New Here, why the sudden reduction in forum activity?

I have just signed up and up to now am really enjoying how the course is structured, I have also particularly enjoyed reading the forums, as I have had a tough time with convincing myself that I am cut out for language learning, I seem to struggle retaining grammar, I had a few ITalki lessons, as I read everywhere that speaking with a native as soon as possible is a good thing, for me it nearly made me give up!! each week I struggled with the conversation, I came away from each lesson disheartened, after reading a lot of posts on here I realised that this is probably normal and that I am not too old for this (I am 50 by the way), or don't have the aptitude for learning a new language, and that in hindsight the teacher didn’t have a lot of experience with new learners and expected to much from me, my point is that the forums have given me renewed optimism but was wondering why there hasn’t been much activity recently in the Spanish areas, did something happen? might be just coincidence but there seemed to be more of a consistent flow until about 3 months ago.
 
Also any recommendations of how you all use Rocket Spanish and any other recommendations or pointers to helpful forum posts would be great,
 
Thanks in advance
 

Hang in there, Michael! I was around 50 when I started and am pretty fluent now - which is probably true for many of the other previously active participants here in the forum. Time for the  next generation of Spanish learners to step up and take over! Take the lead!
 

Thanks Steven, that's encouraging. hopefully I can gain some fluency over the next few years.

I'll see what I can do with the forum, hopefully there are other new Spanish learners on here and we can encourage each other along the way.

Hey guys,

I've studied Spanish in high school and passively for many years and then suddenly decided to take an extended vacation in Argentina.  I thought my Spanish was pretty good until I arrived and was forced to use it in the real world.  My Spanish got really good really quick.  Anyway, that was a long time ago and I've not really used the language much since I left the country.   I just turned 40 and have decided to do everything  I can to get fluent.   I just started rocket Spanish and so far I do like the structure and I feel encouraged.  Once I get back into the rhythm of the language I plan on using italki to converse with some native speakers.

My advise about grammar is... Don't stress about it.  You may sound like a 2 year old to a native speaker, but hey, my guess is you sounded like a 2 year old when you were learning English too.   At at some point the grammar will become instinctive.  It will just sound right to you.  If your constantly stressing over how to conjugate a verb or grammatical gender or whatever your gonna miss out on learning the flow and rhythm of the language.  Don't be scared to make mistakes. 

Thanks Dennis, that's great advice, when with the Italki tutor, I did get really flustered which made things worse and my mind would often go blank, my plan is to take it slowly and take your advice and not worry to much about making mistakes.

I agree and am also enjoying  the structure of Rocket Spanish I am making sure I speak out loud as previously, I had repeated in my head without speaking and found that when I actually tried to speak with a native, what I could pronounce perfectly in my head didn't actually transfer to actual spoken words.

Good to read your reply hopefully I will see more from you on here, as mentioned previously I find the forum posts very motivating knowing I am not struggling alone, although it looks like you are way ahead of me having spoken well before and hopefully it won't take you to long to get back to where you left off all those years ago, good luck.

Michael

I spend less time here because I have been through all of the content several times.  I still stop by daily to warm up a little, but I quickly move on to other programs.  

If you are using italki with a tutor, do check out their competitors.  There are a few, but I use both Verbling and Preply, and find both of them much more user-friendly than italki, as well as much more responsive when there's an issue.  (It may be simply that italki is ENORMOUS in comparison).  

Lately I've been attending Meetup groups for Spanish learners in my area.  They can be kind of hit and miss, but I do find them helpful at forcing to work on my listening and communication skills with a live person in front of me.   Also, I've found it motivating to spend time working on my Spanish with others who are doing the same.  You can see your strengths and weaknesses through the skill sets of the other Spanish learners, and it's actually been encouraging to recognize that I'm getting pretty good at it (or maybe I should say "that I'm not horrible at it"...lol).
 

Thanks for the reply yademas, I will give Verbling and Preply a try I’ve not heard of Preply, so looking forward to checking them out.

I have searched for meetups near me, there is a language exchange group meetup, but they don’t allow beginners, so will have to wait until I get a little better.

Its good to hear that you are ‘getting pretty good’ this gives me the encouragement to keep going and hopefully I will get there also.