Rating Content Difficulty

Here’s a fact: native speakers are not the best judges of how difficult content is. A lot of the time you will see videos marked as ‘beginner’ or ‘intermediate’ when they are actually much more difficult. On Lengualytics we want resources to be marked as accurately as possible so that you can find the best content for your level—content you can actually understand.

Channels like “Easy Spanish” or “Easy French”, as much as they are helpful, are really not so easy. A lot of the time their videos are interviews with native speakers who speaking colloquially at full speed. That is not “easy” content—that is basically native level content.

The purpose of this page is to give you an accurate scale of how to rate content difficulty on Lengualytics.

The examples I’ve included are in all different languages. The language of each example should not matter, beyond the language you should still be able to identify the content’s difficulty based on the description of the level.

Super Beginner

Super Beginner content relies heavily on visuals and extremely simple language. It’s meant to be understandable even if you’ve never heard the language before. Presenters should be speaking as if you were a child learning the language for the first time. Practically every sentence should have some gesture or visual cue to aid understanding.

Beginner

Beginner content features slow, clear speech with continued visual support, but it’s presented in a more natural way. Instead of emphasizing every individual words, the focus shifts toward simple, connected ideas. Visual cues are still common, but they support meaning rather than carry it entirely. At this level, learners should be able to follow the general message without constant gestures or repetition.

Intermediate

Intermediate content uses mostly natural language at a slightly reduced pace. Visual cues are minimal, and the language stays within clear, familiar contexts. It avoids unnecessary complexity and keeps ideas easy to follow. At this level, understanding comes primarily from the language itself rather than gestures or visuals.

Advanced

Advanced content is spoken at a natural pace but avoids heavy slang or dense colloquialisms. It’s often marketed as comprehensible input for upper-level learners, though some simpler native material can also fit here. For example, a nature documentary meant for natives could be considered advanced because these are usually spoken at a pace and tone that’s slower and more neutral than normal native content.

Native

Native content is made for native speakers, not learners—that’s really its defining quality. It can include fast, overlapping speech, colloquial expressions, and natural conversation styles—like street interviews or talk shows. The speakers are not adjusting, simplifying, or monitoring their speech in any way; they assume full native competence from the audience.

Conclusion

Don’t rate content based on what the video title says, rate it based on which of these categories you truly believe it belongs to. It doesn’t feel good for learners when they see a beginner video and they find that they can’t understand a word of it. It’s also not helpful for the content creator when they are given a rating that doesn’t reflect the actual difficulty of the content.