Learning a language

Pronoun systems, the seseo/ceceo split, vocabulary traps and which variety to study first.

Vowel reduction, pronoun placement, spelling agreement of 1990 and whether the two are interchangeable in study material.

The Foreign Service Institute category system: hours per category, what the categories are based on and where the estimate breaks down.

Grammars, wordlists, field recordings, community contacts and the order to try them in.

When a nearby language shortens the path and when it embeds mistakes that are hard to unlearn.

The main frameworks and exams, what a sitting costs, how long a result stays valid and who accepts it.

What each level can do in practice, the hours usually behind it, and how the scale maps onto other systems.

What exists beyond the mainstream apps for smaller languages, and how to judge a resource quickly.