you surround yourself by local? I’m Spanish and knew if I wanted to improve my English I had to talk to non- Spanish when I first came to this country.

Do you chat to people out and about? The lady in the shop, the guy in the garage? Do you have Spanish friends?

Do you have a teacher, lessons? Who do you live with and what do you do for work and in what language?

My DD's best friend is Chinese. Her grandmother has been living here in Australia for 20 years and doesn't speak a single word of English.
Just living in a country isn't enough to become fluent.

We lived in Spain for several years and I went to a language school and had two hours of lessons every single day then 1 hour of written homework, essays and so on. This is how I became fluent.
Only read in Spanish, only watched Spanish movies and had Spanish friends.
You need to use the language, live the language.

I also live in Spain and still find it very difficult to learn the language! I can read it very well now, and very rarely do I now have to translate the daily teachers telegram messages.

I can also understand a lot of spoken Spanish, my problem is i‘m not quick enough to form a reply, I get my words muddled up and the conversation then moves to quickly for me to pick it back up! But I find myself improving.

I listen to the language transfer app when I’m out walking, I do so many lessons and then go back a repeat them again a few times before moving on.

I do find it incredibly hard to learn. Helping my children with their school work from them starting school at 3 years old has helped, I understand a lot of their work now they are 8.
My older kids are bilingual, I wish my brain worked like theirs.

Just keep going, little by little.
I definitely recommend Language Transfer to listen to though, it’s helpful.

I'm the same with Greek.

Best thing you can do is charge the subtitles on Netflix to Spanish, it's an easy language to learn xx

How much contact do you have with the language in your day-to-day life, OP? Just living in the country doesn't really give any information about that. It could be anything from next to 0, to total immersion with little contact with English.